Action Update: Hall Plans Not to Of

[sbillenness@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Subject: Action Update: Hall Plans Not to Offer Pro-Junta Amendment

NEW ENGLAND BURMA ROUNDTABLE

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July 16, 1999

1. Action Update: Hall Plans Not to Offer Pro-Junta Amendment
2. Background
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1. Action Update: Hall Plans Not to Offer Pro-Junta Amendment

It appears that Rep. Tony Hall plans not to offer his harmful amendment
allowing the United Nations Development Program to spend US taxpayer money
on programs run by the Burmese military junta.

This decision by Rep. Hall is a clear victory for supporters of the Burmese
democracy movement. Your phone calls and letters appear to have helped kill
this harmful amendment. I'd like to thank all of you who called and wrote
your Member of Congress.

Never let anyone tell you that you cannot make a difference!

We will continue to monitor events in Congress and let you know of any
further developments. 
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2. Background

United States Congressman Tony Hall had intended to offer an amendment to
Authorization bill for State Department funding in the House Rules
Committee.  His amendment was intended to stop U.S. and United Nations
Development Program (UNDP) consultation with Aung San Suu Kyi and the
democracy movement on UNDP money spent in Burma. More seriously, the
amendment would have allowed the UNDP to give funds directly to the ruling
military junta's ministries and front organizations.

Currently, Congress imposes four Burma related conditions on US funding for
UNDP programs in Burma.  Three of them are that UNDP programs in Burma:

"B) are undertaken only through international or private voluntary
organizations that have been deemed independent of the State Peace and
Development Council (SPDC) [the ruling Burmese military junta], after
consultation with the leadership of the National League for Democracy and
the leadership of the National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma
[the Burmese democracy movement];

(C) provide no financial, political, or military benefit to the SPDC; and

(D) are carried out only after consultation with the leadership of the
National League for Democracy and the leadership of the National Coalition
Government of the Union of Burma."

Hall's amendment would have gutted these restrictions.  The UNDP would have
been free to ignore Aung San Suu Kyi and the democracy movement while

providing direct funding at US taxpayer expense to the military junta
through its ministries and front organizations.
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Simon Billenness
*for the New England Burma Roundtable*
Trillium Asset Management
711 Atlantic Avenue, Boston, MA 02111
(617) 423-6655, x225
(800) 548-5684
(617) 482-6179 - fax
sbillenness@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

http://www.trilliuminvest.com/
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"I see my life...as part of a procession, a dynamic process, doing all that
we can do to move toward more good and justice; a process that is not
isolated from what has happened before or what will come after.  And I do
whatever I have to do along the path, whether it's sowing seeds or reaping
the harvest or tending the plants half grown."

Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma's democratic leader under house arrest, in "On the
Issues," Fall '98
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