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Media Advisory : Free Burma Activis
Subject: Media Advisory : Free Burma Activists Target Local Suzuki Dealership
Media Advisory September 25, 1999
>
> Media Contacts:
> DC-Burma Activist Network -- Ted Hobart (703) 524-9773
> Burmese Women's Union -- Ahtar (301) 762-0006
> Free Burma Coalition -- Dr. Zar Ni (202) 777-6009
>
> Free Burma Activists Target Local Suzuki Dealership
> Demonstrators Tell Suzuki, Inc. to Stop Doing Business in Burma
>
> Washington, DC - Burmese and American democracy supporters will
> demonstrate
> on Saturday, September 25 in front of the Fitzgerald's Wheaton Suzuki,
> 10915
> Georgia Avenue at 4:30 pm. The protesters are demanding that the Japanese
>
> government and Suzuki, Inc. stop doing business in Burma and stop
> supporting
> the country's highly repressive military junta.
>
> In April 1999, the Free Burma Coalition announced a boycott of Suzuki,
> Inc., because of that company's support for the illegal military junta in
> Burma. Suzuki automotive, motorcycle and marine dealers around the world
> are
> all targeted for boycotts.
>
> Ignoring international opinion and the request of Burma's own
> democratically
> elected leader, Suzuki announced on Oct. 13, 1998 that it was investing
> $10
> million dollars into a joint venture with the generals in Burma to build
> cars and motorcycles there.
>
> Aung San Suu Kyi, who is the legitimate representative of the Burmese
> people, has asked foreign companies not to come to Burma before democracy
> does. "We are not against investment," said Mrs. Suu Kyi, in a March 30,
> 1998 interview in Businessweek. "But we want investment to be at the
> right
> time ....investing now is [not] going to profitable either to investors or
>
> to the people of Burma."
>
> A rapidly-growing number of U.S. and European companies have withdrawn
> from
> Burma. "Japanese foreign investment and foreign aid are today among the
> last lifelines for an army junta that is dealing death in Burma and
> abroad,"
> said Dr.Zar Ni, founder of the Free Burma Coalition. "Without the
> financial
> support of companies like Suzuki, the generals would be bankrupt. People
> who buy Suzuki products should know that they are giving dollars to
> dictators."
>
> Burma is ruled by a narco-dictatorship that is widely regarded as one of
> the
> worst human rights offenders in the world. The generals running Burma
> international pariahs, banned from setting foot in the United States or
> the
> European Union. They have been condemned for human rights violations,
> including summary executions, torture, forced relocations, systematic rape
>
> and the ethnic cleansing of Christian, Moslem, Buddhist, and other
> minority
> groups. The U.S. Department of Labor recently documented the massive use
> of
> forced labor in Burma.
>
> In addition, the junta has turned Burma into the world's largest heroin
> exporter. According to the U.S. State Department, the country has become
> the global center for narcotics money laundering.
>
> January 1997: Pepsi pulls out of Burma.
> February 1997: Compaq pulls out of Burma.
> March 1997: Kodak pulls out of Burma.
> April 1997: Seagram pulls out of Burma.
> September 1997: Texaco pulls out of Burma.
> August 1998: Arco pulls out of Burma.
> September 1998: Ericsson pulls out of Burma.
> October 1998: Suzuki invests in Burma.
> ###
>
> ***********************
> The Washington D.C. Burma Activist Network is a coalition that meets
> regularly to share information, strategize and organize campaigns, and
> coordinate actions to promote democracy and human rights in Burma through
> grassroots pressure on federal legislators, state and local
> governments, and multinational corporations and institutions.
>