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The BurmaNet News: April 14, 1999



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 "Appropriate Information Technologies, Practical Strategies"
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The BurmaNet News: April 14, 1999
Issue #1250

Noted in Passing: "The use of conscript labor even for porterage was not a
policy that was comfortable for us as an investor in that country." - John
Imle, Unocal Chairman (see Washington Post: Right Victims in Burma Want US
Company to Pay) 

HEADLINES:
==========
WP: RIGHTS VICTIMS IN BURMA WANT US COMPANY TO PAY 
CRPP: NOTIFICATION #19 
REUTERS: COMMENTARY HINTS OPPOSITION BEHIND ARSON 
THE NATION: BURMA DAMPENS CELEBRATIONS 
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WASHINGTON POST: COMMENTARY HINTS OPPOSITION BEHIND MYANMAR ARSON 
13 April, 1999 by William Branigin 

As the Burmese woman told her story to Ka Hsaw Wa, a fellow refugee and
member of the Karen ethnic minority, her anger began to build. It was 1992,
and she had been forced to flee her village in southern Burma as part of a
massive relocation campaign by the Burmese army to ensure security for a
natural gas pipeline.

She had been holding her 2-month-old baby while cooking in front of her
bamboo-and-thatch hut when soldiers ordered her to leave. One of them
kicked her hard in the ribs, and her baby fell into the open fire, she told
Ka Hsaw Wa, a former student activist who had fled to the Thai-Burmese
border earlier. She made her way to the border, but her baby, suffering
from severe burns, died shortly afterward.

Today the woman, known as Jane Doe I, is one of 14 plaintiffs in a landmark
class-action lawsuit that, for the first time, seeks to hold a private U.S.
corporation accountable for human rights violations abroad. All the 11 men
and three women are referred to in the suit as John or Jane Does because
they fear retaliation from Burmese forces.

Ka Hsaw Wa collected their stories and those of hundreds of other victims
of human rights abuses after he was tortured and forced to flee the
capital, Rangoon, during a crackdown on student protests in 1988. His
secret reporting from inside Burma helped form the basis for the lawsuit
accusing the California-based oil company Unocal and the French firm Total,
partners in the pipeline project with the Burmese government, of complicity
in the forced relocation of entire villages, the use of slave labor and
numerous related deaths, beatings, rapes and property seizures.

The suit was filed by EarthRights International, the Center for
Constitutional Law in New York and two Los Angeles law firms.

The companies deny any wrongdoing. They say their partnership is with the
Burmese state oil company, Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise, and that they
are not responsible for actions by Burmese troops.

Last month in New York, Ka Hsaw Wa was among four recipients of the annual
Reebok Human Rights Award. "At great risk to his life," the award citation
said, the 28-year-old exile "traveled thousands of miles on foot, living
and working clandestinely" to interview victims and document "the forced
labor, rape and other human rights abuses inflicted on villagers" by the
Burmese army.


The lawsuit, one of two such class actions filed in Los Angeles by
different plaintiffs, reflects growing efforts by U.S. activists to
discourage private sector involvement in countries that allegedly violate
labor and civil rights. Massachusetts and at least 23 cities and towns
across the country have passed "selective purchasing" laws that bar the
awarding of state or local government contracts to companies doing business
in Burma. On a number of U.S. college campuses, students are demanding an
end to the use of foreign sweatshop labor in making school-licensed apparel.

A foreign trade group representing 580 corporations, including Unocal, last
year blocked implementation of the Massachusetts law in federal court. An
appeal by the state government is scheduled to be heard in May.

A federal judge in Los Angeles has rejected Unocal's motion to dismiss the
class-action claims against it, ruling that corporations can be held
legally responsible in U.S. courts for human rights violations committed
abroad by state entities acting as their agents. The case is expected to go
to trial early next year, with the two suits combined into one.

In 1997, the Clinton administration barred new U.S. private investment in
Burma, accelerating a pullout by companies already there. Among the first
to leave was Levi Strauss & Co., which concluded that its investment was
supporting a government it called "one of the leading violators of human
rights in the world."

Construction of the 416-mile, $1.2 billion pipeline began in 1992 and was
completed last year, but it is not yet operational because opponents,
including Ka Hsaw Wa, dissuaded the World Bank from financing a power plant
in Thailand that was to receive the Burmese natural gas. The pipeline
starts at the offshore Yadana gas field in the Andaman Sea and crosses 39
miles of Burma's Tenasserim region, which is inhabited largely by ethnic
minorities. Among them are the Karens, who have been fighting against the
central government for self-rule for more than 50 years.

The military junta that has ruled Burma since 1988 began flooding the area
with troops when construction started, driving villagers away from the
pipeline route and forcing many into slave labor on related projects, Ka
Hsaw Wa said. Villagers were forcibly recruited to cut down trees for
survey roads, build barracks and outposts for troops guarding the pipeline,
clear land and plant rice to feed the soldiers and carry weapons and
ammunition on counterinsurgency missions.

