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Politics & Power

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Human Rights Abuses in Myanmar Become International Call to Action

Over the last couple weeks there have been several bloody clashes between peaceful pro-democracy demonstrators and the forces of the military junta in charge of the nation formerly known as Burma. By the account of the Myanmar government, 10 people have been killed. The truth regarding the number of people killed, according to many pro-democracy advocates in the region, is a much higher number.

Much like the quelling of the uprising in Tiananmen Square in China in the late 80’s this brutal display of oppression of peaceful protest has brought the world to its feet and mobilized efforts to confront the Myanmar government about human rights abuses and basic freedoms for the people. Peace activists and government officials alike from Beijing to Washington D.C. have called for everything from “restraint” by the Myanmar government forces to sanctions and trade embargoes against the small Asian nation.

While the official Myanmar government line is that these clashes have been the fault of “political opportunists” the history of repression of the people in Myanmar has been well documented over the years. In a move to minimize the public relations damage, the government has cut off all internet access to the people in Myanmar and, according to many accounts, has been rounding up dissidents at night in raids on their homes. While this type of human rights denial has historically been the antithesis of what America stands for, the current administration has only taken minimal steps to weaken American financial ties to the nation. Companies like Chevron are continuing operations as normal in the country despite the obvious abuses taking place in the country.

With the absence of strong U.S. leadership in the face of the crisis, the U.N. dispatched an envoy to open talks with the leaders of both the military junta and the pro-democracy opposition. The U.N. representative Ibrahim Gambari met with the junta leader Than Shwe on Tuesday in an effort to begin talks between the opposing parties. The U.N. representative also met with the opposition leader Suu Kyi to facilitate a form of “shuttle diplomacy” between the long-time enemies. The trip was sanctioned by the U.N. Security Council including the U.S. and China in a rare albeit low key show of unity on human rights issues.

With Gambari scheduled to report back to the U.N. leadership later this week more information should be forthcoming but hopes of progress in beginning talks between the Myanmar leaders and pro-democracy activists are considered to be minimal by most. Activist around the world are calling for sanctions and support for the pro-democracy movement in Myanmar. Many have called for a boycott of all companies doing business with the Myanmar government and there is a rising tide of support for those calls in the face of the recent violence against unarmed demonstrators.

This is a list of companies currently doing business in Myanmar:

A World Away Travels* Abercrombie & Kent* Adventures Abroad*
Alcatel Andaman Club Andaman Teak Supplies Pty Ltd
Andrew Brock Travel Aquatic Archaeological Tours*
Asean Explorer Asia Optical Audley Travel
Baker Hughes* Bales Worldwide Bamboo Travel
Ben Line Agencies / EGT Holdings BJ Services* Britannic Garden Furniture Ltd
CHC Helicopter Corporation Chevron* China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC)
China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) China PetroChemical Corp (Sinopec) CNA Group Ltd
Crown Relocations Danford Equities Corporation Daewoo International Corporation
DBS Group Holdings Ltd Diethelm Keller / STA Travel Dragon Travel
EGAT E.O. Burton Essar Group
Euro Teck Flatau Dick & Co Focus Energy
Fodor's / Random House* Gas Authority of India Ltd (GAIL) Gecko’s Adventures
Geopetrol Ginnacle Import-Export Pte Ltd Golden Aaron Pte. Ltd
Hapag-Lloyd Hawke House Ltd Helicopters New Zealand
Hunter Publishing / Nelles Guides* Hutchison Whampoa / 3 Mobile / Superdrug H2O Yachts
Impact Publications* Insight Guides* Interra Resources
Itera Group Ivanhoe Mines James Latham
Jet Gold Corp Kajima Keppel Corporation
Kerry Logistics Group / Kuok Group Kircodan Furniture KOGAS
Leeward Capital Corp Let’s Go / Pan MacMillan* Lister / Sun Wood Industries
Lonely Planet Maersk Marubeni
Mekong Travel Mel Flooring Mitsui
Mitsui OSK Lines Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Morgan Timber
Moss & Co Mountain Travel Sobek* New Horizons Travels and Tours Ltd
NGC Videsh NHG Timber Ltd Nikko Hotels International / Japan Airlines
Nippon Oil Noble Caledonia NYK Shipping
OCBC Bank Old Burma Tour and Trading Co* Orient Express
Parker Kislingbury Peregrine Adventures Petronas
Pettitts PTTEP Purple Dragon
Road to Mandalay Robbins Timber Rolls-Royce
SapuraCrest Petroleum Bhd Scansia Sdn Bhd Schenker
Schlumberger* Shangri-La Hotels Siemens
Silverbird Travel SBM Offshore SGS Group
Sompo Japan Sri Asia Tourism Steppes Travel / Steppes East
Sumitomo Corporation Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Sutech Engineering Co Ltd
Suzuki Swift* Taiga Consultant Ltd
Taisei Teak Marine* Tennyson Travel
Total Oil / Total American Services, Inc* Trailblazer Guides Trans Indus Ltd
Travel World Media The Ultimate Travel Company / Worldwide Journeys & Expeditions United Overseas Bank Group
Utopia Tours Voyages to Asia William Garvey Furniture
Willis Group Holdings Worldwood Zarubezhneft

