[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index ][Thread Index ]

BurmaNet News: #262



Received: (from strider) by igc4.igc.apc.org (8.6.12/Revision: 1.16 ) id IAA25493 for conf:reg.burma; Sun, 5 Nov 1995 08:32:28 -0800
Date: Sun, 5 Nov 1995 08:32:28 -0800

------------------------ BurmaNet ------------------------
"Appropriate Information Technologies, Practical Strategies"
----------------------------------------------------------

The BurmaNet News: October 26, 1995
Issue #262  SPECIAL ISSUE - BURMA CAMPAIGN UPDATE

HEADLINES:
==========
EXCERPT FROM UWISCONSIN PRESS RELEASE ON OCT 27 ACTION
ANNOUNCEMENT: NORTHWESTERN QUITS BURMA TOUR
BURMA'S KILLING FIELDS: NORTHWESTERN CONNECTIONS
STANFORD STUDENTS TO HOLD RALLY AND MARCH AS PART OF
YALE UPDATE - THEATRE TROUPE STAGES MOCK TOURIST VISIT
UWISCONSIN-STEVENS POINT/ UWISCONSIN-EAU CLAIRE
MONTGOMERY COLLEGE, MD/ NOTRE DAME
INDIANA FREE BURMA CAMPAIGN: PRESS RELEASE 
FBC LETTER: TO THE CHANCELLOR OF UW-MADISON
UWISCONSIN-MADISON  (TO BECOME PEPSI FREE UNIVERSITY)
UNIVERSITY OF WARWICK, ENGLAND
COLGATE UNIVERSITY
U. OF ILLINOIS-URBANA_CHAMPAIGN
NEW YORK: BROWN-BAG SEMINAR ON BURMA
UTAH STATE UNIVERSITY/ CORNELL/ HARVARD
JAPAN/ FINLAND
INDIA - ABSL/FTUB ACTIONS
MASSACHUSETTS: ACTION AT JAPANESE CONSULATE
NOTE: PROMOTE FURTHER ACTION

*************************
EXCERPT FROM UWISCONSIN PRESS RELEASE ON OCT 27 -
INTL DAY OF ACTION

Many corporations bankroll yet another dictatorial regime in the world.  US
corporations are among the top investors in Burma following Britain,
France, Singapore, Thailand, and Japan: PepsiCo, Unocal, Texaco andARCO.
Many US universities and colleges invest in these corporations and hence
our tuition and taxpayers' money goes directly to the coffer of Burma's
genocidal regime, SLORC.

Burma activists from around the world and human rights advocates including
Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Betty William and Rigoberta Menchu call for
economic sanctions against SLORC.  Over 70 colleges and universities around
the world including Oxford, Harvard, Yale, Stanford, New Mexico, Michigan,
Columbia, Berkeley, Antioch, Cornell, Indiana, UCLA, Tufts, Georgetown,
Brandeis, Penn State, Emory, Colorado, Barnard College, Northwestern,
Washington, and Neru University will participate in the October 27
campaign.


NORTHWESTERN ALUMNI ASSOCIATION WITHDRAWS TOUR PLAN

Just a quick update, press release to follow in a day or two:
The Executive Director of Northwestern's Alumni Association has 
announced that Northwestern will no longer sponsor "The Road To 
Mandalay" tour.  This is the first known cancellation of "The Road To 
Mandalay", the same tour sponsored by USC and Yale alumni associations.  
"The Road To Mandalay" will bring tourists to many forced labor sites, 
but not if we can help it!  If you know of a university tour program to Burma, 
please notify me at:
David Wolfberg
Los Angeles Campaign for a Free Burma
freebrma@xxxxxxxxxxxxx

Thank the folks in Chicago and at Northwestern for their hard work!

********************************

BURMA'S KILLING FIELDS: THE NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY 
CONNECTIONS

WHAT:  Rally & "Teach-In" calling for corporate divestment from Burma
WHEN:  Friday, October 27, 1995, 3pm
WHERE:  Northwestern University Evanston Campus, Kellogg Business School,
corner of             Foster  and Sheridan
WHY:  Expose Northwestern University's connections to corporations in
partnership with          Burma's brutal military regime.

