NEWS - New York Demonstration Again

[dawnstar@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Subject: Re: NEWS - New York Demonstration Against UNOCAL

Great. This must have attracted the attention of thousands of Fifth
Avenue Xmas shoppers, most of them out of town people. And
international. Well done. ds 

Rangoon Post Co-Editor wrote:
> 
> Title: New York Demonstration Against UNOCAL
> Date: 11-DEC-99
> Author: Ko Zaw Win
> Source: thuwai@xxxxxxxxxxx (Thu Wai)
> Style: Action Update
> Reference: None
> 
> Today, New Yorkers, Democratic Burmese students, and various American
> activist groups joined together in front of the Plaza Hotel at 5th
> Avenue
> and 59th Street corner, Manhattan, New York to demonstrate at the U.S
> Oil
> Company, UNOCAL's  share holder meeting. We are protesting UNOCAL
> because
> they are doing business with the Burmese military junta.
> 
> Their deal with Burmese military regime will strengthen the military
> dictatorship and destroy our democracy movements, national resources,
> and
> environment.
> 
> Summary
> 
> Unocal, a California Oil corporation, is involved in a joint-venture
> with
> the junta to extract and transport natural gas using a pipeline from the
> undersea Yadana field located off Burma's coast. The Pipeline runs for
> 218
> miles and crosses from southern Burma's Tenasserim region to neighboring
> Thailand. UNOCAL is a 28.26% shareholder in this project.
> 
> The pipeline area is the homeland of the Karan, Mon and Tavoyan peoples.
> These ethnic minorities have been under attack by the junta's troops
> which
> are seeking to suppress rebellion and use civilians for forced labor on
> army
> projects. To completely control the pipeline region, thousands of people
> have been forcibly relocated from their homes and farms were destroyed
> by
> the junta's troops.
> 
> This project is connected to some of Burma's worst human rights
> violations.
> 
> The pipeline traverses through a variety of ecosystems including dense
> tropical forest, disrupting the habitat of rare animals such as tigers,
> rhinos and elephants.
> 
> This entire region is a war zone due to the ethnic peoples need to
> defend
> themselves against SPDC (Burmese Junta) atacks, making the region highly
> unstable. The projectal also destroyed wetland areas and demolished a
> wide
> swath of forest. UNOCAL are accountable for this environmental
> destruction,
> and are showing disrespect to local people.
> 
> Unocal and others partners {France with 32.24%, the Petroleum Authority
> of
> Thailand with 25.5%, and the Myanmar(BURMESE)Oil and Gas Enterprise
> (MOGE)
> with 15%} will get $400 million annually from Thailand for the this
> project.