Visit our website: HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --------------------------------------------- Subj: Burma and Bin Laden Date: 9/16/01 4:50:35 PM Mountain Daylight Time From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Jeremy Woodrum) Reply-to: jeremy@. freeburmacoalition.org To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Free Burma Action News: UNOCAL's Efforts to Support the Taliban ========================================================= Quote of the Day: "Reuters also reports that Unocal has spent $10-15 million in an effort to bring a natural gas pipeline across Afghanistan. The Taliban was quoted as saying that it would refuse to hand over international terrorist Osama Bin Laden, 'even if the US proved he was responsible" for embassy bombings in Africa.'" Quote from FBC Press Release, 1998 ========================================================= 1) Free Burma Coaliton Press Release, September 1 1998 2) RIGHTS: Company Sacrifices Women for Oil, say Groups Interpress Service (1998) 3) Think globally, act ethically, by Jack Beatty, June 10, 1998 ========================================================= Editor's Note: It's a reality of those working for freedom and democracy in Burma that we are forced to repeatedly confront one of the world's most abusive oil companies that a U.S. federal court says is responsible for massive human rights violations inside Burma. Lest anyone forget though, U.S. based UNOCAL oil company has for many years attempted to expand its circle of repression even more globally. In 1998, the Feminist Majority launched a campaign to prevent UNOCAL from signing a deal to build an oil pipeline across Afghanistan in coalition with the Taliban. Only after a massive public relations effort joined by many leading activists incuding FBC did UNOCAL back down. The PR campaign likely had little to do with UNOCAL's ultimate decision as it spent millions of dollars and even funded a research project for the deal at the University of Nebrasia: only after Osama bin Laden organized the bombing of the two U.S. embassies in Africa did UNOCAL forced to pull back from the deal. Reuters reported that the company spent $10-$15 million trying to arrange the deal and lobbying for the Taliban in the United States. =================================================== Rogue Oil Company Undermines US Foreign Policy Free Burma Coalition Press Release, September 1, 1998 Los Angeles, September 1 -- Human rights groups and foreign policy analysts are increasingly concerned that the Unocal corporation is actively undermining US foreign policy initiatives and interests. The company is closely linked to two foreign regimes tied to international narcotics trafficking and forced labor. Unocal is the only large US corporation still in partnership with Burma's military junta. Many other US corporations -- including Arco, Texaco and Amoco -- have cut their ties to the Burmese military. US policy calls for the economic and political isolation of the Burmese junta because of human rights violations, suppression of democracy, and the world's largest exports of heroin, but Unocal persists in a pipeline project that will funnel hundreds of millions of dollars annually to the military junta. The International Labor Organization in Geneva reports that the junta "treat(s) the civilian population as an unlimited pool of unpaid forced laborers and servants at their disposal." Villagers who refuse summons for forced labor must pay soldiers for replacements, or are subject to murder, rape, beatings, and torture. Unocal President John Imle acknowledged in a sworn deposition in a lawsuit in federal court that forced labor has been used along the pipeline route. An article in The Nation magazine asserts that Unocal's pipeline partner, the Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE) is the main conduit for the laundering of drug money by the junta. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright has said, "Burma's drug traffickers, with official encouragement, are laundering their profits through Burmese banks and companies -- some of which are joint ventures with foreign businesses." The State Department reports that Burma exports 60% of the heroin found on US streets. Unocal shareholders from the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers Union (OCAW) have asked the company to investigate the money laundering allegations. "Uncovering the truth may mean that Unocal bears direct responsibility for the rise in heroin use in the US," says the OCAW. "Unocal's partnership with the junta has encouraged the generals to stay in power, waiting for their big petroleum pay-off," says author and Burma expert Edith Mirante. "Unocal is undermining US Government efforts to pressure Burma for democracy and narcotics control." Afghanistan is the world's second leading producer of heroin. As in Burma, Unocal has close ties with the oppressive Taliban regime. The international news service Reuters reports that Unocal has flown Taliban leaders to the US for meetings, and advocated for recognition of the Taliban