BurmaNet News April 10, 1996

[strider@xxxxxxxxxxx]

Received: (from strider@localhost) by igc2.igc.apc.org (8.7.5/8.7.3) id KAA21166; Wed, 10 Apr 1996 10:32:12 -0700 (PDT)
Date: Wed, 10 Apr 1996 10:32:12 -0700 (PDT)



------------------------ BurmaNet ------------------------
"Appropriate Information Technologies, Practical Strategies"
----------------------------------------------------------

The BurmaNet News: April 10, 1996
Issue #379

Noted in Passing:

		I'm a businessperson who says that we have to be socially 
		and ethically responsible.  [Regarding Pepsi] I do think there 
		is a problem doing business with such a company. - Harvard 
		Food Services director of dining services Michael Berry.
		(see FBC: HARVARD DUMPS PEPSI)

HEADLINES:
==========
THE ASIAN AGE: A PASSION FOR PEACE - BY AUNG SAN SUU KYI
FBC: HARVARD DUMPS PEPSI
HARVARD CRIMSON: DINING SERVICES DECREES 'COKE IS IT'
DAWN NEWS BULLETIN: FORCED RELOCATION IN KARENNI AREA
THE NATION: WA GUERRILLAS SURPRISED BY US CHARGES   
THE NATION: SUU KYI TELLS OF WORK SUCCESS
BKK POST: BURMA PREDICTS SMALLER DEFICIT
BKK POST: POPPIES DESTROYED
BKK POST: BEER ADDS FROTH TO BURMESE WATER FESTIVAL
INFRASTRUCTURE FINANCE: TROUBLING PROJECTS
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

THE ASIAN AGE: A PASSION FOR PEACE - BY AUNG SAN SUU KYI
April 8, 1996

(The OP-ED Page)
-------
NOTE: As more and more Asian countries enter the ranks of affluent nations, it 
will become increasingly evident whether or not those standards and values that 
are held to be a particularly Asian heritage can withstand the onslaught of 
materialism. Will we become more compassionate and caring or more calculating 
and egoistic? Will we develop greater vision, deeper understanding?
-------

SO much has been said about peace one, questions whether there is anything left 
to say. And yet, "peace" as a concept has never lost the freshness of its appeal. 
Particularly in Asia, expressions such a /shalom/, /salaam/ or /shanti/ bear 
repetition many times over, confirming and reinforcing man's eternal desire for 
peace. All over the world, New Year is a time to  wish each other peace and 
prosperity. However, there is no single Burmese world that means "peace." The 
expression /nyeinchan/ is a compound of the words for "extinction" and 
"coolness."

The latter word connotes ease and happiness, while the former signifies the 
cessation of the fires of passion. The allusion here to the taming of one's desires 
as a precondition for the internal quest for peace id fundamental to the teachings 
of the Lord Buddha, which continue to inspire so many Asian peoples even in 
our age of gross materialism.

For, without the quelling of all those instincts that contribute to human greed, 
pride and hate, what possible hope can there be for peace in human society? The 
same message lies in human heart of all the major religions of the world and of the 
ethical standards they hold in common.

The need to develop paths to peace has not decreased despite the sweeping 
changes that have taken place in the balance of political and economic power in 
recent decades.

The impressive performance of some Asian countries in the economic field over 
the last few decades has won wide-spread admiration. It is natural for people to 
expect that a betterment in material conditions would bring happier times.

Yet never has been the case that wealth and riches have been able to prevent 
human conflict, with its attendant suffering. The peoples of Asia have long 
prided standards and spiritual values that are above mere material considerations.

As more and more Asian countries enter the ranks of affluent nations, it will 
become increasingly evident whether or not those standards and values that are 
held to be a particularly Asian heritage can withstand the onslaught of 
materialism.

ill we become more compassionate and caring or more calculating and egoistic? 
Will we develop greater vision and deeper understanding it or will our interests 
narrow down to mere profit-making? Can we use the lessons learned from 
economic achievements to help improve our social and political conditions?

It has been said that a key element in the economic success of many Asian 
societies is trust in the commercial sector. The has to be true of the social and 
political spheres, were justice founded on trust and public confidence bears 
lasting fruit in peace and stability.

The wealth and power of nations wax and wane, subject to the principles of 
commerce, the development of technology, the challenges of the new and 
unexpected, and the frailties and human nature.

The life of nations is calculated not in decades but in centuries, and to ensure 
sustained progress and stability there is a need to develop institutions processes 
that allow for change without upheaval and for the peaceful solution 
of conflicting interests that are bound to arise even in the best-ordered societies. 
Conflict, it can be argued, is fundamental to all forms of life.

But just as we have to accept that for most people suffering and happiness 
coexist in various shifting, unequal measures, so surely it can be seen that the 
very presence of conflicts in our midst points to its antithesis in attainable peace.

Every conflict is but the repetition of those that have occurred throughout the long 
vitas of our shared past, even if the form those conflicts have assumed has 
varied constantly from time to time and place to place. Their nature and outcome, 
the mental and physical misery caused any folly, is always the same.

