Dutch ABN AMRO

[burma@xxxxxxxxx]

Lately, pressure on the Dutch ABN AMRO bank has been rising. The campaign
"Let?s talk business: Democracy for Burma!", which is being held in the
Netherlands, has concluded that the bank is investing in Burma in several
ways. What will follow is our correspondence with ABN AMRO, a list of her
subsidiaries in the United States and some other interesting things. If you
need any other information don?t hesitate to call/write/fax/mail. Hope the
translations are all right. Enjoy the reading. 

This is the letter we send to the bank in the beginning of our campaign,
dated March 28th, 1997.

XminY Solidarity Fund and Burma Centre Netherlands are concerned about
trading and investment relations of foreign companies in Burma. Your
company is listed in a report written by the Investor Responsibility
Research Centre in Washington (January 20th, 1997). This institute has made
a list of companies which have trading relations with Burma. According to
our information, ABN AMRO has an office in Rangoon on the Bogwoke Aung San
Road. Furthermore, your company is investing in a goodsstorage project in
Burma.

As you might know, the European Union announced sanctions against Burma on
March 24th, by not longer granting the country with lower import tariffs.
The Union is concerned about the structural violations of human rights by
the Burmese junta.

The democratically chosen opposition repeatedly requested international
companies not to be active in Burma. We support her call and ask you to
postpone your investments in Burma for this moment. The revenues of these
relations will not go to the population and furthermore, your trading
relation with the junta is supplying them (unnecessary) legitimacy.

We would appreciate a reaction from you. We would like to make an
appointment to further elaborate our point of view. For more information
you can reach us under....
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When they didn?t react we send them another letter, a bit more detailed
this time (June 3rd).

In this letter we would like to inform you about ABN AMRO?s involvement
with investment projects in Burma. In a letter dated March 28th, send to?..
we already informed you about these investments. ABN AMRO?s involvement
shows itself in, among others, the following facts:
1. ABN AMRO has an office in Rangoon, room no. 702-703 FMI Centre, 380
Bogyoke Aung San Road, Yangon. Telephone no. 95-1-240276, Fax. 95-1-240282.
2. In ABN AMRO Business Supporter of April 1997, there is a recommendation
of an investment project in Burma; the ?Rojana Industrial Estate?.
3. ABN AMRO has a 60,5% stake in HG Asia. HG Asia, together with Finansa,
owns Frontier Fund Management (FFM). Furthermore, HG Asia is supplying
Finansa with two directors, George Morgan and David Roberts. FFM is
managing the Southeast Asia Frontier Fund and the Vietnam Frontier Fund.
Through these funds ABN AMRO is investing in the Monywa coppermine and the
Bawdin lead, zinc and silvermines.

We are really concerned about ABN AMRO?s activities in Burma and would like
clarification about your present and future activities in Burma. We also
request ABN AMRO and her subsidiaries to end all trading activities in
Burma, you will find our arguments included. So far we didn?t get a reply
on our letter of March 28th. As such, we shall consider our information
true from now on....
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When they still didn?t react we planned a demo in front of an ABN AMRO
office in the middle of the centre of Amsterdam, damsquare. Date was set on
June 11th.

We were with about ten people. One dressed as an ABN AMRO representative,
one as a SLORC general, one as a SLORC soldier, two as forced labourers
(actually wearing long-yi?s and chains around their feet), one as ?the
opposition? having a cloth covering her mouth and some people handing out
leaflets and holding up a banner. There was also a big army jeep on which
we put a lot of bags filled with ?heroine?. Then we started to play a
little scene in which the SLORC general and the ABN representative were
being extremely friendly to each other and giving each other heroine. The
SLORC soldier was screaming and yelling to the two forced labourers, who
were carrying big rocks and the opposition just stood there, not able to
say anything. Within a couple of minutes the local ABN boss came outside
and said he wasn?t to pleased with our demo?? 
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On June 18th the bank called and said they were writing us a letter. We
received this letter on July 14th (it was dated July 3rd).  

In this letter we react to your letter dated June 3rd, concerning
activities of ABN AMRO in Burma in which you gave a detailed enumeration of
our supposed involvement in Burma. We would like to react to these points.

