The Dirty List: Companies Supporting the Burma Regime

[G_j]

The Dirty List

In response to calls from Burma’s democracy movement, the Burma Campaign UK and other campaign groups around the world have been pressuring companies to sever business ties with Burma.

Please contact one or more of the companies on the Dirty List and ask them to cut their ties with Burma’s military government. If appropriate, tell them you will not purchase their products as long as they continue to support the regime in Burma.

Letters written in your own words are most effective. If you don’t have much time, don’t worry - just one or two paragraphs will do. Please be polite!

http://www.burmacampaign.org.uk/dirty_list/dirty_list.html

[blondeatlast]

1. Thank you; I'm checking it out now. K&R. nt

[Joanne98]

2. Baker Hughes oil service co. based in Houston of course!

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Baker_Hughes
Baker Hughes
From SourceWatch
Jump to: navigation, search
Baker Hughes is a Texas-based oil and gas industry services company that operates in 90 countries around the world. <1>

Contents
1 Settling U.S. Bribery Investigations
2 Contact Details
3 Other SourceWatch Resources
4 References

Settling U.S. Bribery Investigations
In April 2007 Baker Hughes announced that it had paid $44.1 million to settle investigations by the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) into the company's operations in Angola, Kazakhstan and Nigeria. <2> In its statement the company announced that:

a company subsidiary "pled guilty to violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) as a result of payments made between 2001 and 2003 to a commercial agent retained in 2000 in connection with a project in Kazakhstan";
"The company agreed with the SEC to the entry of a Consent Judgment charging violations of the anti-bribery provisions of the FCPA arising from the engagement of agents to obtain contracts in Kazakhstan. The Consent Judgment also charges violations of the books-and-records and internal-controls provisions, and the terms of a September 12, 2001 cease-and-desist order, arising from these and other activities in Kazakhstan, Angola, Nigeria, Indonesia, Russia, and Uzbekistan." <3>
Radio Free Europe reported that a quarter of the fine related to Baker Hughes' activities "developing the huge Karachaganak natural-gas field in northern Kazakhstan" and the the court was told the company had "paid $4.1 million in bribes from 2001-03 to an intermediary, who in turn transferred money to a high-level executive of KazakhOil, the state oil company at the time. Additionally, the complaint says, in the period of 1998-99, kickbacks of more than $1 million were paid to a KazTransOil executive." <4>

Contact Details
Web:http://www.bakerhughesdirect.com

Other SourceWatch Resources
Kazakhstan's oil industry
Oil industry
References
↑ "About Baker Hughes", accessed May 2007.
↑ "Baker Hughes Settles Previously Disclosed FCPA Investigations", Media Release, April 26, 2007.
↑ "Baker Hughes Settles Previously Disclosed FCPA Investigations", Media Release, April 26, 2007.
↑ Nikola Krastev, "Kazakhstan: U.S. Firm Pleads Guilty In Bribery Case", Radio Free Europe, April 30, 2007.
This article is a stub. You can help by expanding it.

[seemslikeadream]

3. The Companies They Keep in Burma

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/092607S.shtml

The contribution of a giant US corporation to the situation has been conspicuous, according to the anti-junta camp. Prominent among the multinationals included in a "Dirty List" of such companies, brought out by the camp in December 2005, was Chevron, formally Unocal. Authors of the list noted that Chevron was one of the joint venture partners developing the Yadana offshore gas field in Burma, which earns the military regime millions of dollars. (Chevron also owns Texaco.)

The Unocal Corporation figured earlier in internationally backed Burmese campaigns against forced labor, land appropriation and similar other gross human-rights violations in the gas and oil projects initiated by the junta behind the people's backs. The affected villagers came together in 1996 and sued Unocal and France's Total for complicity in the abuses. The villagers charged that the companies knew about and benefited from the Burmese army's use of torture, rape and unlawful land seizures to uproot people from areas slated for "development." The lawsuits were settled after the companies agreed to make due compensation only eight years later, in 2004.

The Bush regime has not cared all these years to persuade either its old or newfound allies to discipline their own corporate giants in the cause of Burmese democracy.