But the universality of conflict and suffering is matched also by the skills of 
conciliation that have had to be developed by most human societies at various 
levels, form the nuclear family to the nation state.

All the means of resolving conflict that have ever been used lie before us like an 
open book, and it is up to us to make constructive use of the lessons that can be 
learned from the history of the human race.

It has been argued that war itself is a legitimate means of attaining peace. The 
problems of using evil means in pursuit of a just end will doubtless continue to 
exercise thinking people for generations to come.

The answer to that problem may never be settled to everyone's satisfaction, but 
everyone can surely agree on the absolute need to identify and uproot the seeds 
of strife before they grow to gather pace and momentum beyond all control.

I believe we can, at the present time some cautions comfort from what appears 
to be a reduction in the immediate threat of wars caused by invasion. It would 
seem, for the moment at least, that  a sense of restraint and rationality has been 
brought to the territorial ambition of nation states, though to be complacent 
about the situation can only invite future trouble.

If, however, we can detect a lessening of human misery resulting from foreign 
interventions, the same is decidedly not true when we consider the pervasive 
suffering caused political, social, and economic injustice and, most noticeably, 
by ethnic hatred.

The last is usually the result of grievances caused by a sense of injustice or 
prejustices fostered by lack of human understanding.

T attempt to eliminate, disguise or conceal by repression the expressions of 
human grievance caused by injustice _ in fact to try to impose peace by the 
exercise of authoritarian power alone  _ reminds me of the Buddhist nation of 
"conventional peace" (/sammuti shanti/), which is traditionally contrasted with 
"momentary peace" (/tatanga shanti/) and "total peace" (/accanta/ shanti/).

Buddhists are taught to cultivate the transient form of peace through constant 
mental awareness as means to attaining that all-embracing peace that is 
synonymous with the goal of /nirvana/.

But peace of the "conventional" variety has been described as "imaginary peace 
without practice; for instance, the peaceful life one can attain due to the saving 
of a powerful being, which is nothing but a misconception."

It follows that the peace )or, perhaps more accurately, quiescence), resulting from 
artificial coercion or intervention is nothing more than a dangerous illusion and 
has to be recognised as such. The truth of this has been amply borne out in 
recent history.

We have seen how long-festering grievances and animosities burst into open 
conflagration when authoritarian forms of rule collapse along with the means 
whereby those urgent problems were hidden from view.

System which sweep aside fundamental problems of social and political injustice 
in the vain hope that such problems, if ignored long enough will vanish, cannot 
achieve long-term stability.

The nation that peace without practice can only be of an imaginary order points 
to the essentially active nature of any process aimed at achieve genuine peace.

The skill of arbitration, mediation, negotiation and compromise will acquire 
ever-increasing importance as the world continues to shrink - in a movement that 
is already bringing its manifold culture and political diversities into closer and 
closer contact. The potential for both conflict and harmony on this planet, now 
seems greater than ever before, as the speed of change accelerates beyond 
anything comparable in human history.

The time is fast coming to an end, if it has not done so already, when conflict 
and peace in Asia can be separated from the turmoils and harmonies of Africa, 
the Americas, Australia or Europe.

Those who would be peacemaker s have develop transparent sincerity, a have 
understanding of differing points of view, and an ability to compromise, which 
includes a willingness to give prejudices and privileges that obstruct the path to 
conciliation.

Our success in the great task of generating peace on this earth will depend finally 
on our ability to recognise our common humanity and our shared goals, which 
transcend and rise far above the culture and political divisions of all nations and 
continents of the west and east.

Peace is too important to be left to chance, to be allowed to deteriorate into the 
imaginary form that results from lack of positive endeavour. We need to 
strengthen and develop regional and international institutions that work actively 
for peace, specialising in the resolution of conflicts and in the promotion of 
harmony both within and between nations.

The last decades of the 20th century have been an era of impressive economic 
achievement for parts of Asia. But our continent is still rife with social and 
political injustice as well a ethnic and communal strife.

Should we not resolve to work toward removing injustices, putting an end to 
strife, and making the 21st century an era not of Asian prosperity but of Asian 
peace that may spread to all peoples of the world?

_________________________________
Burmese Leader Aung San Suu Kyi won the Nobel Peace Price in 1991
By arrangement with New York Times
_________________________________

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

FBC: HARVARD DUMPS PEPSI: CONCERN OVER CONNECTION TO 
FORCED LABOR
April 8, 1996
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE	Cambridge, MA

Cambridge:  Harvard University dining service has scuttled a $1 million
contract with Pepsi after Harvard students raised concerns over Pepsi's
activities in military-run Burma.

Harvard is not the only top university where contracts with PepsiCo are
under fire:  Stanford University Burma democracy activists have more than 2000
student backers for an effort to keep Pepsi-owned Taco Bell off their
campus.  Dozens of high school and college campuses across the US are
involved in similar efforts.

