BurmaNet News November 7 2002

[editor at burmanet.org]

November 7 2002 Issue #2118

INSIDE BURMA

Network Media Group: Burmese student demonstrator sentenced for 14-year
imprisonment
Bangkok Post: Burma rebuffs global pressure
DVB: Interview with Dr. Khin Mar Kyi Part II
SHAN: State charter designers seek increased cohesion
Irrawaddy: The worst of the worst: press freedoms in Burma
Narinjara News Settlements of the Kachin ceasefire groups in western Burma
Inter Press Service: UN report ignores worst offenders

DRUGS

Bangkok Post: Thailand braces for flood of 700 million “speed” pills from
Myanmar

PRESS RELEASE

FBC: Burmese-in-exile, democracy supporters call on largest US pension
fund to support human rights in Burma

____INSIDE BURMA________

Network Media Group
November 7 2002

Burmese student demonstrator sentenced for 14-year imprisonment

A Burmese student who conducted solo demonstration to urgently implement
the national reconciliation process and to release all political prisoners
in front of Rangoon City Hall last August, was sentenced for 14 years
imprisonment on November 5 in two separate charges, an exiled student
committee issued a news release yesterday.

Thet Naung Soe, a final year student of Law in Rangoon University, was
charged 14 years, 7 years each with the 1950 emergency provision act 5(d)
and 5(j).

"They shouldn't be imprisoned because of that action. This imprisonment
violates the human rights and all other rights of a citizen," said Min
Naing, the spokesperson of the foreign affair committee of All Burma
Federation of Student Unions (ABFSU).

Two students, Thet Naung Soe and Khin Maung Win, held solo demonstration
on August 18 in front of Rangoon City Hall, and were arrested and faced
trial in special court at Insein Prison Compound started on October 23.

Khin Maung Win, second year student from Rangoon University is still under
trial at the special court at Insein prison.

The national reconciliation process in Burma seems at halt, as there is no
obvious progress since release of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

According to Assistance Association for Political Prisoners in Burma,
there are still 1300 political prisoners in Burma though Burmese regime
released around 300 political prisoners in last two years.
____

Bangkok Post
November 7 2002

BURMA REBUFFS GLOBAL PRESSURE
By Larry Jagan

The UN special envoy to Burma, Razali Ismail, begins his latest mission to
Rangoon next week amid fears that the junta has no intention of talking to
Aung San Suu Kyi.

There is no doubt that this is going to be a crucial trip and some
diplomats in Rangoon believe it may even be a make or break visit for the
regime.

The UN rapporteur on human rights in Burma, Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, has
just told the United Nations General Assembly that though there has been
very slow progress by the regime over the past two years since he took up
his appointment on human rights, the international community must stay
engaged with the regime as there is no other realistic strategies that
will hasten political reform in the country.

It is this which Mr Razali will have to determine on his forthcoming trip.
The dialogue process between the opposition leader and the military
government has completely stalled,'' said a Western diplomat based in
Rangoon. And it will take all Ambassador Razali's skills as a diplomat and
negotiator to revive them.''

UN officials say Mr Razali is very upset that Burma's top generals have
still not started political talks with Ms Suu Kyi, leader of the
opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) despite the fact that they
promised that this would happen in a matter of weeks on his last visit to
Rangoon in August. He knows that much will be riding on this forthcoming
visit.

When Mr Razali was last in Rangoon one of Burma's top generals,
intelligence chief Lieutenant-General Khin Nyunt, told him that the talks
with the opposition leader would start within weeks and that several
hundred political prisoners would be released before his next visit.

Mr Razali had been expecting around 600 political prisoners to be released
by the end of the year.

But only a handful of political prisoners have been freed and no meeting
has taken place between Ms Suu Kyi and the top generals since his trip to
Burma in August.

UN officials say Mr Razali will be taking a tough line with the generals
on this visit. He's coaxed them, prodded them and appealed to their vanity
on previous trips,'' a senior diplomat in Rangoon said. But he'll have to
read the riot act to them this time.''