*American Company or Corporate Partner of an American Company
Company list courtesy of The Campaign for Human Rights and Democracy in Burma website.

Reform America joins the supporters of freedom and democracy worldwide in condemning the actions of the Myanmar government. We also encourage you to support freedom and democracy by not supporting the companies that support repressive regimes such as the one in Myanmar.

Troy Wilson-Ripsom - Staff Writer | Give your feedback on this article. | Visit Troy's blog at http://reform-america.blogspot.com | Visit Troy's MySpace page at www.myspace.com/reform_america

Clinton / Obama ’08?

With the weekend endorsement of prominent African-American political veteran and current Oakland, CA Mayor Ron Dellums, Hillary Clinton seems to be solidifying her hold on the presidential nomination. With Al Gore not announcing intentions to seek the Democratic nomination for the 2008 election, it seems that Hillary is becoming close to being unbeatable for the nomination. Despite the Oprah Winfrey endorsement of Barack Obama all of the recent polls show Clinton leading by double digits.

Being that the election is still over a year away some have begun the typical questions of the frontrunner peaking too early but at this point most analysts and pundits are crowning her the next Democratic presidential nominee. With a fairly wide open Republican field early numbers show Mrs. Clinton matching up well with any of the Republican frontrunners in a general election. The question becomes at this point if the Democratic Party will begin to pressure other primary candidates to step aside and bring the party together to maximize the general election campaign resources. By most accounts it’s expected that this election will be one of the most hard-fought and expensive in the nation’s history. The party that has early unity may hold the edge come November 2008.

Some Democrats have begun to talk about the possibility of a Clinton-Obama ticket and if that decision comes early after the February primaries the Democrats may be able to hit the general election campaign trail running before the primaries have been completed leaving the Republicans playing catch-up. Some have complained that the early big states’ primaries will decide the nomination before all the states have a chance to weigh in on the nomination. It will remain to be seen the impact it will have on the general election but historically, the nominations have been often locked up before the end of the primary season so it’s not likely to have a major impact.

With the clarity that seems to be emerging in the Democratic presidential nomination picture the pressure will increase on Republicans to step up their campaign efforts to decide their nomination and unify their party. An apparent close race between the two leading Republican presidential contenders and a rising John McCain could make it difficult for the Republicans to unify before the Democrats are focusing on the general election. The one downside for the Democrats in this scenario is that they will have to keep their party fired up and motivated to vote longer than the Republicans leading up to the general election. With Democrats being historically inconsistent with showing up to vote, it will present a challenge to the Party leaders that they will likely have to be creative to overcome.

Troy Wilson-Ripsom - Staff Writer | Give your feedback on this article. | Visit Troy's blog at http://reform-america.blogspot.com | Visit Troy's MySpace page at www.myspace.com/reform_america

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