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The BurmaNet News, November 7, 1997
- Subject: The BurmaNet News, November 7, 1997
- From: strider@xxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 07 Nov 1997 03:30:00
------------------------ BurmaNet ------------------------
"Appropriate Information Technologies, Practical Strategies"
----------------------------------------------------------
The BurmaNet News: November 7, 1997
Issue #863
HEADLINES:
==========
DOW JONES NEWS SERVICE: KYAT DROPS 20%
REUTERS: GENERAL SAYS SUU KYI'S PARTY THREATENS
NEW LIGHT OF MYANMAR: MALAYSIAN DELEGATION ARRIVES
ANNOUNCEMENT: TWO US CITIES PASS BURMA RESOLUTIONS
READER'S DIGEST: A NATION IN CHAINS
XINHUA: MYANMAR HOLDS SEMINAR ON ASIAN CURRENCY
BKK POST: BORDER PACTS URGED TO CONTROL MIGRATION
BKK POST: 24 FOREIGN GIRLS RESCUED FROM SWEATSHOP
FBC ANNOUNCEMENT: PEOPLE'S SUMMIT ON APEC IN VANCOUVER
ANNOUNCEMENT: ARCO OUT OF BURMA-DEMONSTRATION, NOV 11
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
DOW JONES NEWS SERVICE: KYAT DROPS 20%
November 5, 1997
Econ Monitor/Burma: Imported Commodities Less Affordable
Imported commodities, such as petrol, are also likely to become less
affordable
as the kyat takes a beating.
On Nov. 1, the blackmarket value of the currency fell to 290 to the U.S.
dollar, from 240.
The latest fall may appear to be in line with recent trends elsewhere in
Southeast Asia but the kyat's value has in fact been crumbling for a decade.
This year, however, it has lost value faster than ever. Throughout, the
official
exchange rate has barely deviated from an unworldly six to the dollar.
Government attempts to modernize and regenerate the economy have been
largely unsuccessful. Manufacturing projects have faltered and foreign
investment in all industries except oil and gas has tailed off.
The potentially lucrative tourist industry at one stage attracted
considerable
investment, primarily from Singapore and other neighbours. But hotels are now
registering occupancy rates as low as 5% - or 10% 'if they are lucky' - as one
Rangoon resident puts it.
Because of the glut of hotels in Burma and the crisis elsewhere in the
region,
many Southeast Asian investors are now pulling out of new projects in the
tourism business.
The highest-profile about-face came in August when Thailand's Krong
Sombat Co. sold its 49% stake in Yangon Airlines (one of Burma's two private
airlines) to the Myanmar Mayflower Group, a Burmese company.
So far, the population at large has accepted its fate with almost stoic
forbearance, which is reflected even in Burma's official statistics. The amount
of money spent on 'charity and ceremonials,' or donations to monasteries and
other religious institutions, almost quadrupled over the period 1986-96.
As a source in Rangoon puts it, more meritorious deeds are being carried out
because people 'have become more interested in the next life than in the
present
one.'
***************************************************
REUTERS: GENERAL SAYS SUU KYI'S PARTY THREATENS
November 6, 1997
RANGOON, Nov 6 (Reuters) - A senior Burmese general said Aung San Suu
Kyi and her National League for Democracy were inciting riots and pushing
the country into an abyss, state-run media reported on Thursday.
``They are pushing the nation toward the abyss as in the case of the
pre-1962 period,'' the official papers quoted Lieutenant-General Khin
Nyunt, Secretary One of the ruling State Law and Order Restoration Council
(SLORC), as saying in a speech on Wednesday.
In 1962 the military overthrew the democratic government of U Nu and seized
power. The military has ruled ever since, with different leaders.
Khin Nyunt said the league's recent efforts to hold party meetings in some
townships outside Rangoon were illegal and made to oppose the government.
``It is shameful for patriots to see the attempts to destabilise the nation
in order
to trap the government in a tight corner, to disrupt the rule of law and incite
riots,'' he said. ``They are doing so with the sole aim of gaining power.''
