Unocal Protest

[pwellner@xxxxxxxxxxx]

For Immediate Release             	Media Contact: Louisa Benson June 3, 1996
or Edith Mirante, 310-454-3123

					
                           				

SHAREHOLDERS AND ACTIVISTS PROTEST UNOCAL'S 
BURMA PIPELINE 
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Unocal Project Results in Forced Labor and Forest Destruction

June 3, 1996 (Los Angeles)  On Monday, June 3, 1996 at 9:30am 
Unocal shareholders and human rights activists, including 
actress Adelle Lutz of "Beyond Rangoon", spoke out against 
Unocal's controversial gas pipeline project in southern Burma. 
Crowds of noisy demonstrators, the majority of whom were 
from Burma, had a dramatic demonstration depicting the forced 
labor and other abuses resulting from Unocal's pipeline project 
during Unocal's 1996 shareholder meeting in Brea, California.

Inside the meeting outraged shareholders confronted Unocal 
CEO Roger Beach about documented human rights abuses 
committed by BurmaUs military due to the pipeline project. RMy 
family is from the pipeline area and your military security is 
talking people away for labor, murders, and rapes, said refugee 
Mr. Pon Nya. Adelle Lutz, challenged Unocal on their complicity 
with the regime. REither youUre in cahoots or you are not, you 
can not have it both ways.S, said Lutz.

In recent days, Burma, ruled by a brutal regime, the State Law 
and Order Restoration Council (SLORC), has captured headlines 
around the world with its crackdown on the pro-democracy 
movement led by Nobel Laureate, Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi. Ms. 
Suu Kyi has asked that foreign companies, including Unocal, not 
invest in Burma.

Unocal and TotalUs (of France) natural gas project is the largest 
and most controversial investment in Burma. The companies 
are building a pipeline from Burma's coast to Thailand which 
will cross through intact tropical rainforest. 

A new report by the Southeast Asian Information Network and 
EarthRights International (ERI) released on May 30, 1996 in 
Rangoon contains eyewitness testimony of villagers living in 
the pipeline area. They tell of abuses such as forced labor and 
relocations, arbitrary killings, rape and torture committed by 
SLORC troops. R...ERI interviewed a porter who was arrested by 
LIB 273 and brought to work on the pipeline route, clearing trees 
and leveling the ground. He is one of seventy people who were 
seized from their villages and forced to do this work which was 
ordered by Total, and carried out by SLORCS, said the report.
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