UN officials say Mr Razali will be telling the generals that they have
embarrassed him and made him lose face.

Mr Razali will certainly be asking the generals to explain why they
haven't kept their promises to meet Ms Suu Kyi and release a substantial
number of political prisoners.

Mr Pinheiro has also been pushing the regime on the issue of political
prisoners. They now agree there are more than 1,300 still in jail,'' he
told the Bangkok Post. This is a significant step forward, as previously
they'd insisted that there was only a few hundred political prisoners.''

Mr Pinheiro was told that the military authorities review each case on a
weekly basis. They also assured him that more prisoners will be freed soon
but that a mass amnesty was out of the question for security reasons.

This is an excuse that neither UN envoy accepts as credible. Privately Mr
Pinheiro told the Bangkok Post that he did not expect any real progress in
the dialogue process or on the release of political prisoners in the next
few months.

Mr Razali knows that he must insist on seeing Burma's top leader, General
Than Shwe, on his next visit and demand reasons for why the authorities
have not started constructive political negotiations with Ms Suu Kyi as
they promised. UN officials say Mahathir Mohammad, Malaysian prime
minister, saw Gen Than Shwe privately during the Asean summit in Phnom
Penh this week and urged him to see Mr Razali and take his message on
board.

Diplomats in Rangoon fear that the Burmese generals are now digging in
their heels as they feel the international community is distracted by the
issue of terrorism and the possibility of a war against Iraq.

They will certainly have been reassured by Asean's lack of interest in
Burma's internal situation during this week's summit. But they should not
be fooled as the West is growing increasingly impatient with the generals'
failure to even meet Ms Suu Kyi, let alone start substantive political
talks.

Mr Razali is certain to tell the generals that their inaction has not only
caused him to lose face internationally but has placed him in a very
vulnerable position. The clear message Mr Razali will be taking to Rangoon
is that the international community is prepared to reward the regime
substantially for significant political reform but that the international
community is growing impatient with its failure to start substantive
political talks with the opposition leader and is seriously considering
adopting tough economic sanctions. The problem is that the generals don't
seem to be listening to anyone at the moment.
________