The league lashed out at the government on Wednesday for restricting party
activities and the movements of Nobel Peace laureate Suu Kyi.
It said Suu Kyi had been prevented from leaving her home on Wednesday. It
also denounced the government for preventing party meetings over the past
two weeks which were meant to organise its youth wing.
Two political gatherings outside Rangoon had been blocked by authorities,
some equipped with clubs and shields, who set up roadblocks and carted off
supporters to prevent the meetings, the party said.
Eight senior officials of Suu Kyi's party were also arrested last week in
connection with the meetings, the party has said.
The SLORC retorted, saying Suu Kyi was rigid and uncompromising and had
caused unnecessary setbacks for Burma in its transition towards democracy.
Khin Nyunt's speech went along the same lines, saying Burma's image was in
danger of being tarnished around the world due to threats started by groups
like the National League for Democracy.
Burma has been widely criticised for human rights abuses and for failing to
hold talks with Suu Kyi.
Her party won a landslide victory in a 1990 election but the SLORC never
recognised the result.
*************************************************
NEW LIGHT OF MYANMAR: MALAYSIAN DELEGATION ARRIVES ON
GOODWILL VISIT
November 6, 1997
YANGON, 5 Nov-A goodwill delegation led by Minister of Defence of
Malaysia Dato Syed Hamid Bin Syed Jaafar Albar arrived here this evening on
a goodwill visit to Myanmar at the invitation of Minister for Defence.
The goodwill delegation was welcomed at Yangon International Airport by
Minister at the Office of the Chairman of the State Law and Order
Restoration Council Lt-Gen Min Thein, Commander-in-Chief (Navy) Vice-
Admiral Tin Aye, Commander-in-Chief (Air) Lt-Gen Tin Ngwe, Commander
of Yangon Command Maj-Gen Khin Maung Than, Principal of National
Defence College Maj-Gen San Aung, Commander of Mingaladon Air Base
BrigGen Ba Htay Chit and military officers, Director-General of Protocol
Department Thura U Aung Htet, Ambassador of Malaysia Dato Abdul Wahab
Bin Harun and Military Attache Col Mauzuki Rusli Bin Ahmad.
On behalf of the Minister for Defence, Minister Lt-Gen Thein Win received
Minister of Defence of Malaysia Dato Syed Hamid Bin Syed Jaafar Albar and
party at Zeya Thiri Beikman in Konmyinttha this evening.
Present were Commander-in-Chief (Navy) Vice-Admiral Tin Aye,
Commander-in-Chief (Air) Lt-Gen Tin Ngwe, AdjutantGeneral Lt-Gen Win
Myint, Quartermaster-General Lt-Gen Tin Hla, Commander of Yangon
Command Maj-Gen Khin Maung Than, Principal of National Defence College
Maj-Gen San Aung, Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs U Nyunt Swe,
Ambassador of Malaysia Dato Abdul Wahab Bin Harun and Military Attache
Col Mauzuki Rusli Bin Ahmad.
Minister Lt-Gen Min Thein hosted dinner in honour of the delegation at Zeya
Thiri Beikman in Konmyinttha and the guests were entertained to the variety
of dances of the Ministry of Culture.
******************************************
ANNOUNCEMENT: TWO MORE US CITIES PASS BURMA SELECTIVE
PURCHASING RESOLUTIONS
November 6, 1997
BROOKLINE (MA) PASSES BURMA RESOLUTION
Another Victory!!
Last night, November 5, in the city of Brookline, (MA), a 250 member town
meeting voted overwhelmingly by show of hands to approve a Burma selective
purchasing resolution, which commits the town to bar purchases from
companies doing business in Burma.
The vote came after open debate on the issue.
Brookline becomes the sixteenth city to pass such a measure. One county,
one state, and several Australian Universities have also enacted similar
measures. --LD
-----------------------------------
WEST HOLLYWOOD BURMA RESOLUTION
The Victories Just Keep Coming! - West Hollywood!
West Hollywood - The West Hollywood Council voted on Monday to join the
list of cities who refuse to do business with the military regime in Burma.
