"Ignoring Myanmar Reality" Letter t

[brelief@xxxxxxx]

Subject: "Ignoring Myanmar Reality" Letter to the Editor, The Daily  Yomiuri 

Letters to the Editor
The Daily Yomiuri
October 11, 1996

Ignoring Myanmar reality

Tom Plate's "Capitalism vs. Moralism in Burma" (Commentary, Sept 24) ignores
the hard reality that UNOCAL does not have a legitimate contract with the
elected government of Burma. UNOCAL may have an invalid lease, since it
signed a contract with the Burmese military government subsequent to the May
1990 elections.

Referring to "Shell Oil's controversial project in Nigeria," Plate states
that "UNOCAL appears to have learned many lessons from that ugly venture."
The big difference between Burma and Nigeria is that the Burmese resistance
has established a significant and growing grass-roots organization in the
U.S. UNOCAL is foolish and deserves to be "shell-shocked" if it doesn't
recognize this hard reality.

The myth of "constructive engagement" is that foreign investors would act as
"emissaries of
democracy" and assist in the evolution of freedom and democracy. 

But the hard reality is that foreign investors end up acting as "emissaries
of dictators" in order to protect their dirty deals and obscene profits. The
best example of such behavior is UNOCAL. UNOCAL's chairman has never met
with the Burmese military government to promote freedom and democracy in
Burma.  

Yet he shows up at U.S. congressional hearings on Burma to act as an
apologist for the Burmese military government.

To protect its investment in Burma, UNOCAL must make it clear to the Burmese
military
government that it is financially too risky and a public relations suicide
to build the $1.2 billion natural gas pipeline until there is a political
settlement in Burma.

MYINT THEIN
Dallas, Texas