ASIA SOCIETY INVITES BURMESE JUNTA,

[dohrs@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Subject: ASIA SOCIETY INVITES BURMESE JUNTA, BARS DISSIDENTS

Civil Society for Burma
www.csburma.org

For Immediate Release:

ASIA SOCIETY INVITES BURMESE JUNTA, BARS DISSIDENTS

New York City, Sept. 23, 1999 -- The Asia Society, a corporate-sponsored
group purporting to have an interest in Asian culture, is increasingly a
platform for anti-democratic allies of influential multinationals.

Tomorrow, September 24 at 8:30 am, the Asia Society will host a speech by
Win Aung, the Foreign Minister for Burma's ruling military junta.  It has
informed Burmese dissidents, including those who have previously been
imprisoned by the Burmese junta, that their seats at the event, purchased
days ago, may not now be available, due to "lack of space."

"The Asia Society seems eager to give the junta a platform, and to shut
out the voices of the majority of Burmese people, who want democracy,"
says Htun Aung Gyaw of Civil Society Burma.  "They have never invited our
leader, (Nobel Peace Laureate) Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, to address them, nor
have they invited other pro-democracy Burmese.  Why?"

Asia Society member of the Board of Directors Roger Beach is Chairman of
the Board of the Unocal Corporation.  Unocal is a partner of the Burmese
junta in a gas pipeline project.  The U.S. Department of Labor found that
Unocal likely benefited from the use of forced labor on that project. See
http://www.dol.gov/dol/ilab/public/media/reports/ofr/burma/main.htm .
Unocal has long been critical of the Burmese democracy movement and its
call for sanctions against the junta.

The Burmese military junta has closed Burmese universities for nearly
three years.  It has steadily decreased educational and health spending,
while expanding the size of the army and buying more than $1 billion worth
of weapons.  In June, it was de-facto expelled from the International
Labour Organization, which concluded after a three year investigation that
the junta uses forced labor in a systematic and ongoing manner.

"It is a slap in the face of the 45 million Burmese people who have
sacrificed to gain democracy, to invite a high-level junta leader and
treat him as an honorable man," says Htun Aung Gyaw, who spent five years
as a political prisoner under military rule in Burma.  "In fact, this man
is responsible for crimes against humanity, and must be held accountable."

The UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights concludes as much.  His 1998
report on human rights conditions in Burma stated, "The Special Rapporteur
is deeply concerned about the serious human rights violations that
continue to be committed by the armed forces in the ethnic minority areas.
The violations include extrajudicial and arbitrary executions (not sparing
women and children), rape, torture, inhuman treatment, forced labour and
denial of freedom of movement. These violations have been so numerous and
consistent over the past years as to suggest that they are not simply
isolated or the acts of individual misbehavior by middle- and lower-rank
officers but are rather the result of policy at the highest level,
entailing political and legal responsibility."

Contact:	Ko Ko Aung, Civil Society for Burma, 718-714-6828
                  Tin Win Thein, Civil Society for Burma, 212-932-2268
                  Edith Mirante, Project Maje, 503-226-2189