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Mizzima:Great Hearts and Minds supp
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Great Hearts and Minds support investment pull-out from un-free Burma
By Mizzima News (www.mizzima.com)
Oct. 5: Addressing a letter to the university?s Board of Visitors and
giving support to two resolutions passed by the University of Virginia
Student Council, six Nobel Peace Prize Laureates entreated the
university administration to divest its 50.000 shares of stock in
Unocal, a California-based oil company whose operations in Burma make it
implicitly complicit in the junta?s perpetration of human rights
violations.
Betty Williams (Ireland 1976), Oscar Arias (Costa Rica 1986), His
Holiness, The Dalai Llama (Tibet 1989), Rigoberta Menchu Tum (Guatemala
1992), Jose Ramos Horta (East Timor 1996), and Jody Williams (USA
1997-International Campaign to Ban Landmines) ? the letter?s signatories
? had previously (in 1998) attended a conference at UVA on ?Bringing
Together Great Hearts and Minds? to which fellow Laureate Daw Aung San
Suu Kyi was invited but prevented from attending due to house arrest by
the junta. The laureates? letter echoed Burmese democracy leader Daw
Aung San Suu Kyi?s call for companies to quit supporting the military
junta by investing in Burma, that quoted Suu Kyi arguing, ?until we have
a system that guarantees the rule of law and basic democratic
institutions, no amount of aid or foreign investment will benefit our
people?.
Having been prompted by the Virginia chapter of the Free Burma
Coalition, the letter lamented ?while Unocal turns its back on the
conditions surrounding its pipeline, its partners, the illegal military
junta, are torturing, killing, raping, and enslaving thousands of
people?. The coalition chapter?s president, Andrews Prize, appealed to
the university?s past history of standing up for freedom movements,
stating that ?the University did not tolerate financial support of South
African Apartheid in the 1980s and it should not tolerate slavery in
Burma today?.
According to the Free Burma Coalition, Unocal?s Burmese project of
constructing a pipeline across southern Burma's Tenasserim division ?is
currently linked to forced village relocation, the forced labor of tens
of thousands of local inhabitants, and fatalities at the hands of the
SLORC troops. This entire region is a war zone due to the ethnic
peoples' need to defend themselves against SLORC attacks, making the
region highly unstable?. The Coalition furthermore documents incidences
of pillage, torture, rape, infiltration by military battalions, violence
and environmental ruin related to the company?s project in Burma
[http://www.irn.org/burma/unocal.html].
On its corporate web page
[http://www.unocal.com/responsibility/princip.htm], Unocal ? which calls
itself a ?good corporate citizen? ? professes allegiance to the
following ?principles for doing business? which are the ?basis? for the
company?s ?relationships in diverse countries and cultures?:
· ?we will respect human rights in all our activities? (under ?Ethics
and Values?)
· ?we will obey the law and operate in accordance with the highest
ethical standards; we will expect the same from our partners,
contractors and suppliers? (as above)
· ?we will encourage advancements in civil society wherever we conduct
business? (under ?Community Initiatives?)
· ?we will be sensitive to the culture, context and needs of local
communities and strive
to make the community a better place to live and conduct business? (as
above)
The connection between UVA and action against UNOCAL has a past: a
precedent was set by the case of 12 Burmese villagers suing Unocal for
its role in incidences of sexual abuse and murder of a child perpetrated
by Burmese soldiers guarding and building infrastructure for a Unocal
pipeline. The villagers were represented by Earth Rights International,
a Washington DC-based human rights NGO led by UVA law school graduates
Katie Redford and Tyler Gianini.
If the UVA?s Board does indeed decide to meet the students? and
laureates? call ? whether it will is to be decided between 19 and 21
October ? it would join the company of Harvard University, American
University, University of California, University of Minnesota,
University of Wisconsin, Bucknell University, and the London School of
Economics, academic institutions in which students changed the
administration?s mind about investment in Burma.
