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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 A rapidly-growing number of U.S. and European companies have withdrawn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.
>