Appearances, of course, were kept up. In December 2005, Britain's former prime minister and fervent Bush backer Tony Blair called on companies not to trade with Burma. A survey released then, however, showed that, since Labor came to power, imports from Burma had quadrupled, rising from 17.3 million pounds in 1998 to 74 million pounds in 2004.

It was also found that Britain ranked as the second-largest investor in Burma, as it allowed foreign companies to use the British Virgin Islands to channel investment. The Blair government remained deaf to repeated demands from Burma's democracy movement and the British trade unions for discontinuing this investment. No one expects any improvement in the official British attitude in this regard during the Gordon Brown regime, despite its lip service to the cause of democracy in Burma.

Friends of Bush in the media see efforts by his administration to influence India, too, in favor of democracy in Burma. The efforts, however, do not concern New Delhi's ever-growing cooperation with the junta in the energy sector.


http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_2473.shtml


-snip-

The demise of the Golden Triangle: bad for business

According to a report by Thomas Fuller of the International Herald Tribune, the Golden Triangle has, in recent years, lost its prominence as a narco-region. In fact, the legendary Triangle now accounts for as little as 5 percent of world opium supply, according to some estimates.

Not surprisingly, the Golden Crescent and Afghanistan, now under control of the US and its drug-intelligence proxies, are by far and away the world’s number one opium suppliers, as well as the top overall drug producing region, dwarfing Colombia and the Golden Triangle.

In fact, the demise of the Golden Triangle in recent years can be traced to geostrategic developments that run counter to the agenda of international interests whose financial and banking system depends on the multi-billion dollar cash flows of the criminal drug trade.

-snip holds 4 points-

These narco-developments, parallel with 1) other financial and political reasons why a new Mynamar government would be preferred; 2) a fragile and teetering world economy facing numerous financial bubbles and insolvency; and 3) continued failure to control either the Middle East or contain the rising political and economic power of China, cast a different light on the sudden burst of interest on the part of the Bush administration to back a coup or regime change in Myanmar.

The Bush administration, the epitome of criminal political power, does not support “human rights.” It will utilize every means, including overt military force, to protect geostrategic interests that depend on the world drug trade.

The revitalization of the Golden Triangle drug trade, and the installation or support for an openly pro-US regime in Myanmar, benefits Western financial interests. Any geostrategic foothold in Southeast Asia also benefits efforts to contain China.


http://www.counterpunch.org/mariner06072003.html

June 7, 2003


Ashcroft Sides with Torturers
Unocal and the Crimes of Burma
By JOANNE MARINER

Given the chance to protect corporate interests, the Bush administration is predictably happy to take it. Ditto for the prospect of undermining international justice.

But it's not every day that the opportunity arises to accomplish both objectives at once. It takes a case like John Doe I v. Unocal Corp., a civil damages action currently pending in U.S. federal court.

In a brief recently filed in the Unocal case, the administration--in the person of Attorney General John Ashcroft--sets out to defend an oil company, reaffirm the president's untrammeled power over foreign policy, and eviscerate a law that has provided a modicum of justice to victims of rights abuses from around the world.

All that, and more. In an added plus, the brief also gives the administration a vehicle for highlighting the wit and wisdom of Robert Bork. Bork, the right wing's original judicial martyr, is very much in the thoughts of an administration that is currently fighting bruising confirmation battles in Congress.

Forced Labor, Murder, Rape and Torture

The plaintiffs in the Unocal case are Burmese villagers who claim that they were subjected to forced labor, murder, rape, and torture during the construction of a gas pipeline through their country. Soldiers allegedly committed these abuses while providing security and other services for the pipeline project.

Jane Doe I, one of the plaintiffs in the case, testified that when her husband tried to escape the forced labor program, he was shot at by soldiers, and that, in retaliation for his attempted escape, she and her baby were thrown into a fire. Her child died and she was badly injured.

Other villagers described the summary execution of people who refused to work, or who became too weak to work effectively.

There is little doubt that such crimes occurred. They have been exhaustively documented by Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and a host of other groups. In 1995, when pipeline construction was beginning, the U.N. General Assembly passed a resolution urging Burma (also known as Myanmar) to put a stop to its practices of torture, forced labor and summary executions. Even the Justice Department, whose "friend of the court" brief was filed this past May 8, was willing to acknowledge the "blatant human rights abuses" committed by Burma's military government.

