Goh Urged to Come Clean on Narcotic

[dohrs@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

FREE BURMA COALITION
225 North Mills Street, The University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53706
Phone (608)-827-7734  Fax: (608)-263-9992

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

PROTESTERS DEMAND ACCOUNTABILITY FROM SINGAPORE'S GOH ON NARCOTICS

Chicago -- September 16 --  Protesters are demanding that Singapore Prime 
Minister Goh Chok Tong  respond to US State Department allegations of 
Singaporean ties to heroin trafficking from Burma.

Goh will be subject to protests in Chicago, where he gives an address to
the US-ASEAN Business Council at the Sheraton Chicago Hotel at 12:30
today. 

On February 28, the State Department said that "over half of (investment
in Burma) from Singapore has been tied to the family of narco-trafficker
Lo Hsing Han."  Singapore has not denied the charge, preferring to
withhold comment altogether. 

In July, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said "We are increasingly
concerned that Burma's drug traffickers, with official encouragement, are
laundering their profits through Burmese banks and companies -- some of
which are joint ventures with foreign businesses."  Burma supplies 60% of
the heroin on US streets, according to the State Department. 

"Prime Minister Goh has an obligation to respond to these charges," says
Zar Ni, a Burmese exile. "If Singaporean companies are tied to drugs
traffickers and money launderers, it is not only hypocritical but
shameful.  Where is Goh's sense of responsibility?" 

Singapore has harsh drug laws, including the death penalty for possession
of 15 grams of heroin.  Australian television has tied Singapore's
Government Investment Corporation, chaired by Senior Minister Lee Kwan
Yew, to companies owned by Lo, who was once known as the "King of the
Golden Triangle."

US companies have also been embroiled in the same controversy.  Wente
Vineyards of California dropped its relationship with a company owned by
Lo Hsing Han after a boycott, and Northwest Airlines stopped giving
frequent flyer miles to travelers staying at a hotel in Burma owned by Lo. 

In a sworn affidavit in federal court, LA-based UNOCAL, a member of the
US-ASEAN Business Council, is also accused of being in partnership with
Burmese drug money launderers. 

"Surveys show rising teenage heroin use in the US.  If companies from
Singapore and the US enable Burmese heroin dealers to launder their money,
don't these people need to answer to the parents, families and crime
victims who are also hurt by the heroin plague?" asks Don Erickson of
Chicago-based Synapses.  "You ca'Õt just ignore this." 

Contact:  Don Erickson, Synapses, 312-225 2979, or 
	 Zar Ni, Free Burma Coalition, 608-827-7734   
 
END