Democratic Voice of Burma
November 7 2002

Interview with Dr Khin Mar Kyi Part II

Htet Aung Kyaw : Inside the cell, there is no mat. No pillow. Very cold
also. How did they look after your health?
Dr Khin Mar Kyi : Before ICRC came to see us, if something happened to us
and the doctors rarely came. They tended to give us medicines through
nurses or other women prisoners. They gave us medicines such as Ox tetra,
Paracetamol, Bamiton, which are no more in use these days. Whatever
happened, they gave us these medicines. We had to look after our health
and survive on these medicines. I also did exercises. I re-energised and
recharged myself. They did nothing to care for us fully. After the ICRC
came to see us things started to improve bit by bit.
Htet Aung Kyaw : As a doctor, they gave you the wrong medicines. How did
you feel about it?
Dr Khin Mar Kyi : As they didn't treat us like a human beings they treated
us with the attitude that they could give us any kind of medicine so later
on I didn't inform them of my condition. I did exercise on my own. I
meditate to ward off my sufferings and miseries.
Htet Aung Kyaw : As a doctor political prisoner, how do you see the health
care of the authority?
Dr Khin Mar Kyi : I don't understand whether the government authorities
have any policies or actions. I often wondered whether the people who were
in charge of prisoners' health regard saw us prisoners as human beings or
not. I often thought how hard their hearts would be. I often thought about
it. You must understand if I say this much.
Htet Aung Kyaw : The conditions in prison improved after the ICRC came.
Isn't it? There are some improvements after Mr Pinheiro of UN came to meet
prisoners they said. How do you see on the improvements? How far have
things improved?
Dr Khin Mar Kyi : When they were about to see us, [boiled] rice became
whiter. The curry became more palatable. When they went away, things
returned to normal. Sometimes, the rice they fed us was so stale that it
smelled of pig's shit and I had to eat it with my nostrils blocked and my
face averted. After the ICRC arrived, the foul-smelling rice was not fed
to us anymore. Before, they cooked the whole plant of watercress with
leaves, stems and roots all chopped up. I don't know how long they cooked
it, the whole thing was like pig's food; mashed. It stank. It was
unpalatable. After the arrival of ICRC, watercress was not cooked to the
point of disintegration. If you pick carefully, you could eat it. Things
improved. That's on the food front. Later we were allowed to read. I got
religious books published by Religious Ministry from my family when they
came to see me. When books arrived they checked them. Some books sent by
my family had to wait six to seven months before they reached me. Now that
I was allowed to read and compared to the previous occasions things were
much better and I was very happy. About medical treatments. Before doctors
didn't come to see us. Now, they came to see us sporadically. They took
blood pressure. By the way, they only took your blood pressures and weigh
you only if you are a member of the NLD. So a non-member like me, they
didn't weigh me.
Htet Aung Kyaw : What we thought was most of the people who were arrested
and [imprisoned] are mostly party members.
Dr Khin Mar Kyi : Among the people who were arrested, there were more
non-party members than party members. But if you look at the present
number of people like us who were imprisoned in Oh Pho Prison, there would
be two party members out of ten prisoners. When the ICRC arrived, they
also weighed us non-party members and things started to improve. When
medication time came, they would give us medicines whenever the ICRC
donated and left behind medicines. When they ran out of medicines, they
would give us ox tetra again like before. They started to use disposable
syringes. But we didn't get the permission to walk. We told ICRC that we
wanted to walk. They didn't give us the permission. We were allowed to
walk only during last August.
Htet Aung Kyaw : Political prisoners like you were allowed to see the ICRC
freely. Weren't you?
Dr Khin Mar Kyi : Yes. We were allowed to. When we met them no staff were
allowed to be near us. We could talk frankly. But they also told us the
assessments of the ICRC. The conditions in Mandalay Prison are the worst
in Burma for women prisoners.
Htet Aung Kyaw : You were allowed to read books. Only religious ones? Or
could you read other news like the meetings between the NLD and the SPDC?
Dr Khin Mar Kyi : We were allowed to read only religious books. Even
these, you could only read them only when they had checked them. If we
wanted to know we had to ask our family members came to see us. They also
told us not to talk about politics. If we did they would threaten us with
cancellation of meetings. If we talked more than that we were also
threatened with extension of punishments. So we didn't manage to ask that
kind of thing. I was very angry of the facts that I could not meet people
and could not read books in the cell.
____

Shan Herald Agency for News
November 7 2002

State charter designers seek increased cohesion

A three-day seminar of 8 state constitution think-tanks have resolved to
establish closer relations among themselves, according to the outcome of
get-together on the last day (6 November 2002).

In addition, it was recognized by the meeting of the importance to form
ties with the Federal Union Draft Constitution Committee that was set up
by the National Council of the Union of Burma, the umbrella organization
of most exiled dissident groups, that had already produced the first draft
since 1998.

The seminar, jointly organized by the Stockholm-based International
Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA) and the Supporting
Committee for State Constitutions (SCSC), also proposed 4 guidelines on
which each state constitution should be based: Federalism, Multi party
democracy, Protection of fundamental rights and Ethnic equality. "It
becomes clear that the ethnic nationalities are faced with two very
important challenges: to establish a genuinely federal union ... where
there is no Mother State (or a Pyi-Ma) and the question of ensuring ethnic
equality and rights, specifically within a multi-ethnic member state...",
said Chao Tzang Yawnghwe, one of the speakers and Chairman of the SCSC
which was formed on 27 August this year.

Nearly 40 representatives and resource persons participated in the second
seminar on State Constitutions held on the Thai-Burma border, 4-6
November.