The only serious factual issue in the case is the extent of Unocal's responsibility for the crimes. The plaintiffs claim that Unocal aided and abetted the Burmese military in its campaign of abuse, an assertion that Unocal vigorously denies.

"Practical Assistance"

The Unocal case is now pending before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. The lower court that first heard the case dismissed it, finding insufficient proof of Unocal's involvement in the abuses.

The appeal was heard by a panel of Ninth Circuit judges that ruled unanimously to reverse the dismissal. The court found that the evidence presented by the villagers supported the conclusion "that Unocal gave practical assistance to the Myanmar Military in subjecting Plaintiffs to forced labor."

As the court described it, this practical assistance "took the form of hiring the Myanmar Military to provide security and build infrastructure along the pipeline route in exchange for money or food." The assistance "also took the form of using photos, surveys, and maps in daily meetings to show the Myanmar Military where to provide security and build infrastructure."


Moreover, the court found, the evidence supported the conclusion "that Unocal gave 'encouragement' to the Myanmar Military in subjecting Plaintiffs to forced labor."

Besides ruling for the plaintiffs on the forced labor issue, the court also reversed the district court's dismissal of the murder and rape claims, finding sufficient evidence of Unocal's complicity in those abuses. But the panel decision, issued in September 2002, was vacated in February, when the Ninth Circuit decided to rehear the case en banc (in other words, sitting as a panel of eleven, rather than three, judges).


The Alien Tort Claims Act

Except for a token acknowledgment of the Burmese government's human rights abuses, the Justice Department's brief ignores the facts of the case. Rather than attempting to defend Burma and Unocal on the factual record, it instead aims to destroy the legal basis of the villagers' suit.

In its brief, the Justice Department embarks on a wholesale attack on the Alien Tort Claims Act (ATCA), the law underlying the villagers' claims. For over twenty years, since the landmark 1980 case of Filartiga v. Pena-Irala, courts have ruled that the ATCA permits victims of serious violations of international law abroad to seek civil damages in U.S. courts against perpetrators found in the United States.

The Justice Department's proposed interpretation of the law would radically narrow its scope. The law would be changed so dramatically, in fact, that as the Department itself acknowledges, it would be rendered "superfluous."

If the Ninth Circuit adopts this approach, victims of human rights abuses abroad will no longer be able to rely on the U.S. courts for any hope of justice. And no more will multinational corporations, enticed by other countries' lower wages, laxer worker protections--and, possibly, ineffective and corrupt judicial systems--have to worry that abuses they commit in foreign countries may come back to U.S. courts to haunt them.


Burma's Billionaire
Posted by seemslikeadream on Fri Sep-28-07 11:49 AM

http://members.forbes.com/global/2007/0423/058.html


David Serchuk 04.23.07

George Soros spends $2 million a year trying to pave the way for democracy in Burma. It's a tricky operation. Naturally, the head of his Burma Project is banned in Burma, where ruthless military dictatorships have ruled for decades. And Soros is unwelcome in neighboring Thailand, home to 2 million refugees who have fled Burma. What's more, Thailand won't recognize these people as refugees, making them that much harder to help.

Thailand blamed Soros and his hedge fund for setting off the Asian financial crisis in July 1997, which started when the Thai baht plummeted. He's been so demonized there that some potential grant recipients have shied away from the Burma Project, unwilling to be associated with it. "Some get a little nervous to publicly have our support," says Maureen Aung-Thwin, who heads the project out of a Fifth Avenue office in New York. And Soros himself hasn't set foot in the country in years. In 2001 he canceled a planned speech in Bangkok because of the threat of protests.


So how does the Burma Project handle these obstacles? It keeps a very low profile, employing just a few people on the ground in Thailand, says Aung-Thwin. Instead of directly running all of its projects in Thailand, it contributes to some 100 groups each year and offers scores of academic scholarships to Burmese who might someday play a role in a democratic Burma. She says the Burma Project keeps its recipients at arm's length and makes sure they're also getting funds from other organizations. The result: Few Thais even know the Burma Project exists. "We just don't want to give any reason for attracting negative attention to (the recipients') work," she says. "In case somebody feels like scapegoating Mr. Soros, they've got other people's funding, so it's not a problem." (Soros declined to comment.)