The law was sponsored by City Councilman Paul Koretz. There are now
17 Cities around the nation which have passed laws limiting the ability of
companies investing in Burma to receive city contracts.
Members of the Los Angeles Free Burma Coalition and the Burma Forum, Los
Angeles spoke in favor of the ordinance at its first reading last month.
Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, Councilman Richard Alarcon has introduced a
motion which asks the City's Chief Legislative Analyst to draft a proposed
selective purchasing ordinance which will then be considered by the Los
Angeles City Council.
BURMA SELECTIVE PURCHASING LAWS
Date Enacted/Signed
STATES: 1
Massachusetts 6/25/96
COUNTIES: 1
Alameda (CA) 12/10/96
CITIES: 17
Berkeley (CA) 2/28/95
Madison (WI) 8/15/95
Santa Monica (CA) 11/28/95
Ann Arbor (MI) 4/15/96
San Francisco (CA) 4/22/96
Oakland (CA) 4/23/96
Carrboro (NC) 10/8/96
Takoma Park (MD) 10/28/96
Boulder (CO) 12/17/96
Chapel Hill (NC) 1/13/97
New York (NY) 5/30/97
Santa Cruz (CA) 7/8/97
Quincy (MA) 10/20/97
Palo Alto (CA) 10/20/97
Newton (MA) 11/3/97
West Hollywood (CA) 11/3/97
Brookline (MA) 11/4/97
BURMA LEGISLATION PENDING
STATES: 1
California
North Carolina (bill to relax restrictions on municipal Burma laws)
CITIES: 2
Los Angeles (CA)
Seattle (WA)
===========================
Kevin Rudiger
Burma Forum, Los Angeles
Campaign for Corporate Withdrawal
2118 Wilshire Blvd #383
Santa Monica, CA 90403
(310)399-0703 - Phone and Fax
(310)588-3404-Pager and Voice Mail
bfla@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
*****************************************
READER'S DIGEST: A NATION IN CHAINS
November 1997
By Brian Eads
Millions of Burmese have been forced into slavery by a dictatorship bent on
extending its control and attracting foreign dollars.
PAR Pya had little choice but to comply when the army ordered him to carry
supplies along the rugged mountain trails of southeastern Burma. Sometimes,
the 28-year-old farmer and his impoverished neighbors were forced to dig
ditches and haul gravel for roads.
Then last January his eight-month-old daughter fell ill with a high fever.
"Surely they'll excuse me from work for a few days," he told his wife, Naw
Myint.
That evening ten infantrymen strode into their village. With the baby girl
slung across her breast and her young son and elder daughter clutching her
sarong, Naw Myint watched anxiously as her husband approached the
commander. "If we tell you to work," the soldier shouted, "you will work!"
Without warning the man lifted his rifle and fired. Naw Myint gasped as her
husband fell dead. Grabbing the children, she fled into the forest. **
Such horrors are occurring throughout Burma. From its southern panhandle to
the northern hills, hundreds of thousands of men, women, and children have
been forced from their homes, snatched from street corners, and even pulled off
buses and boats by the Burmese police and army (known a the Tatmadaw).
Most have been dragooned into forced labor by Burma's military dictatorship,
the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC). Many have been
beaten and tortured. Thousands have died.
Now in its ninth year of absolute rule, SLORC is forcing some six percent of
Burma's 45 million people to work without pay, often at gunpoint, sometimes
in chains. They build dams, airports, railways and roads throughout the
country, according to Human Rights Watch/Asia.
TOURIST ATTRACTIONS. By 1988, after decades under military dictator Ne
Win's Burmese Way to Socialism, the country had become one of the world's
ten poorest nations, with an average per capita income of under $250. The
people demanded change, rallying outside the U.S. Embassy in the capital of
Rangoon. Instead, the army gunned down the unarmed demonstrators.
Ultimately nearly 3000 lives were lost. Senior military officers took power
and
formed SLORC.
To legitimize their rule, they called multiparty elections in May 1990.
Burma's
people overwhelmingly rejected the military's hand-picked candidates. SLORC
nullified the results and suspended the constitution. Since then it has
doubled
the size of the army to some 400,000 troops.