"I'm a businessperson who says that we have to be socially and ethically
responsible" says Harvard Food Services director of dining services
Michael Berry.  Regarding Pepsi he says "I do think there is a problem
doing business with such a company."

As recently as Feb. 22, a Pepsi memo sneered at the Harvard students,
noting that a Harvard demonstration against Pepsi "involved a mere 25
students."  "This shows the power of the information we provided on
Pepsi," says Harvard senior Adam Richards.

"What you have is America's 'best and brightest' challenging PepsiCo based
on the facts" says senior analyst Simon Billenness of Franklin Research and
Development.  "Students are at the heart of Pepsi's target market.  Pepsi
is extremely vulnerable."

Pepsi entered Burma shortly after military authorities quashed an
overwhelming  (82%) May, 1990 election victory by the NLD party of Nobel
Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi.  NLD spokespeople have repeatedly
called for Pepsi to cease operating in Burma.  Pepsi's Burmese partner is
also chairman of a joint venture with the military called JV3.  In Burma,
"the army controls all major businesses.  Not even a small scale merchant
can survive without solid army connections"  says the authoritative Far
Eastern Economic Review.

To repatriate its profits from Burma, Pepsi engages in "counter trade" by
purchasing agricultural goods for export.  Recent reports by the United
Nations and human rights groups note that forced labor has become pervasive in
Burma's agriculture sector.  The Burmese army has a practice of confiscating
farmland and using the evicted farmers as forced labor.

Despite several enquiries, PepsiCo has not disclosed the parties from
which the company buys farm products or provided any evidence that
PepsiCo is trying to avoid buying from farms that use forced labor.
Despite rising concern over its presence in Burma, Pepsi's lawyers each
year work diligently to keep such issues off of the shareholder ballot at
its annual meetings.

Pepsi's revenues in Burma, $14 million in 1995, are dwarfed by US sales of
over $10 billion.

Other US companies, including Coca-Cola, Levi Strauss, Eddie Bauer, Liz
Claiborne, Amoco and Columbia Sportswear, shun Burma.  UNOCAL, Texaco and
ARCO remain, and along with Pepsi are the targets of consumer and shareholder
activism.

F R E E   B U R M A  C O A L I T I O N
For More Info Contact:  Adam Richards (617) 493-8283 or Marco Simons (617)
493-2267 at Harvard FBC
Michael Berry at Harvard Food Svcs. (617) 495-4812, Elaine Franklin at
Pepsi  (914) 253-3122

For information on the national Burma campaign, contact Simon Billenness,
Senior Analyst at Franklin Research and Development Corp. (617) 423-6655,
x225, or Dr.  Thaung Htun of the National Coalition Government of the
Union of Burma at (212) 338-0048.

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

HARVARD CRIMSON: DINING SERVICES DECREES 'COKE IS IT'
Decision Garners Student Support   (abridged)
April 8, 1996
burma action group

By Chana R. Schoenberger

	The verdict is in.
	Harvard Dining Services (HDS) will once again serve Coca-Cola, 
reversing a decision made earlier this year to contract with Pepsi, 
Michael P. Berry, outgoing Director of HDS, told the Crimson last night.
	Coke's victory comes after months of campus controversy 
concerning Pepsi's questionable human rights record and the significant 
student preference for Coke products.
	Reached in Anaheim, California, where he will be working at 
Disneyland, Berry said that the Coke contract is still conditional on an 
improved service record. The company's history of inferior customer 
service prompted the original move to Pepsi.
	The current situation, with Pepsi in Annenberg Hall and HDS 
restaurants and Coke in the dining halls, will remain until the end of 
the year.  Then, assuming Coke has performed service tasks 
satisfactorily, all the facilities will be turned over to Coke during the 
summer, according to the director.
	"If Coke stays up to par in terms of service they will get all 
the business," Berry said.
	According to Berry, the decision was made in spite of the fact 
that Pepsi was a better deal because of student preference for Coke and 
concern over Pepsi's alleged human rights violations in Burma.
	"I'd rather not be embroiled in a political issue," he said.
	The director added, though, that if Coke did not bring its 
service up to appropriate levels it would be let go "in a minute."
	Student leaders were elated over the change, with some taking 
partial credit for it.
	Robert M. Hyman '98-'97, president of the Undergraduate Council, 
anticipated the change and chalked up the switch to the council's 
campaign against Pepsi.
	"We invited Mike Berry to our last meeting and lobbied on this 
issue," Hyman said. "He was obviously receptive to our comments."
	According to its president, the council adopted a "two-pronged 
approach" for the anti-Pepsi campagin. The council attacked Pepsi's human 
rights record in Burma and emphasized students' overwhelming preference 
for Coke.
	"I think this victory shows what can be achieved by an organized, 
activist student government," Hyman said.

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

DAWN NEWS BULLETIN: FORCED RELOCATION IN KARENNI AREA
April 9, 1996

About 2500 Karenni refugees from Karenni refugee camps 1 and 2,
most of themwomen and children, were forcibly relocated to a new site 
which is just one hour's walk from the Slorc outpost in Karenni area.