Burma has been in the news this year, and once again the difficulty of the project's task is being highlighted. In January, for just the second time, the UN Security Council held briefings on Burma, and then the U.S. and the U.K. introduced a resolution calling on Burma to free its political prisoners, including Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi; begin a transition to democracy; and cease military attacks against civilians. But China, Russia and South Africa blocked it. Just days later Burma granted China oil-and-gas exploration rights. "Those are pretty formidable allies for the Burmese junta, to have both Russia and China protecting them," says Aung-Thwin. "But we're not daunted."

....

...the Burma Project puts its money into "capacity building." This means that rather than provide food or water, it seeks to foster the economic, legal and media skills needed to run a country. One reason? It's cheaper. "Relief work requires vast resources that not even Mr. Soros has," says Debbie Stothard, head of the Alternate Asean Network. Instead her group aims to raise the refugees' level of economic literacy and show them how to get their message out in the media. That means teaching about banking, taxation and how natural resources affect trade, for example, while also showing how governments can raise loans to finance development.

One star pupil of Stothard's is Charm Tong, a 25-year-old advocate for the Shan minority in Burma who's met with President George W. Bush and spoken to the UN. "We're always trying to build the new leaders; we call it the future of Burma," says Aung-Thwin, who was born in Burma but raised in India.

Another priority is teaching English.

[seemslikeadream]

4. more

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines/100500-01.htm
Published on Thursday, October 5, 2000 by InterPress Service

Activists Target Vice Presidential Candidate for His Involvement in Burma
by Danielle Knight

WASHINGTON - Lawyers for victims of human rights abuses committed by the military regime in Burma claim that the Republican Party's vice presidential nominee was involved in a company that assisted in energy projects in Burma associated with violent human rights abuses.

Republican vice presidential candidate Dick Cheney said Tuesday night's presidential debate made clear the choice between his running mate George W. Bush and Democrat Al Gore. Cheney is shown speaking during the Republican National Convention August 2, 2000 in Philadelphia. (Khue Bui/Reuters)

Until he was selected as vice presidential candidate for the Republican ticket, Dick Cheney headed the energy giant Halliburton, which activists say owned a subsidiary which helped construct two pipelines that involved the forcible relocation of villages, forced labour, rape and murder.

''Halliburton partners and subsidiaries, both before and during Dick Cheney's tenure as CEO, have been contractors for pipeline projects that have led to crimes against humanity in Burma,'' says Katie Redford, a human rights lawyer with EarthRights.

The military government in Burma, also known as Myanmar, has long been considered one of the world's most abusive regimes. The United States and the European Union have imposed economic sanctions against the country due to the military's human rights abuses.

The regime is holding Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, whose political party swept national elections 10 years ago with more than 80 percent of the vote, under house arrest.

With western countries blocking substantial economic assistance from the World Bank and other multilateral financial institutions, the regime has been forced to rely on foreign investment in order to earn hard currency.

Two such investment projects are the Yadana and Yetagun pipelines. The 1.2 billion-dollar Yadana pipeline will pump natural gas from off- shore fields in the Andaman Sea through Burma to Thailand. Construction began in 1992 and was completed last year.

Lawyers with EarthRights have gathered testimony from more than 100 villagers and several alleged army deserters who claimed to be victims or witnesses of abuses related to the army's security operations in the pipeline.

Activists are demanding that the consortium operating the pipeline, including French oil giant Total, US-based Union Oil of California (Unocal), and a Thai state owned company, withdraw from the project and Burma altogether.

Redford and other lawyers for victims of human rights abuses committed by the military regime in Burma are appealing a Los Angeles judge's recent ruling that they cannot sue California-based Unocal which allegedly knew about and benefited directly from the regime's conduct.

(snip)

Human rights activists also connect Halliburton with a second pipeline, the Yetagun, which was constructed parallel to the Yadana pipeline. EarthRights claims that Bredero-Shaw, a subsidiary for Dresser Industries manufactured the coating for the Yetagun pipeline in 1998. Dresser was purchased by Halliburton that same year.

