Two articles from Cultural Survival

[brelief@xxxxxxx]

Subject: Two articles from Cultural Survival Quarterly (Spring 1995)

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Extremely interesting but slightly out of date articles on Women and War in
Burma

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Cultural Survival Quarterly
"World Report on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and
Ethnic Minorities
WOMEN AND WAR   Spring 1995

E - mail survival@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


Women As Refugees: Perspectives from Burma

by Hazel J. Lang

The Burmese expression for refugee is dukkha -the, the "one
who has to bear dukkha suffering." In the contemporary
global setting, those who are suffering overwhelmingly in the
many situations of terror-warfare are civilian populations.
Today approximately 90 per cent of war- related casualties
are civilians and the number of casualties who are women
and children has escalated. Millions and millions of people
have been forced to flee wars and war-related circumstances.
Indeed, world refugee statistics (19 million refugees, and a
further estimated 24 million "internally displaced" civilians)
alone indicate that about one in every 130 people on earth
has been forced into flight. Moreover, a greater proportion
of the world's refugees are women - 70% to 80% are women
and children. While the more formal United Nations legal
definitions of refugees are founded upon rather narrow
terms-involving crossing of territorial boundaries of nation -states- I  will employ the general term "refugee" here in a
broader sense to indicate persons forced to flee their homes
due to violence, repression, and fear associated directly or
indirectly with war.

Without dismissing direct battlefield deaths as a measure of
war, I intend to focus upon civilians who suffer the terrors of
war and who are forced to flee their homes. More
specifically, my concern in this article is to highlight the
dukkha of women in, and running from, war. This will be
with special reference to women in the border areas of
Burma (adjoining Thailand), where civil war between the
central military regime, now called SLORC (State Law and
Order Restoration Council), and a number of ethnopolitical
groups has been waged for over 4 decades.

Including Women's Experiences
Women's voices have usually been omitted from traditional
state centered analyses of war, conflict and refugee
movements. This has wide ranging implications for what and
how we see (or do not see), and for which issues are
rendered visible or invisible. Further, the experiences
assumed to represent human experience in general, and
inter/national politics, war and refugee movements in
particular, have been largely men's (and often elite men's)
experiences. But including women and their experiences is
clearly needed for more accurate understandings of socio -political life. When we start including women, we will often
unsettle and transform the previous categories that shaped
understandings of how and what we know. For example, by
including and taking seriously women's experiences in
analyses of war and its consequences, the "invisibility" or
exclusion of war's violent impact and specific effects on
women would be revealed. To take a more specific example,
rape in war has long been ignored as a human rights abuse,
and in the Fourth Geneva Convention has been
misrepresented as a "crime against honor."

Many traditional strategic and political accounts of war have
been approached from a distance or from "above" without
due attention to the harsh experiences in people's lives:
accounts of fear, pain, terror, injury, and resistance tend to
be relegated to the margins. Having said that, I want to
emphasize now the importance of "everyday" experiences of
women refugees; their suffering, fear, and courage (whether
they stay close to their homes or have to flee further). In the
context of civil war in Burma thousands and thousands of
civilian women have suffered from the effects of war and
many are forced to flee (either close to their homes, within
the borders of their own country, or into exile across a
border). The following stories are from women (mainly
Karen, Karenni, and Mon) in the eastern border areas of
Burma.

Civilians as Targets of Terror-Warfare

Although cease-fires are now widespread (with some
exceptions in the Karen, Mon and Shan areas) civilians have
long been the targets of terror-warfare tactics throughout the
dirty war / "counterinsurgency" of Burma's border areas.
Historically, suffering increased with the Burmese regime's
notorious "Four Cuts" program which began in 1974. This
was a counter - insurgency plan designed to cut the four
main links of food, funding, intelligence, and recruits among
insurgent fighters, their families and local villages. One Karen
women as recently as February 1993 recalled:

They shouted at us, 'Tell us about the rebels!' But we're just
village women, we don't know anything about that.

In common with dirty war strategies perpetrated elsewhere, this
constitutes a way of gaining or maintaining sociopolitical
control over a population. This control or "victory" is achieved
not merely on the battlefield but through the fear suffered by
civilians as tactical targets. And as Aung San Suu Kyi in
Freedom From Fear.

Within a system which denies the existence of basic human
rights, fear tends to be the order of the day. Fear of
imprisonment, fear of torture, fear of death, fear of losing
friends, family, property or means of livelihood ... A most
insidious form of fear is that which masquerades as common
sense or even wisdom, condemning as foolish, reckless,
insignificant or futile the small, daily acts of courage which help
to preserve man's [woman's] self respect and inherent human
dignity.

