Melbourne: Moreland Free Burma Coal

[maye@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Subject: Melbourne: Moreland Free Burma Coalition


Moreland Free Burma Coalition
c/- 1/8 North Street  BRUNSWICK  VIC  3056  Australia
PH - 03 9386 8453 / 03 9383 3226

- BRIEFING NOTES -

· The Moreland Free Burma Coalition was formed to convince the Moreland
City Council to implement a selective purchasing policy to prevent public
funds going to companies that trade and invest with Burma.
· Organisations supporting the Moreland campaign include: the ACTU, APHEDA,
Australia Burma Council, Broadmeadows Progress Association, Brunswick
Progress Association, Brunswick ALP, Brunswick South ALP, Brunswick West
Uniting Church, Burma Support Group, Coburg ALP, Glenroy ALP and Moreland
Community Aid Abroad.
· Individuals who have urged Moreland City Council to adopt the policy
include the former Australian Ambassador to Burma, Gary Woodard, as well as
local State and Federal MPs Doug Walpole and Kelvin Thomson.
· More than 150 concerned residents including many from the local Burmese
communities attended a public forum on the issue of human rights abuses in
Burma co-hosted by the Moreland City Council, Brunswick Progress
Association and Moreland Free Burma Coalition on 29 October 1998.  The
meeting unanimously supported a motion urging the Moreland City Council to
implement a selective purchasing policy with respect to companies trading
with Burma.
· Moreland is already well known for its ethnic diversity and support of
multiculturalism within Australia.  Implementing a selective purchasing
policy would also show that our community is a leader when it comes to
standing up for human rights in our region.
· Burma is run by the State Law and Order Council (SLORC) which came to
power following the 1988 coup which saw an estimated 10,000 people killed
by the military during pro-democracy demonstrations.
· SLORC refused to acknowledge the result of the 1990 multi-party elections
which saw Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy win 82 percent
of the parliamentary seats.
· Amnesty International has described Burma under the SLORC regime as a
"prison without walls."
· According to the United Nations Commission of Human Rights, Burma's
record is characterised by: "Torture, summary and arbitrary executions,
forced labour, abuse of women, politically motivated arrests and detention,

forced displacement, important restrictions on the freedoms of expression
and association and oppression of ethnic and religious minorities..."
· Although Burma is recognised by the United Nations as one of the least
developed countries in the world, 40 percent of its national budget is
spent on the military to fight its own people.
  
· On the advice of a large US public relations firm, the SLORC recently
changed its name to the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC).
· The only way that SLORC can stay in power is with the help of foreign
companies prepared to do business with it.  For example, more than two
thirds of SLORC's foreign underwriting now comes from foreign oil companies.
· Selective purchasing/contracting laws are used to make cities avoid
contracts (for the many goods and services civil administrations need) with
particular types of companies.  The best-known ones have served to
discourage cities from using goods and services of companies doing business
in South Africa (under apartheid).
· A number of American cities have enacted selective purchasing laws to
prevent public funds going to companies that trade with or invest with
Burma, but in Australia to date only the Marrickville City Council in New
South Wales has joined them.
· American cities and states passing selective purchasing laws include:
Madison, WI (August 16, 1995); Santa Monica, California (November 28,
1995): Berkeley, California (Feb. 28, 1996), Ann Arbor, Michigan (April 15,
1996); San Francisco, California (April 22, 1996); Oakland, California
(April 23, 1996); the State of Massachusetts (June 25, 1996); Chapel Hill,
North Carolina (October, 1996; Carrboro, North Carolina (October 8, 1996);
Takoma Park, Maryland (October 28, 1996); Alameda County, California
(December 12, 1996); Boulder, Colorado (December 18, 1996); New York City,
New York, (May 14, 1997); Santa Cruz, California (July 8, 1997).

· International pressure is having some effect, with multi national
companies such as Pepsi, Amoco, Fosters, Heineken, Levi-Strauss, Motorola,
Reebok and Ericsson pulling out of Burma because of adverse publicity.
· However, a list compiled last year by the Australia Burma Council details
a range of Australia travel, mining, exporting and consultancy companies
who continue to trade with Burma.

· The Australian Labor Party's current policy on Burma is to "actively
discourage Australian trade with Burma, discourage Australian companies
from doing business in Burma, ban new Australian investment in Burma and
actively discourage Australian citizens from visiting Burma for business
and tourism."
· According to Australia's Deputy Prime Minister and Trade Minister, the
National Party's Tim Fischer, "Democracy is coming to Burma" and Australia
can now adopt a "flexible" approach to a country that offers "great
economic opportunities".
· In contrast, Bishop Desmond Tutu has said: "International pressure can
change the situation in Burma.  Tough sanctions, not 'constructive
engagement' finally brought about a new South Africa.  This is the language
that must be spoken with tyrants, for it is the only language they

understand."
· The leader of the democracy movement in Burma, Nobel Peace Prize winner,
Aung San Suu Kyi has said that: "I would like [the West] to see us not as a
country rather far away whose sufferings do not matter, but as fellow human
beings in need of human rights and who could do so much for the world, if
we were allowed."

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