EarthRights has documentation that the Yetagun pipeline is associated with the same pattern of human rights abuse as reported against the Yadana pipeline. ''To be involved in the Yetagun project is to knowingly accept brutal violations of human rights as part of doing business,'' says Redford


Hindustan Times
'China needs to push Myanmar on reforms'
Agence France-Presse
Singapore, January 11, 2006|15:28 IST

China's involvement is needed to push for political reforms in Myanmar, US billionaire financier George Soros said on Wednesday.

Speaking at a forum organised by the Singapore-based Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Soros said neither the policy of isolation advocated by the West nor "constructive engagement" championed by Myanmar's Southeast Asian neighbours has succeeded.

"Nothing works and yet something needs to be done," he told hundreds of students, academics and some diplomats.

"Clearly if the international community could get its act together -- if China, let's say, felt a strong need that something needs to be done -- as the West (has), then perhaps the international community could be more successful in bringing about a change."

He said that as long as there is dissension then "the result is clear for all of us to see".

Some analysts are of the view that the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) does not want to push military-ruled Myanmar too hard on reforms because it might force the country to gravitate towards China, with which it shares a land border.

Soros is founder and chairman of the Open Society Institute, a network of philanthropic organisations active in more than 50 countries.

In 1994, the institute established the so-called "Burma Project" for the purpose of increasing international awareness of conditions in Myanmar and helping it make the transition to democracy. Burma is Myanmar's former name.

The Burma Project first expanded into the rest of Southeast Asia in the late 1990s, according to the institute.

http://www.freeburmacoalition.org/sorosonburma.htm


Overseas Mon Young Monks Union


Publication of Mon Magazine

The Overseas Mon Young Monks Union an organization the works to promote democracy and human rights in Burma through non-violent means.

http://www.soros.org/initiatives/bpsai/focus_areas/burma/grantees/overseasmonyoungmonksunion_2003

Burmese Freedom and Democracy Act of 2003 and Executive Order

President George W. Bush

Washington, DC
July 28, 2003

Today, I have signed into law the Burmese Freedom and Democracy Act of 2003 and an executive order sending a clear signal to Burma's ruling junta that it must release Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, along with all other political prisoners, and move down the path toward democracy. These measures reaffirm to the people of Burma that the United States stands with them in their struggle for democracy and freedom.

The Burmese Freedom and Democracy Act is the result of close cooperation between my Administration and Members of Congress on both sides of the aisle, especially Senator Mitch McConnell and Representative Tom Lantos. Among other measures, the legislation bans the import of Burmese products. The executive order freezes the assets of senior Burmese officials and bans virtually all remittances to Burma. By denying these rulers the hard currency they use to fund their repression, we are providing strong incentives for democratic change and human rights in Burma.

In May of this year, the Burmese government tightened its grip on the people of Burma when it organized an attack on the motorcade of Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of the National League for Democracy (NLD). Since then, Burmese officials have ignored requests from around the world to release Aung San Suu Kyi and other members of the NLD and to re-open NLD offices.

The repression of the Burmese regime contributes to problems that spill across Burma's borders, including refugee flows, narcotics trafficking, and the spread of HIV/AIDS and other diseases. These problems affect Burma's neighbors, and these nations must play an important role in resolving the current crisis. I urge the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) to continue to make clear to the regime that its behavior is inconsistent with ASEAN's standards and goals. Burma should not be permitted to tarnish ASEAN's record as a positive force for progress. I also welcome the measures taken by the European Union and Japan to bring about democratic change in Burma.

The United States will not waver from its commitment to the cause of democracy and human rights in Burma. The United States has raised the situation in Burma at the United Nations Security Council, and will do so again as developments warrant. The world must make clear -- through word and deed -- that the people of Burma, like people everywhere, deserve to live in dignity and freedom, under leaders of their own choosing.


http://www.state.gov/p/eap/rls/rm/2003/22851.htm



The Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB), a radio program taped in Bangkok and the border areas of Burma, is broadcast from Norway, under the direction of the National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma and the Democratic Alliance of Burma.