        Chicago and Evanston area citizens will gather at Northwestern
University's Evanston campus on Friday, October 27, in an effort to expose
corporations doing business with Burma's military dictatorship.  Part of an
international Burma Action Day, the event will call attention to
investments by Unocal Corporation (Union 76 gasoline) and Pepsi Co.  
Human Rights information in written and symbolic form will be
presented to representatives of each of Burma's partners at Northwestern.
        Donald P. Jacobs, dean of Northwestern's Kellogg Graduate School of
Management, is the senior Board member of Unocal.  Burma's military junta
stands to earn $400 million a year from Unocal's soon to be constructed
natural gas pipeline.  Refugees charge that slave labor is widely used to
prepare the way for pipeline construction.  Villages have been forcibly
relocated as military troops attempt to "secure" the pipeline route
throughout the indigenous area.  Declared one of the world's worst
violators of human rights, the junta spends nearly 60% of its national
budget on armaments and is building a standing army of 500,000 troops to
repress the pro-democracy forces and carry out its slave labor practices.
Students plan to present Dean Jacobs with a symbolic pipeline smattered
with "blood" to represent the victims of Unocal's investments in Burma.
        Arnold Weber, Chancellor of Northwestern and former president, sits
on the Board of Directors of Pepsi Co. which also invests heavily in Burma.
Pepsi has a monopoly on Northwestern's campus and students are demanding a
choice.  Burma support groups around the country are calling for a boycott
of Pepsi products and Pepsi-owned subsidiaries including Taco Bell, Pizza
Hut, and Kentucky Fried Chicken until Pepsi divests from Burma.
Participants will symbolically dump cans of Pepsi at the door of a nearby
Taco Bell to communicate their rejection of Pepsi's connection to Burma.
	Supporters of democracy in Burma will call for tough economic 
sanctions for corporations doing business there.

*********************

STANFORD STUDENTS TO HOLD RALLY AND MARCH AS PART OF
INTERNATIONAL ACTION DAY FOR A FREE BURMA

STANFORD - 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.
Students for Environmental Action at Stanford (SEAS) will hold a rally
and march protesting U.S. corporations which profit from slave labor and
oppression in Burma.

The day of protest will begin at 11:30 on the Stanford campus with a
rally in White Plaza.  Speakers will include a Burmese student.  From
there students and other activists will march down Serra St. and El
Camino to the Taco Bell at 3850 El Camino where we will spend the
afternoon demonstrating and distributing information about the role of
U.S. corporations in the atrocities being committed in Burma.  Taco Bell
is one of a number of restaurant chains owned by PepsiCo, which is one of
the major corporate supporters of SLORC.  Other PepsiCo chains include
Pizza Hut, Kentucky Fried Chicken, and California Pizza Kitchen.

Burma is a Southeast Asian nation of 40 million people currently being
held hostage at gunpoint by SLORC's 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 despite the recent release of Nobel Peace
Prize Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi (after six years of unlawful detention),
thousands of political prisoners remain in captivity.  Moreover, SLORC
refuses to hand over power to the government lawfully elected in 1990.

SLORC depends on a few foreign companies to finance their war on the
pro-democracy activists and indigenous groups.  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.  A number of U.S. corporations,
including PepsiCo, Texaco, and Unocal, are among the major investors in
Burma.

For the past year, SEAS has been working to persuade Stanford to practice
responsible investing and sever its financial ties to these companies.
The campaign has focused on divestment from Texaco, but Stanford also has
money invested in Unocal.  Pepsi is a sponsor of Stanford athletics.

Students at fifty schools around the country and activists with hundreds
of organizations around the world are working to free Burma.  Come out
and join SEAS in our attempt to fight corporate power and help the people
of Burma!

For more information, contact Tim Knight at (415) 723-3307.

*********************

YALE UPDATE - THEATRE TROUPE STAGES MOCK TOURIST VISIT

The Free Burma Association at Yale has made front page headlines 
in the studdent paper twice in the past week over the alumni trip to 
Burma, and we've gotten hundreds of signatures on an anti-tourist 
petition, as well as distributing hundreds of fact sheets on human 
rights abuses linked to tourism in Burma.  A guerrilla theater
troupe and some theater students here are going to help us do a mock
tourist visit to Burma, where a tour guide takes people from place to
place and doesn't let them see the torture and murder going on right
behind their backs.