"If international assistance is only for economic development but not for
political improvements, it will not help a country", said Sakuntala
Kadingamar-Rajasingham of IDEA, an intergovernmental organization with 17
member states, created in 1995 to assist third-world countries in dealing
with their political problems.

"IDEA is also considering engaging the military government of Burma
directly," she informed the participants.

So far, only 2 states have completed their "initial" draft: Karenni and
Chin. Karen, Mon and Arakan are still in the stage of producing their
first drafts. Shan, set up on 9 September 2000, is still going through
intensive popular survey trips and awareness raising activities. As for
Kachin and Burma, both have just come into being.

According to Sao Sengsuk, Chairman of the Constitution Drafting Commission
of Shan State, the whole exercise is aimed among others, to "building
pressure for the Tripartite Dialogue."

The meeting was participated by representatives from the following groups:
1. Arakan Constitution Drafting Committee;
2. Burma State Draft Constitution Study Group;
3. Kachin Constitution Drafting Committee;
4. Karen Constitution Drafting Committee;
5. Karenni Constitution Drafting Committee;
6. Mon Constitution Drafting Committee;
7. Constitution Drafting Commission of Shan State; and
8. Constitution Drafting Committee, National Council of the Union of Burma.
____________

Irrawaddy
November 7 2002

The Worst of the Worst: Press Freedoms in Burma
By Htet Aung Kyaw

While governments debate issues of taxation and free speech concerning the
Internet, and parents tackle the thorny topic of just what web sites are
suitable for their children, Burma’s military government has a 15 year
prison sentence awaiting those found accessing the world wide web without
proper permission.
The ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) did open up the
country’s first "Intranet" cafe earlier this year, where a selected number
of entertainment and non-political sites are available. But they remain a
long way away from allowing the Burmese populace to use something that
most of the world takes for granted.
Thirty journalists, who recently gathered in Cardiff, Wales—from countries
such as Sierra Leone, Cuba and Burma—expressed their dismay, along with
Burmese journalists inside and outside the country, at the continued
heavy-handed censorship in Burma.
A radio journalist from war torn Sierra Leone appeared almost shocked to
hear about the Burmese situation. "I don't understand why your country has
no public Internet," said Seneh Thoronka. "Our people are poor but our
media is rich." He added that although his country is continuing to bounce
back from a dirty civil war, they have free access to the Internet as well
as seven independent newspapers and eight independent FM radio stations.
"Even in my country, you can read every [web] page if you have enough
money," said broadcast journalist Arnoldo Diaz from Cuba.
Journalists in Southeast Asia say that even in a region where
authoritarian rule is the prevailing style of government, the lack of
access to media outlets in Burma is unparalleled. Abdul Raxak, a senior
correspondent from Malaysia’s New Strait Times, said: "Most neighbors have
free media. Even in my country the Internet is absolutely free''.
Malaysia, which continues to be controlled by Mahathir Mohammed, does not
have a reputation for being a bastion for press freedoms, but even there,
where other media outlets come under semi-government controls, the
Internet is widely available. One respected online newspaper is
Malaysiakini, however, Mahathir has yet to issue press cards to online
journalists.
A journalist from the British Broadcasting Company (BBC), who visits
Rangoon regularly, says Burma’s Intranet is only another propaganda tool.
"It's just for counter attacks to western media," said the BBC journalist,
who requested anonymity. "You can check The Myanmar Times, the New Light
of Myanmar and the government web page. I think it’s meaningless."
However, another BBC journalist, formerly a senior staffer at the New
Light of Myanmar, disagrees. "You can criticize government officials but
not to our colleagues."
He added that Burma has plenty of well-trained journalists who have never
been given the opportunity to use their skills, due to the government’s
strict controls. "They have
no chance to write their own views, only what the MI (military
intelligence) orders them to."
The Burmese government controls the country’s only two television stations
as well as one short wave and one FM radio station. The government also
owns two daily newspapers. Private journalists run a multitude of weekly
and monthly journals, however, all these must first pass through the
country’s infamous Press Scrutiny Board (PSB). The government controlled
media usually only show leaders of the military regime and their speeches,
while private journals are left to run women’s photos and astrological
predictions.
The former New Light of Myanmar journalist said, "I think TV Myanmar and
Radio are the only media in the world that just read hours of papers
without having attractions or reports from correspondents." He says he
blames the government for not trying "to learn what the audience wants to
know" and for not being in touch with other international media styles.
The only outlet Burmese residents have to news that is not controlled by
the junta comes from four short wave radio programs that broadcast daily
in Burmese—including the London-based BBC (Burmese Service), the
Washington DC-based Radio Free Asia (RFA) and Voice of America (VOA) as
well as the Oslo-based Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB). The programs are
beamed into Burma from relay towers based in third countries.
"I spend five hours a day listening to the transmissions. Because it's not
only a window to see outside but also to see inside the country," said a
veteran Rangoon journalist.
However, some have paid a hefty price for tuning into these illegal
broadcasts. Daw San San, an elected Member of Parliament from the
opposition National League for Democracy, was sentenced to seven years in
prison in 1998 for giving an interview to the BBC. And U Than Chaung, a
farmer from northern Burma, was sentenced to two years in prison for
listening to a VOA broadcast in 1999.
While Mr Leo Nichols, the former de facto consular for Norway and other
Scandinavian countries as well as the godfather of Aung San Suu Kyi, died
in detention under mysterious conditions after he was sentenced in 1996 to
three years in prison for using a fax machine without permission.
Even now, amidst calls for national reconciliation in Burma, the regime
continues to arrest and detain individuals for possessing illegal
literature. Two men were arrested in September for reading the New Era
Journal, which is published in Bangkok by Burmese dissidents. They remain
in custody, awaiting sentencing.
According to the Paris-based Reporter Sans Frontiers, at least
16-journalists are being detained in Burma. "Burma is one of the countries
of the world where the government has used a very large spectrum of
mechanisms and policies to oppress journalists and suppress freedom of
expression," says Vincent Brossel, director of the Asia-Pacific Desk at
RSF.
"As we usually say 'there is no freedom without press freedom'. But in the
case of Burma, we might say 'there will be no press freedom without
democracy," adds Mr Brossel.
______