1993 - National Endowment for Democracy

http://www.ned.org/about/nedTimeline.html

[seemslikeadream]

5. Burma

http://www.ned.org/grants/05programs/grants-asia05.html

Burma

A) Internal Organizing

$15,000
To monitor the human rights situation in Burma and educate monks and Buddhist lay people about the nonviolent struggle for democracy in Burma. The organization will produce and distribute material, including pamphlets, stickers and calendars, on human rights and democracy, and support efforts to organize the Buddhist community inside Burma.

$80,000*
To support the human rights and democracy movement inside Burma. The organization will train party activists in effective techniques of nonviolent political action, produce and distribute literature about democracy, human rights and political organizing, and provide humanitarian support for party activists and others along the Thai-Burma border and inside Burma.

International Republican Institute
$330,000*
To support efforts to coordinate the strategic nonviolent activities of various democracy groups' activities inside Burma. The committee will expand its network of democracy activists in Burma and train more activists in nonviolent political action.

International Republican Institute
$230,000
To promote democracy and nonviolent political action in Burma. The organization will support efforts to provide financial, logistical, and technical support to prodemocracy political activists inside Burma.

$15,000*
To empower ethnic nationality political parties and to promote their inclusion in the political process. The organization will support efforts to draft a federal constitution and democratic state constitutions within a federal framework, and support organizing efforts to promote ethnic nationality participation in resolving Burma's long-standing political and economic problems.

$50,000*
To strengthen civil society in Burma. The organization will work with partners inside Burma to establish two institutions that provide educational programs and an emergency medical support fund.

$85,000*
To support efforts to bring about political reform and national reconciliation in Burma. The coalition will work to increase contact, trust, and cooperation between ethnic and pro-democracy forces, expand its activities inside Burma, and strengthen support among these groups to bring about political dialogue and national reconciliation in Burma.

$30,000*
To support and strengthen the ability of the Burmese people to participate in peaceful efforts to promote democracy and political reconciliation. The forum will conduct five community-organizing training courses and produce several Burmese-language reports on successful examples of democracy movements around the world.

B) Independent Media

$18,000*
To support the use of information and communication technology inside Burma to expand the ability of individuals to access and share information. The organization will provide technology training to Burmese journalists, introduce new information technology in Burma, distribute news and information, transcribe information into Burmese Unicode, and launch a secure website for users in Burma.

$50,000*
To support media freedom in Burma through the publication of a quarterly literary journal featuring the work of prominent Burmese writers. The journal will carry literary works such as articles, short stories, and cartoons that are banned or heavily censored by military authorities, and will include new works sent from writers and journalists inside Burma as well as well known writers in exile.

$29,324*
To encourage the exchange of ideas and information and to coordinate activities related to freedom of information and expression in Burma. The organization will organize and convene the third annual Burma media conference in fall 2005. The conference will bring together over 80 journalists who cover Burma to discuss issues, exchange ideas, and share information.


The Irrawaddy provides independent news and information about news and events in Burma and Southeast Asia.
$175,000*
To promote access to independent media in Burma. The organization will launch the first independent, Burmese-language satellite television program to complement its long-running daily shortwave radio program.

$175,000*
To support Burmese- and ethnic-language radio broadcasting of independent news and opinion into Burma. The organization will continue to improve the quality of its programs, invest in advanced training and education for its staff, and maintain the regional infrastructure for its broadcasts.

$35,000*
To support independent media in Burma. The organization will upgrade its equipment to allow for more efficient and professional delivery of news and information through radio, television and the internet.

$115,000*
To support independent media in Burma and to provide independent news and information about Burma and events in Southeast Asia. The organization will produce a monthly English-language news magazine, distribute a daily electronic news bulletin, and maintain a Burmese- and English-language website.

$25,000 *
To provide news and information in the Kachin language about Kachin State. The organization will publish a monthly Kachinlanguage newspaper, maintain a Kachinand English-language website, conduct a journalism training program in Kachin State, and maintain two news offices inside Burma and an editorial office in Canada.

$12,500*
To provide the Karen people with news and information about Karen State and Burma, and to expose them to basic principles of human rights and democracy. The organization will publish a 32-page newsletter in Burmese and Karen that provides an alternative news source for the Karen community in Burma, in refugee camps along the Thai-Burma border, and for ethnic and pro-democracy groups in exile.

