L.A. Free Burma Law Passes Committe

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Subject: L.A. Free Burma Law Passes Committee - Press Release


         PRESS RELEASE
October 21, 1998                                               Contact:
Kevin Rudiger (310)399-0703
"Free Burma" Ordinance Passes L.A. City Council Committee

Los Angeles -- Despite intense opposition from L.A.-based UNOCAL, human
rights advocates won a major victory yesterday as the Intergovernmental
Relations Committee of the Los Angeles City Council voted to move the
proposed Free Burma ordinance forward.  The ordinance would limit the
ability of business partners of the military regime in Burma, such as
UNOCAL, to receive City contracts.   From here the ordinance will move to
the Budget and Finance committee before moving to the full council for a
vote.

Jack Rafuse, lobbyist for UNOCAL, testified for the company at the hearing
and exchanged heated comments with members of the Burma Forum who were on
hand to support the proposed law.    Attempting to de-legitimize claims of
human rights atrocities in connection with UNOCAL?s pipeline project, Mr.
Rafuse insisted, "none of these people have ever been to Burma!"  In
response, the many Burmese-exiles in attendance, most of whom had first-hand
experience of the human rights atrocities in Burma, stood and spoke the
brutality they had experienced under Burma?s military regime.

Councilmember Holden, chair of the committee, and the only member in
attendance appeared swayed by the recent report from the U.S. Department of
Labor which cites a ?preponderance of evidence? of the use of forced labor
on the gas pipeline project which UNOCAL is involved with in partnership
with the military regime in Burma.    ?UNOCAL just has no ground to stand
on.    The evidence of human rights atrocities in connection with their
pipeline project are overwhelming and are now documented by the U.S.
government,? said Kevin Rudiger of the Burma Forum, Los Angeles.   ?Given
the seriousness of the situation in Burma, we are hopeful that the ordinance
will now move forward quickly.?

"The human rights record of the Burmese junta is one of the worst in the
world.   The people of Los Angeles do not want our tax dollars connected to
this type of unspeakable brutality," said Councilmember Richard Alarcón (7th
District) who introduced the motion more than a year ago.

Burma's military dictatorship has been widely condemned by organizations
including Amnesty International, the US State Department and the United
Nations. The level and scope of human rights abuse has been widely
documented and is enormous. It includes arrest and torture of students for
peaceful expression of hopes for democracy, gang rape of ethnic women seized
by soldiers to act as porters, burning and forced relocation of villages in
the path of road and railroad development. The Burmese military has also
come under harsh criticism as the source of 90 percent of the total
production of Southeast Asian opium.

Similar ordinances have been passed in 22 U.S. cities, including New York
City, which recently passed their ordinance with a 50-0 vote. In California,
the cities of San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley, Santa Monica, Santa Cruz,
and West Hollywood as well as Alameda County have all enacted selective
contracting laws for Burma.

The Clinton Administration announced sanctions more than a year ago, placing
a ban on all new investment by U.S. corporations. More than a dozen U.S.
corporations have already withdrawn from Burma in response to public
pressure with the L.A.-based oil giant, ARCO withdrawing just last month.
However, a few large U.S. companies, including L.A. based UNOCAL continue to
invest there.

A 100 member coalition of local community leaders and organizations has come
together to support City restrictions on contracts with companies investing
in Burma. Supporters include a dozen labor unions and and the Los Angeles
County Federation of Labor, more than twenty religious leaders and religious
organizations, and drug treatment and prevention organizations such as the
Community Coalition for Substance Abuse Prevention and Change.
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