1. ABN AMRO office in Rangoon. Halfway 1995 ABN AMRO decided to open a
representative office in Rangoon, based on the expectation that the
economical and political developments in the country would lead to an
increase of foreign investments and, therefore in a later phase would
justify opening a full office. Unfortunately the developments, after the
official opening in February 1996, are not what we expected them to be and
therefore we didn?t upgrade our representative office so far. As you might
know, a representative office is not allowed to undertake any commercial
activities and so has to be seen as an ?information gatherer? who can
inform us and interested clients about the situation in Burma.
2. Recommendation investment project in Burma, noted in ABN AMRO Business
Supporter. In ABN AMRO Business Supporter we just state newsfacts and not
recommendations. We do this for the entire world without noting political
considerations. Our clients have to decide in which countries they do or do
not want to be active.
3. Investments ABN AMRO in Burma through HG Asia. 
· HG Asia is only a minority holder in Finansa (31%) and Frontier Fund
Management (FFM, 30%). Furthermore, these investments were done before ABN
AMRO took stake in HG Asia.
· Contrary to what is in your letter, FFM doesn?t manage the Southeast Asia
Frontier Fund (SEAFF) and the Vietnam Frontier Fund (VVF), she is just
investment-advisor. Every investment proposal has to be approved of by the
board (6 and 7 members resp.) of each fund. In both boards only one member
is coming from HG Asia. So, HG Asia?s influence on investment decisions is
extremely limited.
· ABN AMRO itself has not invested in one of these funds. The investors are
big institutional investors who have their own reasons to invest in these
funds.
· Finally you say that the SEAFF and the VFF have invested in the Monywa
coppermine and the Bawdin lead, zinc and silvermines. The situation however
is that the VFF invested in Indochina Goldfields in 1994. In 1995,
Indochina took over the interest in Burma from Robert Friedland. VFF is
only a passive investor in Indochina Goldfields and doesn?t have management
control over this company. Furthermore, the rules of the Toronto stock
exchange forbid VFF, until recently, to sell shares of a company in which
it had invested. SEAFF invested in the Australian company DMR which, after
that, acquired a 50% stake in Mandalay Mining. This company has the right
to do a feasibility study with respect to the commercial returns of the
Bawdin Mines. If the conclusion of this study is positive, the company can
negotiate about further rights with the ?Ministry of Mines?. At this moment
however, there is still no investment in Burma and it is very uncertain if
there will ever be one, since Mandalay Mining acquired a proportional stake
in goldmines in Ghana, which can be seen as an indication that the Bawdin
mine is seen as not being profitable.

We think that with these facts we have been able to take away your concerns
about our activities in Burma?..
-----------------------------------------------------------

This is where we are now. We did of course investigate some things (our
concerns were not taken away) which I will summarise below.

ABN AMRO has 60,5% of HG Asia. Finansa is owned by HG Asia for 31%. 9% is
owned by Asia Securities Trading (AST, in which HG Asia has 35%) and 60% is
owned by directors and staff. Two directors of Finansa are coming from HG
Asia and a third is coming from AST. Frontier Fund management is owned for
70% by Finansa and for 30% by HG Asia. HG Asia is never a majority owner
but seems to be omnipresent. To give an example: HG Asia director George
Morgan was actually in the United States trying to convince some big
institutional investors to invest in the SEAFF. So denying that ABN AMRO
has no influence in the investment decisions of these funds is based on
nothing.

About DMR and her feasibility study. According to Mine Watch, the fact that
DMR printed results of their feasibility study means that they will go on
in Burma. The fact that they acquired a stake in goldmines in Ghana doesn?t
mean anything at all.

About the VFF. Not only Indochina Goldfields (which owe their success on
the Toronto Stock Exchange for a part to the VFF) but also Northbridge is
investing in Burma with the help of the VFF. This company is building an
international school in Rangoon. 

Concluding: ABN AMRO is active in Burma and at the moment we are actually
investigating some other things about the bank regarding Burmese investments.
-------------------------------------------------------------

Also very interesting are the selective purchase laws in the United States.
ABN AMRO is quite present in the States, so I will give you some
information about American subsidiaries.

ABN AMRO North America Inc. 
ABN AMRO Securities (USA) Inc.
LaSalle Bank (LaSalle National Bank, LS National Corporation, LS Northwest
National Bank)
European American Bank Inc.

ABN AMRO Bank Canada

The bank has offices in some interesting cities, qua selective purchasing
laws that is: Boston and San Francisco.

Recently ABN AMRO bought the Standard Federal Bancorporation, located in
Troy, Michigan. Standard Federal Bank is a subsidiary and has branches in
Michigan, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio. They also own the 'Intertrust
Wholesale Lending Division', located in Ann Arbor, Michigan! 

It looks rather promising.
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Below I will translate some interesting information. The first is a
translation of an article in the Volkskrant, a respected Dutch newspaper.
The second are quotes from the leaders of the two Dutch trade unions.

Dutch banks strengthen position: The Dutch banks climbed on the worldlist
last year. ABN AMRO now is, measured by market-value, the fourteenth bank
in the world. This is according to the financial magazine Euromoney.
Rabobank (25) and ING Bank (44, also active in Burma, ed.) also took a leap
forward on the list??

?Huge foreign investors have an important task in the development of the
economy in third-world countries. That is why the FNV is careful concerning
calls not to invest. This is different if the population of a country
itself chooses a strategy in which foreign companies are asked not to
invest. The democratic opposition in Burma chooses this strategy to make an
end to the systematical oppression of the population, to make an end to
forced labour, child labour and the oppression of democratic trade unions.
The call from the democratic opposition should be heard by Dutch companies.
The FNV will make an effort, as she did with the Heineken investments, to
convince Dutch companies that investing in Burma under these circumstances
is wrong?. Lodewijk de Waal, Chairman FNV.

?I would like to make an agreement with employer-organisations in which we
agree upon the fact that Dutch companies will not longer be active in
countries where human rights and trade union rights are systematically
violated. Burma is one of these countries. That?s why I support the
campaign ?Let?s talk business: Democracy for Burma!?. How can anybody do
business with Burma? Not even in a time of business, pursuit of gain and
market, market, market?. Anton Westelaken, Chairman CNV.
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As you can see, we do have a lot of information and support.  Should any of
you want to use it, feel free. If anyone can find some new information
about ABN AMRO we are naturally very interested, so let us know.  
Kind regards,

Members of the campaign "Let's talk business: Democracy for Burma!"