Narinjara News
November 7 2002

Settlements of the Kachin ceasefire groups in western Burma

MEMBERS of a Kachin ceasefire group were brought into Rakhine State, in
the western part of Burma for settlement on 22nd October, according to our
correspondent.
A total of thirty three ethnic Kachin families from the northern part of
Burma were moved to be settled at Ngaraing-chaung model village under
Maungdw Township, bordering with Bangladesh.  The village formerly called
as Kathay model village, where a wide scale forced labour was used, has
been renamed as Ngaraing-chaung by the Burmese junta (SPDC).
The group leader of the thirty Kachin families is U Akru, and the second
leader is U Angki, and the third one is U Kunpa.
According to local sources, the members of the Kachin ceasefire group
brought for settlement carry guns and motorbikes with them, which show
that they have been brought to be kept as paramilitary forces to be used
for border surveillance and other military duties including guerrilla
warfare against dissident insurgent groups.
On 20th October, some Burmese settlers from Rangoon, the capital of Burma,
were also brought into the village.
A welcoming ceremony was arranged for the new settlers on 23th October. 
The village is situated at about 1.5 km from the Bangladeshi border, it
was learnt.
Before this batch of settlers, about one thousand families from Burma
proper have been settled by the Burmese junta in the area close to
Bangladesh.
_________

