Amoco pulls out

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              SOUTH EAST ASIAN INFORMATION NETWORK
                      CHIANGMAI - THAILAND
 
    PRESS RELEASE  PRESS RELEASE  PRESS RELEASE  PRESS RELEASE  
 
                      ATTN: CHIEF OF STAFF
                           NO EMBARGO
 
MARCH 4TH 1994
 
 
           AMOCO CORPORATION STOPS PRODUCTION CONTRACT
 
                 ANNOUNCES DEPARTURE FROM BURMA
 
 
 
A statement was released today  by the US oil giant Amoco
corporation that its subsidery company Amoco Myanmar Petroleum
company will be stopping its exploration and production contract
in Burma, and leaving the country by the middle of the year.
 
Citing financial reasons for the pull out Amoco has been unable
to fulfill its expectations in their onshore concession areas
which were initiated in 1990 as a joint venture with the Burmese
military regime the State Law and Order Restoration Council
(SLORC). 
 
"The fact that Amoco decided to invest in Burma in partnership 
with a military regime desperate for cash to procure weapons to
repress an internationally recognized pro-democratic movement,
and to continue military offensives against ethnic nationalities
in Burma, resulted in enormous critisism of the company," said
Faith Doherty of the South East Asian Information Network.
 
"There has been a concerted effort by groups in the United States
and Thailand to apply pressure on the many multinational oil
companies investing in Burma to divest. Burmese and ethnic
opposition groups targeted by the military regime have worked
tirelessley overseas in giving companies information about how
their investments are economically unsound, morally questionable,
and helping to finance a regime described by a 1993 United States
Senate Committee on Foreign Relations resolution as committing
'brutal government repression'" said Doherty.
 
As part of an international coalition focussed on corporate
withdrawl from Burma, a shareholder resolution to Amoco, Texaco,
Unocal and Pepsico was filed in October, 1993, with the
Securities and Exchange Commission in the United States to ". . .
terminate forwith all financial and business ties to SLORC and
all agencies of the military government of Burma." 
 
Franklin Research and Development Corp, a socially responsible
investment firm based in the US has helped form the Coalition for
Corporate Withdrawl that includes environmental, human rights and
social justice groups based in the US and South East Asia.
 
This group was formed in August 1993 after 10 Nobel Laureates
tried to visit Burma and were refused entry. The Laureate mission
came to Thailand instead and visited refugees that had fled from
the military regime in the border area of Thailand and Burma.
Bishop Desmond Tutu one of the delegation encouraged groups to
lobby hard for economic sanctions for the same reasons that
sanctions had already been imposed on South Africa. A repressive
regime is denying a legitimate opposition a rightful place in
Burma.
 
Based on a withdrawl statement from the US company Levi Strauss
and Co in 1992 stating "under current circumstances, it is not
possible to do business in Burma wihtout directly supporting the
military government and its pervasive violation of human rights"
activists and opposition members to the SLORC took their fight
into the corporate boardrooms and economic institutions that
oversee stock and shareholder responsibilities.
 
"Although Amoco has stated its withdrawl from Burma we will
continue to monitor its movements to ensure it does not move to
invest in offshore concessions that are proving lucrative for
other oil companies. We will also continue with our campaign to
apply pressure and ask for accountability from the other US based
oil companies Unocal Corp and Texaco" said Doherty.
 
FOR MORE INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:
 
THAILAND:
FAITH DOHERTY:       053 217298
SOUTH EAST ASIAN INFORMATION NETWORK (SAIN)
 
USA
SIMON BILLENESS      1.617 423 6655
COALITION FOR CORPORATE WITHDRAWL FROM BURMA
 
USA
MICHELLE BOHANNA     1.202 737 4101
INSTITUTE FOR ASIAN DEMOCRACY