by the US Government. The Taliban is widely regarded as the worst violator of women's rights in the world, banning both employment and education for women and girls. Reuters also reports that Unocal has spent $10-15 million in an effort to bring a natural gas pipeline across Afghanistan. The Taliban was quoted as saying that it would refuse to hand over international terrorist Osama bin Laden, "even if the US proved he was responsible" for embassy bombings in Africa. Unocal then announced that it has "suspended all activities" involving the Afghan pipeline. The US-based Feminist Majority notes that, "Unocal has 'suspended,' not ended its involvement in Afghanistan, and it has not conditioned its pipeline participation on the restoration of human rights to women and girls." "The Burmese junta and the Taliban oversee the vast majority of heroin exported around the world. They both violate fundamental human rights. Both regimes actively oppose US foreign policy positions. And they each receive tangible financial and lobbying support from the Unocal corporation. These facts translate into unacceptable corporate behavior far outside the norm. Unocal is a rogue corporation that must be stopped." says U Bo Hla Tint of the National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma (NCGUB), the country's democratic government in exile. ====================================================== RIGHTS: Company Sacrifices Women for Oil, say Groups By Danielle Knight WASHINGTON, June 1 (IPS) - Women's rights organisations accused a U.S. oil company Monday of entering into a business partnership with the Taliban government of Afghanistan, depite its record of human rights abuses against women and girls. ''Stop sacrificing women and girls for oil,'' said Kathy Spillar, national coordinator for the organisation Feminist Majority. ''We demand that UNOCAL cease all business dealings with the oppressive Taliban regime until women's and girls' full human rights have been restored.'' Spillar and representatives of other Washington-based groups, including the National Organisation for Women the Women's Alliance for Peace and Freedom in Afghanistan, protested outside UNOCAL's annual shareholders meeting in California. ''If it proceeds, UNOCAL will be doing nothing less than providing hundreds of millions of dollars in royalties to keep a brutal regime going - funding the continued oppression of half the population of Afghanistan,'' Smeal declared. UNOCAL, however, denied all charges that it was dealing with the Taliban. ''UNOCAL will not conduct business with any party in Afghanistan until peace is achieved and a government recognized by international lending agencies in place,'' said an official at the company's headquarters in Los Angeles. Since the fundamentalist Islamic Taliban seized control of the Afghanistan capital Kabul in September 1996, women and girls have been forbidden to work outside the home, all schools and universities have been closed to female students who have been forced to be completely veiled. Women who have defied these orders reportedly have been shot or stoned. The United States, the European Union and the United Nations said they wqould not recognise the Taliban until women's rights were fully restored. The World Bank also decided not to work with the country to fund development projects. While the oil giant denied working with the Taliban, women's groups said that, according to media reports in France and Britain, a delegation of high ranking Taliban officials met with UNOCAL in Texas in December to discuss the building of a pipeline. ''UNOCAL is part of a consortium (CENTGAS) that is negotiating with the Taliban to build a multi-billion dollar oil and gas pipeline across Afghanistan,'' said a statement distributed by women's organisations at the protest in California. Besides UNOCAL, the CENTGAS consortium includes Hyundai of South Korea, Crescent of Pakistan, and others. In February, company representatives allegedly visited Kabul for four days where they held talks with Taliban authorities on oil and gas exploration in the country. After a delegation from CENTGAS visited Afghanistan, Mawlawi Ahmad Jan the Taliban mines and industries minister - said thatb preparations to build the pipeline should begin by the end of 1998. UNOCAL had entered a one million dollar contract with the University of Nebraska to train workers in Afghanistan specifically for pipeline construction, Christine Onyango, a research associate at the Feminist Majority declared. ''Why would UNOCAL make such an investment in training workers if they are not planning on working with the Taliban?,'' she said. The University had no immediate comment on the allegations. ''How can UNOCAL which says it is 'committed to improving the lives of the people wherever (it) operates' conduct business with the brutal Taliban regime?'' asked Mavis Leno, a writer and community activist in Los Angeles who testified at a Washington forum on violations of women's rights in Afghanistan. ''Many women and girls have been stoned and shot for violations of the horrendous edicts by