Current French Political climate Ju

[dawnstar@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Subject: Current French Political climate June 1999/ TOTAL

Many of you may not know but here in France there is rejoicing among the
current Socialist regime about the current defeat of the Far Right, at
in the european elections. In fact, that's not really true. The French
national magazine that told you about TOTAL's recent financing of the
Burmese security army forces around their pipeline region, have Le Pen,
the Far Right candidate, front cover, calling it the End, the Death of
Le Pen. While political candidates fight for power here, left and right,
the far rightist faction has backed former minister of interior Charles
Pasqua, from Corsica, while on the far left, the greens have gained. And
so, the minister of the environment, Dominique Voynet, une Verte, has
asked for more ministrial power. Jospin says lets wait and see. In any
event, Dominique Voynet met last July with TOTAL's Thierry Desmarest and
his communicator, Joseph Daniel, no longer with the TOTAL FINA company,
somewhere else in government, and she hasn't raised a voice of protest
in support of Free Burma, against the TOTAL and French national
interests, however they may construe them to be at play here in the
Yadana pipeline investment. To date, there has not been any reported
congratulations to last week's ILO's defacto exclusion of the Burmese
junta from the United Nations organisation at Geneva. Nor has there been
any outcry against child labor as voiced by President Clinton, certainly
the scrouge of all labor violations. Perhaps in France it would be a
good time as any to ask the French environmentalist minister to raise a
hand now for Free Burma in support of the OIT decision.

Meanwhile, the genocide against the Mons, Shans, Karens and other ethnic
groups continues unabated under the watchful eyes of the French
ambassador at Rangoon, and his friends at TOTAL who nonetheless persist
with their fatuous denials and disinformation.

dawn star