Corporate support keeps Burma under military control

Rudiger is a graduate student in urban planning and member of
the Environmental Coalition.

By Kevin Rudiger

Nearly 11 years ago, democratic elections were held in the
Southeast Asian nation of Burma. And, the fact that these elections
have never been recognized and the brutal military remains in
control has more to do with the University of California than we
might first imagine.

First, the background. Burma, a country about the size of Texas
with more than 40 million people is currently ruled by a military
regime with one of the worst records of human rights atrocities
anywhere in the world. The regime’s use of murder, torture,
forced labor and forced relocation and rape as tools of political
repression has been widely documented by everyone from the United
Nations and the U.S. State Department to Amnesty International and
Human Rights Watch.

In 1988, the hard-line military regime, the State Law and Order
Restoration Council, came to power. In the crackdown that followed,
the regime murdered more than 6,000 peaceful pro-democracy
demonstrators and forced thousands more to flee.

Two years later, in response to increasing international
pressure, the regime agreed to hold elections, thinking it had such
an iron-fisted grip over the nation that they would win. They were
wrong. The National League for Democracy, led by Aung San Suu Kyi
(who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991), won fully 82 percent of
the legislative seats.

As mentioned above, however, these elections have never been
recognized. Aung San Suu Kyi remains under house arrest. National
League for Democracy members have been terrorized, killed, forced
to resign and to flee their homeland.

Illustration by CASEY CROWE/Daily Bruin Meanwhile, the military
has wreaked havoc in the rural areas of Burma, ostensibly because
of their efforts to fight opposition groups, organized among
Burma’s many different ethnic groups resisting the
regime.

But, how can a regime so clearly opposed by the majority of the
people remain in power? The answer is simple: corporate support.
The military in Burma is extremely well-armed and well-financed, in
large part due to the continued investment in Burma of a handful of
corporations. The democracy movement in Burma has repeatedly called
on corporations to withdraw from the country until democracy is
achieved. Aung San Suu Kyi has emphasized, “Until we have a
system that guarantees rules of law and basic democratic
institutions, no amount of aid or investment will benefit our
people.”

Responding to this call from the democracy movement, and
building on lessons from the international movement to help end
apartheid in South Africa, the international Free Burma movement
has focused grassroots campaigns on pressuring corporations to
respect the will of the democratic leadership of Burma and withdraw
from the country. The results have been impressive.

Dozens of corporations, including ARCO, Apple Computer, Best
Western Hotels, Ericsson and Disney have withdrawn in response to
consumer pressure. Upon withdrawing from Burma in the early 1990s,
Levi-Strauss & Co. issued a statement insisting that “It
is not possible to do business in (Burma) without directly
supporting the military government and its pervasive violations of
human rights” (www.burmaforumla.org).

Also learning from the experiences of the international South
Africa solidarity movement, many institutions have already taken
stands to protest continued investment by a handful of companies in
Burma.

More than 25 cities, including Los Angeles, passed laws to
refuse to contract with companies investing in Burma. Now, the Free
Burma movement is turning to the strategy of
“divestment” ““ the strategic selling of stock in
companies to protest their practices. The City Councils of Los
Angeles, San Francisco, and Minneapolis have all voted recently to
support the selling of stock in Burma-related companies.

Here at the University of California, we also have a unique
opportunity to support human rights and democracy in Burma by using
a strategy of divestment. The UC Regents currently have more than
$50 million invested in two companies that invest in Burma ““
Halliburton and Procter and Gamble (www.ucop.edu).

Halliburton specifically is directly linked to some of the worst
human rights atrocities in Burma. The company supplied materials
for the notorious Yadana gas pipeline project ““ a project
which displaced thousands of people, cut through one of the largest
intact pieces of rainforest in Southeast Asia, and which was widely
documented to have been built in large part with the use of forced
labor (www.earthrights.org).

Now, a coalition of UC students, staff and faculty, as well as
community-based organizations is calling on the UC Regents to sell
all stock in companies that invest in Burma until democracy is
achieved. The Regents have an opportunity to take a strong position
of moral leadership by taking action on this critical issue.

To get involved in the effort to encourage the Regents to do so,
contact the Environmental Coalition at [email protected] or stop by our office at
320 Kerckhoff Hall.