Rape as a Terror Tactic

With particular regard to women, another form of terror which
functions as a tactical weapon, although it may or may not be
an explicitly stated military policy, is rape. (While it is
perpetrated against both women and men and youths of both
sexes, rape is preponderantly inflicted on women). It often
occurs during the course of war to punish a group of civilians
for perceived sympathies with armed insurgents and to
demonstrate the soldiers' control and domination over civilians.
Not only is rape, therefore, an egregious attack targeted
directly at individual (usually) women themselves, but through
them it is also often aimed as a deeper attack on the "social
body" of entire community.

It is worth noting here that, as one veteran (woman) major
from the Karen army has pointed out, while rape is intended to
demoralize the opposition, it just makes them more willing to
fight. Or, consider this quote, (a husband's reaction to the rape
of his wife): "...I'm furious at the Army. It makes me want to
fight them" (February 1993). In addition, (Cynthia Enloe, a
feminist academic writer, notes that as a result of the more
gender sensitive reporting from Bosnia, Serbia and Croatia,
rape has received more attention as a state generated act, rather
than simply a private (but despicable) act. It is evident that
suffering takes place at the level of both individual women and
whole communities, and it is as a mainstay practice of horror
and acquiesce in war that we understand rape (as a weapon).

Fleeing War

By focusing on the plight of refugees (whether internally
displaced or cross - border), we can show how war extends
beyond usual conceptions of what is meant by "war zone" and
"war." In other words, being out of the proverbial "line of fire"
is not being out of the war at all. It is also important to note
that people fleeing terror will often try to stay as close to their
homes for as long as possible before fleeing further distances,
or across an international border. (For example, considerations
include staying close to other family members, the need to tend
fields). The words from a woman (aged 49) from a border
refugee camp in late 1993 bear out these points:

Now in our area it is getting almost impossible for the villagers
to survive. In the past the Burmese army stayed in the plains
and the Karen army controlled the hills, so when the Burmese
[army] harassed the people they could run to the hills, clear a
field and plant a crop. But now the Burmese troops come into
the hills at clearing time and harvest time ... and burn the place
before it's ready to be burned, spoiling it. Other times, they
deliberately wait until harvest time, then come and steal or
destroy the crops ... every year we have to run and stay in
another place. Sometimes we can't even stay in one place for a
whole year-only a few months or even a few days in each place.
That's why the villagers have become destitute, can't buy
clothes and can't even get enough food.

Or consider this woman (aged 28) farmer's plight (May
1994):

Major K -  ordered us to move .. .they gave us three days to
move out of the village and said that after that, if they see
anyone in the village they shoot them on sight...We could
only take some of our things with us .. .It was the rainy
season so it was very hard to travel and we couldn't go back
everyday. When we disappeared; most of the planks from
our houses and all of our livestock were gone. It was
terrible...I cried and cried. I don't want to stay in the new
place, I want to go home. But we can't because the soldiers
are patrolling around there all the time, and if they see
anyone they grab them, punch them and beat them ... Now
we face the problem of starvation because we can't work on
our farms, we can't do anything.

The accounts of these women, along with many others,
illuminate some of the everyday problems of their constant
forced movement, their dukkha, in terms of both practical
and psychological consequences.

The majority of displaced people from this war zone are
internally displaced they have not crossed an international
border (in this case the Thai border). The documented
figures on refugees and internally displaced people
worldwide noted earlier indicate that there are more people
forced to flee who have remained within the territorial
borders of their own country than those who have crossed an
international border. (Further, these figures must be
considered conservative estimates. In relation to international
figures on internally displaced persons, there are many many
more who share this same fate but who never reach
researchers' attention and, therefore, are not represented in
the statistics). The case of Burma illustrates graphically the
extent to which all those fleeing war suffer problems during
and after flight-physical insecurity (for example, proximity to
the conflict, and lack of physical resources such as food and
health care), homelessness, separation from family members
during the chaos of running, and then an often precarious
exile. Internally displaced persons and cross border refugees
alike are not far from the problems they are escaping and
encounter new dangers and difficulties.  

