Papuans Struggle for Freedom, but Big Business Scrambles for Profits

  BURNING VILLAGE. Indonesian troops bringing 'order' to West Papua.

The late Billie Holiday sang about the racism and lynchings in America's South,  in Abel Meeropol's song Strange Fruit. Maybe some West Papuan singer will yet record a song about the strange things fished from the sea off their brutally occupied country.

The body of Martinus Yohame was found in a sack floating in the sea near the city of Sorong, West Papua on August 26. Yohame, head of the Sorong branch of the West Papua National Committee, KNPB, had been mising since August 20.
See Report by Amy McQuire in Australia.

It's not hard to guess who might have been responsible his disappearance and death. The island of Papua/ New Guinea was carved up in colonial times.  The eastern side, having been under British and German rule, became an Australian-administered territory, but today is the officially independent state of Papua New Guinea.  Though its people remain poor and their country undeveloped, the mineral wealth beneath it have made it one of the world's fastest-growing economies in recent years. 

West Papua remained under Dutch control until Indonesian troops invaded it in 1961. With UN connivance the people's right to self-determination was ignored, in favour of a rigged plebiscite of  tribal elders selected by the Indonesian military. West Papua became a province of Indonesia, initially as West Irian Jaya. With US and British arms, the Suharto dictatorship suppressed the people, and brought in settlers from Java. 

An estimated 500, 000 Papuans were killed by Indonesian forces.  But then that's about the same as the number of Indonesian worker and peasant communists slaughtered after the CIA-backed coup which brought Suharto to power in Indonesia.

The end of Suharto's rule brought some easing of political tyranny in Indonesia proper, and West Papua regained its own name, but the Indonesian occupation remains, and Papuans can be severely punished simply for raising the flag of independence. Indonesia's rulers are intent on developing and exploiting west Papua's resources in partnership with Western business corporations.

Martinus Yohame was one of those opposing Indonesian rule of his country. Amnesty International  said his disappeance coincided with the detention of another independence activist in the lead-up to Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s visit to the region. Yudhoyono was to attend a sailing event in Sorong.Yohame had reportedly staged a press conference in Sorong the day before he disappeared, opposing the President’s visit and raising the issue of illegal logging.

The KNPB were reportedly planning demonstrations, including the raising of the banned “Morning Star” flag, an act for which others have been jailed by the Indonesian government. Two school students were arrested earlier this month for painting pro-independence slogans. Amnesty says Robert Yelemaken, 16 and Oni Wea, 21, were beaten by the arresting police officers, and forced to roll in dirty water and drink paint. Yelemaken has been released but Wea is still incarcerated and facing charges of “incitement”.

Villages Burned

www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXbPac6K-9M
A new video sent out by West Papuans from the Pirime District of the Lanny Jaya Regency in West Papua shows scores of West Papuan villagers in hiding after the Indonesian military burned down their houses in a military operation.

http://freewestpapua.org/go/924

Foreign journalists are banned from reporting from West Papua, and two French journalists are being held by the Indonesians, accused of "espionage".

This can hardly excuse the kind of fawning report published in one Australian newspaper:

"Indonesian president-elect Joko Widodo has promised to build a presidential palace on the shores of West Papua's picturesque Lake Sentani as a sign he will pay more attention to the resource-rich but troubled region.

The plan, which includes regular meetings for dialogue with Papuan leaders, has met a mixed reception from senior local figures.

A low-level armed separatist movement has racked West Papua since the 1960s, prompting a huge security presence in the province. Foreign journalists are virtually banned from going there, ostensibly for security reasons, and rampant corruption and discrimination impoverishes the Melanesian-Christian ethnic majority.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/joko-widodo-promises-to-focus-on-west-papua-20140823-107jd0.html#ixzz3CEJdO2yC

That's from the Fairfax-owned Sydney Morning Herald.

And Tory Prime Minister Tony Abbott has said West Papuan freedom campaigners are not welcome in Australia.

But then as one Aussie comments:
"The Federal Government on behalf of all of us Australian taxpayers (which does not incidentally include the super-rich, for whom tax paying is an optional activity) gives Indonesia (read the Javanese Empire) something between $600M and $605M per year, labelled as 'aid'."

And it would seem the government and business interests are less interested in attaching human rights strings to that 'aid' than in making sure they get their money's worth (even if it is not their money) in the shape of business deals, contracts and mining concessions in Indonesia and its colony of west Papua.  

Fortunately, many Australians, and many people in Pacific island states, are taking a different kind of interest in West Papua, and supporting its people's rights.


See also:
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/apr/28/west-papua-my-people-need-australias-help-before-it-is-too-late

Benny Wenda’s Statement on murder of Papuan leader Martinus Yohame

September 1, 2014

Free West Papua Campaign founder Benny Wenda in Port Vila, Vanuatu, 2013  Photo: Humans of Vanuatu

A public statement from Nobel Peace Prize Nominee and Free West Papua Campaign founder, Benny Wenda

Dear friends, supporters and fellow Papuans.

It brings me great sadness to learn that last week, our dear friend and brother, Martinus Yohame was found murdered after being kidnapped by the Indonesian security forces in West Papua.
It is an act of extreme evil to abduct and kill someone just because they are peacefully speaking out for their human rights to self-determination and on behalf of the Free West Papua Campaign I fully condemn his murder and demand that those responsible be brought to justice.
I would like to thank Amnesty International for joining the call in demanding justice for his case and in helping to further defend the rights of our people.
Martinus Yohame was a true freedom fighter of the West Papuan people who died not for himself but for the whole nation. He will be missed by us all.
Martinus was the Chairman of the West Papua National Committee (KNPB) in Sorong and always mobilised the Papuan people to resist Indonesian State oppression.
On 20^th August 2014, he gave a press conference, declaring that the people of West Papua refused the Indonesian president (who was arriving near the Sorong Region).
Martinus always called publicly for a Free West Papua and strongly condemned Indonesia’s destruction of our natural environment.
Just for making such comments, Martinus was kidnapped by suspected members of the Indonesian security forces the next day.
His body was found on 25^th August, floating in the sea after he was tied up and shot several times, with his face smashed in.
How can the Indonesian government claim to be a democracy when they commit such evil brutality against peaceful activists?
When I hear about the murders of more and more of my people, I am always full of sadness and grief.
How can they do this to human beings?
Tomorrow, the Free West Papua Campaign will be holding a protest outside the Indonesian Embassy in London, United Kingdom to demand justice for the murder of Martinus Yohame and an end to all the killings of our people.
We will meet at 12:00 outside the Indonesian Embassy at 38 Grosvenor Square and call for a Free West Papua.
I urge all supporters around the world to also hold similar demonstrations against the killings and in support of justice and freedom for West Papua, in memory of the life and vision of Martinus Yohame.
We lost a great freedom fighter and our hearts are full of grief but we remember that his death was never in vain and that his vision will continue to inspire the new generation of young West Papuans to stand up and struggle for freedom as he did.
On behalf of the campaign, I give my sincerest and deepest condolences to the family of Martinus Yohame, who never got to see him in a Free West Papua.
In your hearts and our hearts, he lives on today and his dream is the dream of all our people.
It was not fulfilled in his lifetime but with his spirit, and the spirit of every Papuan; we will continue to struggle on until the dream of a Free West Papua becomes a reality.
Today we cry, but I am certain that one day we will celebrate together in a Free West Papua and remember the sacrifices of the brave martyrs like Martinus, who died for our freedom.
Farewell Martinus Yohame, you have given the ultimate sacrifice for our people, dying for the freedom of West Papua.
May you rest in peace. Your struggle is our struggle and we will always remember you as we continue this campaign for a Free and Independent West Papua, once and for all.