The 537 households are living under a cloud of fear after being
forced to move from their camps to the new location by the local Thai 
authorities on 19 March 1996.

About 12 Thai border police equipped with M16 and HK arrived at
Char Le camp (Refugee Camp 2) in the morning of  March 19.  They 
demanded the refugees pack all their belongings and ordered them into 
waiting trucks.  The soldiers threatened if the refugees did not obey their 
orders, they would burn down the camp and kill the camp leaders.

 " We did not dare to disobey their order. They were so tough --just like Slorc
soldiers in Burma!  We just had to follow their demands even though we
did not knowwhere we would be going." said Pha Daw, a Karenni refugee 
from the camp.  Another refugee said, "The Thai soldiers shouted at us and 
called us 'stray dogs'. I feel bad because I understand Thai. They used really bad 
words in Thai, shouting their orders at us to obey and be forcibly relocated."

After negotiations with the camp leaders, the deadline extension of four days 
was agreed upon, but about 40 refugees were loaded into the trucks immediately 
anyway. The next day, the same soldiers arrived in the morning and  took the 
refugees away in 4 trucks.  Some refugees fled at night because they were in 
great fear for their safety.

Aye Maung , a ward leader of the Char le refugee camp, said Thai security 
officials came to the camp and ordered them out. "They ordered us not to try to
escape from the camp, to pack and get ready to leave. The next morning they 
trucked us from the camp and dropped us at the new place."

The new site is just dense forest. Upon their arrival, the refugees had to build
rough temporary shelters of plastic sheets and bamboo.  A single mountain
range, which marks the border, is the only barrier between the refugees and 
SLORC forces.

"I am very scared to live here because it is so close to the Slorc troops. They 
can come and kill us at any time," said  Naw Esther in her crude bamboo hut.
In an interview with Aike Ku, a 30-year-old Karenni from Shardaw township, 
he expressed the great fear for his safety; if he were sent back to Burma he 
would surely be arrested by Burmese troops. He had been conscripted for 
forced labor at military bases and for porterage several times when in Burma.  
In 1987, he was arrested and charged with supporting KNPP forces in 1987. 
During his interrogation, he had been beaten and tortured. He was released 
only after his village headmaster bailed him out with some amount of money. 
As soon as he was released he fled to the Karenni refugee camp.  He first 
came to the Nang Aung Karenni refugee in 1988 and six months ago he
moved to Cher Le camp.  "Most of the refugees in this camp are in the same
situation as me. We all would be in great danger if we were sent back to Burma 
and rearrested by the Burmese troops." said Aike Ku.

Most of the refugees fled to Thailand several years ago due to the wide 
range of human rights abuses by the Slorc troops in their native territory.  
Some of them fled recently because of the latest round of fighting between 
Slorc and Karenni forces.

No reason for the forcible relocation by the Thai authorities was clear, but a 
KNPP commander, General Aung Myat, said he believed the refugees were 
driven out of their old camp in response to demands by Burmese authorities. 
"The Burmese soldiers accused Thailand of sheltering guerrillas in the old camp 
and they threaten to fire at it with artillery if the Thai authorities did not allow 
them to search it." Their old camps were about seven kilometer (four miles) inside 
Thailand while the new  location is just on the Thai side of the frontier.

A Thai border security official said all of the estimated 6,000 Karenni refugees 
in a string of camps inside Thailand would be relocated to the border line.
ABSDF family member camp in the Karenni area also faced the similar fate of
relocation. ABSDF camp members were evacuated into Thailand to escape an 
intensive attack by the Burmese army.  They were immediately forced to move 
to the same place as the Karenni refugees.

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

THE NATION: WA GUERRILLAS SURPRISED BY US CHARGES   
April 9, 1996
Yindee Lertcharoenchok

BURMA'S ethnic Wa guerrillas have expressed surprise that 
Washington has, for the first time, named three of  their 
leaders as among the "top [Burmese drug] traffickers" in its 
1995 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report.

Senior officials of the United Wa State Army (UWSA) said 
yesterday that they did not understand why acting leader Pao 
Yu-chiang, senior commander Li Tzu-ju, and Southern Command 
leader Wei Hsueh-kang, whom they claimed were innocent of 
any trading in drugs, were included in the American report 
which was released on March 1.

They could not confirm whether the three top leaders, who 
reside at the UWSA headquarters of Panghsang on the Sino-
Burmese border in the Shan Plateau, were aware or had been 
informed about being accused  of being "top traffickers."

"I don't quite understand why they [Washington] did so 
[named the three Wa leaders] and how the names came about. 
'I feel very uncomfortable about this,' said a Wa official.

In the report, the US State Department strongly criticized 
Burma as still being the world's largest producer of opium  and heroin.

It said the drug trade in Burma's northeastern Shan State 
where the UWSA, the Chinese Kokang and opium warlord Khun Sa 
have been competing against one another for the lion's share 
of the opium and heroin market, continues virtually unchecked.