Internally displaced people in particular are often sheltering
very close to danger (because they will often try to stay as
close as possible to their homes) and far from any official
humanitarian aid provided to cross - border refugees.
Nonetheless, there are currently 78,000 refugees living in
border camps (self administered by indigenous committees)
in Thailand and receiving basic humanitarian relief from a
consortium of non government organizations (the Burmese
Border Consortium). It is often final desperation that has
driven these people to find cross - border refuge: "I came
here because we've suffered so much for so long that we just
can't suffer it any more." While at last in cross border safety,
there are still many problems. Their refuge may be
precarious; for instance, their status is highly unstable and is
not guaranteed in official, legal terms (with merely status of
illegal immigrant). For women in cross border refugee camps
the experiences associated with war are clearly not over.

"I can't describe it to you..."

For individuals (and their families and friends) pain, like fear,
usually resists verbal description. Consider this woman's
story:

At night we all had to sleep on the ground, like dogs or pigs.
At night- it was terrible. The soldiers raped me. They pointed
a gun, and forced us to follow them. I can't describe it to
you. I can't talk about it. 

Elaine Scarry observes the verbal inexpressibility of physical
pain, and I would extend this to other experiences of fear and
terror. Some of the sufferings of women in the border areas
of Burma include rape, torture, forced porterage (of military
supplies), slave labor, and road guarding. It is important that
these experiences are documented.

The Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG), an indigenous
organization with some foreign staff, is well known and
respected for undertaking such detailed documentation in the
field on extremely limited funds. The raw data of human
rights abuse documentation in the field gives voice to those
who would otherwise remain unheard. KHRG, in the
introduction to their February 1993 testimonies of women
porters, report that women have shown great courage by
speaking of these things when interviewed, recognizing the
severe emotional strain involved in just recalling their
experiences. Some choose not to face the pain of speaking of
their worst experiences, while others have limited the detail
of their descriptions. Furthermore, proceeding with such
documentation must be conducted with extreme care,
because when not carefully controlled, the collection and use
of this information could help, not to eliminate the pain (and
record it), but to encourage its further infliction.
Changing Roles and Status

Women and children are frequently left alone in their villages
because the men have fled ahead of troops who come to
collect them as (forced) porters to carry military supplies and
to act as human mine sweepers on front lines.

I arrived here yesterday. I came because we had no more
money to pay porter fees, so I didn't dare stay in the village
any longer. Most of the men have already run away so the
soldiers try to catch the women, and I was afraid to stay. My
husband doesn't know I came here because when I came he
had already fled from them. I don't know where he is...

It is reported that older women (at least 45-50 years) often
become the village head as no man would dare take the job
(male headmen are always tortured) and younger women are
targets for rape at the military camp. (Village heads are
usually ordered to report to the military camp where s/he is
interrogated about all movements of the resistance forces and
beaten if insufficient information is given. Verbal orders
regarding upcoming slave labor and porter requirements are
also issued along with written orders posted in the villages.)
Women by themselves, however, do not remain free from
forced collection as porters, slave laborers, "comfort
women," or all of these. Consider this woman village leader's
story concerning why she fled her home:

I was a village leader. Sometimes the Burmese ordered me to
follow them, even though my baby was still young and
needed milk. They also took my husband as a porter, and ate
all my rice.... My daughter was a porter for two months, and
I had to go as a porter too. They took everything in our
house and we become poorer and poorer. They forced us to
sleep on the road and guard it all the time..They tortured me
by pouring hot water in my mouth. I couldn't sleep well or
eat well any more, so we came here.

They catch villagers in the hill rice fields. The villagers can't
tell them anything but they slap their faces and pour hot
water in their mouth...They catch women and men too.
When I left: they were doing this to many people. We
couldn't bear it.

There are many more women's stories illustrating their
suffering due to forced porterage, slave labor, and rape,
along with stories of responsibilities and courage in war.
Most of the women are not directly involved as combatants,
but they live in a militarized environment, living in fear of
and fleeing from war. While it is important, however, to
highlight the particular suffering of women and invoke
gender specific analyses of refugees and war, it must be
stressed that women are not always simply victims. Women
take on additional roles in their communities as noted above
and, as I will describe in the next section, employ a number
of creative actions to mitigate and resist the insidious impacts
of war.

