PRESS RELEASE (fwd)

[dhorne@xxxxxxxxxxx]

Thanks to Wisconsin for the press release model.


---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 18 Oct 95 15:59:38 EWT
To: dhorne@xxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: PRESS RELEASE

Posted by David Horne
Indiana University	

		   INTERNATIONAL ACTION DAY FOR A FREE BURMA
                   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
	U.S. CORPORATIONS PROFIT FROM SLAVE LABOR AND OPPRESSION IN BURMA
       ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
ON OCTOBER 27, 1995 Burma activists around the world will initiate strategies 
to terminate corporate funding of the State Law and Order Restoration Council 
(SLORC), Burma's military dictatorship.

Burma is a Southeast Asian nation of 40 million people held hostage at gunpoint
by SLORC armed criminals.  The United Nations, Amnesty International, and Human
Rights watch call SLORC one of the major human rights violators in the world.  

Since seizing power in 1988, SLORC has murdered thousands of pro-democracy 
activists, and supporters of the country's Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Aung San 
Suu Kyi (after six years of unlawful detention), thousands of political 
prisoners remain in captivity.  Moreover, the military regime, SLORC, refuses 
to hand over power to the elected government resulted from the 1990 election.

U.S. corporations are among the top investors in Burma following Britain, 
France, Singapore, Thailand, and Japan: PepsiCo, Unocal, Texaco, ARCO, Chase 
Manhattan Bank, Walt Disney Co., Eastman Kodak Co., General Electric Co., Pan 
American Pharmaceutical Ltd, Sears Roebuck, Wal-Mart Stores, and many others 
bankroll yet another dictatorship regime in the world.

THE CITY OF BLOOMINGTON CONDUCTS BUSINESS WITH SOME OF THESE COMPANIES,  AND 
THUS TAX PAYERS' MONIES GOES DIRECTLY TO THE COFFERS OF BURMA'S GENOCIDAL 
REGIME!  IT MUST DIVEST.

World Wide Call for Sanctions and Divestment

Burma activists around the world have called for the withdrawal of foreign 
investors until and unless SLORC transfers power to the duly elected 
representatives of the people headed by Aung San Suu Kyi.  Many Nobel Peace 
Prize Laureate, including Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the Dalai Lama and 
Rigoberta Menchu support our call for economic sanctions.

Since 1992, Bloomington has held several Burmese related events.  Two Burmese 
refugee students attend Indiana University and led a conference this past 
summer.  The attenders were from all parts of the country.  This semester in 
conjunction with the I.U. Chapter of Amnesty International and Bloomington 
Labor Action group, students and area citizens will take the message of Burma 
to Bloomington.  Through protests, letter writing campaigns and a future 
discussion in the City Council the activists hope to educate this community on 
the atrocities taking place in Burma.  Several cities and one state have began 
sanctions against any company that conducts business with SLORC.  Among these 
are Berkeley, CA, New York City, Seattle, Portland, Santa Monica, CA, San 
Francisco, Cambridge, MA, and hopefully in the near future Bloomington, IN.  
The state of Massachusetts also has taken such action.

Therefore, we, the Monroe County Friends of Burma, declare October 27, 1995 
"International Action Day for a Free Burma", in order to terminate corporate 
funding of SLORC.

We invite you to join hands with us in our fight against corporate greed and 
injustice.  We will protest at the Pepsi plant on 17th. Street in Bloomington 
on Oct. 27 1995 from noon to 4 p.m.

There are many activist groups from about fifty U.S. universities including the
University of Chicago, Harvard, Stanford, Wisconsin, UCLA, Georgetown, 
Washington, Boston University, Tufts, Brandeis, Penn State, Columbia, Cornell 
and Indiana University. 



For more information contact:

Tun Myint
(812)339-3888
email: tmyint@xxxxxxxxxxx

Moe Zaw Aung
(812)857-6776
email: maung@xxxxxxxxxxx

David Horne
(812)824-9680
email: dhorne@xxxxxxxxxxx