Benny Wenda
www.bennywenda.org

Class Struggle in Cambodia

http://www.zimbio.com/pictures/rmjEMwafjbs/Garment+Workers+Join+Protesters+Cambodia

AT the beginning of this year I was invited to join a demonstration outside the Cambodian embassy in London, part of an international day of solidarity with Cambodian workers. We heard that about two dozen workers were being held in prison after riot police attacked a demonstration by garment workers who had gone on strike in December.

It is good to be able to report that the Cambodian government has released the imprisoned trade unionists. But the struggle for decent pay and conditions, and workers' rights, continues in Cambodia, and since many of the garments produced cheaply there are sold here in countries like Britain, it is only right we concern ourselves with how the workers are treated.   

Here is a report by Ly Pisey, published a few days ago in Red Flag, the newspaper of the Australian group Socialist Alternative:

Workers are living in fear after a bloody crackdown and imprisonment of labour activists – the repressive response from the Cambodian government to a garment workers’ protest in January that demanded a US$160 monthly wage. Police fired on the strikers, killing at least four, and then arresting 25.*

It is almost impossible for social and political activists to gather in public spaces, including Freedom Park in Phnom Penh, a public venue where civil society should be able to express its problems and seek solutions.

Currently, this park is surrounded with barbed wire, and people have no access to it. Some people call it “Prison Park”. The government also bans gatherings of more than 10 people in public venues, claiming that this is to maintain public order and security.

We then ask, “Where can Cambodian civil society, including garment workers, meet and continue speaking about our issues until our demands are met?” Although there are restrictions on our ability to advocate our human and labour rights, we still find ways because we learned that silence allows the powerful to continue their exploitation and oppression.

We could not do much during International Labour Day, 1 May, this year because of the restrictions on protests. Therefore, workers came together with the assistance of the Workers Information Centre. We had a creative event that continues the living wage campaign and highlights the key players in the garment industry that are responsible for our conditions.

A fashion show was held on 25 May at the office of the United Sisterhood Alliance under the theme “Beautiful clothes, ugly reality”. This was an attractive, critical and political event that workers could conduct in a safer manner despite the current intimidating situation. This is a way to help break fear. All we want is rice, not bullets. Our objectives with the show were:

1. To highlight the income gap between Cambodian textile and garment workers and the CEOs of selected brand companies, including H&M, Adidas/Reebok, Levi, Marks & Spencer, Joe Fresh, Puma, Gap/Old Navy, Champion. They make billions of profits each year. We want to hold them accountable for the current wage campaign deadlock.

2. To express the views of garment workers toward the oppression and violence they have faced and to call for a just resolution between the government, the Garment Manufacturers Association and unions.

3. To call on the government to end all forms of violence and immediately to end the ban on public gatherings.

In addition, we want to restore the hopes of our workers and be united and strengthened, pursuing our struggle for decent working and living conditions, a fair wage for fair work and equitable treatment in our workplaces and society.

Workers from the textile industry continue to contribute so much to Cambodia’s economic growth and to the tremendous profits of the employers and brand corporations. For example, garment and textile exports to the US and EU accounted for 11.3 percent – $2.3 billion – of GDP last year.

The offer of $100 per month minimum wage remains a starvation wage, which we could not accept while we have to spend about $150 per month on living costs such as rented rooms, food, utilities, transport, health care and supporting our families. Speaking for the principle of egalitarian and equitable treatment, we want to highlight that we could not accept the current divided society and capitalist greed.

Why can the children of the prime minister go to higher education and the children of CEOs live privileged lives and have access to adequate health care, while we are living in desperately poor conditions and exploited as a workforce? We do not demand more than is possible but just to live in dignity.

* Editorial note: The 25 workers were tried and convicted on 30 May. However, in a sign that the government is feeling the pressure of support for workers’ rights, their sentences were suspended and they are now free.

http://redflag.org.au/article/struggle-cambodian-garment-workers

January 10, Demonstration outside Cambodian embassy in  solidarity with garment workers

 

Solidarity with Workers of Cambodia!

 CAMBODIA'S embassy in London was one of a number around the world that saw protests today in solidarity with striking garment workers.

 On January 3, 2014, the Cambodian government sent military police to attack a demonstration of striking garment workers.  The police opened fire with AK-47 rifles killing five workers and injuring dozens more.

The government has since banned all demonstrations and used military force to clear the streets. At least 39 workers have been detained and are held in unknown locations. Faced with this brutal repression, the unions have called off the strike and workers are returning to work, although they are continuing to press their demands for an increased minimum wage.


The Cambodian garment workers’ strike began on 24 December, following a government announcement that the minimum wage would only rise by £9 to £60 a month, far short of workers’ demands for a living wage of £100 ($160) a month.

The garment industry in Cambodia employs 700,000 people, 90% of whom are women, producing clothes for a huge range of UK high street companies, including H&M, Gap, Marks and Spencer, Tesco and Levis, who profit from the workers’ low pay. 

On January 2 police blocked the route of a workers’ march, then attacked workers, union organisers and bystanders. The following day armed forces fired live ammunition at workers, killing at least four people and injuring many more. 23 people, including a 17 year old, have been arrested, many of whom were severely beaten prior to arrest. Recent reports suggest they are being held in a notorious detention centre some distance from Phnom Penh.

 
Today's demonstration in London, called at short notice to coincide with worldwide demonstrations at the behest of the Cambodian unions, was supported by War on Want, Labour Behind the Label, and other organisations, including Brent Trades Union Council, whose area includes the embassy. A small delegation was able to enter the embassy and present their demands to the diplomats, who promised to relay them to their government in Phnom Penh. 

See statement from War on Want with more pictures: http://waronwant.org/news/press-releases/18051-cambodian-government-condemned-for-violent-repression-of-garment-workers




THEY HAVE THEIR CONNECTIONS - SO WE MUST MAKE OURS!



Whenever we hear about workers killed, whether it's in a fire or factory collapse in Bangla Desh, or by the military in Cambodia, the same familiar names come up. Firms that are well-known names on evry high street or shopping mall in the West, but make their profits by selling goods made by super-exploited workers in Asian sweatshops.

Campaigners in the West have written to some of these firms that are known to source goods in Cambodia, asking them to condemn the killing of workers. So far without success.



Meanwhile a comrade campaigning in South Korea has told us that his own government urged the Cambodian authorities to get tough with strikers.

He also sent us this piece of information:

American Private Equity Fund Carlyle is behind Yakjin Cambodia INC Who Invited Army to Tame Striking Workers.

The mother firm of the Korean garment firm Yakjin Cambodia INC who called for Army intervention in workers' strike in Cambodia over the last weekend is in fact owned by Carlyle, an American private equity fund giant. Carlyle bought Yakjin Trading Co just before the Christmas in 2013 by establishing a holding company named Yakjin Holdings

. It is reported that about 70% share of Yakjin Holdings is owned by Carlyle. Carlyle is known not only for its size and a wide range of investment across the globe but also for its celebrity board members such as George W Bush Senior, former British PM John Major, Shafiq bin Laden in the past. A week after buying out of Yakjin Trading Co, its Cambodian subsidiary called for Army intervention that killed 4 workers and severely injured many. It is known that Carlyle manages many US state pension funds as well. Need more investigation for global campaign!

 

Carlyle is known to us as the group which bought up the former Ministry of Defence research wing QinetiQ, with the involvment of former joint intelligence chair Dame Pauline Neville Jones, known inter alia for her Balkan activities and work for Nat West Markets alongside her former boss Lord Hurd.

We must thank the comrade in Korea for bringing this to our notice. And resolve to strengthen links with workers and activists in Korea, Cambodia, the US and everywhere else who face the common enemy.

Taking Rubber to History

DURING THE MALAYAN 'EMERGENCY'

CONSERVATIVE politicians say schools should teach our glorious history. Their favourite historian, Niall Ferguson, says there is nothing to be ashamed of in our colonial past. On the contrary we should be proud.

