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From: Steve Huter <sghuter@igc.apc.org> To: nsrc@nsrc.org Date: Sun, 2 Feb 1997 22:37:27 -0800 (PST) /* Written 11:18 PM Jan 11, 1997 by rgoforth@u.washington.edu in iww.news */ /* ---------- "Social Justice E-Zine #24" ---------- */ SOCIAL JUSTICE #24 January 12, 1997 Kim Goforth Ray Goforth [ ... ] BURMA/MYANMAR BANS MODEMS AND FAX MACHINES by Ray Goforth United Press International reports that the country of Burma (also known as Myanmar) has made owning, using, importing or borrowing a modem or fax machine without government authorization a crime, punishable by up to 15 years in prison. Burma's military government ("State Law and Order Restoration Committee") has promulgated "The Computer Science Development Law" which empowers the Ministry of Communications, Posts and Telegraphs to specify what exactly can be restricted, UPI reports. The government-run newspaper New Light of Myanmar reports that the 15 year sentence is prescribed for anyone who sets up a link with a computer network without the prior permission of the Ministry of Communications, or who uses computer network and information technology "for undermining state security, law and order, national unity, national economy and national culture, or who obtains or transmits state secrets." One foreigner has already fallen prey to the new law. In July of 1996, Leo Nichols died in prison after he was sentenced to a lengthy term for illegal possession of fax machines. The new Computer Science Development Law is but the latest in a long series of repressive measures utilized by the SLORC. Human Rights NGO's have documented the use of forced labor on public works projects and the SLORC is widely believed to control a substantial portion of the world's heroin trade. Myanmar's democratically elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi has not been allowed to take office and remains under house arrest. The United Nations Working Group on Contemporary Forms of Human Slavery has domumentation on forced labor in Myanmar and the use of prisoners to lay railway lines, including the famous railway given the name of Ye-Tavoy. Children, because of their agility and small size, had been used to prepare the bricks. The documentation denounces the connivance of foreign investors who financed tourist projects exploiting the forced labour of prisoners. Given the seeming imperviousness to global criticism demonstrated by the SLORC, many human rights activists are calling for an economic boycott modelled upon those launched against the South African apartheid regime. The Daily newspaper reports that two cities in California (Santa Monica and San Francisco) and the state of Massachusetts are now refusing to do government business with companies profiting from SLORC repression. Harvard University cancelled its dining hall contract (worth $1 million dollars USA) with PepsiCo because of its activities in Myanmar. The University of California at Berkeley student government voted to end the sale of PepsiCo products on the campus. Computer industry giants Motorola and Hewlett Packard have ceased doing business in Myanmar while Mitsubishi, Texaco and Unocal continue their operations.
