A new coalition of businesses, trades unions and non-government organisations is calling for a ban on new investment in Burma. Any major new business deal with the regime could wreck the fragile talks process underway in Rangoon. Pressure from the boycott movement, United States sanctions and European Union measures has forced the regime to talk with Aung San Suu Kyi. If that pressure is prematurely eased the generals may walk away from the process.

Launched Monday 18 March, the Burma Sanctions Coalition* has been established to press the United Kingdom Government to impose investment sanctions on Burma. Of particular concern to Anti-Slavery is the government's continuing use of forced labour. In 2000, the International Labour Organization called on member-States to "review their relations with" Burma for persistently violating Forced Labour Convention, No. 29.

The Coalition includes Anti-Slavery International, the Body Shop, the Burma Campaign UK, the Co-operative Bank, Friends of the Earth, and the United Nations Association.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu, said: "Burma's military has put millions of civilians into forced labour, imprisoned hundreds of political prisoners, has created more child soldiers than any other country in the world, and has forcibly 'relocated' half a million ethnic people"

Supporting the Coalition, he continued, "We find ourselves in a situation where governments are waiting on other governments to act - and so everyone simply waits. No country should wait for another to act first on this issue. No government should hide behind the need for multilateral action. A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step. Collective action is the gathering of many individual actions. The UK can take a lead within Europe by imposing sanctions against Burma now. It can also encourage others to follow."

Burma's military dictatorship has refused to hand power to the National League for Democracy (NLD), which won a landslide election in 1990. Though the regime has been in talks with NLD leader and Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi for 18 months, no progress on any substantive issues has yet been made.

In 1988 when the regime was bankrupt and on the verge of collapse, foreign multinationals came to its rescue - the Coalition hopes to prevent history from repeating itself.

Aung San Suu Kyi said: "If businessman do not care about the numbers of political prisoners in our country they should at least be concerned that the lack of an effective legal framework means there is no guarantee of fair business practice or, in cases of injustice, of reparation .... they should at least be concerned that the lack of a healthy, educated labour force will inevitably thwart sound economic development .... that the lack of necessary infrastructure and an underpaid and thereby corrupt bureaucracy hampers quick, efficient transactions .... that a dissatisfied labour force will eventually mean social unrest and economic instability."

Archbishop Desmond Tutu, veteran of the anti-apartheid struggle, stressed that "the UK Government, and indeed the governments of Europe must prevent their companies from investing in tyranny. The United States has already taken such action. If other countries follow suit, then sanctions will have a powerful political, economic and psychological effect on the regime. We cannot depend on either the altruism of a few companies to leave Burma, nor the successes of the boycott movement to force them out."

Of the Burma Sanctions Coalition he said, "the people of Burma need support in the same way we South Africans did. The Burma Sanctions Coalition aims to provide such support. Our aim is to transform this coalition into a movement, to push on, until we reach our goal of a free and democratic Burma."

 

*The Burma Sanctions Coalition comprises: Anti-Slavery International, The Body Shop, The Burma Campaign UK, The Co-operative Bank, Free Tibet Campaign, Friends of the Earth, Global Witness, Graphical Paper and Media Union, MSF, National Justice and Peace Network, People and Planet, Tourism Concern, World Development Movement, and the United Nations Association.