THE UNIVERSITY has invested $2.1 million in Unocal: a company that indirectly supports slavery in the Southeast Asian country of Burma, also called Myanmar. The Commonwealth, through the Virginia Retirement System, has an additional $4 million investment in Unocal. Any foreign company that does business in Burma directly or indirectly contributes to the military regime that brutalizes many of its 50 million citizens. Along with several other oil companies, Unocal built a gas pipeline that will contribute between $150 and $400 million a year for the next 30 years to the Burmese military regime, becoming its single largest source of funding.
Today, March 6, college students at 58 universities worldwide are fasting in protest of continuing international support for the military regime in Burma. Numerous human rights and international organizations have documented the egregious human rights violations in which the Burmese government regularly engages. The military regime, in power since 1961, condones slavery, rape, torture and the production of half of the world's supply of opium. This is often done in the name of peace and development. It is worse for women - they are forced to perform "double duty": carrying heavy loads by day and gang-raped by soldiers by night.
Burma's ruling junta annulled a 1990 democratic election in which the people voted overwhelmingly (82 percent) for Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi. She was invited to speak on Grounds in 1999 but was unable to attend because if she ever leaves Burma, the regime will not allow her to return. Even her husband's death did not pry her away from working toward the liberation of her country. As the elected leader of her people, Suu Kyi has asked the international community to stop supporting the regime.
Unlike in some countries where international investment can create jobs and economic opportunity, corporations operating in Burma, according to Suu Kyi, do not "contribute to egality and justice, the foundation stones of democracy" (http://www.freeburmacoalition.org/frames/Suu%20Kyi/suukyiau.htm). Unocal claims that its activities in Burma "brought significant benefits in health care, education, and economic opportunity" to residents of the remote pipeline area (www.unocal.com/myanmar/index.htm).
While Unocal's employees are well-paid and choose to work for the pipeline project, this is not the case for the rest of the region's residents. Using brute force, the regime forcibly relocated thousands of villagers to make way for the pipeline. Male resisters were often tortured; female resisters were often gang-raped. With Unocal's financial support, the regime provided security and built all the infrastructure necessary for the completion of the pipeline. In an extensive review of the Yadana project, the human rights group EarthRights reports that the forest clearing, army barracks, helipads, roads and bridges were all built with the use of forced labor - the modern day equivalent of slavery. Much of the preliminary construction for the pipeline was done by Burmese citizens pressed into manual labor.
United States law currently prohibits new investments in Burma, but some American companies continue to do business in the country. According to Jeremy Woodrum, Washington, D.C. Director of the Free Burma Coalition, "when we purchase or invest in companies such as Unocal, Suzuki, Tommy Hillfiger, and Warner Brothers, we literally are helping to prop up a brutal and ruthless regime - half of all income the Burmese government receives goes directly into the tools of oppression." Numerous other corporations have stopped supporting the regime because, as the CEO of Levi Strauss stated, "it is not possible to do business in Burma without directly supporting the military government and its pervasive violations of human rights" (Letter to Simon Billiness, Senior Research Analyst, Trillium Asset Management Corporation).
Students should feel a special level of sympathy for the Burmese. In 1988, Burmese students were the ones who demanded basic human rights and elections. Their peaceful demonstrations were met with thousands of cold-blooded murders at the hands of the army. In response to this student action, the regime has only allowed universities to remain open for a total of 30 months since the demonstrations. Min Ko Naing, the equivalent to our Student Council president, has been held in solitary confinement since then and is reported to have gone insane.
The University was founded by one of the leading proponents of democracy, yet our investments go against the spirit of liberty. As democracy is a core virtue of this institution, the University should honor Suu Kyi's wishes and promote the freedom of her people by divesting our holdings in Unocal. As of March 4, 33 student organizations and 15 professors have asked the University to sever its ties with corporations that do business in Burma. The precedent for this action was set in the 1980s with the divestment movement against South Africa's apartheid regime. The University, at the prodding of students, successfully divested its holdings in companies that tolerated apartheid. Such actions against South Africa were ultimately successful and helped to bring down the regime. South Africa's Bishop Desmond Tutu has called for similar action against Burma.
Now is the time for the University to become the first institution in Virginia to end its financial support of the regime and pledge support for the democracy movement in Burma. Divestment is not an futile pledge of support for a little-known, remote country - it is a tangible step that the University can take toward promoting democracy for a people that have so tragically been barred from enjoying the freedoms that we take for granted everyday.
(Andrew Price and Michael Freedman-Schnapp are third year College students. They are co-directors of the Free Burma Coalition at U.Va.)
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