$40,000*
To provide Burmese citizens, exiles and democracy and human rights activists with independent and accurate information about the state of the country and an open forum to discuss a wide range of issues. The news group will produce a daily electronic news and information service that covers developments in Burma, India, and the India-Burma border; maintain a Burmese and English-language webpage; publish a monthly Burmese-language newspaper; organize forums on India's Burma policy; publish in-depth reports; and run a journalism internship program.

$12,000*
To provide accurate and reliable information about political, social, and economic developments in Arakan State, Burma. The organization will operate a daily news service in English and Burmese concentrating on current events and human rights in Arakan State.

$150,000*
To support independent media in Burma. The organization will publish and distribute inside Burma an independent, monthly Burmese-language newspaper focusing on the struggle for human rights and democracy.

$25,000*
To provide accurate and reliable information about political, social, and economic developments in Shan State, Burma. The news agency will publish a tri-lingual monthly newspaper that provides accurate and reliable information to the Shan and wider Burmese communities as well as Thai and international audiences about political, social, and economic developments in Shan State and Burma.

C) Human Rights Education, Documentation, and Advocacy

$50,000*
To introduce a civic education curriculum and teaching methodology to teachers from Karen, Karenni, and Mon States in Burma. The organization will continue its training program, introduce a new civic education curriculum, and publish a small resource book containing material on human rights and democracy.

$99,500*
To research and document the situation of political prisoners inside Burma and to raise international awareness about the human rights crisis inside Burma. The organization will provide assistance to political prisoners, former political prisoners and their families; report on the treatment and condition of political prisoners in Burma; and advocate for the release of all political prisoners in Burma.

$90,000*
To promote respect for human rights and the rule of law in Burma. The organization will manage a legal research and education program, produce a quarterly journal on legal issues, organize an in-depth training program, and advocate for rule of law and democracy in Burma.

$38,000*
To publicize the human rights situation in Chin State, Burma. The organization will publish and distribute a human rights newsletter, advocate on human rights issues internationally, and organize a conference in Burma.

$60,000*
To educate the Burmese public about human rights and democracy. The institute will organize a training-of-trainers course and a refresher course for previously trained trainers, translate its "Human Rights Manual" into the Palaung and Chin languages, and publish a Burmese-language book on human rights.

$57,288*
To document and report on conditions in southern Burma and to promote human rights education in Mon state and among Mon refugees. The organization will run six core projects: human rights documentation; human rights and civic education; human rights defenders; civil society development; Mon-language press; and women's and children's rights.

$45,000*
To improve teacher training and curriculum development. The committee will coordinate health and education programs for refugee populations in Thailand and India and ethnic populations inside Burma, expand its teacher training courses, and work on a new school curriculum based on contemporary standards and methodologies.

$15,000*
To document and publicize the human rights situation in Shan State. The organization will publish and distribute monthly Shan- and English-language human rights newsletters to audiences in Shan State, the Shan exile community in Thailand, and the broader international community.

D) International Advocacy and Organizing

$44,000
To increase international support for the Burmese democracy movement. The organization will link academics, activists, journalists, diplomats, and politicians in Burma, Thailand, and throughout Southeast Asia through advocacy campaigns, meetings, and other forums.

$60,000*
To support a campaign in Southeast Asia to secure the release of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and promote political reform in Burma. The network will organize public information programs in Southeast Asia, send delegations of parliamentarians to Europe and the United States, and organize a conference on good governance and democracy.

$300,000*
To support efforts to create a political environment in Burma and in the international community conducive to resolving Burma's long-standing political crisis. The organization will support the coordination of international and domestic political action, coalition building, transition planning, and institutional development.

$50,000
To increase awareness about political developments in Burma and to strengthen international support for Burma's democracy movement. The organization will work to ensure that important research and reports produced in Thailand by Burmese democracy activists reach a targeted audience in the international community, keep the international media informed of important political initiatives and developments in Burma, and coordinate various initiatives to increase pressure on the regime for reform.