"When they collapsed and couldn't work anymore, the soldiers just shot
them," Ka Hsaw Wa said in an interview after opening the Washington office
of EarthRights International, a human rights group he co-founded. He said
he saw numerous bodies of forced laborers during his travels inside Burma
and heard accounts of killings from army defectors.

In a deposition in January, John Imle, the president of Unocal, denied that
"conscript labor" helped build the pipeline, but acknowledged that
"security forces" used such workers as porters at an early stage of the
project. He said this changed after he told Gen. Khin Nyunt, one of the
junta leaders, "that the use of conscript labor even for porterage was not
a policy that was comfortable for us as an investor in that country." He
said Unocal and Total "insisted upon these workers being paid" when the
military began providing security for the pipeline and that he personally
saw Total officials pay porters during a 1996 trip.


According to plaintiffs, however, the military often ordered dragooned
workers to hide in the jungle when foreign company officials visited, or
confiscated their pay after the foreigners left. One man said he was forced
to serve as a porter during military offensives to secure Nat-ein-taung,
the site of a metering station on the Burmese-Thai border, where the Yadana
natural gas was to be sold by Unocal and Total to a Thai company. He said
in court documents that many porters were killed during the offensive,
including two he saw beaten to death by soldiers.

Another plaintiff said he and about 100 other villagers were forced to
clear a path for the pipeline in 1996 and help build a bridge. He said he
received the equivalent of less than $12 for 20 days' work and signed a
receipt, but that an army officer later took the money. 

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COMMITTEE REPRESENTING PEOPLE'S PARLIAMENT: NOTIFICATION #19
7 April, 1999 

Committee representing members of People's Parliament elected in the 1990
multi-party general elections (Committee Representing People's Parliament)

Notification No 19 ( 4/99)

1.  In the 1990 Multiparty General Elections, the undermentioned two
National League for Democracy candidates were overwhelmingly voted in by
their respective constituents in Kyaukpadaung township, Mandalay Division:

U Bo Zan- Constituency 1, received 35,320 indisputable votes (70.87%)

U Ngwe Htoon- Constituency 2, received 35,735 indisputable votes (68.44%)

2.  Without any legal authority and in contravention of the provisions
stipulated in the Political Parties Registration Law and the People's
Parliament Elections Law, certain groups in authority orchestrated a
demonstration on the 15 February 1999, misusing the people to shout slogans
of non-confidence against these two legally elected People's Parliament
representatives. Despite condemnation of such reprehensible conduct prior
to the event and request that the said activities be suspended the
authorities with impure motives carried out the demonstration using every
illegal device.

3.  In connection with this illegal, unjust and coercive activity we
publish the contents of a letter dated 18 February 1999 addressed to the
National League for Democracy from "a representative of the people who are
awaiting the return of the rule of law".

START

"Sir, this is for your information. I am a resident of Myauktaw village,
Kyaukpadaung township, Mandalay Division. I will relate to you the events
of 15 February 1999. At about twelve noon on 15.2.99, Headman U Aung Myint
announced (using a microphone) that every resident, 18 years and above,
must attend the meeting to express the people's wishes (denouncing the
NLD). Failure to do so was at one's own risk. The same evening at 6:00
p.m., Maung Khin Maung Htay, organiser of the Union Solidarity and
Development Association (USDA) made a similar announcement. At 6:00 am on
16.2.99, Maung Shwe Thein (EC member of USDA) with a loud speaker, made the
announcement that the meeting to denounce the NLD would be held at 8:00
a.m. and every eighteen year old and above was expected to attend without
fail. They would suffer the consequences if they failed to attend (Note:
the said meeting was to be held at Taungbaw village about one mile south
from our village).


This was how the meeting was called and held. Kyats fifty was the penalty
imposed for those who failed to attend. Aung Myint, chairman of the village
SPDC announced on the microphone that immediate payment of the penalty had
to be made. About one hundred and fifty failed to attend. The announcement
was repeated three times. About one hundred and fifteen responded and made
payment. There were about thirty five who delayed. Ya Nyunt, police in
charge of the outpost and a constable went to the houses of those who had
not paid and in Japanese-era-style kicked in the closed doors and demanded
payment. They were ordered to immediately attend at the house of the
headman. The headman's house where these villagers were sitting huddled
together, Ya Nyunt demanded an explanation from them for their failure to
attend the meeting. He said that they would have to be associated with the
NLD and would have to be sent to the Police Station. The headman Aung Myint
told them that he had been reprimanded by the Township Officer and insulted
because the attendance was very small. He said that because of this, he was
going to have them arrested. These were the many ways and devices used to
threaten and harass them. 