This week two judges in the high court heard from surviving witnesses of one episode in that history, and decided it was a chapter best left closed. They dismissed an attempt by families of victims of a massacre in Malaya more than 63 years ago to have a public inquiry held.

The court heard how. during the so-called Emergency (so called because the Labour government did not want to admit it was waging a war), British troops killed 24 plantation workers in a village called Batang Kali, subjected their families to simulated executions, and rounded up women and children, then setting the village on fire.

There is little doubt what happened, though successive British governments tried to cover it up. But Sir John Thomas – president of the high court's Queen's bench division – and Mr Justice Treacy ruled that it would be "very difficult at this point in time" to establish whether the shootings were "deliberate executions".

Lawyers for the families said they would appeal.

In 1970 soldiers came forward to say there had been a "deliberate execution of the men and it was 'covered up' by the Scots Guards and British army". The judges acknowledged: "This is a very serious allegation though one which can properly be made on the evidence."

But they ruled: "The first matter in relation to the purpose of inquiry is to consider whether it can establish the facts. There are obviously enormous difficulties in conducting an inquiry into a matter that happened over 63 years ago. Most of the contemporary documents are missing and most of those who were engaged are dead. Nor, in our view, would it be any easier to determine whether the use of force was reasonable or proportionate."

The judges analysed three investigations into the Batang Kali killings – in the late 1940s, the early 1970s and the mid-1990s. They said victims' relatives had alleged a cover-up in relation to investigations in 1948 and 1970.

It was on 11 December 1948 that a patrol of Scots Guards surrounded and entered Batang Kali, a village north of the capital, Kuala Lumpur. The male villagers were separated. That evening one of the men was shot by soldiers; the next day a further 23 died. None of the victims was armed and no weapons were found before the killings.

Some of the background to what happened is recalled today by Solomon Hughes in the Morning Star.

"During World War II the Communist Party in Malaya had led resistance to the Japanese.

A grateful Britain awarded its leader Chin Peng an OBE.

Chin's comrades expected the newly elected British Labour Party to also grant Malayan independence as a reward.

But the British wanted to hang on to Malaya's lucrative rubber industry.

The Labour government unleashed a wave of repression to stop the independence movement, interning thousands and hanging hundreds of trade unionists and communists.

The communists formed a National Liberation Army (NLA) to fight for independence.

The British responded by imprisoning Malayans in "barbed wire villages" and by torture and murder.

The army did not believe the Batang Kali villagers were NLA fighters, but did believe they had given them food.

So they rounded up all the men in the village and killed them."

In 1970 the People newspaper looked into this massacre, and some of the soldiers who had been there came forward to give sworn statements. Sir John Thomas has said it was too hard "to determine whether the use of force was reasonable or proportionate" or if these were "executions."

But the 1970 statements are clear.

One guardsman says his captain "told us that the villagers were feeding terrorists and that every one of them should be killed."

Another soldier called it "a needless killing that was like murder under orders." The men's testimony makes clear the villagers were not shot while trying to escape - the official story - but instead were deliberately murdered.

One man recalled: "We opened fire on the men. Once we started firing we seemed to go mad."

Another said: "It struck me we must all be out of our minds to do a thing like we had just done.

"The man with the Bren [light machine-gun], I can't remember his name, boasted he had cut one of the Chinese in half with his bullets."

Which suggests the shooting wasn't "reasonable and proportionate."

Before the first official inquiry soldiers were ordered to lie about what had happened.

One soldier remembers his sergeant telling them in the barracks "that we would all be in serious trouble if the truth came out and that when we attended the inqury we should say that the men where shot as they tried to escape."

Another was warned he would "face 14 years in prison for the truth."

Following The People's published articles exposing the massacre in 1970, incoming Labour Defence Secretary Denis Healeyment ordered another inquiry. But this inquiry was cancelled by the succeeding Tory government.

There are surviving witnesses of the Batang Kali massacre, and they wanted an inquiry to hear the truth. At a press conference earlier this year in London Lim Ah Yin, 76, spoke of how the troops carried out a mock execution on her mother as they demanded information about the location of Communists.

Mrs Lim, who was 11 years old, also heard the gunfire which killed her father.

Loh Ah Choi, 71, heard his uncle being shot three times. “I would like the British government to apologise,” he said. “I was about seven years old.”

After this weeks hearing the relatives felt let down, but were not giving up.

Lim Kok, whose father, Lim Tian Shui, was found beheaded, said: "Though the court found the government did not need to hold an inquiry on technical grounds, the fact is that the Scots Guards shot innocent civilians, my father included."

Chong Koon Yin, whose father Chong Voon was also killed during the massacre, said: "The truth has not been fully revealed. Without a proper inquiry or a proper acceptance of fault, the government held legally responsible for the killing remains unaccountable."

I was six years old when this massacre happened. Up the street my pal Stuart was proud of his Uncle Les who was serving in Malaya, and sent presents home. Later Les came back on leave, tall and bronzed, and vowing revenge against the communists "who killed my mate". He was taking tea in our house. I did not ask how many he and his mate had killed, but I did ask why our troops were there. I had seen a newsreel which, perhaps unusually for the time, reminded cinema audiences how Malaya's Chinese communists had fought the Japanese, and expected independence after the war. That seemed reasonable to me. But I was only a kid, and not supposed to ask our visitor impertinent questions about things I did not understand, and I knew nothing about massacres anyway.

Later still I asked my Dad about reports that the planters' clubs in Malaya had signs saying "No soldiers, no Chinese". He being an Old Sweat who had served in India said they could not be expected to let a "Rough Soldiery" in. I was not sure how to take him sometimes.

The point I was naievely trying to make was that the soldiers were in Malaya to defend the plantation owners, who were being snobbish towards them. But of course the soldiers were in Malaya to defend something much bigger, colonial rule and the supply of strategic as well as profitable raw materials. And being brutalised by the harsh and murderous methods they were expected to carry out.

Only some of these soldiers, unlike the governments who sent them there, have been prepared to talk about it and tell the truth about what went on. It is the same truth some of the surviving villagers have wanted an inquiry to bring out.

But as new generations here grow up and go to school where they are supposed to learn about the history before their time that is supposed to have made Great Britain great, it is not the kind of truth that our rulers want us to be told.

http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=17894519&postID=5004652857569852361

http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/news/content/view/full/123547

http://www.scotsman.com/news/uk/lawyer-tells-how-massacre-by-scots-guards-was-covered-up-for-60-years-1-2280443

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-09-05/an-malaysia-emergency-court-ruling
/4245306?section=australianetworknews


See also, Owen Jones' article:

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/owen-jones-william-hague-is-wrong-we-must-own-up-to-our-brutal-colonial-past-8101370.html


PS The Malayan war was too recent to make our school history syllabus. But the school Geographic Society of which I was a proud member did feature a fairly new master advertised to speak on his military service "Fighting Bandits in Malaya". Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, I was unable to attend that evening.

Facelift Operation Burma can't hide the desperate flight of refugees

BURMESE opposition leader Aung-San- Suu-Kyi's visit to Britain and other countries last month was welcomed as a sign that both her and her people were gaining freedom at last.

Suu-Kyi, elected with her party to the Burmese parliament after spending over 15 years under house arrest, called on her return home for the freeing of all remaining political prisoners in Burma(Myanmar), of which they reckon there are 330.

But though David Cameron called for the suspension of sanctions on Burma when he visited the country in April, the military have not given up power there, and holding political prisoners is not their only crime against human rights. Cameron, the first British prime minister to visit Burma since it became independent in 1948, was following up on visits by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in December, and British Foreign Secretary William Hague in January.