 
UWISCONSIN-STEVENS POINT

The Environmental Council here is doing several things for the 
Free Burma campaign.  We are having a booth in the University Center 
(U.C.) Wed. - Fri. this week and all next week.  This week we are putting 
a press release into the S.P. Journal and I'm putting in a Letter to the Editor 
in both the S.P.J. and the campus paper.  Next week we are going to have 
indoor protests and leafletting in the U.C., in front of the Taco Bell...  
We are also  showing that BBC video 2 nights this week and at our booth. 
Hopefully we can get it on Cable Access too.  The next week after that 
(Nov. 8+9) we are scheduling 2 protests on the main street in town right in 
front of Taco Bell, KFC, and Pizza Hut.  I just read an email that had a good 
idea of outlining dead bodies in front of Taco Bell etc.  We are using flyers from 
Madison as well as some of our own.  Some unknown people are also stickering, 
unplugging, and posting OUT OF ORDER signs on Pepsi machines.


UWISCONSIN-EAU CLAIRE

We downloaded the poster from the home page and we're going to Kinko's 
tonight after our SEAC meeting to make some picket posters with them. 
We also have a booth later this week in the Davies Center (the union) 
and we will get a T.V. so we can play the video. I also left a note at our 
campus T.V. office to see if they will copy the tape and play it sometime.
We will be having a die-in at some point, an idea we got from one of
the e-mail messages. 


MONTGOMERY COLLEGE, MD

Democratic Burmese Student Organization (USA) will be showing a video
about SLORC, human rights violations, and corporate involment in Burma.
They will stage a protest demo in front of the SLORC embassy in Washington,
D.C. on Oct. 27.  A meeting with the Montgomery College Student Senate
will be held RE: boycotting Pepsi, Unocal, Texaco, and ARCO.

NOTRE DAME

Notre Dame, after having attened Kevin Heppner's powerful slide show
a few weeks ago, sent FBC a note saying they're ready to go full steam
ahead with us! 

********************************

INDIANA FREE BURMA CAMPAIGN: PRESS RELEASE 
October 21, 1995

By David Horne, Indiana University

BLOOMINGTON, Indiana--Less than three weeks after community action began from 
a film lecture series, a formal group has formed.  Approximately 15 people 
gathered to form an unincorporated association on October 20, 1995.  

The group discussed possible names and voted on them.  Majority voted for the
name "Campaign for a Free Burma of Bloomington, Indiana."  With a name and 
purpose the group began to setup contacts, resources and funding. The campaign 
discussed the situation with the Indiana University Alumni Association's future
trip to Burma.  Petitions had already begun to be circulated by Amnesty 
International and the campaign had a revised version of the petition to use 
additionally.  A Campaign's delegation will begin talks with the head of the 
Alumni Association. If the talks are not productive than the campaign will 
attempt to meet with the President of Indiana University, Myles Brand.  As a 
last resort, the members decided to use the petitions and become vocal against 
the IU Alumini's planned  trip to "Visit Myanmar Year 1996" which is 
undoubtedly going to fund SLORC, the military dictatorship in Burma, to rape, 
torture, and kill its citizens.

The protest on October 27, is already in full swing.  A few members met earlier
on Friday, Oct 20 to make posters and a banner for use at the picket of the 
local Pepsi plant.  Some of the posters read 
"BOYCOTT PEPSI = BOYCOTT TORTURE",
"PEPSI: WHERE ARE THE ETHICS?", 
"PEPSI, THE BLOOD IS ON YOUR COMPANY". 
 The large banner pronounces boldly "PEPSICO GET OUT OF BURMA".  
The picket has been researched in advance.  The Police, Pepsi(local), and a large 
array of media have been contacted.  Public property has been found to stand on 
for the protest.  The campaign anticipates a crowd of at least 50 to come throughout 
the three hour period.  Bloomington will be taken by storm to acknowledge and 
defeat the atrocities taking place in Burma.  With selective purchasing in
the works and planned educational events there will be many opportunities for 
local citizens voice their dismay with the injustice.  

The newly formed campaign anticipates great success in all their endeavors and 
welcomes all questions, comments, or criticisms for healthy growth.  The 
campaign has high profile membership with the Dean of International Affairs at 
Indiana University, Dr. Kenneth A. Rogers and the support of professor Dr. Norbu
(the Dalai Lama's brother who resides in the community).  Legal advice was 
given by the local attorney, Marcy Wenzler.  The Campaign for a Free Burma of 
Bloomington, Indiana enlists for the battles at hand in the growing Free Burma 
Movement within the United States and abroad.