Orders were then given to Ya Nyunt and one constable to dispatch those 35
who had not paid the fine to the Popa Police  Station. Then they were
allowed to disperse. On 17.2.99 they were again summoned to attend at the
house of the headman Aung Myint and threatened. It was about 9:00 a.m. they
were told that they would have to go to Popa at their own expense. By 11:30
they were still unable to arrange for payment of the penalty so they had to
walk to Popa (the distance from Myauktaw village to Popa is about three
miles). Of the thirty-five persons, only twenty-five of them went. The
other ten were exempted by the headman, some of whom were (1) U Thein Aung,
(village SPDC member) (2) Maung Win, (U Thein Aung's son-in-law), (3) U Tin
Hlaing, Daw Kyi Hlaing and others. Those who walked to Popa were the
impoverished, widows, parents of young children and petty traders.

A grandmother Daw Mai (age 65) was one amongst those who had to walk to
Popa. Due to under-nourishment, a weak physical condition and fear of
imprisonment, she fainted on the way. Maung Saw Htay, Daw San Kyi, Daw Kyi
Shin and Daw Thay Khin helped to revive her. Daw Tin Kyi, a widow, was very
distressed and kept calling out that because her husband was no longer with
her she was suffering such a plight. She had hysterical fits three times
and could not stop weeping and crying out. (This happened at Popa-lwin
village). Finally on arrival at Popa at 3:00 in the evening, they were not
placed in the lock-up at the police station but had to remain in the
compound of the police station hungering and thirsting. Aung Myint, the
village SPDC chairman had remained behind in the village but Ya Nyunt the
policeman was in Popa. Then, the chief clerk at the police station gave
instructions that all would be sent back but first the headman had to be
sent for. The headman would not travel on foot, so a 3 ton truck owned by U
Thoung Myint had to be hired at a cost of Kyats 2600 for a two way journey.
Besides demanding fifty Kyats per head, an additional sum of kyats two
hundred was collected from 29 persons by U Pwe and deposited in the hands
of the chairman. That money belongs to the impoverished and widows. To get
that money they pursued and employed all these devices and are dealing with
the people in this manner.


In making this report I ask how can we, the poor and impoverished,
continue with this kind of existence?"

END

4.	The authorities are operating in an illegal and abominable way against
the people. The expression "peoples' wishes" is being misconstrued. The
word 'wish' connotes a personal desire without intervention or force from
another. The authorities are blatantly forcing, intimidating, penalising
and persecuting the people to behave against their own personal desires and
wishes. What a tragic situation!

5.	The above activities of the authorities is strongly and emphatically
deplored by us.

Committee Representing People's Parliament
Rangoon 

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REUTERS: COMMENTARY HINTS OPPOSITION BEHIND MYANMAR ARSON 
13 April, 1999 

YANGON, April 13 (Reuters) - A commentary in state-owned newspapers
suggested on Tuesday opponents of Myanmar's military government were behind
a suspected arson attack on the country's holiest Buddhist shrine.

Myanmar's official news agency said on Monday a fire broke out at the
weekend in a ceiling of Yangon's Shwedagon Pagoda but was quickly
extinguished. It said arson was suspected.

A commentary in Tuesday's Kyemon and Myanma Alin newspapers said officials
had carried out a thorough investigation.

"It can be speculated as to who is responsible. It is those who have
committed similar things a number of times.

"They attacked the sacred tooth relic of Buddha with a bomb on the evening
of Christmas Day, 1996," it said in reference to an attack on a temple
housing a relic loaned by China.

The government blamed the Karen National Union guerrillas, a dissident
exile group the All Burma Students' Democratic   Front, and "above-ground
destructive elements" for that attack, which killed five people and injured
17.

The latter term is usually used by the authorities to refer to the National
League for Democracy (NLD), Myanmar's main opposition party. All the
opposition groups denied involvement in the 1996 attack.

No member of the NLD was available to comment on the newspaper article and
government officials were not available to say whether the commentary
reflected government opinion.

In the past the government has said commentaries in the state press do not
always reflect official opinion. 

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THE NATION: BURMA DAMPENS CELEBRATIONS 
13 April, 1999 

AP

RANGOON - Burma's military government is warning celebrants of the Buddhist
New Year not to become too rowdy or face a jail term, state-run papers
reported yesterday.

Celebrants traditionally mark the April 13 to 15 holiday, called "Thingyan"
in Burma, by sprinkling water on each other with sprigs of leaves. But
these days the holiday has become a festival of water throwing, a wild
outburst of mass drenchings and dousings, enjoyed by most people in the
country no matter their religion.

Burma is predominantly Buddhist, but also has significant numbers of
Muslims, Christians and animists.

The military government is extremely security conscious and each year
issues strict warnings for revellers not to get too raucous. The government
appears to be concerned that the rowdy behaviour could lead to a social
disturbance.


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