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Unocal Out of Burma, Protest at He
- Subject: Unocal Out of Burma, Protest at He
- From: strider@xxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 27 Apr 1994 00:55:00
/* Written 2:08 pm Apr 26, 1994 by DEBRA@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx in igc:hrnet.asia-pac */
/* ---------- "Unocal Out of Burma, Protest at He" ---------- */
## author : ranla@xxxxxxxxxxx
## date : 25.04.94
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For Immediate Release April 25, 1994
Contact: Cynthia Rust (206) 632-4326, Greenpeace
Pager # at the Protest (415) 280-2141
UNOCAL LINKED TO FOREST RUIN AND FORCED LABOR IN BURMA
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PROTEST AT UNOCAL SHAREHOLDER'S MEETING
Los Angeles, April 22, 1994 (GP) Calling on Unocal
Corporation to end its joint venture with the Burmese junta,
Greenpeace, Rainforest Action Network (RAN) and the Burma
Forum will demonstrate at Unocal's corporate headquarters
during the annual shareholder's meeting. The protest is
focused on Unocal's investement in a natural gas pipeline
through rainforest in Burma.
At 9:00 a.m. on Monday April 25, at 1201 5th St. in downtown
Los Angeles, activists will conduct a high profile airborne
demonstration. Large photos depicting the chain-gang forced
labor used in Burma to build roads and clear forest will be
creatively displayed.
Forced labor is currently being used to provide infra-
structure for a pipeline from the Andaman Sea through
Burma's Tenasserim division to Thailand. Inside the meeting,
shareholders will be discussing a resolution requesting
Unocal to publicly disclose all of its activities in Burma.
The activists are protesting Unocal's 47.5 percent
share in a natural gas concession in Burma because of
human rights abuses and forest destruction wrought by
the country's ruling military regime, the State, Law
and Order Restoration Council (SLORC). SLORC.
In March 1994, the United Nations Commission on Human
Rights condemned the SLORC for torturing Burmese
people, undertaking summary executions, using forced
labor, arresting and imprisoning people for political
reasons, and for the abuse of women.
In addition to today's demonstration, Greenpeace will
release a report on the connection between the gas
pipeline, human rights abuses and destruction to the
tropical forest. The report, based on a recent visit
to Burma, is centered around interviews with indigenous
people, such as the Karen and Mon who live in the
pipeline area.
"This proposed pipeline encapsulates all that is wrong
with Burma under the death grip of the SLORC," said
Pamela Wellner, Greenpeace forest campaigner. This
includes slave labor, forced relocation and looting of
villages by the military and environmental degradation
of the forest.
Unocal Out of Burma/2
"Unocal can't keep justifying its involvement with this
junta by saying they are providing employment," Wellner
said. "The truth is, they are supporting slavery and
forest ruin. This will not be kept a secret for 15
years like their Californian oil spill; too many people
know of these atrocities."
The Center for Constitutional Rights, a public interest
law firm, in a recent letter to the CEO of Unocal
stated "...Unocal could be held legally liable for
deaths, injuries, property damage or other harm arising
out your company's operations in Burma. Unocal denies
that their investment is related to the human rights
abuses.
Greenpeace, RAN and the Burma Forum are asking Unocal
and other foreign companies such as Total of France,
the other partner in the offshore gas concession, to
pull their operations out of Burma. This is in
solidarity with the National Coalition Government for
the Union of Burma, the democratic coalition which has
not been allowed to take power. The NCGUB and the
ethnic nationalities are asking companies not to invest
with SLORC and to hold their business interest in Burma
until a democratic government is in power.
"If the Unocal shareholders were aware of the human
rights atrocities perpetrated on their behalf, I am
sure they would not condone Unocal doing business with
the SLORC," said Naw Louisa Benson, co-founder of the
Burma Forum and a member of the Karen ethnic group
whose land borders the pipeline area.
Much of the slave labor in the pipeline area is
connected to the extension of the "Death Railway"
originally built with the forced labor of the Allied
Forces during the World War II. In February, Mon
officials reported that over 35,000 people had been
conscripted to work on the railway in deplorable
conditions.
"Only one small tin of rice is provided to the workers
and many people are dying of some form of dysentery
because of unsanitary living conditions." said an
official of the New Mon State Party. The forest is
also being logged to provide sleepers for the railroad.
In 1988, SLORC gunned down over 2000 pro-democracy
protesters, causing most western nations such as the
US. to stop foreign aid. Since that time SLORC has
been selling off its natural resources, such as timber,
oil and gas, to gain cash to buy armaments to further
suppress its people. Investment by oil companies is
considered the largest single source of foreign
currency to the SLORC.