Inter Press Service
November 7 2002

UN Report Ignores Worst Offenders
By Thalif Deen

November 07, 2002—A soon-to-be released United Nations report on armies
that use child soldiers fails to name the world's top three offenders,
according to a coalition of groups that released its own report on the
issue Wednesday.
The UN report, prepared by Secretary-General Kofi Annan and scheduled to
be discussed by the Security Council on November 20, focuses instead on
the use of child soldiers in Africa, says a coalition member who has seen
the report.
Last year the Security Council adopted a resolution asking Annan to
compile a first-ever list of governments and non-state armed groups that
are using children in war.
But some of the countries with the most severe child soldier problems,
such as Burma, Colombia and Sri Lanka, are not included in Annan's report,
says Casey Kelso, coordinator of the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child
Soldiers.
The coalition's own report lists 72 parties to armed conflicts that
continue to use children in war and more than 25 others who have recruited
children in the past.
''We welcome the Security Council's initiative to review parties
recruiting and using child soldiers,'' Kelso told Inter Press Service
(IPS). ''But grave situations of children being pressed into the
frontlines of war may escape international scrutiny if ignored by the
Security Council.''
''This is not simply an African problem but takes place in Asia, Latin
America and elsewhere,'' he added.
The coalition reports that despite efforts by the United Nations to stop
the abuse of children in war, scores of armed rebel groups and even UN
member states in Asia, Africa, Latin America and Europe continue to
recruit and deploy child soldiers.
''These boys and girls are being used in defiance of international
standards,'' said Kelso.
The ''name and shame'' list was compiled after extensive research covering
more than 180 countries and territories during 1999 and September 2002,
says the coalition.
Last week the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) said that up to one-fourth of
the world's 300,000 child soldiers are serving in the East Asia and
Pacific region.
UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy said the use of children as
soldiers by governments and non-state armies should be recognized ''as an
illegal and morally reprehensible practice that has no place in civilized
societies''.
The coalition study describes Burma as the world's largest single user of
child soldiers, estimated at more than 70,000. ''Children as young as
eleven are forcibly recruited into Myanmar's (Burma) national army,''
Kelso said.
Ranking behind Burma is Colombia, which has an estimated 6,000 to 14,000
child soldiers. Boys and girls as young as eight years old are recruited
into armed groups, para-militaries and militias, the report says.
In Sri Lanka, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), which has been
battling a separatist war in the northeast, ''has a long record of using
child soldiers as well as a record of breaking commitments to end their
recruitment and use''.
The LTTE made the commitments to Olara Otunnu, UN special representative
for children and armed conflict, during his visit to Sri Lanka two years
ago.
Other countries where child soldiers are deployed either by governments or
armed groups include: Afghanistan, Angola, Burundi, Democratic Republic of
Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Israel and the Palestinian
Occupied Territories, Liberia, Nepal, Pakistan, Russia, Sierra Leone,
Sudan, Uganda and the former Yugoslavia.
The coalition, which includes Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International,
Defense for Children International, the Quaker United Nations Office and
the International Save the Children Alliance, is urging the 15-member UN
Security Council to make field visits ''to the gravest situations
threatening children''.
It says it is disappointed that Annan's report lists fewer situations
where governments or armed groups are using child soldiers. Most of them,
said Kelso, involve African countries.
The 1990 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) set the legal
minimum age for recruitment at 15. But an "Optional Protocol" to the CRC,
which came into force in February this year, outlaws the involvement of
children under 18 in any hostilities and sets strict standards for the
recruitment of those under 18.
Bellamy said member states ratifying the Optional Protocol ''is a crucial
first step in ending the recruitment of children for armed conflict and
their use as soldiers''.
Under the Protocol, governments are also charged with ensuring the
rehabilitation and reintegration of child soldiers, as well as protecting,
not punishing, them.
Last week UNICEF also released a new study, Adult Wars, Child Soldiers:
Voice of Children Involved in Armed Conflict in the East Asia and Pacific
Region. It said that research ''has clearly shown that thousands of
children are still being recruited—often by force—into state and non-state
armies in the region''.
''It is time for all parties to acknowledge this and work together with
UNICEF and other organizations to bring an end to this profound abuse of
children's rights,'' UNICEF said.