"SLORC has relied on forced labor to build the roads, railways and barracks
necessary to extend military control over the country," says Christina Fink, a
field coordinator for the Burma Project, funded by the Soros Foundation.
Forced labor also is at the heart of SLORC's efforts to build the
infrastructure
necessary to attract foreign investment and tourist dollars. Scores of such
projects have been completed or are underway.
In Mandalay, Burma's second-largest city, hundred of prisoners, some in leg
irons, and thousands of ordinary citizens worked for a year to dredge a six-
mile, 11-foot-deep moat around the former Royal Palace. In Sittwe, capital of
Arakan province in the west, forced labor built a new hotel owned by the son of
the tourism minister, Lieutenant General Kyaw Ba. Elsewhere in Arakan,
SLORC ordered villagers to build a road to a beach resort planned for tourists.
To "beautify" Rangoon and other major cities, some 500,000 people have been
forcibly relocated to "satellite" towns. SLORC has even moved the dead.
When I visited Rangoon, earlier this year, the centuries-old Kyandaw Cemetery
was littered with broken headstones and tumbled shrines. Graves will be
replaced by a real-estate development. Investors are reported to include Khun
Sa, an opium warlord who now lives in luxury in Rangoon.
THREATS AND TORTURE. Oh Lee eked out a subsistence living in southeast
Burma's Mon State until he ran into a patrol from the 61st Light Infantry
Battalion. For the next week, the 48-year-old farmer and five of his friends
were forced to carry ammunition and mortars along jungle trails. Oh Lee was
recruited to porter for the military four other times that year. Three
times, he
saw fleeing workers shot and killed.
As the army extends control over what it dubs "black areas" - border states
where ethnic rebels want the autonomy Rangoon promised when Burma gained
independence in 1948 - infantry columns routinely force unpaid civilians to
work like beasts of burden. Sometimes ordinary citizens are waylaid as Oh Lee
and his friends were. Other times, the recruiting is more nefarious. Human
Rights Watch/Asia has collected more than 300 threatening notes sent to
village headmen by local SLORC commanders. "If your people do not report
for work, a bullet will come for you," says a typical message.
Porters aren't paid and are given little, if any, food. Some survivors say
they
were tortured, usually with lighted cigarettes or bayonets. Women and young
girls tell of being raped by soldiers. At night, people are roped together to
prevent escape. In hostile zones, troops send porters ahead to trigger mines,
booby traps or ambushes set by rebels.
The only way to avoid forced labor in the regions where it is rampant is to pay
a monthly "portering tax" of 300 kyat ($1.65) to 5000 kyat ($27.50) per
household. Oh Lee did that in 1996 until his village was ordered to provide
another 30 workers to build a road. Forced to join a work gang, Oh Lee toiled
alongside old men, women and children.
Finally allowed to return home, Oh Lee gathered his wife and six children, and
fled to a refugee camp near the Thai border.
"The choice was pay a tax, work or run away," he told Reader's Digest, lifting
his shirt to show scars carved into his shoulders by the heavy 82-mm. mortars
he had carried. In an effort to weaken independence-minded ethnic minorities,
SLORC is forcibly relocating hundreds of thousands of villagers. Frequently,
the army orders them to construct new outposts for its troops, then build home
for themselves nearby in "strategic hamlets" intended to make the peasants
dependent on the military.
Maung Ohn was threshing his rice crop in Karen State when Tatmadaw troops
last November told him to move within a week. He ignored the order, knowing
that his family would starve if he left his rice paddies. The soldiers
returned.
One fired a warning shot by his head, a second forced a gun barrel into his
mouth. When a third flung him into a pond, he decided not to resist. But
later,
out of sight of the soldiers, he fled into the forest with his wife and
children,
eventually reaching a refugee camp.
A United Nations human rights monitor estimates that last year up to 100,000
civilians were forcibly relocated from more than 600 villages in the center of
Shan State alone. As a result, several hundred thousand Burmese have fled to
Thailand, Bangladesh and India.