But is this rush to take the Road to Mandalay really about Burmese freedom or something else?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-17698526
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jul/03/aung-san-suu-kyi-burma-prisoners

One sign of any country's claim to democracy or even civilised behaviour is its treatment of minorities. The Guardian and some other papers have reported recently how Rohingya Muslims have been fleeing Burma, seeking asylum in Bangladesh or other neighbouring countries. The Bangladesh government has been forcing people to go back. But these are hardly people seeking a better life in poor Bangladesh. These are refugees fleeing for their lives.

Any of us who remember the epsode of the Vietnamese boat people might note the comparative lack of attention given these people taking to boats to try and reach Bangladesh.

Although Burma's Muslim population increased hugely with immigration during British rule, the Rohingya Muslims can claim an older pedigree, going back centuries and producing a Muslim kingdom in the 15th century in part of Arakan. Following the Burmese conquest of Arakan in 1785, as many as 35,000 Arakanese people fled to the neighbouring Chittagong region of British Bengal 1799 to avoid Burmese persecution. The Burmese rulers executed thousands of Arakanese men and deported a considerable portion of the Arakanese population to central Burma.

During World War II the Arakan Muslims were once again targetted for persecution by Japanese and Burmese forces. Then in independent Burma Rohingya were deprived of citizenship. More recently under military rule many were conscripted as forced labour. Not surprisingly some of the Rohingya resistance has taken a far from moderate form.

During Cameron's visit in April human rights organisations here noted that despite reforms, Burma was still a country with one of the worst human rights records in the world, and where the military had control.

Kelland Stevenson, Save the Children’s country director, said:

"More than a million children under five in Myanmar are suffering from chronic malnutrition brought on by poverty and inadequate spending on health care. Chronic malnutrition has severe long term effects on children’s health as they grow. Malnutrition limits their physical growth, weakens their immune system and significantly hampers mental development. The government and the donor community should prioritise reforms that help reduce child hunger".

Sanctions probably didn't help. But was reducing child hunger uppermost in Western leaders' minds? Notwithstanding their supposed pariah status, the Burmese military have been keen to attract foreign investment, as well as ensuring their own share of the wealth.

One journalist who interested in the Rohingya story is Palestine Chronicle editor Ramzy Baroud, writing in Arab News

Democracy and killings in Burma: Gold rush overrides human rights

The widespread killings of Rohingya Muslims in Burma — or Myanmar — have received only passing and dispassionate coverage in most media. What they actually warrant is widespread outrage and decisive efforts to bring further human rights abuses to an immediate halt.

“Burmese helicopter set fire to three boats carrying nearly 50 Muslim Rohingyas fleeing sectarian violence in western Burma in an attack that is believed to have killed everyone on board,” reported Radio Free Europe on July 12.

Why would anyone take such fatal risks? Refugees are attempting to escape imminent death, torture or arrest at the hands of the Ethnic Buddhist Rakhine majority, which has the full support of the Burmese government.

The relatively little media interest in Burma’s "ethnic clashes" is by no means an indication of the significance of the story. The recent flaring of violence followed the raping and killing of a Rhakine woman on May 28, allegedly by three Rohingya men. The incident ushered a rare movement of unity between many sectors of Burmese society, including the government, security forces and so-called pro-democracy activists and groups. The first order of business was the beating to death of ten innocent Muslims. The victims, who were dragged out of a bus and attacked by a mob of 300 strong Buddhist Rhakine, were not even Rohingyas, according to the Bangkok Post (June 22). Not all Muslims in Burma are from the Rohingya ethnic group. Some are descendants of Indian immigrants, some have Chinese ancestry, and some even have early Arab and Persian origins. Burma is a country with a population of an estimated 60 million, only 4 percent of whom are Muslim.

Regardless of numbers, the abuses are widespread and rioters are facing little or no repercussions for their actions. “The Rohingyas…face some of the worst discrimination in the world,” reported Reuters on July 4, citing rights groups. UK-based Equal Rights Trust indicated that the recent violence is not merely due to ethnic clashes, but actually involves active government participation. “From June 16 onward, the military became more actively involved in committing acts of violence and other human rights abuses against the Rohingya including killings and mass-scale arrests of Rohingya men and boys in North Rakhine State.”

“The gold rush for Burma has begun,” wrote Alex Spillius in The Telegraph. It was ushered in by US President Barak Obama’s recent lifting of the ban on American investment in the country. Britain immediately followed suit, as a UK trade office was hurriedly opened in Rangoon on July 11. “Its aim is to forge links with one of the last unexploited markets in Asia, a country blessed by ample resources of hydro-carbons, minerals, gems and timber, not to mention a cheap labor force, which thanks to years of isolation and sanctions is near virgin territory for foreign investors.” Since US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made her "historic" visit to Burma in December 2011, a recurring media theme has been ‘Burma riches’ and the ‘race for Burma’. Little else is being discussed, and certainly not minority rights.

Recently, Clinton held a meeting with Burma’s President Thein Sein, who is now being branded as another success story for US diplomacy. On the agenda are US concerns regarding the “lack of transparency in Burma's investment environment and the military's role in the economy” (CNN, July 12). Thein Sein, however, is guilty of much greater sins, for he is providing a dangerous political discourse that could possibly lead to more killings, or even genocide. The ‘reformist’ president told the UN that “refugee camps or deportation is the solution for nearly a million Rohingya Muslims,” according to ABC Australia. He offered to send the Rohingyas away “if any third country would accept them.”

That reminds me of some of the things Adolf Hitler said when he was being relatively reasonable about the Jews. We all know where such reasonableness led. But though Hitler had his allies, he was not dependent like the Burmese government on Western investment and aid. The Burmese regime is being given a facelift, but this can't hide the blemish of persecution and the flight of refugees.

http://www.arabnews.com/democracy-and-killings-burma-gold-rush-overrides-human-rights

http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/2012/jun/29/burma-rohingya-refugees-bangladesh

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IF CARLSBERG MADE PROFITS......Baltic trouble brewing

THE well-known Carlsberg beer ads alomg the "If Carlsberg made ...(e.g. cars)" theme, suggesting that whatever the Danish brewery turned its mind to would excel, were amusing. Its lager isn't bad either, I've got a few cans waiting in my fridge right now. But as Carlsberg has gone global in pursuit of greater profit, its reputation as an employer is going a bit off.

Carlsberg is attacking trade union rights in Lithuania with the support of the country's legal system, which has declared beer production an "essential service". Since they were not only freed from the Soviet Union but brought into the European Union, the Baltic states seem to have become a laboratory for undermining workers rights, so we best sit up and pay attention.

Here is a report from the International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel and Allied Workers(IUF):

On June 10 last year members of the IUF-affilitated Lithuanian Trade Union of Food Producers (LPMS) voted in favour of strike action at the Carlsberg brewery in Lithuania in support of their demand for a decent company-level collective agreement.

Management sought to stop the strike and applied to the court with a petition to declare the strike ballot procedure invalid and the strike illegal, and demanded compensation for litigation costs. The company not only tried to stop the strike and declare it illegal but also argued that no strike action was possible until the "high season" had passed.

The Klaipeda district court on June 20 suspended the start of the planned strike for 30 days based on a dubious determination that the production of beer was recognized as 'vitally essential' in Lithuania.

On the July 5, 2011 the Klaipeda city district court ruled that the strike was legal. Carlsberg Lithuania management appealed this decision. On August 5, 2011 the Klaipeda regional court annulled the decision of the lower court, ruling that the brewery strike announced in June was illegal.

The court decision to rule the strike illegal is based on the following astonishing grounds: "The collective agreement is in compliance with the Labour Code because the wages of Carlsberg employees are above the market level, jobs are maintained and wages are not reduced." With this absurd ruling, the court is attempting to legitimize Carlsberg's attempt to freeze wages for three years by declaring a legitimate strike unlawful.

The union has appealed the regional court decision to a higher court, where it is still under appeal, and submitted a complaint to the ILO which the IUF has formally supported and which will now be examined by the Committee on Freedom of Association.