The report blamed the Burmese junta for lacking the 
"resources, the ability or the will to take serious action 
against ethnic drug trafficking groups with whom they have 
negotiated a number of ceasefire.

'Groups known to be involved in the heroin trade, such as 
the UWSA and the Kokang militia, remain heavily armed and 
enjoyed complete autonomy in their base areas,' it said.

Although the ruling Burmese State Law and Order Restoration 
Council (Slorc) "claims that these groups have committed 
themselves to drug control as part of their ceasefire 
agreements, the Burmese government has been either unwilling 
or unable to get these groups to reduce heroin trafficking 
and opium cultivation.'

Apart from the three Wa leaders, the report also identified 
U Sai Lin, aka Lin Ming-shing of the Eastern Shan State 
Army; Yang Mao-liang, Peng Chia-sheng, and Liu Go-shi of the 
Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (Kokang Chinese); 
and U Mahtu Naw of the Kachin Defence Army as among other 
top traffickers.

It said Slorc's ceasefire agreements with "these drug 
armies" has prevented the implementation of any meaningful 
drug enforcement operations in areas which are under the 
control of ethnic armies.

"As a result, these regions have become drug trafficking 
havens, where heroin is produced and trafficked without 
risk.  Leaders of these drug armies have benefited immensely 
from their good relationship with the Rangoon regime; their 
businesses - legitimate and illegitimate - have prospered,' 
it added.  The UWSA officials claimed that their leaders' 
names must have been used by mistake as they "have never 
been involved" in the drug trade. (TN)

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

THE NATION: SUU KYI TELLS OF WORK SUCCESS
April 9, 1996

RANGOON - Aung San Suu Kyi says shed other leaders of 
Burma's democratic opposition have made "reasonable progress" in 
their political work since her release from house arrest eight months ago.

Addressing some 5,000 supporters on Sunday night in front of 
the lake-side house that, was her private prison for nearly six years, Suu 
Kyi said 1995 marked an important turning point for her country.

"I was released in July, some eight months ago," she said.  
'(Former army general) U Tin U and (former colonel) U Kyi 
Maung were released earlier, and we have made reasonable 
progress in our political work though the progress achieved 
w far short of our expectations."

One unmistakable fact we discovered in, 1995 the strong 
morale of Our people, she added "All of us should be proud of it". 

Suu Kyi, 51, who won the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize while under 
arrest, aid the ruling military junta has worked hard to prevent her 
party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), from organizing. 
She described the junta's treatment of the NLD a "unfair and unjust."

"I am saying this not pick a quarrel with the authorities," 
she said. "But then if you don't stand up and speak out 
against injustice you will be encouraging that injustice." 

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

BKK POST: BURMA PREDICTS SMALLER DEFICIT
April 9,1996

Burma's state budget was set at 163.9 billion kyats (US$27.3 
billion at the official exchange rate) for spending in the 
fiscal year to March 31, 1997. 

The budget, which includes earnings and expenditure on state 
enterprises, forecast receipts of 133.9 billion kyat to 
produce a budget deficit of 30 billion kyat, compared the 
1995-1996 deficit of 65.3 billion.

The military budget was equivalent to 32.7 percent of 
spending by all government institutions except state 
enterprises, and was set at 52.9 billion kyat, or 23.75 
percent of the gross domestic product target for the year of 
72.7 billion kyat. Education was allocated 7.6 billion 
kyats, agriculture 6.5 billion kyats, construction 4.1 
billion kyats  and health just over 2.2 billion kyats. (BP)

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

BKK POST: POPPIES DESTROYED
April 9,1996

Burmese authorities destroyed 25 hectares of poppy fields in 
Kutkai township of Shan State, between March 14 and 21. The 
Shan State is Southeast Asia's largest opium-growing and 
heroin-producing region. (BP)

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

BKK POST: BEER ADDS FROTH TO BURMESE WATER FESTIVAL
Foreign brew sales likely to soar despite high cost
April 9,1996
Report: Nussara Sawatsawang, Rangoon

Burma's traditional water festival this week will be more 
like a beer party for many in the country. Downing of  imported 
beer is expected to increase dramatically in the capital, Rangoon.

No official figure is available, but a foreign trader speculated the 
amount consumed could be at least 10 times more than usual 
because locals will be celebrating with alcoholic drinks. Also, the 
government was unlikely to impose any restrictions, he said.

Burma's traditional water festival or Thingyan, which 
coincides with the Buddhist New Year, will be celebrated 
from April 12-15. Like their neighbours in several Southeast 
Asian countries, Burmese will be performing traditional acts 
of blessing and happily throwing water at each other.

Despite a recent warning from Rangoon's commander, Brig-Gen 
Khin Maung Than, against using dirty water, wearing unsuitable 
clothes and drunkenness, Rangoon-based businessmen are confident 
there will be no serious impact on their lucrative business.