Contact persons for Free Burma Campaign at Indiana are:

Tun Myint                   		 Marcy Wenzler
National Campaign Contact    	Community & legal contact
Tel (812) 339-3888           		Tel (812) 339-9631 
e-mail: tmyint@xxxxxxxxxxx       

David Horne                  
Campuswide Contact          
Tel (812) 824-9680          
e-mail: dhorne@xxxxxxxxxxx   

***********************
FBC LETTER: TO THE CHANCELLOR OF UW-MADISON

To: David Ward, Chancellor, Campus

RE:  International Campaign to End U.S. Corporate Involvement in Genocide
in Burma

Date:  October 23, 1995

Dear Chancellor Ward:

This is to request a meeting with you at the earliest possible date to
discuss the University's investment in multinationals such as PepsiCo
which bankrolls the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC),
Burma's military dictatorship.

I am a 32 year old Burmese exile and a dissertator in the UWSchool of
Education.  I am also the organizer for the Free Burma Coalition, a
student political group that operates out of UWMadison and that is
currently coordinating the October 27 international Free Burma campaign
to end US corporate involvement in serious human rights crimes in my
native country of Burma.

We are planning a major protest rally and a march  on UWMadison campus
including a major Boycott of Pepsi and its products on October 27, 1995 as
part of the international movement to end US corporate involvement in
ethnic genocide and other serious human rights crimes in my country.  We
have on board with us over 70 colleges and universities including Oxford,
Harvard, Stanford, Columbia, Michigan, Berkeley, and Yale, over 40
different organizations throughout the world, and individuals including
Nobel Peace Laureates Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Betty Williams, and
Rigoberta Menchu.

The following UW student organizations work with us in this campaign:

UWGreens
International Women's Rights
Student Labor Action Coalition
Progressive Student Network

We look forward to hearing from you very soon.

Sincerely,

zarni

Organizer
Free Burma Coalition

CC:  UWGreens
       International Women's Rights
       Student Labor Action Coalition
       Progressive Student Network
       National Council of the Union of  Burma, Washington D.C.
       BurmaNet
       Key organizers

**********************

UNIVERSITY OF WARWICK, ENGLAND

Our campaign has reaaallly taken off. We have over 500 
leaflets and we're putting a motion to the President of the
Student's Union to endorse the boycott.  We're going to make it a 
year long bombardment of Pepsi.

COLGATE UNIVERSITY

Just to let you know that we have gotten our act together. Tuesday
night a talk was given in Asia House by a student who
spent two months with Karen refugees last summer. Posters are up and
a video is running. A table with info and a petition to sign is
operating throughout the week. A guerrilla theater is scheduled on
the main quad for noon Friday.

U. OF ILLINOIS-URBANA_CHAMPAIGN

We have just been informed that the UIUC has been very active especially
on anti-"Visit Myanmar Year" front.  Kachin-Americans and Friends 
and other campus groups have put together a formidable Burma campaign 
on campus there.

UTAH STATE UNIVERSITY
We are going to set up an information table in our student center. 

CORNELL
The local TV station is going to come and shoot our events.


HARVARD
The Boston area gropus are keeping to their own campuses physicaly, but
we're working on a barage of press releases to the Globe Etc.
Since there's no Taco Hell in Harvard Square, our group has decided to
demonstrate in front of California Pizza Kitchen."  (From Adam)


NEW YORK: BROWN-BAG SEMINAR ON BURMA

To Friends of Burma,

"We cordially invite you to the brown-bag seminar on Burma regarding the
human rights, development and foreign investment issues.  The Center for the
Study of Human Rights at Columbia University will present Dr. Thaung Tun,
Secretary, National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma to brief
us the latest developments in Burma particularly on the impact of foreign
direct investment on democratic process and human rights violations.  A
documentary film, "Life on the Line," will follow while intersted
participants can join us sign-in letters addressed to state and federal
congressmen as well as corporate letters urging them to influence US
policy toward the emergence of democratic institutions in Burma.  The
seminar will be held from 12:00 to 2:00 pm at room 501A, International
Affairs Building on Friday, October 27. Another information booth will be
held at the College Walk to hand out information packet on Burma for that
day and protest against corporate funding ( Drain Pepsi Cans )to the
military regime will be  organized at 2:30 pm infront of the Low Memory
Building. Please join us to  support human rights and democracy in Burma.
For further information, contact Zaw Oo, (718) 6726941. "  (From Ko Zaw Oo)


UWISCONSIN-MADISON  (TO BECOME PEPSI FREE UNIVERSITY)

1) Free Burma Coalition in collaboration with UW Greens, Student Labor
Action Coalition, International Women's Rights and Progressive Student
Network has been handing out thousands of leaftlets in front of Taco
Hell and Pizza Yuck for two hours everyday.  Pizza Yuck tried to bribe
some of our picketters and leafletters by bringing free pizzas and
telling us that the Boycott is hurting them.  Taco Hell guy was quite
hostile an he came and took some pictures of our group on the fifth
day.

