Reuters: New Yorck City to Help Bur

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Subject: Reuters: New Yorck City to Help Burma

NEW YORK CITY TO HELP DEMOCRACY IN BURMA
City council to vote on curbing dealings with Burma
                                                 Monday May 5 6:33 PM EDT

NEW YORK, May 5 (Reuter) - The New York City Council plans to approve on 
May 14 a bill that would restrict the city's financial dealings with 
banks and companies doing business in Burma, a city council spokesman 
said.

The city council's bill could affect a number of major companies, 
including American Express Co , Citibank ( Citicorp ), International 
Business Machines Corp , Texaco Inc , Procter & Gamble Co , and some 
Japanese car makers, including Toyota Motor Corp 7203.T , he added.

"These companies would come under the scope of our legislation," said the 
spokesman, Charles Walker.

On May 6, the council's Committee on Governmental Operations plans to to 
hold a hearing on the bill. The measure would go further than a ban 
approved last month by the Clinton Administration, the council said, in 
prepared remarks, as its bill would not only ban the city's future 
dealings with banks and contractors who do business in Burma, but 
prohibit agencies from using vendors who have a business relationship 
with or investments in Burma, during any contracts with the city.

A six-month grace period would give firms time to wind down their affairs 
in Burma, Walker said, adding Citibank, which helps underwrite the city's 
debt, was in the process of doing so. A spokesman for Citibank, Richard 
Howe, noted that the firm did not have an office in that country and said 
the firm needed to review the bill's language.

The council has said it took up the measure against Burma because of 
alleged human rights violations by the nation's State Law and Order 
Restoration Council, which seized power in 1988 after crushing a 
prodemocracy uprising.

Peter Vallone, the City Council Speaker, tied the council's latest 
proposal to other measures the body has taken against countries it wants 
to prod.

"The Council undertook similar actions to encourage the governments of 
South Africa and Northern Ireland to do the right thing," he said, in 
prepared remarks. Adding the council's recent threat to take action 
against Swiss banks helped push Berne to agree to make restitution to 
victims of the Holocaust, he added: "We can and we will use our 
legislative capabilities to help restore democracy in Burma."