Seattle Burma Policy an Easy Call:

[dohrs@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Subject: Seattle Burma Policy an Easy Call: Yes


This op-ed ran in the Aug. 24 Seattle Post-Intelligencer.


City Council Right, P-I wrong on Burma action

Larry Dohrs

The P-I's recent editorial on the proposed city ordinance restricting
purchases from companies doing business in the narco-dictatorship of Burma  
gives several facts about Burma:  The Burmese junta participates in
the international heroin trade, President Clinton and Secretary of State
Albright have led a chorus of international condemnation and sanctions,
and the people of Burma are kept poor and subservient by "one of the
worldÕs worst regimes." On these points we agree. 

But the ordinance is condemned on the basis that it is "not an exercise of
meaningful power" and that it is the "first" case of "Seattle having a
foreign policy."  On these points, the P-I is wrong. 

Already 12 cities (including New York, San Francisco and Oakland) and the
State of Massachusetts have passed similar laws, putting more than 50
billion dollars of contracts out of reach of the small number companies
that choose to do business in Burma.  In the New York City Council the
vote was 50-0.  Why?  Because the elected leadership of Burma, which
overwhelmingly won elections first organized, then voided by the military,
has openly called for sanctions against their own country.  The only
parallel is South Africa, which the P-I avoided mentioning. 

When I visited Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi in Rangoon in June of
1996 (before she was physically attacked by pro-military thugs and
returned to house arrest), she told me that the junta was nearly broke,
due to corruption and mismanagement, and that a campaign of economic
pressure was the best way to force them into negotiations.  Since then
the Burmese economy has faltered further, and is now described by the Far
Eastern Economic Review as "on its knees." The campaign is working, and
Seattle can, at almost no cost, do its part. 

The P-I rightly respected Hong Kong democrat Martin Lee's credentials when
he spoke against revocation of China's MFN status.  How much more
legitimate is Aung San Suu Kyi's call for sanctions?  After all, her party
won 82% of the seats nationwide.  Seattle's action is a measured,
effective and sensible use of local power to substantive effect. 

The suggestion that local city purchasing decisions with local tax dollars
are an unprecedented foray into "foreign policy" is ludicrous.  The city
joined the campaign against apartheid more than ten years ago.  Seattle
has more than two dozen sister city arrangements with foreign countries
(as well as Taiwan, not recognized by the US as a country) and conducts
foreign trade promotions.  This is only reasonable and natural for an
important Pacific Rim city. 

More than 60% of the heroin on US streets comes from Burma.  This is the
foreign policy of the Burmese Generals.  We in Seattle pay millions of
dollars for this heroin invasion, in the costs of emergency hospital care,
crime and policing.  Secretary of State Albright said last month that drug
money laundering was even being conducted by Burmese "joint ventures with
foreign firms."  Do these companies deserve any of our tax money?  We
support Council President Drago when she says they do not. 

The Seattle City Council has taken a measured, careful approach to the
Burma contracting ordinance, examining the issue for more than two years. 
It hasn't taken a similar action in more than a decade.  The P-I should
respect Council Members for their cautious approach, rather than
expressing the fear that they will begin adopting sanctions thoughtlessly. 

The proposed Seattle Burma ordinance meets the most stringent standard 
imaginable:  
It is a local law governing only local purchases, where the city has the
same freedom of choice as any other consumer.  
It is consistent with US policy, and part of a well-established
international campaign.  
It supports the legitimate, elected leaders of Burma, the only such
democratic movement in the world that calls for sanctions against its own
country. 
It follows the example of the successful South African anti-apartheid
campaign, which showed clearly that, in the right circumstances,
international actions  such as Seattle's can and do make a difference.  
And it targets an odious, violent regime that floods the world, our
country and our city with drugs.

As Secretary of State Albright said last month in Los Angeles:  "It is
only right that Burma is subject to international sanctions and consumer
boycotts."  Council President Drago deserves kudos for her careful and
effective efforts to pass the Burma ordinance.  And she deserves our
support. 


Larry Dohrs, a trade specialist, is a consultant to the Burma Project of
the Open Society Institute, and media advisor to the Free Burma Coalition. 
He chairs the Seattle Burma Roundtable.