Univ. of Texas Students Protest UNO

[bfla@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Members of the University of Texas, Austin's University Civil Liberties
Union (U.C.L.U.) held a protest as UNOCAL representatives recruited students
to work for the company.     The students distributed leaflets detailing the
company's involvement with the brutal military regime in Burma.
Students leafleted outside the room where the recruitment session was to be
held and most students took the leaflet.    UNOCAL representatives came to
talk to the student protestors and were apparently well-versed in the UNOCAL
mantras of "constructive engagement."

The protest is part of a series of protests occuring at campuses where
UNOCAL is recruiting students.      Below, is the text for the leaflet that
was used.      A list of schools where UNOCAL is recruiting can be found at
www.unocal.com

UNOCAL
Dealing with Dictators, Supporting Human and
Environmental Devastation in Burma!

UNOCAL Corporation, one of the most socially and environmentally
irresponsible companies in the world today is on campus to recruit students
to work for their company.     Unfortunately, they are not telling students
about all their activities.     As long as the company continues to
undermine democracy in the southeast asian nation of Burma and to ignore
the pleas of the people of Burma that they leave until democracy is
restored, we cannot allow them to conduct business as usual.

Contributing to Widespread Atrocities in Burma
The nation of Burma is currently ruled by one of the most brutal regimes in
the world.     UNOCAL is in a business partnership with this rogue regime
and continues to expand its partnership by signing additional agreements
including cash "signature bonuses."  The democratically elected government
of Burma has repeatedly called on UNOCAL to withdraw from Burma until a
genuine democracy is in place.

Once UNOCAL's Yadana pipeline is completed, the annual income for the
Burmese military could be as much as US$400 million a year.    This will be
the regime's single largest source of foreign currency apart from profits
from the heroin trade.     More than half of the junta's budget goes to
purchase arms used against their own people.

There have been massive violations of human rights associated with the
construction of the pipeline.     To provide "security" for the pipeline,
the military has drastically increased military presence in the area.
This increased presence has brought a corresponding increase in gross human
rights violations including rape, forced labor, the displacement of
thousands of indigenous peoples from their homes and summary executions.

Widespread forced labor and portering on the pipeline project has also been
documented.    Civilians are seized by the military and are forced to work,
often without pay or food, on roads and other infrastructure related to the
pipeline project.

Lawsuit in the United States
UNOCAL is currently a defendant in a lawsuit in US Federal District Court
in Los Angeles relating to the pipeline project.     The plaintiffs in the
lawsuit are victims of rape, forced labor, forced relocation, assaults and
the death of family members in connection with the construction of UNOCAL's
pipeline in Burma.

The case charges the military in Burma and their business partners UNOCAL
and Total, with legal responsibility for violations of international human
rights prohibitions against forced labor and crimes against humanity, and
unlawful conspiracy.    Louisa Benson, a representative of the Karen
National Union, one of the ethnic minority groups affected by the pipeline
project  emphasizes that UNOCAL's "conduct is despicable by any standards.
It is not acceptable to allow companies to profit through human misery."


Ask UNOCAL representatives today why they continue to support the brutal
military regime in Burma.    Often, they will try to say that their
business in "constructive" for the people of Burma.   However, the bottom
line is that Nobel Peace Prize Winner Aung San Suu Kyi and the
democratically elected leadership of Burma (elected in 1990 but never
allowed to take power) has repeatedly asked UNOCAL to withdraw from Burma
until democracy is achieved.