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FBC Statement on Interpol, Burma Dr



An internet alternative to the current Interpol heroin conference in
Rangoon is presently taking place at:
http://www.ifrance.com/_forum/?forumName=mhaubert

The internet forum is being organized by European narcotics experts.
Please join.

Feb. 24, 1999

FBC Statement on Burma Drug/Business Ties

Members of the Free Burma Coalition have long been concerned by rising
narcotics production in Burma under the current military junta.
Institutionalized drug-money laundering is rampant in the Burmese economy,
even involving "joint ventures with foreign firms," according to US
Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.

Whether on the streets of Washington, DC or Vancouver, BC, Burmese heroin
in increasing quantities has meant lower prices and higher purity,
contributing to a rise in teen heroin use.

While Burmese production under the SLORC/SPDC junta is measured in tons,
the unconfirmed seizure figures constantly trumpeted by junta public
relations are measured in kilos, grams, and even fractions of grams.  The
fact is that the junta, which controls and dominates all aspects of
Burmese economic, social, and political life, seizes only one or two
percent of the nation's production of heroin.  The failure of media
reports to mention this fact is lamentable.

North American Actions on Burma Drug/Business Ties:

As a grass-roots organization, the Free Burma Coalition has responded to
several cases of business ties to those identified by governments and
researchers as "narco-traffickers."

In November 1996, the FBC announced an international boycott of Wente
Vineyards of California, because of that company's announced relationship
in Burma with Asia World Company, chaired by Lo Hsing Han, and run by his
son Steven Law.  Lo is called a "narco-trafficker" by the US Government,
and Law has been barred from entering the US because of suspected
narcotics ties.

Within days, the company released a statement saying, ÒWente Vineyards
shares the concern of US government officials and human rights
organizations regarding allegations of human rights abuses by the
government of Myanmar (formerly Burma) and heroin exports from that
country to the US.  Due to its concern, Wente decided... to suspend any
further promotional activity in or shipments to Burma.Ó  The boycott was
called off.

In March 1997, the FBC called for Northwest Airlines, based in
Minneapolis, to drop a promotion offering Northwest frequent flyers extra
"bonus miles" if they stayed in the Traders Hotel in Rangoon.  The Traders
is co-owned by the Shangri-La Group of Singapore, and Lo Hsing Han's Asia
World Co.

By April, Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts, which manages the Traders Hotel,
reported ÒOur office received notification the Traders Hotel, Yangon
(Rangoon) has been withdrawn from Northwest Worldperks Frequent Flyer
Program on April 14, 1997.Ó  Clearly there is a pattern of responsible
businesses choosing to distance themselves from the Burmese narcotics and
drug-money laundering industries.

In that light, the FBC would very much like to see a deeper investigation
of the allegations, widely made in the French media, of drug-money
laundering by the Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise, an arm of the junta
currently in partnership with oil companies Total and Unocal.

The Singapore Connection:

Further, the present moment is an opportune time to investigate charges
made by the US itself, that ties between Singaporean investors and Burmese
narco-traffickers are extensive.  Three Singapore Government Ministers are
currently visiting Rangoon, at the same time as the widely boycotted
Interpol heroin conference.

US Assistant Secretary of State for International Narcotics Affairs Robert
Gelbard, with US Secretary of State Madeline Albright standing beside him,
said on Feb. 28, 1997 at the On-the -record briefing on the International
Narcotics Control Strategy Report:

"Since 1988, some 15 percent of foreign investment in Burma AND OVER HALF
OF THAT FROM SINGAPORE HAS BEEN TIED TO THE FAMILY OF NARCO-TRAFFICKER LO
HSING HAN." (emphasis added).

Singapore's Government Investment Corporation (GIC) once invested millions
of dollars in Lo's Asia World Co., through a Hong Kong based "Myanmar
Fund."  After these ties were exhaustively investigated in The Nation
magazine (Singapore's Blood Money, Oct. 20, 1997), and after Voice of
America radio reported that FBC protesters had followed Singapore Prime
Minister Goh during his 1997 visit to the US, demanding accountability,
the Singapore Government announced that the Myanmar Fund, and thus the GIC
investment in Lo's Asia World, were liquidated.

Nonetheless, Singapore ties to Lo remain in hotel investments, and in a
controversial container port project.

Have Singapore's co-investments assisted Lo and others in laundering
narcotics money?  Are Singapore's co-investments with Lo consistent with
Singapore's tough-on-drugs reputation?  Are Singapore's co-investments
with Lo part of Singapore government policy, and do they constitute the
actions of a responsible member of the regional and global community?  

Media Reports:

The Free Burma Coalition urges all who are called upon to report on
Burma's drug and drug-money laundering industries to do some research.
Read, for instance, "Singapore's Blood Money" and "People of the Opiate"
(Decmeber 15, 1996) from The Nation magazine.

Read "The Burma-Singapore Axis: Globalizing the Heroin Trade" from the
current issue (#38) of Kyoto Journal.

Read "Burma:  The Country That Won't Kick the Habit" from Jane's
Intelligence Review, March 1998.  

Read "Safe at Home: Drug Lords Are Keeping Their Cash in the Country" in
Far Eastern Economic Review, August 14, 1997.

