Burma Coalition demands amnesty

At last night's Free Burma Coalition meeting, Penn Amnesty International President Mark Kahn asked members of the University community "to have a political conscience." FBC leaders Kahn, a College freshman, and Wharton and Engineering junior Peter Chowla were disappointed with the meeting's turnout last night. Only members of the organization attended. "Penn should have higher attendance at political activist meetings," Kahn said, observing a general "apathy" among University students. The FBC seeks to make students more aware of the problems in Myanmar, which was formerly known as Burma, and get them involved, according to Kahn. Myanmar's military dictatorship -- the State Law and Order Restoration Council -- has prevented its citizens from implementing a democratic system of government. The regime crushed a pro-democracy uprising in 1988, killing thousands. In 1990, democratic elections gave 82 percent of the vote to the national League for Democracy, but the SLORC refused to allow the elected members to take their seats. "This is what's happening now -- 250 student activists are still in jail," Kahn said. "SLORC has crushed the Karen Resistance, a group fighting for a national homeland. They use the death penalty the way that we use fines." Kahn said the military dictatorship is responsible for human rights violations, failure to allow the process of democracy, forced labor, executions and relocations. The Free Burma Coalition's objectives include weakening the SLORC by cutting its substantial flow of foreign currency provided by multinational corporations such as PepsiCo, Texaco, Total and ARCO. The new activism is already proving to be effective. Last year, Harvard University officials turned down a million-dollar contract with PepsiCo as a result of FBC and student protests. PepsiCo, which runs a bottling company in Myanmar and also buys agricultural products there for sale overseas, has become a target of protest on several college campuses across the nation. Kahn said he is concerned that Penn might have ties to Myanmar and may show "possible resistance to disclosing their ties and investments." Despite the low attendance, he noted the coalition was not looking for a "huge" membership. "The group can be as small as a few people working together," Kahn said, noting that "there can only be so many petitions" to sign. Kahn added that he hopes the group can generate future support for events such as speakers, protests and sit-ins. The FBC -- which works with human rights and environmentalist activists around the world -- seeks to build a movement modeled after the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa. Kahn described the group as "a coming together of activists," noting that the group was formed partly to "take the burden off" other political and environmental organizations on campus. "FBC draws people together from different organizations to the issues of Burma," said Kahn, who added that the next meeting will take place after spring break.