__DRUGS______

Bangkok Post
November 7 2002

Thailand braces for flood of 700 million "speed" pills from Myanmar

Clandestine methamphetamine laboratories in eastern Myanmar (Burma) have
stepped up production and are expected to flood Thailand with as many as
700 million of the "speed" pills next year, according to Thai government
figures published Thursday.

General Pallop Pinmanee, deputy director of Thailand's Internal Security
Operations Command, was quoted by the Bangkok Post as saying
drug-producing gangs, including ethnic Wa armed groups that control much
of eastern Myanmar's Shan state, had increased their production target 30
per cent over current levels. He said about 500 million methamphetamine
pills, known locally as "ya bah" or "crazy drug", had been smuggled into
Thailand last year.

The flow of illicit speed was expected to be about the same this year,
despite the interception of about 120 million of the pills by Thai
anti-drug authorities.

In another development, Chartchai Suthiklom, deputy secretary-general of
the Office of the Narcotics Control Board, said Wa drug gangs had hired
two Dutch chemists to assist in the production of Ecstasy along the
Thai-Myanmar border.

He said the so-called "rave" drug, which until recently had been imported
almost exclusively from Europe, was also now entering Thailand from labs
in Indonesia.

About 12,000 Ecstasy pills have been seized by Thai authorities so far
this year, up dramatically from previous years.


____PRESS RELEASES____-

Free Burma Coalition
November 7 2002

Burmese-in-Exile, Democracy Supporters Call on Largest U.S. Pension Fund to
Support Human Rights in Burma

Over 100 TIAA-CREF-holders Call for Unocal's Withdrawal From Burma, Dump
Singapore Tech. Stock

NEW YORK CITY and CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Members of New York's Burmese
community plan to protest outside TIAA-CREF's New York offices today to
call on the $260 billion pension fund to take action on two of its
investments which support Burma's ruling military junta. Burmese
democracy-advocates are calling for TIAA-CREF to use its influence to urge
the oil giant Unocal to break off its business with the junta, and they
also want TIAA-CREF to dump its shares in Singapore Tech-nologies, a
subsidiary of which is a key arms supplier for Burma's military. Their
demands are echoed by over 100 TIAA-CREF holders, who have signed an open
letter to the new Chairman and CEO, Herbert M. Allison, Jr.

The protest will occur simultaneous with the TIAA-CREF annual shareholder
meeting, this year being held in Charlotte, North Carolina, possibly moved
in an attempt to escape protests that dogged last year's meeting. Free
Burma Coalition members plan to attend the meeting and challenge the
TIAA-CREF board on its investments in Unocal, which is being sued for
human rights violations associated with its project in Burma, and
Singapore Technologies.

"Most people who have money in TIAA-CREF would be shocked if they knew
that their money was being used to make guns for Burma's military, or
going to a company on trial for rape and murder," says Zaw Win of the New
York Free Burma Coalition.

The open letter to TIAA-CREF signed by over 100 shareholders suggests that
Zaw Win is correct. Faculty from universities and colleges have joined
with high school and elementary school teachers and NGO workers in calling
on the administrators of their pension fund to end its complicity in human
rights atrocities in Burma. Signers include prominent professors such as
Noam Chomsky, Richard Falk, Father Robert Drinan, and Burma expert Josef
Silverstein.

"We recently learned that through our retirement funds invested in
TIAA-CREF, we have been made inadvertent supporters of the forced labor,
forced relocation, rape, torture, and murder of people living in the
Southeast Asian country of Burma," the letter states. "We do not want our
retirement funds, or any TIAA-CREF funds, to be generated from repression
and abuse."

The Free Burma Coalition will be joining other groups in the protest as
part of a larger movement calling for TIAA-CREF to "Get out of the bad;
get into the good" with its investments.

Another of the letter's signers, University of Pittsburgh Professor Dennis
Brutus, the anti-apartheid campaigner who spent time in prison on Robben
Island for opposing the racist apartheid government in South Africa, says,
"Not only interest, but the interests of the people must be borne in mind
when making sound and moral decisions."