BurmaNet News: November 5, 1995

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------------------------ BurmaNet ------------------------
"Appropriate Information Technologies, Practical Strategies"
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The BurmaNet News: November 5, 1995
Issue #271

Noted in Passing:


HEADLINES:
==========
BURMANET: RE: DR. SEGAL AND SLORC'S MYANMAR
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR: POLITICAL ACTIVISM ON CAMPUS 
BKK POST: BURMESE FOREIGN MINISTER VISITS JAPAN TOMORROW
BKK POST: SAMART LOOKS FOR TELECOM BUSINESS IN BURMA

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[Feel free to suggest more areas of coverage]

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BURMANET: RE: DR. SEGAL AND SLORC'S MYANMAR
November 2 1995		by Strider

Ko Tun,

You waste your time in spending so much time rebutting Dr. Segal's 
posting on soc.culture.burma  Assuming Mr. Segal exists, it is a fair 
bet that he didn't write it.  His wife, Miriam Marshall Segal has been 
responsible for much other pro-SLORC propaganda and she is the likely 
auther of this piece as well.  

 Ms. Segal is an example of the axiom that there is no honor among 
thieves.  One of her recent business ventures was as the head of the
Peregrine Fund's investment arm in Myanmar; Peregrine Myanmar.  
Peregrine if I remember correctly is a Hong Kong based investment firm 
that is long on money and short on scruples.  Peregrine got into a sort 
of joint venture arrangement with Segal--they put up most of the money, 
she put up her contacts with the SLORC and together they set out to 
invest in Burma.  Unfortunately for Peregrine, Ms. Segal was less than 
faithful to her end of the bargain.  Persons who were interested in 
investing with Peregrine Myanmar were being steered by Ms. Segal into 
placing their money directly with her, thus cutting Peregrine out of 
commissions and profits.  It seems that Peregrine learned of this 
arrangement when someone in the Rangoon office of Peregrine accidently 
faxed a memo from Segal.  The memo, detailing how this worked, went to 
Peregrine's office in Hong Kong instead of its intended recipient--one 
of Miriam's co-conspirators.  Ms. Segal was promptly fired by Peregrine 
which was mad enough to complain to the SLORC.  No word yet on whether 
they received any justice yet.

This is the version of the story as it was related to me in Rangoon.  
Ms. Segal apparantly has her own version of the story with different 
heroes and villains.  Rather than critiquing her posting on the net, 
perhaps we should be asking her to share with us her version of why 
Peregrine fired her.

  Regards,
	Strider

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CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR: POLITICAL ACTIVISM ON CAMPUS 
TAKES ON A CYBERSPACE TWIST
October 31, 1995
>From zni@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

'Birks' have replaced earth-shoes but human rights still rile students

By Ann Scott Tyson
Staff writer of the CSM, Evanston, ILL.


Brad Simpson, a PhD candidate in history at Northwestern Unievrsity, spends
most of his spare time mobilizing fellow students to protest human rights
abuses in farway East Timor.

A doctoral student named Zarni at the University of Wisconsin in Madison
devotes about 15 hours a day to on-line organizing, rallying classmates
behind a campaign to divest US firms from his native Burma, also known as
Myanmar.

At Ohio State University, Brad Watson, a junior in sociology, leads 20 Ohio
student groups in demonstration and letter-writing campaigns aimed at
freeing political prisoners identified by the human rights organization
Amnesty International.

No one is claiming to have reached the heights of antiwar fervor achieved
in the Vietnam era.  Central America is no longer a cause celebre.  But
political activism on the American college campus is alive and well in the
1990s.  It is increasingly sophisticated, high-tech, and at times, just as
effective as its tie-dyed '60s exemplars in making politicians and corporate
executives take notice.

"Student activism is on the rise," says Roberto Guerra, Midwest campus
coordinator for Amnesty International.  "A  lot of studets are realizing
the US frequently plays a role in human rights situations overseas."

This weekend, for instance, more than 300 students activists from across
the Midwest gathered at Northwester in Evanston, Ill., for a day of
training, speeches, and advice on campus organizing run by Amnesty
International.  The gathering was the largest regional get-together of
studet activists ever held by Amnesty, says Mr. Guerra.

And last Friday, hundreds of students at 75 universities, including
Stanford, Harvard, Yale, and Northwestern joined an international day of
protest against the military dictatorship in Burma, says Mr. Zarni, head of
the Free Burma Coalition.