[All information related to the laureates? letter is taken from a press
release of 3 October 2001 by the Free Burma Coalition (FBC) - the FBC
works with student activists at over 100 colleges, universities and high
schools in the U.S. and Canada, as well as concerned citizens in as many
as 26 other countries]
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<p><b><font color="#B000B0"><font size=+2>Great Hearts and Minds support
investment pull-out from un-free Burma</font></font></b></center>
<p><b><font color="#007D7D"><font size=+1>By Mizzima News <a href="www.mizzima.com">(www.mizzima.com)</a></font></font></b>
<p><font size=+1><b><font color="#007D7D">Oct. 5: </font></b>Addressing
a letter to the university?s Board of Visitors and giving support to two
resolutions passed by the University of Virginia Student Council, six Nobel
Peace Prize Laureates entreated the university administration to divest
its 50.000 shares of stock in Unocal, a California-based oil company whose
operations in Burma make it implicitly complicit in the junta?s perpetration
of human rights violations.</font>
<p><font size=+1>Betty Williams (Ireland 1976), Oscar Arias (Costa Rica
1986), His Holiness, The Dalai Llama (Tibet 1989), Rigoberta Menchu Tum
(Guatemala 1992), Jose Ramos Horta (East Timor 1996), and Jody Williams
(USA 1997-International Campaign to Ban Landmines) ? the letter?s signatories
? had previously (in 1998) attended a conference at UVA on ?Bringing Together
Great Hearts and Minds? to which fellow Laureate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was
invited but prevented from attending due to house arrest by the junta.
The laureates? letter echoed Burmese democracy leader Daw Aung San Suu
Kyi?s call for companies to quit supporting the military junta by investing
in Burma, that quoted Suu Kyi arguing, ?until we have a system that guarantees
the rule of law and basic democratic institutions, no amount of aid or
foreign investment will benefit our people?.</font>
<p><font size=+1>Having been prompted by the Virginia chapter of the Free
Burma Coalition, the letter lamented ?while Unocal turns its back on the
conditions surrounding its pipeline, its partners, the illegal military
junta, are torturing, killing, raping, and enslaving thousands of people?.
The coalition chapter?s president, Andrews Prize, appealed to the university?s
past history of standing up for freedom movements, stating that ?the University
did not tolerate financial support of South African Apartheid in the 1980s
and it should not tolerate slavery in Burma today?.</font>
<p><font size=+1>According to the Free Burma Coalition, Unocal?s Burmese
project of constructing a pipeline across southern Burma's Tenasserim division
?is currently linked to forced village relocation, the forced labor of
tens of thousands of local inhabitants, and fatalities at the hands of
the SLORC troops. This entire region is a war zone due to the ethnic peoples'
need to defend themselves against SLORC attacks, making the region highly
unstable?. The Coalition furthermore documents incidences of pillage,
torture, rape, infiltration by military battalions, violence and environmental
ruin related to the company?s project in Burma [<a href="http://www.irn.org/burma/unocal.html";>http://www.irn.org/burma/unocal.html</a>].</font>
<p><font size=+1>On its corporate web page [<a href="http://www.unocal.com/responsibility/princip.htm";>http://www.unocal.com/responsibility/princip.htm</a>],
Unocal ? which calls itself a ?good corporate citizen? ? professes allegiance
to the following ?principles for doing business? which are the ?basis?
for the company?s ?relationships in diverse countries and cultures?:</font>
<br><font size=+1>· ?we will respect human rights in all our activities?
(under ?Ethics and Values?)</font>
<br><font size=+1>· ?we will obey the law and operate in accordance
with the highest ethical standards; we will expect the same from our partners,
contractors and suppliers? (as above)</font>
<br><font size=+1>· ?we will encourage advancements in civil society
wherever we conduct business? (under ?Community Initiatives?)</font>
<br><font size=+1>· ?we will be sensitive to the culture, context
and needs of local communities and strive</font>
<br><font size=+1>to make the community a better place to live and conduct
business? (as above)</font>
<p><font size=+1>The connection between UVA and action against UNOCAL has
a past: a precedent was set by the case of 12 Burmese villagers suing
Unocal for its role in incidences of sexual abuse and murder of a child
perpetrated by Burmese soldiers guarding and building infrastructure for
a Unocal pipeline. The villagers were represented by Earth Rights
International, a Washington DC-based human rights NGO led by UVA law school
graduates Katie Redford and Tyler Gianini.</font>
<p><font size=+1>If the UVA?s Board does indeed decide to meet the students?
and laureates? call ? whether it will is to be decided between 19 and 21
October ? it would join the company of Harvard University, American University,
University of California, University of Minnesota, University of Wisconsin,
Bucknell University, and the London School of Economics, academic institutions
in which students changed the administration?s mind about investment in
Burma.</font>
<p><font size=+1>[All information related to the laureates? letter is taken
from a press release of 3 October 2001 by the Free Burma Coalition (FBC)
- the FBC works with student activists at over 100 colleges, universities
and high schools in the U.S. and Canada, as well as concerned citizens
in as many as 26 other countries]</font>
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