EBO BURMA NEWS 29 JULY 2003



News Summary:

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1. Bush signs new Myanmar sanctions, pledges to stand with Aung San Suu Kyi

2. US condemns latest anti-Suu Kyi claims

3. Firefighters to shed Burma jackets

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Bush signs new Myanmar sanctions, pledges to stand with Aung San Suu Kyi


by Stephen Collinson

 

WASHINGTON, July 28 (AFP) - President George W. Bush on Monday imposed tough new sanctions on Myanmar's crippled economy, vowing Americans would not desert opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi in her struggle for democracy.

 

Bush signed the Burmese Freedom and Democracy Act of 2003, which garnered huge majorities in the House of Representatives and the Senate two weeks ago.

 

"The world must make clear, through word and deed, that the people of Burma, like people everywhere, deserve to live in dignity and freedom, under leaders of their own choosing," said Bush in a statement.

 

He said the move was a "clear signal" to Myanmar's generals that they must release Aung San Suu Kyi, arrested in May, and move towards democracy."

 

The sanctions, which go into force in a month, include a ban on all imports from Myanmar, and are aimed especially at the crucial textiles trade in an economy teetering on the brink of collapse.

 

"By denying these rulers the hard currency they use to fund their repression, we are providing strong incentives for democratic change and human rights in Burma," Bush said.

 

The legislation also authorizes the president to aid Myanmar democracy activists, freezes the regime's financial assets in US banks and property in the United States, and widens a visa ban on Myanmar officials.

 

"The United States will not waver from its commitment to the cause of democracy and human rights in Burma," said Bush.

 

The new law won a warm welcome in Congress, where the rulers of Myanmar, the former Burma, have few friends.

 

"The sanctions legislation signed into law today by President Bush is a tough measure, but no tougher than Burma's ruling thugs deserve," said Democrat representative Tom Lantos, a co-author of the legislation.

 

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US condemns latest anti-Suu Kyi claims

 

ABC News

 

Tuesday, July 29, 2003

 

The United States has unleashed a new attack on Burma's military junta over "outrageous" claims that detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi plotted to seize power.

 

"They made some accusations about Aung San Suu Kyi undermining democracy that are just absolutely outrageous and fly in the face of the facts," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said.

 

"The onus for failure to establish genuine dialogue is clearly on the side of the junta."

 

Burma's ruling corps of generals said that events surrounding Aung San Suu Kyi's arrest proved her National League for Democracy's "strategy to plot the Downfall of the existing Government".

 

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Firefighters to shed Burma jackets

 

Vancouver Sun

 

Matthew Ramsey

 

Tuesday, July 29, 2003

 

The president of Vancouver's firefighters' union says he and most unionized firefighters will no longer wear the department's winter jacket should allegations the jacket supplier ordered the coats from a manufacturer in a rogue nation be true.

 

The B.C. Ethical Purchasing Group says the jackets the city of Vancouver ordered from Evin Industries Ltd. were made in Burma, a country under military dictatorship and notorious for human rights abuses and shoddy labour practices.

 

Firefighter union president Rod McDonald supplied jacket labels to the Ethical Purchasing Group indicating the garments were made in Myanmar, the name given to Burma by its ruling military junta.

 

McDonald said Burma's reputation for using sweatshop labour and the political situation in that country make the $180 coat seem too ethically and morally expensive.

 

"[If true,] we would not want to wear these jackets. I've made up my mind I won't wear the jacket," McDonald said. "Getting a deal on a coat -- that's pretty much a total abandonment of any morals and ethics Canadians stand for."

 

Vancouver fire department deputy chief Bob Smith, who is in charge of clothing for the department, said the department's winter jackets come from Evin and another Vancouver-based supplier and that roughly half of the city's 815 firefighters have opted for the Evin jacket.

 

Smith said the department has a standing order with Evin to keep about 200 of the jackets in stock and has used the company's jackets for about six years.

 

Reached late Monday, Smith was not able to provide the exact amount spent on Evin jackets or the precise number worn by city firefighters.

 

But Smith said Vancouver is pursuing another contract with a different company for jackets.

 

Bill Saunders, president of the Vancouver and District Labour Council (which is part of the recently-formed B.C. Ethical Purchasing Group), said the city of Vancouver should follow the lead of Toronto, Windsor and Halifax and enact a "No Sweat" policy. Such a policy would require companies supplying products to the city at taxpayer expense to ensure those products are ethically produced and meet minimum standards established by the UN's International Labour Organization (ILO).

 

"This public tax money is being used to purchase an unethical product," Saunders said, adding that because the jacket is part of the Vancouver fire department uniform, firefighters don't really have much of a choice but to buy and wear it.

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