Women's Actions

In recent years a number of women's groups have become
active along the border. Dr. Cynthia, who is the only
indigenous woman doctor working along the Thai-Burma
border, has created a revolution in health care for the people
of the border areas in which she works. She left for the
border in September 1988, thinking she was coming just for
a few months, and started her clinic in Mae Sot (Thailand).
Within two years she was receiving regular non
governmental organization funding. Dr. Cynthia has a clear
vision of her role for providing health care to the border
populations of Burma, with a particular focus upon women
and children. Her clinic near Mae Sot provides health care to
the Burmese students and other refugees in the area. She has
also set up health care operations in the border areas within
Burma, with vital mobile medical teams who travel each
month into remote jungle areas - often dangerously close to
Burmese army outposts treating thousands of villagers who
would not otherwise receive medical care. Dr. Cynthia also
trains medics and midwives from the border villages. Over
time, more and more women have come to the clinics to take
her advice. This is in a context in which maternal and child
care is unavailable to thousands of women and children and
in which whatever health care is available is stretched to the
limit as medical workers try to reach remote villages and
communities. Malaria remains the most serious and prevalent
problem in these parts, particularly for women and children
who are often malnourished and, thus, too weak to withstand
its recurring onslaughts. Another recent development is the
Indigenous Women's Development Center (IWDC) which
was set up in April 1993 in Thailand. IWDC states its goals
as: providing educational opportunities and resources to
indigenous women and children; improving the health of
indigenous women and children along the border; raising
international and local awareness of the various indigenous
groups; maintaining the cultural values and languages of
indigenous peoples along the border; enabling women and
children to become self sufficient. In addition, a number of
indigenous women s organizations have recently been set up
along the Thai-Burma border. These include the Karenni
Women's Organization which was formally established in
March 1993 with its headquarters in Mae Surin Camp on the
border. Some of its principal aims are to offer support and
advice to women in their daily struggle for survival, to
educate women with particular regard to the political
situation so they can have the same opportunities as men in
the running of the country, and to expand its work to other
areas and thereby strengthen the position of women
throughout Karenni state. The organization plans to expand
its weaving program and offer more employment
opportunities to women and funds for travel and other
expansion of its work.

Another group is the Karen Women's Organization. It was
initially formed in 1947, along with the Karen liberation
movement itself, but did not become active until it reformed
in April 1985. Its aims are to provide opportunities for
women to earn an income and thereby raise their living
standards, to raise the political consciousness of Karen
women, and to promote equality of women in Karen society.
The organization operates at village, township, district and
central levels and has well established networks. Programs
include supplying food, clothing and medicine to widows and
other families in need, promoting improved hygiene at home
and in the community, encouraging vegetable gardens, and
offering adult literacy and running a school for orphans. The
Mon's Women's Organization was formed in 1988 and
currently has its headquarters in Pa Yaw refugee camp in
Thailand, presently the most stable of the camps in Thailand.
In July 1994 Halockhani camp-which had been forcibly
relocated off Thai territory by the Thai authorities earlier in
the year-was attacked by Burmese army troops, forcing the
6000 residents to flee back across the border post into
Thailand. Because of ongoing military repression in the Mon
area, the organization finds it increasingly difficult to
maintain its networks throughout Mon State. Its aims are: to
enable women to take charge of their own lives so they can
be most effective in their communities, to unite Mon women
and increase solidarity between Mon women and other
women's groups. Because of frequent relocation, however,
long term programs have been difficult to implement. Their
work has concentrated on serving the immediate needs of
communities by offering assistance in health care and
hygiene.

Shan women in the Mong Tai Army (MTA) area have also
set up an organization in December 1993 called the Women's
Association of Shan State. There is great concern for Shan
women because particularly high numbers are recruited
through deception and force or all of these into sexual
slavery / prostitution into Thailand.

Conclusion

I have argued here for sensitivity to women's dukkha in and
fleeing from war. Challenging the frequent absence of
women in more traditional "top-down" accounts of war and
forced migration, this article has first and foremost urged the
need to recognize the particular experiences and roles of
women so as to provide a more accurate portrayal of war
and its impacts. While of course not contending to represent
the position of all women at all times nor claiming to be the
foundation of a theory of knowledge, but by drawing on
illustrations from refugee women's own accounts
documented in the field, we engender their experiences as
worthy, indeed essential, for attention and analysis. We
thereby hear about issues and concerns previously elided.
And, as Michel de Certeau writes about the importance of
the "everyday," the ordinary person (and in this article the
focus is upon the woman) is the "murmuring voice of
societies," and in all ages comes before texts. We can,
therefore, address a previous exclusion of voices and
recognize the need for critical approaches that challenge
established epistemological systems.

