Responding to Oil Company's
"Viewpoints on Sanctions"

Unocal, in support of their doing business with the criminal SPDC regime in Burma (the SPDC calls it Myanmar), has posted a web site entitled Unocal in Myanmar. Have you heard of the sanctions imposed by the United States? They only cover future investments in Burma, not current investments, not Unocal. Since Unocal has not divested and their page defending their presence in Burma is still online, let us see some balancing of viewpoints on sanctions against Burma: (Please note that some newspaper and other sources do not post articles forever, if a link here no longer works I apologize. When I notice such changes I will remove the link, but leave the reference in case someone wishes to try to find the article through their local library.)

  • First, the words of Nobel Peace Prize recipient Aung San Suu Kyi, herself: SUU KYI INTERVIEW (The Progressive Magazine-Leslie Kean,Dennis Bernstein)
  • The U.S. Department of Labor reported to Congress on labor practices in Burma: "Forced labor has been used to develop the infrastructure of the tourism industry and possibly the Yadana natural gas pipeline and to support military operations." (September 25, 1998)
  • U.S. Department of State Burma Country Report on Human Rights Practices for 1997 Released by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, January 30, 1998. Scroll passed such headings as "Political and Other Extrajudicial Killing" to Section 6, on worker rights.
  • Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright's Statement on Burma , July 27, 1998
  • A Washington Post editorial entitled Carrots and Sticks, published Monday, November 30, 1998; Page A24. "There is tough competition for the title, but perhaps no authoritarian regime in the world today is more brutal and benighted than the military dictatorship of Burma. That Southeast Asian nation has been condemned to live in poverty and fear by the thuggish, drug-tainted, corrupt generals who wield power."
  • The U.N. report to the general assembly on the situation of human rights in Myanmar.
  • An editorial from the San Francisco Chronicle, Nov. 11, 1998.
  • "Bill Clinton's moment on Myanmar", New York Times, March 24, 1997
  • A piece by Larry Dohrs of the Free Burma Coalition , entitled Counter Arguments to Unocal
  • "When Sanctions Make Sense", The Washington Post, Thursday, April 24 1997; Page A24
  • WSJ: EDITORIAL-THE BAD NEIGHBOR 18 November 96
  • "SLORC mistakenly claims that the right of non- interference in the internal affairs of a sovereign state is paramount to all other articles in the UN Charter. In our view, national sovereignty must descend from the people; sovereignty should not be used as a veil to hide human rights abuses." Dr. Sein Win to the Commission on Human Rights, 53rd Session, HR International Peace Bureau 9/4/97
  • A compilation of letters from U.S. members of congress, statements from President Clinton and Secretary of State Albright, and others. On Sanctions
  • International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions
  • Boston Globe (Op-Ed, Dennis Bernstein - Leslie Kean)
  • WHAT MORE REASON NEEDED FOR SANCTIONS AGAINST BURMA? 5 January 97 (WISCONSIN STATE JOURNAL-Denis Collins)
  • For a real laugh (or is it a cry?) visit Unocal's Statement of Principles.

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