????????(Your Name)
Bay Area Burma Activist
1411 Shoreline Drive, #1408
Alameda, CA 94501
18th September 2000
Gil Whelan
General Manager
Aeroground Corporate
Headquarters
270 Lawrence Avenue,
South San Francisco, CA
94080
Phone: (650) 266 6965
Facsimile: (+612) 6261-3111
Email: Aerogrndsfo@aol.com
Dear Mr. Whelan:
Re: Protest at Aeroground World Headquarters on September 16,
2000
I am writing this letter to inform you that We the Burma Activists held a protest on Saturday, September 16 in front of your office against your company’s involvement in promoting tourism in Burma.
I understand that the
Ministry of Hotels and Tourism of Burma has officially appointed an agent,
North American group Aeroground Group Services, to promote Myanmar as a tourist
destination. We acknowledge your right to pursue a business opportunity, but we
wish you to reconsider this decision. The international community has broadly
recognized that Burma’s military dictatorship is among the most repressive and
brutal in the world. This regime enforces its power through rape, torture,
forced labor and gross violations of the human rights of its people. The
government is also widely known to be involved in the heroin trade, helping to
provide the United States with 60% of its heroin. The governments of the United
States, the European Union and Japan have imposed sanctions on the Burmese
Government because of these practices.
The democratically elected
leader of Burma and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, has
been denied her role as leader and has been denied her freedom for over 10
years. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has called
for a international economic sanctions against Burma to paralyze the military
regime and bring them to the discussion table with democratic opposition leaders.
That is the only way to bring about the true and lasting democracy in Burma.
Your promotion of tourism in
Burma will prolong the military regime by providing resources and cash flow,
and will serve to increase the terror that the 47 million Burmese people face
every day. Since it is widely recognized that conducting business in Burma
provides money and resources to the oppressive military dictatorship, many
companies have pulled out of Burma. Pepsi, Texaco, Arco, IBM, Macy’s, Nortel
Networks and Apple are only a few examples.
Levi-Strauss
& Co., upon withdrawing from Burma, made the statement,
"It is not possible to do business in [Burma] without directly supporting the military government and its pervasive violations of human rights."
According to Doug Cahn, a spokesman for Reebok, “We do not feel
that we can adequately apply our human rights standards and do business in
Burma."
We are determined to
pressure Aeroground to follow the path of
many other responsible
companies, i.e., to stop conducting business in Burma immediately. Please do the right thing and cancel your
contract with the Burmese military junta to promote tourism there. An alliance
of organizations supporting freedom in Burma has successfully worked to
pressure other corporations to pull out of Burma. We would like to meet with
you to discuss your promotion of tourism in Burma. We are prepared to take the
necessary steps to pressure Aeroground and its customers to stop this
destructive business plan.
In closing, thank you for
your attention to this matter and we would appreciate if you could contact us
to set up a meeting to discuss this issue.
Yours sincerely
(Your Name)