Thursday, October 10, 1996
PROTEST:
World hunger strikers protest Burma’s oppressive governmentBy
Scott P. Stimson
Daily Bruin Contributor
Wednesday ended a 48-hour fast by three UCLA students drawing
attention to what they see as corporate sponsorship of an
oppressive government in Myanmar.
The student fast was held in conjunction with hunger strikes
around the world against corporate investment by U.S. companies in
Myanmar. The students’ aim is to pressure corporations, such as
PepsiCo and Unocal, to divest themselves from Myanmar and prevent
their money from supporting Myanmar’s military government.
"Our goal is to bring attention to this issue and to urge our
government to enforce sanctions and improve the lives of the people
of Burma," said Yuki Kidokoro, second-year graduate student in
urban planning and director of the UCLA Environmental
Coalition.
According to Kidokoro, the State Law and Order Restoration
Council (SLORC) held Nobel Peace Prize recipient and elected
President Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest after a 1991 free
democratic election in which Suu Kyi and her Democratic Opposition
party won 82 percent of the vote.
Amnesty International has recorded human rights abuses in
Myanmar involving the forced labor of the population on building
public projects, including the Ye-Dawei railway in southeastern
Myanmar.
"The army has forced hundreds of thousands of Burmese and
members of ethnic minorities to work as unpaid laborers on these
construction projects … Laborers have often been subjected to
ill-treatment, including being held in chains and receiving
inadequate food and medical care," Amnesty International officials
said in a release on the situation.
While some U.S. corporations have pulled out of Myanmar because
of the country’s poor human rights record, others, such as PepsiCo
and Unocal, continue to stay and conduct business in the country to
the detriment of the populace, Kidokoro said.
"People are being conscripted into forced labor to work on
tourism projects and the Unocal pipeline," she added.
But a Unocal spokesman explained that U.S. corporations should
not be held responsible for the political reality of the countries
they do business in.
"U.S. corporations should not and cannot be held responsible for
reforming and transforming foreign governments," said Unocal
spokesman David Garcia. "The political objective is not our
responsibility."
In response to accusations that U.S. corporations such as Unocal
are indirectly funding the Myanmar government and subsequently
providing the resources to commit human rights violations, Unocal
said that the money it pays the Myanmar government to conduct
business in the country is inconsequential.
"Since 1995, $6.5 million in ‘contract bonuses’ have been paid"
to the SLORC, Garcia said.
"This is hardly enough to run a national government."
Even while Unocal defends its presence in Myanmar, other U.S.
corporations such as Amoco, Levi Strauss and Eddie Bauer have
pulled out in response to the pressure against U.S. corporate
presence brought to bear by a combination of student organizations
and the exiled Burmese government.
Levi Strauss Co. changed its investment and manufacturing
policies in 1992 after an employee-led movement convinced the
management to create new guidelines.
"Burma has a political environment that we believe fosters human
rights violations, and for that reason we do not now nor do we
intend to enter the Burma market either for manufacturing or for
the sale of our products," said Shaun Fitzgerald, spokesman for
Levi Strauss.
Unocal officials hesitated to criticize other corporations that
had pulled out of Myanmar, but highlighted the difference between
Levi Strauss  a textile company  and energy companies
like Unocal.
"You can move a textile factory somewhere else, but if you’re an
energy company, you have to go where the energy is," Garcia
said.
It is precisely the goal of fasting protesters both at UCLA and
abroad that the U.S. government will force the remaining
corporations to withdraw their investments in Myanmar in hopes that
the SLORC will recognize Suu Kyi and the popularly elected
government in exile.
"We are urging President Clinton to call for sanctions of Burma
under the condition of large-scale repression," Kidokoro said.
Meanwhile, Unocal contends that if it is not U.S. corporations
that invest in Burma, it will be Chinese, Japanese or Australian
corporations that do.
"Unilateral sanctions against nations are ineffective and they
will achieve nothing," Garcia said.
But according to Kidokoro, investment and political involvement
are not mutually exclusive. "They (Unocal and other U.S.
corporations) claim to be non-political entities, but by investing
in Burma they are taking an active political stance by supporting
them (SLORC) financially," she said.
JUSTIN WARREN/Daily Bruin
Yuki Kidokoro, a second-year master’s student in urban policy,
stands in front of a placard which she wore around her neck during
recent protests in favor of human rights in Burma.