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ICFTU: EU-Burma



NTERNATIONAL CONFEDERATION OF FREE TRADE UNIONS (ICFTU)

ICFTU OnLine
068/990415/DD

Trade unions call for investment ban in Burma by European multinationals

Brussels. April 15 1999 (ICFTU Online): The International Confederation
of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), and the European Trade Union Confederation
(ETUC) are calling on the European Union to implement a complete ban on
investment in Burma by EU multinational companies. This would send a
clear message to the pariah regime, as, it would cut foreign investment
in Burma by 60% (based on 1997 figures). In that year 60% of its foreign
investment came from EU companies, concentrated mainly in the oil and
gas industries.

The investment ban which has been proposed by the Netherlands
government, will be discussed at the April EU General Affairs Council
which will decide whether to extend EU measures against Burma. The ban
was first proposed by Denmark in 1996; and the Netherlands government
resumed pressure for the EU to implement it in October 1998, but failed
to gain enough support. However, a number of other EU Member States,
including the UK, have since publicly called for the strengthening of EU
sanctions.

Burma  is currently deprived of  its privileges under the EU's
Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) mechanism, because of the
complaint filed by the ETUC and the ICFTU in 1995, which based on the
regime's use of forced labour. In addition the EU has imposed a ban on
entry visas for representatives of the ruling State Peace and
Development Council and their families, an arms embargo, and has
suspended all non-humanitarian aid. Last October, the EU strengthened
the measures to include transit visas and formally advised tourists
against visiting Burma, thereby echoing a call for Aung San Suu Kyi to
that effect. The EU has also refused to allow Burma to acceede to the
EU-ASEAN Agreement

Trade unions and governments in Europe are calling for increased
measures against the regime, because of an increase in repression
against dissidents and elected representatives in Burma since last
autumn, as well as the continuing country-wide use of forced labour for
military  and "development" projects.  The inhumanity of the military
regime in Burma was highlighted as recently as March 27, when Michael
Aris, the husband of Aung San Suu Kyi, died, having been requested

permission by the military regime to visit his wife before he died.

The ICFTU said it was also considering issuing a call for a worldwide
investment ban on Burma, at an international trade union conference it
is organising in support of Burma's  independent trade unions, in
Bangkok  next May. This March the International Labour Organisation (ILO
) Governing  Body called on the Burmese military junta to comply with
recommendations of the ILO's Commission of Inquiry into forced labour in
Myanmar (Burma). In a devastating report issued in August last year, the
UN's special agency for labour matters had qualified the Burmese
military's large-scale use of forced labour as "crimes against
humanity".

To support its call for a European ban, the ICFTU and the ETUC are
calling on their European affiliates to lobby their governments to
support the ban proposal when it is raised at the General Affairs
Council at the end of April.

For further information please contact: Janek Kuczkiewicz, Tel: ++322
224 0201