Photo by Ken LeeFree Burma Movement to ChevronTexaco: Get Out of Burma!
ChevonTexaco has purchased UNOCAL and, along with the purchase, may have gotten more than they bargained for, with the company's 28% state in the Yadana pipeline project in Burma (Myanmar). ChevronTexaco shareholders and customers, as well as the public deserve to know the ugly truth behind the Yadana project. Construction and security for the pipeline have been clearly and repeatedly linked to widespread incidents of forced labor, massive forced relocation of villages, murder and rape.
What is clear is that, by continuing to operate the Yadana project, ChevronTexaco is now in the unenviable position of helping to prop up one of the world's most notorious regime's, the Orwellian-named "State Peace and Development Council" of Burma. The regime has one of the world's longest records of human rights atrocities, including the murder of more than 10,000 peaceful pro-democracy demonstrators upon coming to power in 1988. By choosing to continue to operate the Yadana project, and therefore to facilitate the flow of valuable hard currency into the pockets of the regime, ChevronTexaco has chosen to ally themselves with thugs and murderers.
This choice is not only morally baseless, it is bad business. In the last 15 years, dozens of corporations have withdrawn from Burma in response to public pressure and, in many cases, after finding it difficult to do business there because of rampant corruption and governmental incompetence. Indeed, Nobel Peace Prize Winner Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma's democratically-elected leader (imprissoned by the regime since her election in 1990) has repeatedly called for foreign companies to halt all investment in Burma until democracy is achieved. ChevronTexaco shareholders and consumers should heed this call and urge the company to withdraw from Burma immediately.
Call ChevronTexaco at (925)842-1000 and tell them to withdraw from Burma immediately.
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WELCOME to the Burma Forum Los Angeles, your source for the latest information on current economic and political conditions in Burma (Myanmar), as well as American local government and corporate involvement.
The Burmese government is considered by numerous world and religious leaders to be one of the planet's most repressive regimes. The people of Burma are subject to brutal human rights violations, including murder, torture, rape, political imprisonment and forced labor. The environment in Burma is suffering as well, with vast amounts of rainforest being cut down for wood, natural gas and minerals being exploited, and the habitats of endangered species being destroyed. The Burmese military government is also widely reported to be involved in the international drug trade, responsible for 60% of the heroin that comes into the United States, according to one US Department of State report.
Our sources include the U.S. government, the United Nations, independent human rights groups, and democracy supporters inside Burma, including the elected leader of the National League of Democracy and Nobel Peace Prize winner, Aung San Suu Kyi. We bring you highlights and essential details about Burma that the military rulers of Burma don't want you to know.
It is not possible to do business in [Burma] without directly supporting the military government and its pervasive violations of human rights.
-Levi-Strauss & Co. Statement upon withdrawing from Burma
Burma is the South Africa of the '90's
-Archbishop Desmond Tutu
We have argued for commerce and investment where it strengthens civil societies vis-?-vis dictators. But these deals, by putting money directly into SLORC's pocket, only make a richer size out of political power. The prospect of vast petrodollars gives the generals yet another reason to cling to office no matter how many bodies of their fellow citizens pile up.
-Wall Street Journal
February 10, 1995
Damien Rice and Lisa Hannigan released a new single - ‘Unplayed Piano’. The song was written for Suu Kyi following a visit by Damien Rice to Burma in July 2004.