Students in cities around the country dumped out cans of Pepsi and staged
sit-ins at PepsiCo Inc.-owned subsidiaries such asTaco Bell, Pizza Hut, and
Kentucky Fried Chicken to protest Pepsi's investment in Burma.  They also
call on alumni associations to cancel tours to Burma.  Alumni at
Northwestern and the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) have
agreed; Yale alumni are considering the demand.

Organizers seek the total divestment of PepsiCo, the oil giant Unocal, and
other large US firms from Burma.  They say they hope to mobilize a student
movement similar to the one that pushed US companies to pull out of South
Africa in the 1970s and '80s.

"Essentially we want to re-create what went on during the anti-apartheid
movement," says Zarni.  He and his fellow activists are working to form a
broad alliance with environmental, women's, and human rights groups opposed
to the Burma regime, as well as with labor unions that are battling
PepsiCo.'s suppliers.

"Rank and file union workers in Chicago, Madison, Milwaukee, and Decatur
(Ill.) are all actively encouraging a boycott or a Pepsi dump." says Todd
Price, a University of Wisconsin student who is working to garner union
support for the Burma campaign.

Unlike the past decades, today's student activists rely heavily on the
Internet and other modern technology as organizing tools.

Amnesty, for example, has its own World Wide Web site.  It recently began
distributing an interactive CD-ROM to educate students about high-priority
cases of human rights violations.  Moreover, the Burma action day was
orchestrated almost entirely on the Internet.

"In seven weeks this campaign has pretty much exploded," says Zarni.
"Without the Internet, this would have been impossible."

>From his small room in Madison, Zarni connects quickly and cheaply with
activists around the world.  "If I can't mail out campaign posters on time,
I just get on the net and send people our site address and let them
download it," says Zarni.

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BKK POST: BURMESE FOREIGN MINISTER VISITS JAPAN TOMORROW
November 4, 1995 Tokyo, AFP

Burmese Foreign Minister Ohn Gyaw will arrive in Japan 
tomorrow on a five-day visit for talks with Foreign Minister Yohei 
Kono and other Japanese leaders, Foreign Ministry officials said.

The officials pointed out that Ohn Gyaw's itinerary was 
however still tentative. Japan last week announced it would 
extend $16 million in grants to Burma in line with its 
decision to resume aid to the country following the release 
of leading dissident Aung San Suu Kyi.

But Tokyo still remains cautious about resuming large-scale, 
low-interest official loans for major projects in Burma as it 
has said it would closely watch democratic reforms in that country.

Japanese Defence Agency director-general Seishiro Eto has 
cancelled a meeting with a senior official of the Burmese military 
junta due to a parliament engagement, an agency spokesman said.

The meeting with General Maung Aye, vice-chairman of the 
State Law and Order Restoration Council, was called off as 
Eto had to attend a parliament session, the spokesman said.

It would have been the first time the head of the defence 
agency had met with a leader of Burma's military government. 
The meeting with Maung Aye, who is on an unofficial visit, 
could not be rescheduled. (BP)

***************

BKK POST: SAMART LOOKS FOR TELECOM BUSINESS IN BURMA
November 4, 1995

Samart Crop Plc is looking for more business opportunities in 
Burma, having set up a joint-venture company there. Samart 
Myanmar Co has been established to sell satellite dishes in 
Burma, and more opportunities are possible because the 
Burmese government is considering allowing foreign investors 
to handle telecommunications infrastructure projects, said 
Samart chairman Charoenrut Wilailuck.

He said Samart may have a better chance at such projects than 
other investors since the company has been studying the 
Burmese market for a long time. Mr Charoenrut said he does 
not expect the company to be a telecom operator but only to 
install a system, since the Rangoon government still has very 
rigid laws in this area.

He acknowledged that sales of satellite dishes in Burma have 
been below expectations, due mainly to the government's 
restrictive policies on access to information. Satellite 
dishes are only allowed to receive the television signal from 
the sole national television broadcasting station.

The Rangoon government prohibits the sale of dishes that 
could receive signals from other stations. Samart also faces 
some constraints in the Middle East, where it has formed 
Farahidy Samart (Middle East) Co Ltd. Mr Charoenrut said the 
company would restrict itself to being a trading firm. (BP) 

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