Both Jane's and Far Eastern Economic Review have run numerous other
articles detailing the Burmese junta's drug ties.

Conclusion:

Those who look deeply into the issue of narcotics production and
drug-money laundering under the current military junta find a very
troubling picture.  Clearly, the junta has created an environment where
narcotics trafficking and drug-money laundering are accepted, in the
interests of political survival for the junta.

Inevitably, foreign investors, whether from Singapore, France or the US,
have become entangled in an illegal industry.  These links must be
relentlessly investigated and exposed.

The junta has a pattern of cooperation in a few, micro-level
counternarcotics projects, while on a macro-level it encourages the drug
trade.  Those who engage in wishful thinking, believing that a little
cooperation in a few small projects is a sign that the junta is serious
about reigning in an industry that provides half of the income of an
otherwise moribund economy, should take a few moments to look at the big
picture:  The junta has overseen a massive rise in drug production, it has
institutionalized drug-money laundering, turned a blind eye to an
explosion of drug use within Burma, and remains unaccountable and opaque.
A taxpayer-funded Interpol meeting, meant to "share" counternarcotics
information with the overlords of a "narco-state" is the height of folly. 


On Tue, 23 Feb 1999, info-birmanie wrote:

> COMMUNIQUÉ :  conférence mondiale en ligne sur la NARCO-DICTATURE
> BIRMANE
> 
> Mardi 23 février 1999 sur :
> 
> http://www.ifrance.com/_forum/?forumName=mhaubert
> 
> Info-birmanie et la coordination internationale de soutien aux
> démocrates
> birmans ( tel paris 01 40 38 01 80 / mel : info-birmanie@xxxxxxxxxxxx )
> organisent un débat sur internet portant sur la Birmanie et le trafic
> d'héroïne, pour combler les lacunes de la conférence d'INTERPOL à
> Rangoon.
> 
> Paris, Bangkok, Amsterdam, Seattle...23 février :  Une coordination
> internationale d'initiatives citoyennes est parvenue en un mois à
> obtenir
> des Etats de l'Union européenne, des Etats-Unis et du Canada, le boycott
> de
> la conférence mondiale sur l'héroïne co-organisée à Rangoon du 23 au 26
> février par INTERPOL et la junte birmane (premier producteur-exportateur
> 
> mondial d'héroïne).
> 
> Pour informer le public international et mieux illustrer l'imposture
> représentée par la conférence d'INTERPOL, un débat "en ligne"
> est prévu sur internet pour aborder sérieusement la problématique de
> l'héroïne en Birmanie, l'implication de la junte militaire au pouvoir,
> les
> circuits internationaux de blanchiment de l'argent de la drogue birmane,
> 
> avec des révélations exclusives.
> 
> Ce débat commence le 23 février, vers midi heure française, sur le site
> :
> 
> http://www.ifrance.com/_forum/?ForumName=mhaubert.
> Y participeront des universitaires, chercheurs, journalistes,
> spécialistes
> des questions birmanes, responsables politiques asiatiques, européens et
> 
> américains intéréssés par la question .
> 
> En ouverture, une lettre de Raymond Kendall, secrétaire général
> d'Interpol
> tentant de justifier le choix de Rangoon, et un commentaire d'Alain
> Labrousse, directeur de l'OGD (Observatoire geopolitique des Drogues).
> Deux
> cas emblématiques de blanchiment d'argent de la Drogue seront analysés :
> la
> connection singapourienne et les mystères de la MOGE (Myanmar oil & Gas
> enterprise)
> 
> Les membres de la presse et les internautes concernés sont cordialement
> invités pour assurer le succés de cette opération.
> _________________
> 
> info-birmanie and international coordination supporting burmese
> democrats
> tel paris 01 40 38 01 80
> info-birmanie@xxxxxxxxxxxx
> 
> Online debate/conference on Burma and heroin trafficking
> 
> 
> Web debate to feel the gap of the world heroin conference organized in
> Rangoon by Interpol feb 23-26
> 
> 
> Paris, Bangkok, Amsterdam, Seattle etc, feb 23 - An international
> coordination of citizen's initiatives got in one month from EU states,
> USA,
> Canada the boycott of the world heroin conference coorganized in Rangoon
> 
> feb 23 - 26 by INTERPOL and the Burmese junta (first world
> producer/exporter of heroin)
> 
> To better inform international public and to illustrate the deception
> materialized in the Rangoon Interpol conference, an online debate will
> take
> place from feb 23 on the web
> 
> http://www.ifrance.com/_forum/?ForumName=mhaubert
> to expose the burmese heroin problematic, implications of junta,
> international channels of burmese drugmoney-laundering, with exclusive
> news
> releases.
> 
> will take part, academics, researchers, journalists specialized in
> burmese
> affairs, politicians from asia, europe and america.
> 
> At the opening : presentation of a letter of M. Raymond Kendall,
> Interpol
> secgen and a commentary of Dr Alain Labrousse, Geopolitical Drugwatch
> (OGD)
> director. 2 Cases of burmese drugmoneylaundering will be exposed and
> updated: the Singapore Sling and the Moge (Myanmar Oil & Gas enterprise)
> 
> mysteries.
> 
> Press members and concerned websurfers are welcomed to make this
> operation
> a success.
> 
>