"THERE IS NO LAW." Corruption has spread throughout the Burmese
military, as army officers steal land and force farmers to work for free,
pocketing the cash for themselves and their regiments.
Around the hill resort of Maymyo, east of Mandalay, the army has confiscated
30,000 acres since the early 1990s, according to local sources. Today, forced
laborers cultivate green beans for export and mulberry trees to feed
silkworms.
In some areas, SLORC has taken seed provided by the United States for crop
replacement in opium-growing areas, and instead used it on private military
plantations.
Burma is at the center of the opium-rich "Golden Triangle". The production of
opium, the raw material that yields heroin, has more than doubled since
SLORC came to power.
Other money-making military schemes include sugar mills and power plants,
with the electricity going to Thailand and the profits to SLORC. "Every
soldier
above the rank of captain is getting rich," a Christian missionary in Burma
told
me. "They do what they like. There is no law."
OFFICIAL BOASTING. In January 1996, police arrested U Pa Pa Lay, a
popular stand-up comic, for telling a joke: "In the past, thieves were called
thieves. Now they are known as government workers." He was convicted of
spreading false news and sentenced to seven years, ending up in a labor camp
with his legs shackled.
"The camps are the worst," says Faith Doherty of the Southeast Asia
Information Network. "Many sent to camps don't come out alive." Amnesty
International calculates that more than 1300 prisoners have perished in nine of
the country's labor camps.
Conditions are nearly as brutal for those forced to volunteer for work on
railroads.
In testimony recorded on video by human right investigators, 13-year-old
Maung Lu Aye said there were about 100 children his age working on one
stretch of railway between Ye and Tavoy.
The video footage shows them hauling woven bamboo baskets filled with
crushed rocks; others squat on their haunches and form crude clay bricks with
their hands.
One ten-year-old boy crouches in a hole beneath a clay mixer turned by two
yoked buffalo. His job is to catch the clay as it oozes from the machine. He
works urgently; if he falters, the cement-like mixture will bury him.
The Rangoon government insists that such work is "voluntary," and the official
press boasts of volunteers "contributing" their labor: over 300,000 on a
railway
line in Kayah; over 920,000 on another section near Mandalay; 85,000 on a 30-
mile road in Magwe. "It is a way of attaining merit and leads to a sense of
physical and mental well-being," wrote U Aye, Burma's U.N. representative in
Geneva.
Veterans of the railroad disagree. They say their labor is forced. Guards are
often brutal. Food, medical care and shelter are inadequate. Some 500 people
have died on the Ye-Tavoy line since work began four years ago, according to
the Mon Information Service, which gathers testimony inside southern Burma.
JOINT VENTURES. The Ye-Tavoy railroad carries troops to the region where
SLORC's largest foreign investment project, a 30-year joint venture to exploit
Burma's offshore natural gas reserves, is underway. Led by France's Total,
with a major stake held by Unocal, a U.S. oil company, it will be SLORC's
biggest hard-currency earner, providing up to $400 million annually.
The gas pipeline crosses 39 miles of Burma's southern panhandle, passing
through forested terrain inhabited by ethnic minorities hostile to SLORC. To
secure the route, the Tatmadaw boosted its presence from five to 14
battalions.
Completed sections of the railway already supply those troops.
Joseph Daniel, Total's vice president for public affairs in Paris, denies
allegations that Burmese are forced to work without pay on the pipeline
project.
But Burmese refugees say they were forced to clear land along the pipeline
route.
Shareholder protests and consumer boycotts have helped persuade many
Western investors to quit Burma, including Heineken and Pepsi. Levi Strauss
pulled out when it discovered its contractors' factories were substantially
owned
by the military.
The European Commission noted that SLORC has "made forced labor an
everyday and verifiable reality," and announced its decision earlier this
year to
withdraw trade preferences. Last April, Washington banned new investment in
Burma by American companies, citing the regime's anti-democratic record and
the increase in Burma's opium and heroin production.
Total and Unocal say they're staying put. Like the Association of South East
Asian Nations (ASEAN), the oil giants argue that "constructive engagement"
with SLORC is the best policy.