"Like Thais, the Burmese love drinking alcohol for 
entertainment and relaxation, and the government usually 
won't impose strict rules during festivals," he said. The 
domestic market has high potential. Consumers are both 
locals and expatriates working in the country. Although one 
can of beer costs 60-100 kyats (15-20 baht), three to five 
times more than minimum wage for unskilled labour, people 
make sure they can afford it. In the past, about 40 
containers totaling two million cans of foreign beer were 
imported monthly, observers said. According to a survey 
conducted by a trading company, altogether 58 brands of beer 
from all over the world used to stream into Burma through 
the porous Thai-Burmese border.

But since border trade was banned following Rangoon's order 
to seal three key checkpoints last year, only 10 brands 
remain on the market and have to be trans.-shipped through 
Bangkok and Singapore.

These are Heineken, Carlsberg, Budweiser, Foster, Tiger, 
ABC, Anchor, San Miguel, Guiness Stout and Thailand's Singha 
which is said to be doing well. Mandalay beer is the only 
Burmese brand that has remained popular in the face of overwhelming 
foreign competition, especially among middleage Burmese. Tiger 
dominates, followed by Heineken, Mandalay and Budweiser.

The beer business in Burma is moving from imports to local 
joint ventures producing popular brands. Singapore's Asia 
Pacific Brewery, with the active support of its government 
and smooth relations between the republic and Burma, has 
formed a joint venture with the military-run Myanmar 
Economic Holding Co to produce Tiger beer in Burma.

Under their agreement signed last April, production is 
expected to start this September. The state-owned Mandalay 
brand is said to have formed a venture with another 
Singaporean company to upgrade its quality.

Imports could make good money, observers said. Although 
import tax on specific goods such as beer, cigarettes and 
liquor can be as high as 200%, traders can benefit from the 
official exchange rate imposed by the government. This mean 
tax is calculated at around 5.5 kyats per one US dollar, while 
agents and traders can sell these products at a market price, which 
uses the unofficial exchange rate of about 120 kyats per dollar.

Since Burma announced "Visit Myanmar Year" some observers 
were left with the impression that private traders could 
register goods essential to promote international tourism 
with the Ministry of Hotel and Tourism, rather than the 
Ministry of Trade, and obtain tax privileges.

However, Burma is facing an ever-widening trade deficit 
stemming particularly from imports of consumer and luxury 
goods, which typically account for 40 percent of all 
imports, according to the latest report of the Economist 
Intelligence Unit.

In the first quarter of the 1995-96 fiscal year (April-June 
1995), the overall trade deficit accounted for 676.5 million 
kyats, (about US$123 million at the official exchange rate), 
almost double the deficit of 350.3 million kyats ($63.6 million) 
recorded in the same period of 1994-95, the report said.

Rising demand for heavy machinery and other equipment to 
support government-sponsored infrastructure projects and 
imports of non-electrical machinery and transport equipment 
were also among factors contributing to the deficit, it said.

Some businessman in Rangoon said there did not seem to be 
any concrete measures to tackle the deficit, especially 
controls over the influx of foreign goods into the country.

"The Burmese government seems more concerned about building 
confidence in its market by allowing free flow of goods to 
satisfy demand," the businessman said.

The government also receives hard currency income from this 
lucrative business, including advertisements on state-run 
television from which it can earn a maximum of $1,440 for a 
60-second prime spot.

It charges $10 per square foot of billboard space. Temporary 
bans on beer and cigarettes are imposed from time to time. 
But observers said the bans stemmed from a request by those 
running state beer enterprises who worried about losses, 
rather than whether consumers would become addicted as 
claimed by the government. (BP)

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

INFRASTRUCTURE FINANCE: TROUBLING PROJECTS
Feb/Mar 1996

Myanmar's Yadana gas field raises the question:  Should companies do 
business with regimes that violate basic human rights?

By Gregory Millman  (pp. 17-19)

	Myanmar's early god-kings ostentatiously poured their country's 
wealth into building herds of sacred white elephants.  The military 
dictators who have ruled Myanmar (formerly Burma) since 1988 continue the 
ancient traditions of absolutism and spending, but have added something 
more:  Myanmar's State Law and Order Restoration Committee (SLORC) has 
been charged with just about every human rights violation - including 
rape, torture, execution without trial, political prisoners, and slavery.
	The SLORC was born in a bloody massacre of pro-democracy 
demonstrators in 1988.  It renamed Burma the Union of Myanmar - though 
opponents to the regime continue to call the country Burma.  The SLORC 
allowed an election in 1990, but when 80 percent of the voters cast their 
ballots against the SLORC, it nullified the poll, imprisoned opposition 
candidates and placed Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi under house 
arrest.  The SLORC's human rights record has been condemned publicly by 
the US State Department, the United Nations, Amnesty International, Human 
Rights Watch Asia, and the editorial page of the Wall Street Journal.
	But is the fact that a regime is tyrannical and oppressive a 
reason not to do business with it?  From China to Nigeria and from Cuba 
to Iran, investors are having to grapple with the morality issues as well 
as the economics of various investments.  The Yadana pipeline now under 
development in Myanmar by Unocal of the US and Total of France paints the 
issue in the starkest colors.
	Some think that the record of Myanmar's government is so 
egregious that it is immoral to do any business there - at any price.  
George Soros acted decisively on this conviction in 1994, when he dumped 
the shares of Peregrine Investments held by his Quantum Fund because of 
Peregrine's involvement in Myanmar.  Levi Strauss and Co. pulled out of 
Myanmar in 1992, saying that doing business there was impossible without 
"directly supporting the military government and its pervasive violations 
of human rights."  Liz Claiborne Inc., the clothing manufacturer, also 
withdrew for the same reason, and RH Macy and Co., the US department 
store, left because of "corruption."  In addition, the Asian Development 
Bank is not extending loans to Myanmar because of human rights violations.