2) Free Burma Coalition, Students for a Free Tibet, UW Greens,
International Women's Rights, Student Labor Action Coalition, and PSN
are meeting with Dean of Students, Executive Assistant to the
Chancellor, and (very possibly Chancellor himself) at 9:30 AM today
(10/26) to discuss the University's involvement in the corporate
funding.

Our long term goal is to get the University adopt socially responsible
investment policies.  There are two short term goals:  1) to pressure
the University to use sharholder pressure against Pepsi's civilizing
mission in Burma (Pepsi claims trade by unethical multinationals such as
itself is enlightening); and to create Madison as "Pepsi Free University."

Actions:

The campus has been saturated with Pepsi Boycott for a Free Burma News.

Free Burma Coalition has been on several TV and radio programs.

Tonight we'll be chalking all over the place while on Friday morning
we'll leaftlet thousands of leaflets.

Also rumors has it that unknown individuals have been unplcking Pepsi
machines on campuses,

Friday Action:

Rally at the Library Mall, where the Free Speech place is at 10:00 am,
and then march through the Memorial Union to pick up students and in
portest against the sale of Pepsi products.  We'll march on to Pizza
Yuck and Taco Hell where many of us contemplate "die-in."

We'll hang 6'x16' cloth banners  ( they say "Boycott Pepsi" "Free Burma"
) at a heavy traffic few bridges and later right above Taco Hell
building.

At noon, a splinter group from Madison Free Burma Coalition will drive
to Northwestern campus to join the Free Burma Group there.

****************************

INDIA - ABSL/FTUB ACTIONS

We, ABSL, (All Burma Student League) have been calling for boycotting
foregn investments in Burma and many campaigns against MNCs which are
investing in Burma have been launching by us. We are happy to join
with you friends on this campiagn on 27 Oct.

I am now a student of the Jawaharlal Nehru University, which is one of
the prestigeous universities in India. We have received good support and
solidarity from Indian students and youth whenever we have launched
programmes highlighting Burma's struggle for democracy. On 27, we
will be launching some programmes boycotting PepsiCo and its products in the
University with the support of JNU students.

2) We (FTUB/West Burma) (i.e., Federation of Trade Unions of Burma) are
also working in India for Restoration of Democracy and Human Rights in 
our country (Burma). We are working together with our brother and sister 
organization, which you mention in the list.

The India list includes:

The NCGUB/India
ABSDF, West Burma
WRWAB, Women's Rights Welfare Association of Burma,
NLD/LA Western Region
All Burma Student League/India
Arakan Student Congress,
Chin National Front

Their addreseses:
burtu.atubdo@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
nvp!shar@xxxxxxxxxxxx

*************
JAPAN

The following groups are with us:
Burma Relief Center-Japan email: brelief@xxxxxxx
Burma Youth Volunteer Association: soewin@xxxxxxx

FINLAND

The following organizations support the return of democracy to Burma 
and Boycott Pepsi:

ICAE International Council for Adult Education
Peace and Human Rights Education programme.
MIS-Europe Mon Information office Europe  Vantaa, Finland
Finnish Burma Committee, P.O.Box 305 fin-01301 Vantaa, Finland.

***************

MASSACHUSETTS: ACTION AT JAPANESE CONSULATE


On the seventh anniversary of the August 8, 1988 massacre of 
Burmese pro-democracy demonstrators, the Massachusetts 
Campaign for A Free Burma delivered a letter of concern to the 
Japanese Consul General in Boston. The text of the letter is 
enclosed. A similar action took place at the Japanese Consulate in 
Los Angeles.

We recommend that other Burma Action Groups around the world join us 
in similar actions.  Japanese Burma activists have told us that the 
Japanese take keen notice of criticism from abroad. We can attest to 
the fact that the Japanese Deputy Consul General in Boston (who was 
in charge of the Consulate on that day in the absence of the Consul 
General) carefully read the letter in our presence and thanked us for our time.