"Meanwhile, the situation of forced labor continues to worsen," Rajsoomer
Lallah, the U.N. human rights monitor for Burma, reported recently. "Torture
and other inhuman treatment are regularly employed against civilians."
In a report for the European Union, Burma is described as "SLORC's private
slave camp."
---------------------------------------
** After soldiers shot Par Pya, his wife Naw Myint sought safety in a refugee
camp in Thailand. When I met her there, the young widow was wondering
how to rebuild her life. SLORC didn't give her a chance. A few days later, on
a January night, troops crossed from Burma to attack the camp and set it
ablaze. When the smoke cleared the next day, Naw Myint and her children
were homeless again.
BRIAN EADS, a staff writer for Reader's Digest, recently spent three weeks in
Burma and in refugee camps along its border.
********************************************
XINHUA ENGLISH NEWSWIRE: MYANMAR HOLDS SEMINAR ON
ASIAN CURRENCY TURBULENCE
November 5, 1997
A Myanmar senior official has stressed at a seminar, sponsored by the Fuji
Bank of Japan, that his country would not neglect the current Asian currency
turbulence.
Speaking at the seminar on current Asian currency issues here Tuesday, Win
Tin, Minister for Finance and Revenue, said, "While Myanmar is endeavoring
for all round economic development in the transitional period, maintaining
sustained economic growth with macro-economic stability, We can not
disregard this currency turbulence in some Asian countries as they result in
negative impact on the region as a whole at least in the short run."
He pointed out that the currency destabilization in some countries of the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) goes beyond the realm of
economic fundamentals and can be attributed to ill-intentioned speculators,
official paper The New Light of Myanmar reported today.
He expressed the hope that Southeast Asian countries will tide over their
currency crisis as they enjoy strong economic fundamentals and success in
maintaining a high degree of savings, high investment rate and liberal
financial
policies.
The current Asian currency turbulence greatly affected the market exchange
rates between Myanmar and foreign currencies.
****************************************
BKK POST: CROSS-BORDER PACTS URGED TO CONTROL
MIGRATION
November 6, 1997
Nussara Sawatsawang
More than 800,000 work illegally here
Thailand should enter into labour agreements with neigbouring countries to
improve its control over migrant workers and protect their rights, t a
migration
expert said yesterday.
Andres Dermershausen, a senior researcher from the German Development
Agency, made the proposal at a seminar on the experience of European
international migration, organised by the Asian Research Centre for Migration
at Chulalongkorn University.
Mr Dermershausen was applauded by another European participant in the
seminar who cited what he called the "tremendous exploitation" of migrant
workers in Thailand. But he cautioned that the effectiveness of Thailand's
agreements with its neighbours would depend on its ability to control its
borders.
Thailand several months ago began discussing such an agreement with
Cambodia in order to control the estimated 20,000 Cambodians working
illegally in this country, but there has been no substantive follow-up.
No approach has been made toward Burma, which poses a far bigger problem:
some 800,000 Burmese work here illegally, and 90,000 asylum-seekers live in
camps along the border.
Nor has the concept been broached with Laos, whose population of illegal
workers in Thailand is estimated to be in the thousands.
Mr Dermershausen said labour agreements between neighbouring countries
protect undocumented migrant workers from arrest, prevent the black-market
hiring of workers and enable the host government to limit the migrant workers'
time in the country.
Germany, which since 1945 has become home to 20 million displaced people
including refugees, asylum workers, migrant workers and resettlers has a
successful labour agreement with Poland, he added.
Jose Pires of the International Organisation for Migration likened Thailand's
problem to that between France and Portugal during the 1970s.
**************************************************
BKK POST: 24 FOREIGN GIRLS RESCUED FROM SWEATSHOP
November 6, 1997
Beaten, deprived of food, and never paid
Fourteen Burmese and 10 Khmer girls aged 14 to 21 were yesterday rescued
from a sewing factory in Bangkok Yai after being forced to work without pay
for three to four months.