Does Commerce Civilize?
	However, several oil companies have been getting involved in 
Myanmar.  Amoco has departed for so-called economic reasons, but Texaco 
and Arco are actively engaged in exploration.  And Unocal and Total are 
beginning to develop the Yadana gas field - about 43 miles off Myanmar's 
coast in the Andaman Sea.  Production from this field is expected to 
reach 650 million cubid feet per day, most of which will be shipped via a 
416-mile pipeline to the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand.
	Critics say that revenues from the Yadana project will help keep 
Myanmar's junta financially secure and make it possible for the generals 
to buy arms.  From this perspective, the pipeline may be regarded as a 
callous collaboration between a repressive regime and companies that put 
profits before people.  "Unocal and Total are partners in that and can't 
escape culpability," says Simon Billenness, senior analysts at Franklin 
Research and Development, which he describes as a socially responsible 
investment firm.
	Oil companies view the project differently.  They describe it as 
a means of opening a closed society.  "You have a choicwe between doing 
nothing and doing something," says Herve Chagneux, Total's coordinator 
for Myanmar and Thailand.  "We are entrepreneurs.  Our business is to 
create wealth, and we feel that by doing so, we push things in the right 
direction."  In other words, commerce can be a civilizing influence.

An Ethical Challenge
	The Yadana project is neither a challenge technologically nor 
financially.  The $1 billion project is expected to be financed entirely 
with equity.  According to Chagneux, financing will include export credit 
agency (ECA) support.  However, he does not expect any participation from 
ECAs in the US, UK or France; though, he says, "Japanese [support] is 
clearly a possibility at this stage.  As for the rest, it is difficult to 
say."  Contractors have already been invited to submit bids.
	Total owns 31.24 percent; Unocal, 28.26 percent; the Burmese 
government's Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE), 15 percent and 
Thailand's PTT Exploration and Production Public Co., 25.5 percent.  The 
Petrolium Authority of Thailand has signed a 30 year gas sales cotract.  
According to Chagneux, the contract provides for the purchase of 525 
cubic feet of gas per day.  As a result, the project is expected to be 
highly profitable.  In fact, Lehman Brothers analyst Paul Cheng estimates 
that the Yadana pipeline will boost Unocal's per share earnings by as 
much as 10 percent annually.
	There are only two serious challenges.  One challenge is 
presented by the Karen and Mon, two ethnic groups who have been fighting 
the Burmese for centuries.  The proposed pipeline will only cross Burmese 
land for 39 miles, but the route goes through Karen and Mon strongholds.  
In the Spring of 1995, insurgents attacked and killed five surveyors.  
The insurgents say their land is being taken for the pipeline without 
their consent or any compensation.  They claim that their villages have 
been razed and their people marched off to forced labor camps or 
otherwise relocated.  They aren't happy, they have guns, and they know 
how to use them.
	The second challenge is ethical.  Ethicists say that even among 
countries charged with human rights violations, Myanmar is unique.  The 
abuse of human rights is so much a part of the system that it takes very 
creative approaches to do business ethically in Myanmar.  Professor Tom 
Donaldson of Georgetown University, author of The Ethics of International 
Business, says, "In Burma the human rights violations have been systemic, 
widespread, and involve violations of the most fundamental and central 
human rights accepted by both liberals and conservatives."
	Donaldson is no knee-jerk bleeding heart.  He says that his 
ethical business guidelines would allow a company to do business with 
almost anyone in the world.  "I call this the condition of business 
principle,"  he says, "Basically, we will tolerate a fair amount of 
unethical behavior from a person, firm or nation with whom we just have 
business dealings, but when matters reach the point of a dramatic 
threshold, most people say you just don't do business with that type of 
person.  I don't think China reaches that point, but if any country might 
qualify as passing that threshold, it would be Burma."
	Donaldson's view is reinforced by Richard DeGeorge, director of 
the International Center for Ethics in Business at the University of 
Kansas, who says, "One of the guidelines I would put out is that a 
company should not knowingly cooperate with with any supplier, government 
or other enterprise that engages in slavery, slave labor, or even child 
labor.  Saying, 'We know they're doing it, but we're not doing it,' 
doesn't let you off the hook.  If you know it's being done, you're 
ethically responsible for it.  It's your responsibility to mitigate the 
harm they're doing to those people.  They can't simply be ignored."
	Professor Kenneth Goodpaster, a former faculty member at the 
Harvard Business School who now teaches business ethics and policy at the 
University of St. Thomas in Minneapolis-St. Paul, says, "When you can 
forsee in clear terms that this supplier or user of your services or 
products is engaging in behavior that is, by any reasonable estimate, an 
abridgment of basic human rights, there's no escaping that you have a 
responsibility there."
	None of these ethicists specifically says that it is unethical 
