President Should Block Business Wit

[moe@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Subject: President Should Block Business With Burma Junta

President Should Block Business With Burma Junta
San Francisco Chronicle; San Francisco, Calif.; Nov 11, 1998; Joe Patrick
Bean; 

Sub Title: 
             [FINAL Edition]
Column Name: 
             OPEN FORUM
Start Page: 
             A23

Abstract:
NOW THAT A FEDERAL JUDGE has overturned Massachusetts' "Burma Law," the
[President]
Clinton administration and Congress should impose tough sanctions against
doing business with
that country's brutal military regime.

Last week, U.S. District Court Chief Joseph Tauro declared unconstitutional
a law that barred
state agencies in Massachusetts from contracting for goods or services with
companies that
did business in Burma, also known as Myanmar.

In siding with the National Foreign Trade Council, Tauro ruled that the
Massachusetts law
infringed on the federal government's power to regulate foreign affairs. The
ruling does not
affect other Burma boycott measures outside Massachusetts, although that
could happen if
the issue reaches the U.S. Supreme Court.

Full Text:
Copyright Chronicle Publishing Company Nov 11, 1998


Joe Patrick Bean comments on national and international affairs from his
home in Austin, Texas.
joepatrickbean@xxxxxxxxxxx

NOW THAT A FEDERAL JUDGE has overturned Massachusetts' "Burma Law," the
Clinton
administration and Congress should impose tough sanctions against doing
business with that country's
brutal military regime.

Last week, U.S. District Court Chief Joseph Tauro declared unconstitutional
a law that barred state
agencies in Massachusetts from contracting for goods or services with
companies that did business in
Burma, also known as Myanmar.

In siding with the National Foreign Trade Council, Tauro ruled that the
Massachusetts law infringed on the
federal government's power to regulate foreign affairs. The ruling does not
affect other Burma boycott
measures outside Massachusetts, although that could happen if the issue
reaches the U.S. Supreme Court.

In 1995, Berkeley became the first American city to adopt sanctions focusing
on Burma's repressive
military junta. Oakland, Palo Alto, San Francisco, Santa Cruz and some two
dozen other cities followed
suit, along with Alameda County and Massachusetts.

The military thugs of Burma's State Law and Order Restoration Council depend
upon their economic ties
to U.S. and other Western companies. The SLORC is one of the most brutally
repressive dictatorships in
the world.

President Clinton told Congress last year that the SLORC had arrested and
detained large numbers of
students and opposition supporters, sentenced dozens to long terms in prison
and squashed the expression
of political views by the democratic opposition, including Nobel Peace Prize
winner Aung San Suu Kyi.

Clinton noted that the Burmese military had committed serious abuses in
their campaign against the
country's Karen minority, forcibly conscripting civilians and making
thousands flee to Thailand.

The regime is also heavily involved in the production and global
distribution of heroin. Burma is the world's
leading producer of both drugs.

"It is not possible to do business in (Burma) without directly supporting
the military government and its
pervasive violations of human rights," Levi Strauss concluded, when it
decided to pull out of Burma
completely.

In May 1997, Clinton issued an executive order barring any new investment in
Burma by U.S. businesses
because "the actions and policies of the SLORC regime constitute an
extraordinary and unusual threat to
the security and stability of the region," and therefore to U.S. national
security.

Given the regime's long record of human rights abuse and drug trafficking,
Clinton's executive order, which
the president renewed in May 1998, was both appropriate and overdue. But it
was not enough. Unlike the
Massachusetts' law, it allowed U.S. companies that had done business in
Burma before May 1997 to
continue to do so.

The Massachusetts statute was modeled on laws passed by many states and
cities to put economic
pressure on apartheid-era South Africa. The collapse of the apartheid system
proves that tough sanctions
can work.

If states and cities are not constitutionally permitted to exert this kind
of pressure on Burma's military junta,
the Clinton administration and Congress have a clear duty to do so. U.S.
companies should not continue to
support a ruthless regime.