Somchai Hiransart, 37, owner of the factory in Soi Watsangkrachai off
Issaraparp Road, was arrested and charged with illegally detaining youths for
manual labour and sheltering illegal immigrants.
A 15-strong children's and youth welfare police unit raided the three storey
shophouse after four Khmer girls escaped from the factory on October 14 and
were handed over to the Children's Rights Protection Foundation.
Pol Lt-Col Surachai Chedpinongruamchai, the officer who led the raid, said the
girls were forced to work from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. every day except Sunday.
They were supposed to get 1,500 - 2,000 baht per month, but were never paid.
Ken Sia, 15, one of the Khmer girls, said she and others entered Thailand via
Khok Sung in Sa Kaew after being recruited by a Thai identified as Mool who
promised them jobs in Bangkok. Each girl paid Mool 3,000 baht.
She said the girls were promised 2,000 baht per month, but were told by
Somchai that 1,000 baht had been paid to the people who brought them to
Thailand, 700 baht sent to their homes, and 300 baht paid for money transfers.
Ken Sia said she and other girls were sometimes beaten, and were given little
food.
**************************************************
FBC ANNOUNCEMENT: PEOPLE'S SUMMIT ON APEC IN VANCOUVER
November 6, 1997
Dear fellow activists:
Here are some of the activities going on in Vancouver for the APEC
conference.
There is a planning committee for Burma related events, and please email
us at apec@xxxxxxxxx
Thanks.
pwint
------------------------------------------------
The 1997 People's Summit on APEC, will bring together environmental,
women's human rights and peace organizations, indigenous peoples, labor
groups and concerned individuals from around the world. The forum will
happen simultaneously with the APEC meetings. The Summit is designed to
address the social dimension of trade liberalization and to pressure the
18 APEC members to create an open, accountable and transparent process
which considers labour rights, human rights, environmental
sustainability and social justice. The goal is to empower people to
participate fully in social, economic and political life and to promote
and defend the rights and freedoms enshrined in the International Bill
of Rights and encourage the development of democratic societies.
EVERYONE INTERESTED IN TRADE LIBERALIZATION AGENDA
PROMOTED BY MEMBERS
OF APEC IN INVITED TO ATTEND.
It will run parallel to the 1997 meeting of APEC's 18 member "economies".
Convened by non-governmental, labour, and people's organizations-- is such
sectors as youth, women, media, education, environment, Indigenous Peoples,
peace, poverty, academia, faith and international development-- the People's
Summit is the place to debate and build opposing and alternative visions.
Please join in your areas of interest. Below is a working timeline.
1 Nov everything straight with NCGUB, speech guidelines
6 Nov Speech deadline for Amnesty International.
7 Nov Alan Clements talk "The Awaking of Conscience"
7.30pm $15.
Held
at the Unitarian Church
949 West 49th Ave
Vancouver BC
info: Gillian Maxwell tel 604 251 1781, fax 253 7534
8 Nov Alan Clements seminar "The Courage to Care" $25
10.00-1.00 1495 West 8th (btw Granville and Hemlock)
Vancouver BC
for info Gillian Maxwell (see above)
9 Nov 12.00 Dana, Nance + CTY to Dr Win's for final
planning meeting with all Burmese and ethnic working
groups. All groups welcome and invited.
WOMEN
16 Nov People's Summit on APEC (fax 604 255 5230)
Women's conference against APEC (tel/fax 604 736-3346)
3-6pm Meeting of facilitators
6-7 early registration
Reception at Simon Fraser- Harbourside
17 Nov Women's conference (tel/fax 604 736 3346)
8-9am Registration
9-10 Welcome - Joan Grant Cummings, NAC & ASSK
Keynote Speech, Jeanette Armstrong
10-11 Opening Plenary: Labour, Human Rights,
Environment, Econ and Social development
11-12 open discussion
12-1 luncheon
1-2.30 Workshops: labour, human rights-governance,
environment, development
2.30-3 break
3-4.30 Workshops continue
4.30 Caucuses
5.45 Adjournment
18 Nov 9 Plenary: summary of Monday workshops and Recommendations
10-10.15 Break
10.15-12 Strategies
12-1.30 Luncheon and demo in downtown Van.