Organizations to Contact
 Burma Information Group, PO Box 14154, Silver Spring,
MD 20911, USA.
 Indigenous Women's Development Center (IWDC), PO Box
169, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai 50200. Thailand.
Tel/Fax: 66 53 278 945.
 Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG), PO Box 22, Mae Sot,
Tak 63110, Thailand. Tel/fax: 66 55 532 947.
 Burmese Relief Center (BRC), PO Box 48, Chiang Mai
University, Chiang Mai 50200, Thailand. Tel/fax: 66 53
278152.
 Images Asia (An Alternative Media for Human Rights and
Development), PO Box 2, Prasingha Post Office, Muang
Chiangmai 50200, Thailand Tel. (66 53) 211 282, Fax. (66
53) 277 419.

Acknowledgments:
The author would like to thank everyone who gave their time
and valuable input for the article. To mention a few: Carolyn
Nordstrom, Stephanie Lawson, Lyndal Barry, Pippa Curwin,
Alison Tate, IWDC, and other friends along the border.
KHRG documented the women's stories cited in the text and
encourage wide distribution of their human rights
documentation.

Hazel J. Lang is a PhD. scholar in the Department of
International Relations, Research School of Pacific and Asian
Studies, at the Australian National University in Canberra.

UPDATE: EMPOWERING INDIGENOUS WOMEN OF
BURMA 
by Edith T. Mirante

In 1994, women of Burma's ethnic minority groups continue
to be systematically abused by the regime's military.
Teenaged girls of the Rohingya Moslem nationality are being
taken from their families and brought to government army
bases for long-term "training programs." The Rohingyas fear
that this is a disguise for sexual slavery, which has been a
constant feature of the army's occupation of the Moslem area
of western Burma. Cross border trade in indigenous women
to Thailand and China for forced prostitution has continued,
often exploiting very young girls. They are held against their
will in brothels and exposed to AIDS infection. The human
rights group Asia Watch released a searing report on the
situation in 1994 called, "A Modern Form of Slavery."
Sexual abuse of female refugees from Burma by Thai
immigration police also continues, as well as rape of women
seeking asylum in border areas by Thai security forces.

Fighting back against this dire situation, Burma's ethnic
minority women have increased their underground
organizing, development work and international networking.
Indigenous women's groups include:

Women's Education for
Advancement and Empowerment
(WEAVE)

A non governmental organization started in 1990 to support
indigenous women's groups of Burma and Thailand.
WEAVE works with refugee populations and with women in
Burma's frontier regions, in activities such as teacher
training, handicrafts promotion, appropriate technology
projects and distributing educational / health materials in
indigenous languages.

Indigenous Women's
Development Centre (IWDC)

A support organization set up in 1993 by a Karen woman,
Esther Saw Lone, to assist indigenous women's groups
through educational and health training, cultural activities
and networking. The aim of IWDC is "to provide resources
and training which will enable women to become financially
self-reliant and make independent decisions in their families
and communities "

Kawthoolei Women's Organization

Based in the "liberated areas" where the Karen nationality
fights the central regime for autonomy, the KWO has been in
existence for many years. It seeks to encourage Karen
women to participate in political activity, including village-based projects such as health training and adult literacy. The
membership is over 40,000. The price paid for such under-
ground organizing can be high, as KWO members are
targeted for violent abuse by the regime's soldiers. An
account of one such incident from the Karen Human Rights
Group, an independent monitoring group, reports, "Sergeant
Ba Kyi and his men captured nine women and accused them
of supporting the Kawthoolei Women's Organization. They
were all beaten brutally by Sergeant Ba Kyi. The soldiers
burnt off all of Naw Heh Say's head hair and then her pubic
hair as well. Sergeant Ba Kyi raped her. She was also kicked
in the face with army boots ... Naw San Win was also
raped...and they stabbed her in both thighs with a
bayonet...Now the women are still in Toungoo Jail. There
has been no trial and we get no news of them "

Karenni Women's Organization

The women's group for the Karenni nationality was founded
in 1993 with support from the IWDC. The activities have
been centered in refugee camps just over the Thai border and
include running a nursery school and "encouraging backstrap
weaving so that existing skills are not lost."