The brewery sector is unlikely to be considered an essential service by the ILO Committee on Freedom of Association! We therefore expect the ILO to condemn a court decision to suspend a strike for an unreasonable period as denying the right to strike in contravention of international labour standards

Carlsberg Lithuania management has stepped up its anti-union aggression by pressuring union leaders and activists at the plant through disciplinary action. Furthermore the company initiated a police enquiry against workers who joined the picket line to protest the suspension of the strike. Since then, 9 workers who were active in protest actions have been dismissed on the grounds of 'lost production'. These 9 dismissed workers are now reengaged, but on temporary contracts, punishing them for their union activities in the plant.

Carlsberg's healthy 2011 profits have produced global job cuts and attacks on trade union rights in Lithuania. You can support the Lithuanian beer workers' struggle by sending a message to Carlsberg, the 4^th largest global brewery, and the government of Lithuania calling on the company and government to stop violating fundamental trade union rights in Lithuania. Use the form below to insist they act to ensure that rights are respected.

Click here to send a message.
[1]

Apparently Carlsberg's subsidiary in Cambodia has also run into trouble. Women employed to promote the brew demanded overtime payments, and thanks to support from hotel workes and bars deciding not to stock the disputed brew, and the local authority in Phnom Penh saying the workers should be paid in the interest of public order, the workers appear to have won.

http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php?option=com_jcs&view=jcs&layout=form&Itemid=458

http://www.scandasia.com/viewNews.php?coun_code=dk&news_id=9289

If we don't want workers' rights in the European Union to fall behind those in poor Cambodia then the Lithuanian brewery workers must get wide support. And whatever we think about beer as an "essential service", I don't mind doing without my Carlsberg if need be to help the strike.

Bitter Tea, Common Threads

TEA plantation workers near Darjeeling

TEA workers employed by a giant company with world-wide sales are waging a struggle for basic human rights and decent treatment.

Workers on the Nowera Nuddy Tea Estate in West Bengal, India protested over the treatment of a tea plucker in an advanced stage of pregnancy who was denied maternity leave and forced to work. Management tried to starve them into submission by denying all wages and rations for 3 months. Criminal charges carrying lengthy prison sentences have been filed against 12 workers - including the pregnant woman who collapsed in the field and was denied immediate medical care.

Two workers, including her father, have been sacked from their jobs. And management continues to reject the union's long standing demands, responding instead with more threats.

Nowera Nuddy Tea Estate is owned by Amalgamated Plantations Private Limited, a company 49% owned by Tata Global Beverages, which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of India’s powerful Tata Group conglomerate.

Tata's Tetley Tea is 100% Tata-owned, and sources tea from Amalgamated - though not, it claims, from Nowera Nuddy, an argument it has employed to excuse itself from responsibility for brutal management practices at Nowera Nuddy. Tetley is the second biggest-global tea brand, and a leading member of the UK's Ethical Tea Partnership.

The Nowera Nuddy workers, organized in the Progressive Tea Workers Union (PTWU) and supported by the International Union of Foodworkers, (IUF), are still struggling with the brutal consequences of a punishing 3-month lockout [1] inflicted on the estate, where 1,000 workers and their families workers not only work but also live. For these three months, management denied the workers all wages and food rations.

Management imposed the September-December 2009 lockout in response to a protest in August that year over the mistreatment of Mrs. Arti Oraon, a 22 year-old tea garden worker who was denied maternity leave and forced to continue work as a tea plucker despite being 8 months pregnant.

In response to the protest, management shut down operations for over two weeks, only reopening on September 8 on condition that 8 workers allegedly responsible for the spontaneous action be suspended and disciplined. When workers demanded time to respond, management again closed the estate on September 14, only reopening on December 13.

Management’s “domestic enquiry” into the suspensions, conducted in a language the workers do not speak and in which they were not allowed to defend themselves or present evidence, confirmed the suspensions. As a result of a campaign on the estate with international support from the IUF, six of the 8 were eventually reinstated in their jobs, but two workers, including Mrs. Oraon’s father, were sacked. And in April last year, in response to management complaints, police visited the plantation to announce that arrest warrants had been sworn out for Arti Oraon and 11 other worker activists, including the 8 already suspended workers, on charges, including theft, grievous bodily harm, unlawful assembly, criminal intimidation and unlawful confinement. These charges, which can carry prison terms of seven years and more, remain in force.

A workers rally this month reiterated their determination to fight for:

• Payment of full wages and rations to all workers for the period the plantation was closed from mid-September through mid-December 2009;
• Reinstatement of Sudhir Xalxo and Kishor Toppo, the two workers terminated for their alleged roles in the protest surrounding the mistreatment of the pregnant Mrs. Oraon;
• Withdrawal in writing of the management police complaints which led to the criminal charges against the 12 workers;
• A letter of apology and compensation to Mrs Oraon.

Nowera Nuddy tea workers assembly

You can support their struggle by sending a message to Tata/Tetley – the power behind local management – telling them to meet the workers’ demands NOW!

To send a message, click here [2].

You can also use the features provided on the Tetley Tea website [3] to send the company a message, or use the freephone number provided to give them a call!

Links:

[1] http://cms.iuf.org/?q=node/111
[2] http://www.iuf.org/cgi-bin/campaigns/show_campaign.cgi?c=551
[3] http://www.tetley.co.uk/

International union web-site: www.iuf.org


Meanwhile, across the border in Bangladesh it has now been more than five weeks since the illegal arrest of Moshrefa Mishu, President of the Garment Workers Unity Forum.

There was no warrant for her arrest at the time that heavily-armed plainclothes officers took her off to jail, where she remains - in poor health and badly treated. Her real crime was leading a protest campaign to demand the implementation of the legal minimum wage.

For more information about Moshrefa Mishu and her case, and ways to protest her treatment, see http://www.ahrchk.net/ua/mainfile.php/2010/3627/


Garment trade employers in Bangladesh are their country's main exporter, but claim they have been under pressure from even cheaper competitors in places like Cambodia . So it is timely to note that Cambodian garment workers are also engaged in struggle.

Over 300 have been sacked after they went on strike last September, asking for a wage increase that would ensure basic provisions such as sufficient nutrition and shelter. Well known brands such as Gap, Zara and H&M source from a large number of the involved factories.

Campaigners are urging that these workers are allowed to return to work immediately, with compensation paid for the time they have been dismissed:

http://www.cleanclothes.org/urgent-actions/cambodia-wages

And the Cambodian embassy in London might want to hear from you, as it already has been doing from Brent Trades Union Council, since it is in that borough. (see
http://www.brenttuc.org.uk/?p=483


Royal Cambodian Embassy in the UK,
64, Brondesbury Park,
Willesden Green,
London NW6 7AT
020 8451 7850
Fax 020 8451 7594
http://www.cambodianembassy.org.uk/

Right royal insult from Royal Cambodian embassy

CAMBODIAN workers will have our support.

IT'S not every day my pals on Brent trades union council make it into the national news, but trades council secretary Ben Rickman, a mild-spoken mathematician member of Unite the union's scientific section, found himself featured on the Daily Telegraph' s news pages yesterday, merely because he wrote to the Royal Cambodian embassy in London.

More exactly, it was the right royal insults Ben got in reply that made news, for setting new standards in diplomatic language. Low standards, that is.

Our secretary had e-mailed the embassy via the Amnesty UK website, to express concern at reports of trade unionists being targeted for victimisation and repression, as they organised national strikes over low pay and poor working conditions in Cambodia's textile and garment industry.

But he was shocked to receive a distinctly undiplomatic response from the embassy's official email address.

Signed the Webmaster, the email said: "It is none of your business!

"Please report to your clown boss to stop this childish game and stop this circus at once? Thank you."

Bro. Rickman replied saying "this is not a childish game and I will not stop until I get a sensible answer".