for Unocal and Total to invest in Myanmar, but they all underscore the 
need for innovative approaches to insure that the project does not 
benefit from the SLORC's injustice.  They add that if companies could 
exert a positive influence in Myanmar, it would be ethically legitimate 
to do the project.  Thus it's no surprise that Unocal, Total and other 
oil companies justify their presence in Myanmar by arguing that economic
development and prosperity will eventually civilize that state.  They 
point to other examples where they say economic growth has helped 
facilitate an expansion of human rights in Asia - including the 
Philippines, Indonesia and China.
	Though oil companies insist they are making every effort that 
ethical business requires, their interest are entwined with those of the 
SLORC.  One executive, who declined to be identified, even defended 
Myanmar's use of forced labor as reasonable given that the country could 
not borrow money to build its infrastructure.
	While Unocal and Total have not gone that far, thay have been 
supportive of SLORC in some ways.  For example, John Imle, Unocal's 
president, says of SLORC, "What we look for is a government that delivers 
on its commitments.  This one has."  Moreover, in January 1995, he told a 
group of human rights activists that opponents of the pip[eline should be 
blamed for the military's atrocities in the region, "Let's be reasonable 
about this.  What I'm saying is that if you threaten the pieline, there's 
going to be more military.  If forced labor goes hand-in-glove with the 
military, yes, there will be more forced labor."  In an interview with 
INFRASTRUCTURE FINANCE, Imle clarified his point:  "The troops assigned 
to provide security on our pipeline are not using forced labor," he said.
	Interestingly, Imle's partners at Total do not share his 
confidence in the good conduct of Burmese troops.  "I could not guarantee 
that the military is not using forced labor," says Total's Chagneux.  
"All we can really guarantee is what we [ourselves] are doing, the 
contracts we make, the people we employ.  What is being done nearby we do 
not know."  As the operating partner, Total handles on-site activities 
such as hirings and construction, and is, therefore, much closer to the 
scene than Unocal.
	There is no shortage of reports from refugees who say that they 
have been forced from their villages in the pipeline areas and compelled 
to work as porters or as construction workers on military bases.  "We've 
sent them mountains of interviews with dislocated villagers, victims of 
forced labor, photographs of villages being burnt down, people being 
shot, but they refuse to believe it," says Louisa Benson, US 
representitive of the Karen National Union and the Democratic Alliance of 
Myanmar.
	While the US State Department says that many such refugee 
accounts are credible, Imle doesn't believe them.  "The people being 
interviewed - a lot of them in Bangkok or in the refugee areas - may be 
people who don't understand where the pipeline will be or what it is," he 
says, adding, "There are people who are using this as a cause or as part 
of an agenda."
	Not all oil executives question these accounts.  At another oil 
company exploring in Myanmar, an executive says he's looking for ways to 
provide security for his operations without relying on the Burmese army, 
in order to avoid any taint of collaboration with the regime.
	But at UBS in New York, oil company analyst Mark Gilman says 
frankly, "There are a lot of folks in the industry who would rather deal 
with an authoritarian regime than with the chaos often associated with an 
emerging democracy."  As a securities analyst, Gilman adds, how a 
dictatorship treats its people is of no concern.  "Human rights remain 
off the table until such issues begin to jeopardize the likely conclusion 
or the bringing to fruition of projects.  When those issues begin to have 
intermediate to long-term economic implications, then they become 
relevant, but exclusive of that, they're not."  Gilman's view is 
generally shared among analysts who cover Unocal, though no others were 
willing to be quoted.  George Soros may have abandoned Myanmar because of 
his personal convictions, others seem unlikely to follow his trail.

Profits and Principles
	The decision on whether and how to do business in Myanmar will be 
made by individual companies, who must weigh issues of profits and 
principles.  In this context, every oil executive interviewed for this 
article cited as one justification for staying, that if his or her 
company left, there were others eager to take its place.
	To change the trade-off facing compnies, a number of governments 
are dusting off boycott measures once used against South Africa.  For 
example, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and several US cities have 
introduced local legislation calling for a boycott of companies that do 
business in Myanmar.  Moreover, in Washington, DC, sanctions legislation 
is expected to be sponsored in Congress by Senator Tom (sic) McConnell 
(R-Kentucky) and Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-New York).
	Amid the growing debate, Unocal and Total continue to insist that 
it is possible to do business ethically in Myanmar, and they don't worry 
that they have a vested interest in protecting an oppressive regime.  
However, that view is not necessarily shared by executives at other 
companies or by public officials in many countries around the world.

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