Mon Women's Organization

This group was founded in 1988, at a time when women
began taking an increasing role in the Mon rebel military and
underground political organizing. The Mons are now a
particularly threatened people, due to heavy military
presence in their area, brought on by a gas pipeline venture
initiated by multinational corporations (UNOCAL of the
U.S. and Total of France). Many Mon communities have
been relocated by the regime's troops and refugee villages
have been destroyed by Thai border guards. Mon women are
frequently abused by Thai immigration police. The MWO
seeks "to enable women to take charge of their own lives, to
ensure that women have the same opportunities as men, to
maintain the indigenous Mon culture." Under the present
unstable conditions, activities center on health and nutrition.
Last April, a "Skills Training Course" for 32 Mon women
included classes in Political Science, Mother and Child
Health Care, Leadership Techniques and Collecting /
Reporting Human Rights Violations.

Women's Association of the Shan State
Recently formed, this organization has already published
educational materials in the Shan language, including
information about AIDS. All of the indigenous women's
groups anticipate increased activity in AIDS awareness, as
well as economic empowerment to help prevent girls from
being lured into prostitution.

Kachin Women's Association

Based in northern Burma near the China border, the KWA
started in 1977 and has increased its activities in recent years.
A wide variety of health, educational and development
activities are now sponsored by the KWA. Pre-natal care,
nutritional advice and AIDS information are offered in the
indigenous languages, in very remote areas. The Kachin area
currently has a cease-fire, but the indigenous people continue
to be threatened by the regime's use of slave labor, rampant
heroin addiction and an extremely high HIV infection rate.

Dr. Cynthia Maung, a physician who has founded health care
programs in the frontier areas and refugee camps, continues
to expand her projects. The mother of a boy named
"Liberty," she is about to give birth to her second child and
keeps traveling to remote villages to teach pre-natal and
post-natal care to mothers. Her network of mobile clinics
and a border hospital treat war casualties, victims of diseases
such as malaria and new strains of cholera, and train medical
workers. AIDS education, prevention and treatment continue
to be a high priority for Dr. Cynthia, a Karen.

What you can do to support Burma's indigenous women

Write to the Prime Minister of Thailand and demand that
abuse of refugee women from Burma, including forced
prostitution, be stopped. Address: Prime Minister Chuan
Leekpai, Office of the Prime Minister, Government House,
Thanon Nakhon Pathon, Bangkok 10300, Thailand.

WEAVE offers exquisite handicrafts and notecards which
can be sold by overseas organizations to assist the WEAVE
programs for refugee women. Address: WEAVE, PO Box
58, Chiangmai University, Chiang Mai 50002, Thailand.

For information on handicrafts and contact with the other
ethnic women's groups (which can always use
educational/training materials from overseas organizations),
contact IWDC at: PO Box 169, Chiangmai University,
Chiang Mai 50002, Thailand.

To help Dr. Cynthia's efforts (visiting foreign doctors,
medical supplies, etc.), contact: CM Clinics, PO Box 67,
Mae Sot, Tak Province 63110, Thailand.

Asia Watch report available from: Human Rights Watch,
4O5 5th Ave., New York, NY 10017.

How you can help:

Write the chairman of the SLORC. Demand that the junta
hand over power to Aung San Suu Kyi's elected National
League for Democracy, the best chance for peace and fair
treatment of all ethnic groups: Gen. Than Shwe, State Law
and Order Restoration Council, Ministry of Defense, Signal
Pagoda Rd., Yangon, Burma.

Write the foreign ministers of Thailand and China and
demand they stop supporting the SLORC, begin treating
refugees from Burma humanely and keep their hands off
Burma's forests: Mr. Prasong Soonsiri, Foreign Minister,
Foreign Ministry, Government House, Nakorn Pathom Rd.,
Bangkok 10300, Thailand; Mr. Qian Qichen, Foreign
Minister, Foreign Ministry, 225 Chaoyangmennei Daijie,
Beijing, People's Republic of China.

Two Major U.S. oil companies are in joint exploration
ventures with the SLORC despite an abusive military
presence in their concession areas. Write their chief
executives and tell them to terminate their relationship with
the SLORC: H. Lauren Fuller, Amoco Corp., 200 East
Randolph Dr., Chicago, IL 60601; Earl R. Johnson, Texaco
Exploration, Inc., 2000 Westchester Ave., White Plains, NY
10604.

The other major U.S. company in Burma is PepsiCo, owner
of PepsiCola, Pizza Hut, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Taco Bell
and Frito-Lay. Burmese students and human rights groups
have called for a boycott of PepsiCo products. Write and tell
PepsiCo to stop doing business under the SLORC: Wayne
Calloway, Chairman of the Board, PepsiCo, Purchase, NY
10577.

Edith T. Mirante is an author and also directs Project Maje,
an agency that monitors and reports on the situation in
Burma.


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