the Taliban,'' she added. ''Yet, UNOCAL has continued to negotiate and deal with the Taliban.'' ''We cannot stand silently by as Afghan women become victims of inhumane gender apartheid,'' said Eleanor Smeal, president of Feminist Majority, UNOCAL has also been criticized by human rights groups and pro- democracy activists in Burma for allegedly providing the Burmese government with 150 million dollars annually for helping to construct a pipeline. This money, says Nobel Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, who is currently under house-arrest, will ''only serve to entrench the regime'' widely known for human rights abuses. ========================================================== Think globally, act ethically by Jack Beatty June 10, 1998 The chairman of Unocal, a huge international energy company based in California, must soon make a hard and emblematic decision in the emerging field of global-reputation management. The Taliban, the repressive Islamic militia that controls nearly three-quarters of Afghanistan, has approved a deal with Unocal to build a $5 billion oil-and-gas pipeline network through Afghanistan that would connect the oil and gas fields of Central Asia to Pakistan and India. For letting this oil and gas cross Afghanistan, Unocal would pay the Taliban $50 to $100 million annually, ranking the pipeline below only opium-smuggling as the Taliban's leading source of revenue. With this infusion the Taliban could move to consolidate its power, to conquer the anti-Taliban forces still occupying the north of Afghanistan, and to continue its medieval persecution of women and girls. As recently as two years ago, before the Taliban captured the Afghan capital of Kabul, half of Afghanistan's lawyers, doctors, and university students were women. Today girls are forbidden to attend school, and women are forbidden to work, to leave their homes without a male escort, and to wear shoes that make noise -- an erotic incitement to the misogynist Taliban, which also requires women to swathe themselves in form-hiding garments and veils. Twenty years of war have decimated Afghanistan's male population, and so, without men to accompany them, many women cannot leave their homes under any circumstances. Nor are they allowed to see male doctors. Penalties for violating these prohibitions include whipping, stoning, and, in some cases, death. As one might expect, suicide is increasing alarmingly among Afghan women, according to the Feminist Majority Foundation. Unocal says it won't go ahead with the pipeline unless the nations of the world recognize the Taliban as Afghanistan's legitimate government. (Currently only Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and the United Arab Emirates recognize the Taliban government; the rest of the world holds off, awaiting the results of the ongoing civil war and hoping for an end to the Taliban's war against Afghan women.) But the Taliban minister of mines and energy said recently that he expects the project to start before the end of the year, and Unocal has given a $900,000 grant to the University of Nebraska to train Afghan men to build the pipeline. None of this would have come to light if it were not for the women's rights advocacy groups who, in an act of global solidarity with their sisters in Afghanistan, have spoken out against the deal. Unocal, they say, must display social responsibility and stay out of an Afghanistan that practices "gender apartheid" toward women. Doing the right thing would be painful for Unocal. Canceling the deal would clear the way for an Argentinian company to build the pipeline, hurting the stockholders toward whom Unocal has an overriding fiduciary responsibility. But there are also costs for doing the wrong thing -- a crisis in global-reputation management brought on by bad publicity, with incalculable consequences for those same stockholders. The lesson of this continuing episode is, I think, a heartening one that reveals the good side of the new world economy. For just as the economy is going global, so, through the agency of articulate groups, is the conscience of humankind -- as Nike has learned (when the company was forced to change its overseas work practices), as Unocal is learning now, and as the cigarette companies may learn tomorrow. Helped by the transparency conferred by instant communications, a global ethic is emerging apace with the global economy. Truly, and for the first time in history, no woman is an island. List-Help: <http://topica.com/lists/freeburmacoalition/> List-Subscribe: <mailto:freeburmacoalition-subscribe@. topica.com> List-Archive: <http://topica.com/lists/freeburmacoalition/read> ------------------------------------------------- This Discussion List is the follow-up for the old stopnato @listbot.com that has been shut down ==^================================================================ EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9spWA Or send an email To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] This email was sent to: [email protected] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