Two hours later he got a second email saying "please go to the moon and stay there until you get an answer. Cambodia is not part of the British Empire".

Amnesty UK confirmed the response came from the embassy's email address but didn't want to comment further in case they deflected attention from serious human rights issues. A Cambodian Embassy spokesman said he had no record of the emails sent.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/8048236/Trade-union-told-to-go-to-the-moon-by-Embassy-official.html

Ben had contacted the embassy after seeing an Amnesty report saying workers and activists organizing a nationwide strike of garment factory workers in Cambodia were at risk of arrest and legal action. The five day national strike was called by a coalition of garment industry unions in protest at a new minimum wage set for the garment and footwear industry. Union officials say that 200,000 workers around the country joined the strike.

On 15 September, the Prime Minister authorized the police and local authorities to begin unspecified legal action against strike leaders.The courts are reported to have warrants ready for the arrest of nine individuals for incitement, including Ath Thorn, the President of the Cambodian Labour Confederation (CLC) (above left), Morn Nhim (f), President of the Cambodian National Confederation (CNC) and Tola Moeun, Head of the Labour Rights Programme at CLEC Community Legal Education Centre.

The strike was temporarily suspended on 16 September following an offer of further negotiations, but the threat of legal action, including charges of incitement, remained.

At least 45,000 garment factory workers lost their jobs during 2009 as a result of the global economic crisis, and a number of companies reduced salaries. In July the Labour Advisory Committee (LAC), comprised of government officials, industry representatives, and some unions, agreed to an increase in the minimum wage from US$ 56 to US$ 61 per month, which would not be reviewed again until 2014. The CLC and CNC unions called for an increase to US$ 93 per month, as a more realistic wage to cover basic needs and living expenses for workers and their families.

Amnesty says the Cambodian authorities increasingly use the courts to stifle legitimate human rights activity. " Individuals may be charged with incitement or other spurious offences. Freedom of expression is also undermined by charges of disinformation and the use of criminal defamation law suits, the former carrying a custodial sentence.

"Union leaders and activists are vulnerable to attacks, as demonstrated by the killing of prominent union leader Chea Vichea in January 2004, and two other union officials, Ros Sovannarith in May 2004, and Hy Vuthy in February 2007. Perpetrators of the killings of Chea Vichea and Hy Vuthy have not been brought to justice.
http://www.amnesty.org.uk/

Meanwhile when workers returned to their factories on Friday, September 18, they discovered that over 261 trade union representatives at 20 factories were illegally dismissed or suspended from their work. Factory owners, in other words, are massively punishing trade union activists for their role in the organising the strike, which is in direct violation of the Cambodia’s Constitution, the labour Law and ILO conventions on freedom of association and collective bargaining.

The Clean Clothes Campaign, which has support in fourteen countries, announced that it was asking garment brands and retailers sourcing from Cambodia to ensure that 261 factory unionists who had been unfairly dismissed or suspended from work were immediately reinstated in their factories. The CCC says it is also deeply concerned about reports of ongoing violence against trade unionists and labour-rights activists, legal threats against organisers, and court-sponsored retaliation against union members.

"We call upon factory owners, the Cambodian authorities, and brands to ensure that workers can exercise their legal right to freedom of association. The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint programme of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), have started an urgent appeal towards the government: http://www.fidh.org/Threats-of-arrest-against-union-leaders-and

The suspension of trade union representatives has created further tensions as many workers are angry that union organisers have been banned from their factories. At the River Rich factory, more than 2,000 workers refused to start working again because union representatives were refused entry to the factory. In total, twenty-nine workers at four different factories have been injured during clashes with the military police (see for a newspaper report: http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010091942119/National-news/police-clash-with-garment-workers.html

For a joint media statement from several Cambodian human rights organisation: http://www.licadho-cambodia.org/pressrelease.php?perm=228

Back in Brent, the trades union council, which meets later this month, is not likely to ignore the insults to our secretary, which amount to an insult to every trade unionist in the borough. Nor will we forget our duty to support our Cambodian sisters and brothers. We won't be going to the moon, not while Cambodian oppositionists saying the current regime should go to hell, nor while the embassy which sends out such foolish insults is too near at hand, right on our doorstep in fact!

Hor Nambora,
Ambassador of Cambodia

The Royal Embassy of Cambodia,
64 Brondesbury Park
London NW6 7AT
020 8451 7850
Fax. 020-8451 7594
E-mail: cambodianembassy@btconnect.com

Massacre in Maguindanao:

JOURNALISTS and trade unionists are often targeted by reactionary regimes and racketeers who don't want ordinary people taking an informed interest in their affairs and talking, let alone trying to do something, about who gets what, and how their countries are run.

In recent years we've seen some high-profile cases in the former Soviet Union, of reporters gunned down if they upset the kleptocrats and nationalists. But on November 23,last year the bloodiest ever slaughter of journalists in a single incident occurred in Maguindanao province, southern Philippines.

An entire election convoy of 63 people including 33 accompanying reporters and media personnel was ambushed, and everyone killed.

Human rights campaigners say enforced disappearances and political killings of trade union leaders, rights activists and journalists have spiralled in the Philippines in the last decade, mainly in the name of counterinsurgency.

They accuse the Philippine government of arming and employing poorly trained and unaccountable paramilitary groups to combat insurgent groups, and handing powers to local politicians who have acted with impunity.

The gunmen who held up the Maguindanao convoy are thought to have been working for one of these politicians and his clan, close to the government. With 2010 being the self-imposed deadline set by the Arroyo administration to end insurgency and with national elections set for 10 May, there are increased fears of further unlawful killings and disappearances.

Here in London, the International Federation of Journalists (represented in the UK by the NUJ), Amnesty International and the Campaign for Human Rights in the Philippines are holding a Joint Forum on The Maguindanao Massacre: Impunity and Political Killings in the Philippines at 6.00 pm on Wednesday 3 March 2010 at the Human Rights Action Centre 17-25 New Inn Yard, London EC2A 3EA. Invited speakers include Aiden White, General Secretary IFJ, as well as speakers from Amnesty International and other expert analysts.

They invite us to book a free place by going to www.amnesty.org.uk/events.

For further information contact Shane Enright, AIUK Trade Union Campaigns Manager, Email: shane.enright@amnesty.org.uk, Tel: +44 (0) 20 7033 1569

Free food and refreshment will be served!

Wednesday, 03 March 2010

18:00 - 21:00

Amnesty International Human Rights Action Centre

17-25 New Inn Yard

EC2A 3AA

London

Health workers grabbed by Philippines military

PHILIPPINES media appear to be trying to play down widespread concern and anger over the latest action by the military. A joint operation by police and troops in the town of Morong, in Rizal province, detained 43 health workers whom the army claimed were attending a bomb-making course run by the left-wing New People's Army(NPA).

But the doctors and nurses arrested were members of the Health Alliance for Democracy (HEAD), in the town to conduct medical training, according to two farmers' organisations, the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) and Tanggol Magsasaka, who issued a statement on Sunday.

“We totally condemn this vicious act of the Arroyo government…the abduction of 42 patriotic doctors and medical personnel who offer their services to the poor. We strongly call for their immediate release,” said Antonio Flores, KMP spokesman and Tanggol Magsasaka coc-onvenor.

Lt. Col. Noel Detoyato, civil-military operations officer of the Army’s 2nd Infantry “Jungle Fighter” Division, said the suspects were members of the national, regional and local units of the NPA. He said the 17 men and 26 women were arrested when the troops searched a house in barangay Maybangcal, Morong, on the strength of a warrant issued by a local court.

Detoyato said the team seized a .45 calibre pistol, a .38 calibre revolver, three hand grenades, a canister, an improvised land mine, two improvised claymore mines, two kilos of ammonium nitrate, seven blasting caps, 36 home made explosive sticks, cellular telephones, backpacks and campaign materials of a party-list group.

