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UCSC Resolution



Resolution on Corporations Doing Business in Burma

On April 22, 1997, President Clinton approved a ban on new American
investment in Burma because of human-rights abuses by the Burmese military
government.  In imposing sanctions, the President was responding to what he
termed "constant and continuing patterns of severe repression" by the State
Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC), the brutal military dictatorship
in Burma.   In its 1996 Annual Report on Human Rights, the U.S. State
Department described Burma's human rights violations as including repression
of the democratically elected opposition, forced labor, arbitrary arrests,
and torture of political opponents.

In November 1996, Robert Gelbard, Assistant U.S. Secretary of State for
International Narcotics and Law Enforcement, described Burma as the world's
largest producer of opium and heroin and described SLORC as protecting its
drug trade and flouting its defiance of international concern.

In 1991, Aung San Suu Kyi won the Nobel Peace Prize.  Her party -- the
National League for Democracy -- won 82% of legislative seats in Burma's
democratically held elections in 1990.  Yet, the SLORC has not allowed
any of those elected to take office.  Instead, Aung San Suu Kyi was placed
under house arrest for six years, and released just last year.  January
1997, she called on the world community to "take a principled stand
against companies that are doing business with the military regime in Burma."

Since 1995, 11 local governments (including Santa Monica, Oakland, Berkeley,
and Alameda County, California), the State of Massachusetts, and 17 U.S.
colleges and universities (including U.C. Berkeley, Stanford, and California
State University at Humboldt) have passed laws or resolutions condemning
SLORC.  These governments and universities have established policies that
restrict investment in companies conducting business in or with Burma and/or
prohibit purchase of commodities manufactured by companies doing
business in Burma.

Companies that have already left Burma include Carlsberg, Heineken, London
Fog, Eddie Bauer, Disney,  Levi Strauss, Pepsi-Co, Liz Claiborne and
Columbia Sportswear.  Those resisting pressure to leave include UNOCAL,
Texaco, Atlantic Richfield, Caterpillar, Compaq Computer, Mitsubishi, United
Technologies, Alza Pharmaceuticals, and Textron. Currently, California-based
UNOCAL, the largest American company, is still doing business in Burma,
building a $1 billion pipeline to carry natural gas to Thailand.  Funds
from petroleum ventures are expected to give SLORC $400 million annually
to support its military regime.

In January 1997, the American University became the first U.S. educational
institution to confer upon Aung San Suu Kyi an honorary doctorate degree to
honor her efforts to restore democracy to the people of Burma.  Chapman
College, and the University of Durban in South Africa have also awarded
Aung San Suu Kyi honorary doctorates.

Whereas the current legal, social, and economic system being imposed on the
people of Burma by the SLORC is morally repugnant and contrary to
international law, continued investment by U.S. companies in
Burma strengthens the brutal military dictatorship, Aung San Suu
Kyi, 1991 Noble Peace Prize winner, and other forces for democracy within
Burma have called for businesses to stay out of Burma until the results
of the 1990 elections are honored, therefore let it be resolved that the:

         Student Union Assembly of the University of California, Santa Cruz
calls on the Regents of the University of California to divest any of its
shares in companies that do business with Burma,

        Student Union Assembly of the University of California, Santa Cruz
calls on the Regents of the University of California to establish policy
that a business supplying goods or service to any University of California
campus or other organizational unit shall be required to state that it, its
parent, subsidiaries or franchises do not conduct business in Burma,

        Student Union Assembly of the University of California, Santa Cruz
 calls on the University of California, Santa Cruz to establish policy
that a business supplying goods or service to the University shall be required
to state that it, its parent, subsidiaries or franchises do not conduct
business in Burma.

June 4, 1997

Student Union Assembly
University of Calisornia, Santa Cruz
Santa Cruz, CA 95064