$35,000*
To develop a strong Asian constituency in support of political dialogue and national reconciliation in Burma through increased cooperation with NGOs, student groups, and regional bodies in Asia. The committee will meet regularly with foreign embassies and consulates, travel throughout South, Southeast, and East Asia to build international support for the democracy movement in Burma, and coordinate with other international advocacy groups working to promote democracy in Burma.

$40,000*
To promote increased support for democracy in Burma and Thailand. The committee will engage in policy advocacy and public information campaigns, provide legal support to Burmese who suffer human rights violations in Thailand, and coordinate with Burma democracy groups in Thailand and other Thai civil society organizations.

E) Ethnic Nationalities

$30,000*
To increase the availability, sophistication, and quality of information about federalism and the draft Chin State constitution. The organization will support a series of training-of-trainers courses on federalism, constitutionalism, and the role of the Chin State in a future federal union of Burma.

$26,500*
To support the institutional capacity of the committee to distribute humanitarian aid and to document the plight of the internally displaced Karen population. The committee will publish a bi-monthly newsletter, upgrade its computer equipment, and provide training courses for its field staff.

$20,000*
To promote civic awareness and increase civic participation in Mon State, Burma. The organization will produce a Mon-language journal, hold computer training classes, and organize a civic education program designed to encourage increased cooperation and understanding among Mon youth.

$25,000*
To broaden the perspectives of Shan youth and promote cooperation among various communities in Shan State. The school will provide an intensive, nine-month program including English-language classes, computer courses, and social studies for students from Shan State.

F) Women's Participation and Empowerment


Still Licensed to Rape is the follow-up to the 2002 report Licensed to Rape, which exposed the use of rape in Shan State as a strategy of war by the troops of the Burmese military regime.
$55,000*
To promote understanding of human rights, women's rights, and democracy, and to support community organizing efforts among Burmese women. The organization will launch a campaign for nonviolent social change, manage a drop-in help center for migrant workers, publish a newsletter for distribution inside Burma and among women's groups along the Thai-Burma border, run lending libraries for displaced Burmese, organize a monthly discussion series, and convene a meeting of regional Burma support groups to develop a coordinated strategy to promote political reform in Burma.

$7,400*
To promote the rights of women and children in Kachin State and to encourage understanding and cooperation among Burman and ethnic-minority women. The organization will organize computer and English-language classes, a management training program, a women's rights training course, and an income-generation skills training school. The organization will also develop a leadership training program and internship program for its members; conduct workshops on office management skills, and communication strategies; and publish a newsletter.

$15,500*
To promote human rights and democracy among Karen youth. The organization will offer a year-long human rights and democracy course for Karen high school students and will integrate its course into the core curriculum of Karen high schools and work to introduce its core concepts to the broader Karen community.

$25,000*
To increase women's participation in Burma's democracy movement and provide Shan women with the necessary skills to assume decision-making positions in their communities and organizations. The network will organize women's empowerment and capacity building workshops, document and report on the situation of women in Shan State, advocate for women's rights in Shan State, and offer basic educational, health and social services for displaced Shan.

$40,000*
To promote increased understanding among Burmese women of human rights, women's rights and empowerment, democracy, federalism, peace-building, community development, and health issues. Projects will include a series of women's rights and empowerment training workshops for Burmese refugees; capacity building workshops for Burmese women in India, Thailand, and Bangladesh; and a peace-advocacy program.

$10,000*
To educate, train, and empower Burmese women in exile in India to take a more active role in the democracy struggle and to promote women's rights in Burma and among the exile community. The association will organize training courses on politics, democratic institutions, and organizational systems and organize a regular forum for ethnic and Burmese women to discuss common issues and concerns.

http://www.ned.org/grants/05programs/grants-asia05...

For a whoping total of $2,934,512 USD in 2005, just for grants and just from the NED.

[jgraz]

6. Soon to be clients of Mark Penn

:evilgrin:

[democrank]

7. Whenever I see a G_j post, I sit up and take notice.

Thank you once again.

[G_j]

9. thanks democrank!

:hi:

I do post some dumb stuff too, from time to time.

:dunce:

[Hepburn]

8. Thanks for the list

Big surprise ~~ NOT ~~ Chevron is on it.