The HEAD said its members were at the rest house of physician Melecia Velmonte and were conducting health- skills training when government troops raided the house, blindfolded those found in the house and forcibly took them to the headquarters of the 2nd ID in Tanay, Rizal.

Philippines TV news has failed to report a statement by Senator Pia S. Cayetano, chair of the Philippines Senate's Committee on Social Justice, who said:

"The 202nd Infantry Brigade of the armed forces should be made accountable for violating the rights of the 43 health personnel who were rounded up last Saturday while attending a training seminar in Morong, Rizal then later detained incognito at Camp Capinpin. The military's refusal to grant access to the health workers' relatives, lawyers and even the quick-reaction team of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) is a clear violation of their Constitutional rights to liberty and presumption of innocence until proven otherwise. This act should not be tolerated by the Arroyo regime.

"I would like to remind the arresting officers that our country is not under martial law anymore. The warrant used to round up the 43 was reportedly flawed. Since when can an arrest warrant issued against a specified person be used for a mass arrest? I sympathize with the relatives of the detained doctors, nurse, midwife and health volunteers. Is it now a crime to serve remote communities where government health services are hardly available, if at all? The military has no authority to detain incognito any citizen on mere suspicion of being communist rebels or supporters. The military should immediately produce all 43 and face the CHR and the courts."

More than one armed group is active in the Philippines, including Muslim rebels. One of the worst atrocities, in which at least 57 people were murdered, in the Maguindanao province in the south, has been attributed to professional gunmen hired by a local mayor and governor, belonging to a group that has close to the government.

http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90001/90777/90851/6824506.html

The NPA, regarded as the military wing of the Philippines Communist Party, can trace its roots to the "Huk" rebels who fought Japanese occupation in World War II, and were America's allies - until that war ended. Guerrilla activity fell away in the mid-Fifties, but in the following decade the Philippines party largely came under Maoist influence, and in 1969 the NPA was launched with a perspective of "protracted war".

After the downfall of the Marcos dictatorship the Philippines left tried to shift back to the towns, and legal forms of activity such as trade union work. But this too has become dangerous under the Arroyo regime, notwithstanding its armistice with the NPA in 2007.

From 2004 to 2008, the Center for Trade Union and Human Rights (CTUHR) recorded 70 killings and two cases of enforced disappearances. The count is part of the more than 800 victims of disappearances and extrajudicial killings listed by the human rights group Karapatan since President Arroyo came to power in 2001.

http://www.laborrights.org/end-violence-against-trade-unions/philippines/news/11909

The US government has classified the NPA as a "terrorist" organisation, and European governments have followed this lead, although some Philippine left-wingers are in exile in Europe.

Who's doing business in Burma?

"Please use your liberty to promote ours"

Aung San Suu Kyi - Burmese leader whom the military placed under house arrest after her party won elections.

THOUSANDS have taken to the streets and defied the military in what its rulers and the UN call "Myanmar", but oppositionists and the rest of us still call Burma. Many people awakening to the issue around the world will readily identify with the Burmese people's struggle against poverty oppression, not because George W.Bush and Gordon Brown chose to focus away from their problems in the Middle East, but in spite of them.

Since the Burmese military seized power it has crushed opposition, locked up popular leaders, repressed trade union activity and driven thousands of Burmese people out as refugees across the borders. Village women have been press-ganged into serving as porters and rape objects for the soldiers. Peasants have been forced into slave labour on military-backed projects. Burma is rich in resources, but ordinary Burmese find it increasingly hard to afford essentials, while their country is among the world's 15 top military spenders, and its generals enjoy royal luxury.

Not since the Second World War, when it was fought over by British and Japanese imperialism, each enlisting local allies, has Burma been threatened or invaded by anyone. So what is its military spending for, except to repress the people and enrich the arms dealers and generals?

Who are the military regime's accomplices? The United States and European Union have both condemned the regime and adopted sanctions policies. 'Myanmar' has close relations with neighboring India and China with several Indian and Chinese companies operating in the country, and these governments have reportedly resisted further action. But sanctions or not (and we don't know whether these really hit the military or ordinary people, as we saw with Iraq), big Western companies have evidently found Burma's wealth too much of an attraction to care about its slavery, or let sanctions worry them.

And who do we find near the front of the queue - why it's our American friends from Chevron!

The French oil company Total SA is able to operate the Yadana natural gas pipeline from Myanmar to Thailand despite the European Union's sanctions on Myanmar. Total is currently the subject of a lawsuit in French and Belgian courts for the condoning and use of Burman civilian slavery to construct the named pipeline. Experts say that the human rights abuses along the gas pipeline are the direct responsibility of Total S.A. and its American partner Chevron with aid and implementation by the Tatmadaw. Prior to its acquisition by Chevron, Unocal settled a similar human rights lawsuit for a reported multi-million dollar amount.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myanmar

The Burma campaign in the UK has drawn attention to the activities of these companies and it has also together with Amnesty International, reported how the regime continued to receive arms for repression, in spite of official sanctions.

http://www.burmacampaign.org.uk/reports/arms_embargo.pdf

The campaign has published a list of companies involved in Burma. http://www.burmacampaign.org.uk/dirty_list/dirty_list_details.html

These include British companies, as the BBC reports:

Burma List 'shames' UK companies
Rolls-Royce and Lloyd's of London are among 37 global companies which have been added to the Burma Campaign's annual 'Dirty List'.
The revised list of 95 contains companies which the Burma Campaign claims directly or indirectly help finance Burma's military dictatorship. The Campaign describes the regime as one of the most brutal in the world. Firms including BAT, P&O, WPP, PwC and Ernst & Young have pulled out of Burma in the past year following pressure.

'Minimal' business
According to the Campaign, Rolls-Royce has a contract to supply and service aircraft engines for at least one Burmese airline. "We believe foreign policy is a matter for government, not companies," a spokesman for Rolls Royce said.
"Policy is set through export licensing regulations, and we adhere to those. If we were denied an export licence, we would not trade," he added.

The Campaign claims that Lloyd's of London provides insurance and reinsurance services through its members to companies investing in Burma.
It also insures Burmese companies such as Yangon Airways by working through regime-owned insurers. A spokesperson for Lloyd's of London said that Lloyd's did a "minimal amount" of business in Burma and that it always complied with international sanctions and international regulatory requirements.

Travel ban
Travel firm Abercrombie & Kent (A&K) was listed for continuing to offer tours to the region. A spokesperson for the company said that the UK branch no longer includes Burma in its list of holiday destinations. However, the US branch of A&K has several tours to Burma in its 2004-2005 brochure, according to the Dirty List.

The Burma campaign was founded in 1991 with the aim of establishing the restoration of human rights and democracy in Burma.
Story from BBC NEWS:http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3593484.stm

http://www.burmacampaign.org.uk/index.php

People are showing their solidarity with the Burmese people around the world. In London demonstrations are taking place every lunchtime outside the Myanmar Embassy. The TUC is asking trade unionists to join the pro-democracy group today from 12 noon to 1pm.

Embassy of the Union of Myanmar

19 A CHARLES STREET

LONDON W1J 5DX

Nearest tube: Green Park

Miners martyrs of China's "miracle"

ANGUISHED relatives of trapped Chinese miners toppled a security fence and fought with police on Sunday, as it appeared that a rescue operation was being called off, and hope for the 172 men underground faded.

Flash floods caused by torrential rains had breached a levee and poured into an old shaft, engulfing the mine in the city of Xintai in Shandong Province on Friday. It was the latest of a number of tragedies that have befallen miners in China. China has been the world's biggest coal producer in recent years, and coal provides two-thirds of the electricity powering China's much-famed economic growth. But China's mining industry has one of the poorest safety records in the world.

