Thursday, December 3, 1998
Los Angeles could alleviate repression in Southeast Asia
BURMA: Like apartheid, pressure on companies will bring about
changes
By Elizabeth Griswold
Upon the passage of Los Angeles’ selective contracting ordinance
which targeted South Africa in 1986, former mayor Tom Bradley said,
"The people of Los Angeles have declared that the fruit of
oppression is unfit to eat."
This week, Los Angeles is faced with a similar decision: will
the city continue to contract companies who profit from their
partnership with the brutal military regime in Burma? In 1986, the
city passed a selective contracting ordinance to withdraw any
financial support from the apartheid regime in South Africa – will
it take a similar tact today?
Today, a diverse coalition of religious leaders, labor unions,
drug treatment and prevention organizations, Burmese exiles and
others have come together to ask the city to lead in support of
democracy and human rights. Archbishop Desmond Tutu has called
Burma "the South Africa of the ’90s." Just as Los Angeles
successfully took the lead in the case of South Africa, the city
must now adopt a similar ordinance to stop allowing corporations
who benefit from our tax dollars to prop up a dictatorship that is
waging a brutal war against the people of Burma and which is also
heavily involved in the production and distribution of heroin.
Upon coming to power in 1988, the military government in Burma
massacred thousands of peaceful protesters in the capital city of
Rangoon. Two years later, the Burmese overwhelmingly rejected the
regime, the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) in
democratic elections. The main democratic opposition party, led by
Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, captured 82 percent of
the legislative seats. Seven years after being apprehended, Suu Kyi
remains under virtual house arrest, and many of her supporters have
been arrested, tortured, imprisoned or forced to flee the
country.
SLORC has one of the worst records of human rights violations in
the world and its record of atrocities has been extensively
documented by the U.S. State Department and the United Nations
Commission on Human Rights. In a recent speech in Los Angeles,
Secretary of State Madeleine Albright recently lamented that "the
authorities in Burma are among the most repressive and intrusive on
earth."
Unfortunately, the destructive influence of the SLORC regime
extends far beyond Burma’s borders. In 1996, the U.S. State
Department reported that fully 60 percent of the heroin seized on
the streets of U.S. cities originated in Burma. Robert Gelbard,
assistant Secretary of State, argues that "SLORC has brazenly
exploited drug-trafficking money … Drug traffickers and their
families are among the leading backers of high-profile
infrastructure projects in Burma. They launder their money with
impunity in banks controlled by the military."
Albright agreed, insisting, "It is no accident that Burma is the
world’s leading producer of heroin." As long as the brutal and
unaccountable SLORC regime remains in power, massive quantities of
heroin will continue to flow from Burma into Los Angeles and other
cities around the United States.
Continued foreign investment in Burma has been critical in
allowing the SLORC to maintain its grip on power. The Wall Street
Journal, typically a proponent of "constructive engagement," argues
that the case of Burma is different, where continued foreign
investment only puts "money directly into SLORC’s pocket … (and)
gives the generals yet another reason to cling to office no matter
how many bodies of their fellow citizens pile up."
The democratically elected leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, argues
that, "Until we have a system that guarantees rule of law and basic
democratic institutions, no amount of aid or investment will
benefit our people. Profits from business enterprises will merely
go toward enriching a small, already very privileged elite.
Companies such as UNOCAL … only serve to prolong the agony of my
country, by encouraging the present military regime to persist in
its intransigence."
In the face of these facts, the mandate for the City of Los
Angeles to act could not be more clear. Cities around the United
States have already passed similar laws for Burma.
The New York City Council recently made New York the 13th city
to refuse to do business with corporations who continue to
subsidize the brutal SLORC regime.
After the ordinance passed with a 50-0 vote, Mayor Rudolph
Giuliani signed the law, calling the military’s war against the
people of Burma "a situation beyond what conscience can really
tolerate."
I hope that Mike Feuer, the council member for UCLA and
surrounding areas, and his colleagues will vote to support the
proposed Free Burma law.
Los Angeles has an effective tool to help stop human rights
abuses in the Southeast Asian nation of Burma while, at the same
time, helping to curb the flow of heroin into our communities. It’s
time to use it.
For more information on the ordinance, please contact the Burma
Forum at [email protected].
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