1.30-3 Workshop on strategies and actions
3-3.15 break
3.30-5 Closing plenary
8.00 Film: Burma Diary,
at the Pacific Cinematheque
1131 Howe Street.
Tickets $6.00. Theatre phone 688
8202. Speakers, incl. Alan Clements,
will introduce the film.
19 Nov Open Markets, Open Media? sponsored by Article 19
sylvest@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
LABOUR:
Nov 20-21 Trade Unions & Democratic Development
The Federation of Trade Unions-Burma has been invited to attend this
workshop on behalf of the International Centre for Human Rights' and
Democratic Development and the CANADIAN LABOR CONGRESS. The goal
is to strengthen collaboration between trade unions, non-governmental
organizations (NGO's), and labor support groups as well as design strategies
for
action. The workshop will look at the role of trade unions in fighting for
democracy and at how repression of trade unions is an assault on democracy.
HUMAN RIGHTS/YOUTH
20 Nov Human Rights Forum Youth Forum
9.30-3.00pm Thurs Indigenous Issues Forum
Sustainability Issues Forum
Workers' Rights and Democratic Dev
Canadian Arms Trade to Asia/Pacific
7.00pm films: Home Away from Home; Narmada: a valley rises
9.00pm films: Strawberries: the fruit of injustice; One Day
Longer; A Single Spark
HUMAN RIGHTS
21 Nov: People's Summit on APEC
1-5pm Human Rights Forum
Indigenous Issues Forum
Workers Rights and Democ Dev
Canadian Arms Trade to Asia/Pacific
The People vs Poverty: who will win?
1.10-1.20 Candlelight opening ceremony
1.20-1.40 Welcome address: Pierre San, Sec-Gen, AI
1.40-2.50 Panel 1: Labour Rights
Moderator 1: Svend Robinson, MP Burnaby-Kingsway
Speakers: Korean Labour Address, etc
2.50-3.10 Break
3.10-3.30 Aztlan Grupo Mexicano Folklorico
3.30-4.40 Panel 2: Constructive Engagement
Moderator 2: Svend Robinson, MP Burnaby-Kingsway
Speakers Palden Gyatso, Dr Win Than, etc
4.40-5.00 Closing
7.00 films: Hand of God, Hand of the Devil; Sitting on a Volcano
9.30 films: Cry of the Forgotten Land; Bitter Paradise: the sell-out
of East
Timor
22 Nov Plenary: The People's Plan Beyond 1997
Sat Morn: Create open letter to APEC Leaders
Personal testimony about impacts of APEC
aft: dev plans for action
eve: concert/dance
4.30pm Film: Missing in Tibet
6.00 Films: Global Pillage; The Drilling Fields
7.30 Broken Promises: the High Arctic relocation; Leonard Peltier, and
Australian documentary
9.30 Bombs Away: Airshow Canada, globalization, and the new
international arms trade; Who's Counting? Marilyn Waring on sex, lies &
global economics
23 Nov Reading open letter to APEC leaders
Sun Summary of action and implementation plans
11.30-2 Grand March from Plaza of Nations, with singing,
dancing, street theatre, drumming.
THIS WILL BE REVISED AS MORE INFORMATION IS ADDED AT THE
LAST WORKING/PLANNING MEETING ON NOV.9 AND A FINAL
EDITION WILL BE CREATED.
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ANNOUNCEMENT: nARCO OUT OF BURMA-DEMONSTRATION, NOV
11
November 6, 1997
ARCO OUT OF BURMA!!!
Come Protest ARCO Corporation's Continued Support of Burma's Brutal
Military Regime!!
Tuesday, November 11th
11am
ARCO HEADQUARTERS, 515 S. Flower (Corner of 5th and Flower in
Downtown L.A.)
With Texaco out of Burma, this is a critical time for us to step up
pressure on ARCO to make them follow Texaco's lead. Please bring drums
and other noisemakers.
Hope to see you all there.
Call (310)399-0703 with questions.
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