A crowd of 200 people, angry at the lack of information, toppled an iron fence and broke into the compound of the Zhangzhuang mine, clashing with security officers. Some people threw stones at administration windows and fought police. But later officials insisted that the rescue operation was continuing, though the head of the Work Safety administration, Li Yizhong, said rescue teams had to proceed with caution because of the dangers of further flooding and gas leaks in the pit.

CCTV state television reported that high speed drills had been brought to the site to cut through the rock to accelerate the pumping operation, while Xinhua said 11 pumps had been installed by more than 6,700 rescue workers.
http://asia.news.yahoo.com/070819/afp/070819155854asiapacificnews.html

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/08/18/china.miners.ap/index.html?eref=rss_topstories

China's coal mines are some of the most dangerous in the world and fatal accidents happen almost every day. More than 4,700 workers died last year, according to official figures, but independent labour groups say the real toll is nearer 20,000 annually, because many accidents are covered up.

China's leaders have sought to speed up coal output to meet growing energy needs and avoid power cuts which hit many provinces a few years ago. But while the government promised to improve safety, the price has been high.
After 166 workers died in the Chenjiashan explosion in November, 2004 the State Council ordered an inquiry and newspaper editorials called for a more humane and balanced view of economic progress. An editorial in China Daily said the authorities should pursue "more serious actions for safety despite an energy shortage".

The Chenjiashan mine had reportedly failed a safety test days before the explosion, and had frequent fires. Relatives of the dead blamed managers' pursuit of a 400,000 yuan bonus for beating output targets.

In 2005 a gas explosion at the Shinjawan mine in north-east China killed 214 miners.

China has two kinds of mines: big, state-run mines, which are generally thought to be safer, and smaller private mines where the majority of deaths occur. "They're technically illegal, but they also have certificates. They pay money and get a licence," says film-director Li Yang, who spent 18 months making a film, Blind Shaft, set in small, private mines.

During filming, he lived in half a dozen mines and spent 50 hours underground. He counts himself "lucky" to have been asleep in the pithead dormitories when a roof collapse killed two miners. The response was matter-of-fact. "They cleared up the debris, cleared the shaft, treated it no differently from a traffic accident."

Miners had helmets and lamps, but most wore soft rubber boots. He never saw steel toe-caps. Ear mufflers? He laughs at the question. "They had no training."
Miners worked 10 hours a day, seven days a week, earning roughly 1000 yuan ($120; £62) a month. Pay was linked to how much coal they cut. Gas is the biggest killer, but miners often carried on working "even when it's close to the warning level", says Li Yang.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4060185.stm

Increased demand for coal has kept the private mines running profitably alongside the sped up state ones. Miners lives have been sacrificed to "growth", but then, not theirs alone. China's record of factory fires, in which the victims are often women workers, recalls some of the worst history of unregulated capitalism.

Capitalists from abroad, as well as home-bred, find the state bureaucracy a helpful partner in exploitation. Earlier this year almost 500 slave workers, including children, were freed from brick kilns in Henan and Shanxi provinces, north China, where they had been put to work, with the connivance of local Communist Party officials. This was an extreme case, and the authorities intervened. But the way Chinese embassy officials reacted to a strike by ill-treated Chinese building workers in Israel, ordering them back to work, underlined the irony of thinking the People's Republic a "workers' state"; and the terrible fate of Chinese migrant workers drowned in Morecambe bay in England while picking winkles, exposed the desperation that had driven them to pay for the privilege of working abroad.

Only the day before the Xintai disaster, it was reported that striking miners at the Tanjiashan Coal Mine in Hubei Province had suddenly been surrounded by more than 200 part-time security guards hired by management to break the strike. According to a report by Radio Free Asia, the security guards set about the workers and in the ensuing clash at least one worker and one security guard died. The conflict lasted about two hours. Workers vented their anger by attacking company offices and two nearby police vehicles they believed had been used to transport management's hired security guards to the mine. The dispute arose over allegations that management were diverting money allocated by central government for redundancy payments.
http://www.china-labour.org.hk/public/contents/news?revision%5fid=48962&item%5fid=48961

The Chinese government says it wants to make the mines safer by bringing them all under central control. But what is really needed is the right of working people in China to organise freely so they can assert some control over their conditions and working lives, as well as their environment, and press political leaders for the laws they need, and for these to be enforced. Workers' rights and democracy are not a luxury extra for socialism. They are a matter of life and death.

Lest we forget Indonesia

DOING BUSINESS with the dictator: Thatcher and Suharto



We are passing through the fortieth anniversary of one of the worst massacres in history, ranking with the crimes of Hitler or Stalin. Yet far from being brought to justice, the chief perpetrator, Indonesia's dictator Suharto, has retired in comfort. Far from intervening to remove his regime, US and British governments shored it up for decades, supplying it with arms and aid. ( see pic above of partners in crime). But after all they had helped install this murderous regime.
On 1 October 1965, a group of Indonesian army officers staged a coup attempt, killing six generals. General Suharto, not a target of the attack, struck back against the perpetrators. His troops fanned out across the country, assisted by Islamist gangs which they armed, slaughtering members of the Indonesian Communist Party, which was wrongly blamed for the coup attempt. The campaign was the opportunity to wipe out workers and peasants unions. Estimates of the death toll range from half a million to three million. No-one has ever been held to account for this appalling crime.
As in Iraq (which went through a similar, if smaller, bloodbath in 1963) and other countries, the hand of the CIA was not hard to detect behind the Indonesian coup. But it was not alone. British intelligence had sponsored a radio station in Singapore broadcasting to Indonesia. Like a Far Eastern version of the Czarist Black Hundreds, the British-backed propaganda speciality was combining anti-communism with inciting hatred of Indonesia's Chinese minority, who became pogrom victims. .
"I have never concealed from you my belief that a little shooting in Indonesia would be an essential preliminary to effective change," Sir Andrew Gilchrist, the British ambassador in Jakarta, informed the Foreign Office on October 5 1965. Declassified files show that Britain wanted the Indonesian army to act and encouraged it to do so.British policy was "to encourage the emergence of a general's regime", one intelligence official explained. Another noted that "it seems pretty clear that the generals are going to need all the help they can get and accept without being tagged as hopelessly pro-western, if they are going to be able to gain ascendancy over the communists". Therefore, "we can hardly go wrong by tacitly backing the generals".(Mark Curtis, October 6th, 05 "The Guardian"
As the regime settled down to rule mass arrests landed hundreds of thousands of people in prison. By the early 1970s, around 70,000 were still in detention, of whom not more than two hundred were ever tried. The innocent victims of this purge, and their relatives, still suffer discrimination to this day.
After reducing the incumbent President Sukarno to nothing more than a figurehead, Suharto took over as President in March 1966. From then until May 1998, when he was forced to step down, Indonesia was ruled by a military dictatorship responsible for massive and widespread violations of human rights throughout the country, especially in Aceh and West Papua, and in East Timor, which the armed forces brutally occupied in 1975.
(See http://tapol.gn.apc.org/
"Tapol" is the Indonesian term for political prisoners, and TAPOL, based in Thornton Heath, Surrey, is the campaign that has worked for years to expose human rights abuses and atrocities in Indonesia, and in East Timor and West Papua..It has also exposed British and US support for the military, and now it is calling for compensation to surviving relatives of the massacre victims, and prisoners, who faced blacklisting for jobs even after their release.
Carmel Budiardjo of TAPOL, herself one of those jailed without trial, says:
"While millions of his victims still endure continued discrimination, Suharto the architect of their suffering lives in secluded luxury with his children who enriched themselves during his years in power. He must not be allowed to go unpunished."
TAPOL is calling for full rehabilitation and restitution for the victims of the 1965 tragedy and for Suharto to be brought to trial for the crimes against humanity committed by his regime. We should also be calling for the whole truth to be brought out on how US and British governments helped Suharto to power and backed his dictatorship.