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Thank You From Massachusetts Burma
Subject: Thank You From Massachusetts Burma Roundtable
THANK YOU FROM THE MASSACHUSETTS BURMA ROUNDTABLE
June 26
Yesterday, Governor William Weld signed into law the first state-wide Burma
selective purchasing law.
The law effectively bars the Commonwealth of Massachusetts from buying the
goods or services of any company doing business in Burma. The law is
currently the largest such law in terms of impact. It will cover billions of
dollars of state purchasing every year. It is also the broadest in its
definition of doing business in Burma; it covers any company with
investments in Burma or that sells any goods or services to the military
junta. It also includes companies that have franchises, licensees or
distributors in Burma.
I would specifically like to thank all the people and organizations outside
Massachusetts around the world who called and wrote Governor Weld to ask him
to sign the Burma bill into law. Your letters may well have helped to make
the difference.
To return the favor, I would like to volunteer myself as an advisor to any
people around the world who would like to campaign for similar selective
purchasing legislation in their home town and state.
Just let me have your mailing address and I will send you some materials and
how-to guides.
Thank you again for helping us make a difference in Massachusetts.
Simon Billenness
Franklin Research & Development Corporation
711 Atlantic Avenue, Boston, MA 02111, USA
(617) 423 6655 x 225
(617) 482 6179 fax
simon_billenness@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 25 Jun 96 17:31:31 EDT
To: <simon_billenness@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Remarks at Burma bill signing
Mr. Governor, Mr. Lieutenant Governor, colleagues, and all the supporters
of the restoration of democracy in Burma: Congratulations!
1. I first became interested in Burma in February, 1993 when I read a
statement signed by Bishop Desmond Tutu and other Nobel laureates urging
support for Aung San Suu Kyi. (Suu Kyi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize
in 1991.) At that time she had been nearly four years in detention.
2. Burma has been under military rule since 1962. In 1988 the
indigenous democracy forces in Burma came above ground. Although student
led demonstrations were brutally repressed and a leader of the National
Democratic League, Aung San Suu Kyi, was placed under house arrest for
"endangering the state" and the military regrouped, forming the so-called
State Law and Order Restoration Council, in the elections held in 1990 the
NDL won over 80% of the vote. The SLORC refused to honor the election
results.
3. SLORC has managed to survive through revenues generated by foreign
investments and by a market for export of the nation's natural resources.
Burton Levin, the former U.S. Ambassador to Burma, says that "foreign
investment in most countries acts as a catalyst to promote change, but the
Burmese regime is so single minded that whatever they might obtain from
foreign sources they pour straight into the army while the rest of the
country is collapsing."
4. Considering the deterioration of human living conditions in Burma,
where military generals have stolen an entire country's resources and is
stealing--enslaving--its population through force, the Commonwealth of
Massachusetts should not provide contracts to companies that do business
with this dictatorship government. The Commonwealth has a history of
assisting fledgling, democratic movements throughout the world. Burma
calls on our support now. We answer with this "selective purchase" bill.
We join the movement for the restoration of democracy in Burma and we agree
to lead the states of our nation in this movement.
5. Aung San Suu Kyi has been released --technically---however, as she
puts it. "apart from my release nothing else has changed." In fact, things
are again getting worse. The junta has committed well-known human rights
violations including the systematic murder, rape, and torture of civilians,
forced labor, drug trafficking and most recently the prohibition of a
national meeting by the NLD.
6. In apartheid South Africa international economic pressure was
effective in bringing democracy to all its citizens.
7. As Bishop Tutu says, "International pressure can change the
situation in Burma. Tough sanctions, not constructive engagement, finally
brought the release of Nelson Mandela and the dawn of a new era in my
country. This is the language that must be spoken with tyrants--for,
sadly, it is the only language they understand. The courageous, committed
witness of Burma's democratically elected leader, Aung San Suu Kyi ... is
an inspiration. We must ensure that because she is out of sight, she is
not therefore out of mind."
Today we take one more step to assure all the people of Burma that
although they are out of sight of the United States, Burma is not therefore
out of mind of all of us who believe in democracy.