Simon Billenness
Franklin Research & Development
(617) 423 6655 x225
Coordinator, Massachusetts Campaign for a Free Burma
_________________________________________

August 8. 1995

Mr. Nobuyasu Abe
Consul General
Japanese Consulate
Federal Reserve Plaza
14th Floor, 600 Atlantic Avenue
Boston, MA 02210

Dear Mr. Abe: 

We are writing to express our concern about the Japanese government's 
policy of closer economic ties with the Burmese military government.
We are doing this in solidarity with demonstrations and actions 
taken by Burma democracy activists in Tokyo and Bangkok.

We are sure that you share our delight in the release of Aung San 
Suu Kyi after almost six years of house detention.  However, Aung 
San Suu Kyi's release is not part of a move towards a political 
settlement by the ruling Burmese military junta.  Thus far, the 
junta has not responded to Aung San Suu Kyi's request for the 
release of all political prisoners and a dialog to negotiate a 
peaceful restoration of democracy.

Aung San Suu Kyi herself has stated that: "All those who are 
interested in democratic development in Burma should wait and 
see what is going to happen before they decide to change their 
tactics....Nothing has changed yet, apart from my release."  
Aung San Suu Kyi has also asked foreign governments and investors 
not to "rush" to restore trade and aid programs to Burma.
 
In May, the Japanese government resumed an insurance program for 
Japanese companies trading with Burma.  Japan is also reported to 
be considering the resumption of full-scale economic aid following 
Aung San Suu Kyi's release.  These actions by the Japanese 
government give the green light to Japanese companies to invest 
in Burma.  Itochu, Marubeni and Sumitomo are working with the 
Burmese military government on economic development projects.  
Within a week of Aung San Suu Kyi's release, Daiwa Securities 
announced its plans to open a brokerage in Burma to prepare for 
the re-establishment of a stock exchange.

By entering into agreements with the Burmese military government, 
Japanese companies risk becoming the target of a boycott. American 
companies such as ARCO, PepsiCo, Texaco and Unocal have already 
lost business because of their presence in Burma.  Earlier this 
year, the City of Berkeley, California, voted to boycott all 
companies doing business in Burma and other cities and states are 
expected to do the same.  In the Massachusetts legislature, a 
similar law has already passed the House and is currently being 
considered in the Senate.  As this legislation becomes law, 
Japanese companies doing business in Burma risk losing valuable 
contracts with American cities and states.

More importantly, the recent actions by Japan go against the 
clearly expressed wishes of Aung San Suu Kyi and the Burmese 
democracy movement.  We would strongly urge that the Japanese 
government and Japanese corporations consult closely with 
democratic forces inside Burma before taking any further actions.

We are somewhat encouraged by the recent statements by the 
Japanese Foreign Minister Yohei Kono.  At the recent ASEAN 
meeting, Mr. Kono is reported to have urged the Burmese military 
junta to "proceed towards democracy" and place stronger importance 
on human rights.  However, a few days before Mr. Kono's comments, 
the deputy Foreign Minister Hiroshi Fuduka again suggested that 
Japan might resume its Official Development Assistance program 
in Burma.

I would greatly appreciate it if you could communicate our 
concerns to the Japanese government and Japanese corporations 
considering doing business in Burma.

Sincerely,


****************************

NOTE: PROMOTE FURTHER ACTION

 Please explain to the interested individuals and groups that Oct.
27 is NOT a one-day event that will be over at 12:00 midnight on Friday.
Our campaign (or might we say grassroot international movement, as it
is becoming) is very much inspired by South Afria's anti-apartheid
movement.  We vow to fight until democracy, freedom and human rights are
restored in Burma!  There was a precendent and as our dear Bishop
Desmond Tutu said, sanctions worked for South Africa, and they could
work in the case of Burma.  Also other high profile international
figures, Rigoberta Menchu, Betty Williams, and Magreid Maguire
(spelling??) endorse sanctions against SLORC.

Free Burma Coalition
c/oDepartment of
Curriculum and Instruction
225 North Mills Street.
University of Wisconsin,
Madison, WI 53706

Tel: 608-256-6572 (home)
Fax: 608-263-9992 (office)

"(P)art of what we bring to many of
these countries is a touch of western culture, to Russia and parts in
Eastern Europe, in giving to those people something that is a little
bit special. So I do not make any apologies for Burma. I think we
should be there, and we will continue to be there. ..."

(Christopher Sinclair, Chairman of PepsiCo)
##########################################################