GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA

SESSION 1997

S	1 

SENATE BILL 1067

Short Title:  No Business Relations with Burma.	(Public)

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Sponsors: Senators Page; and Kinnaird.

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Referred to:  State Government, Local Government, and Personnel.

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April 21, 1997

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT TO DENOUNCE THE HEROIN TRAFFIC TRADE FROM THE UNION OF MYANMAR, FORMERLY BURMA, AND TO REQUEST COMPANIES PRESENTLY DOING BUSINESS WITH THE STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA AND ALSO DOING BUSINESS IN THE UNION OF MYANMAR TO WITHDRAW THEIR OPERATION FROM THE UNION OF MYANMAR IN SUPPORT OF THE DEMOCRACY MOVEMENT IN THE UNION OF MYANMAR.
Whereas, the citizens of North Carolina recognize the need to protect their State from the influx of heroin coming from the Union of Myanmar, formerly Burma (herein referred to as Myanmar) and the resulting health and human service costs associated with increased heroin use; and
Whereas, according to the Department of Human Resources, Division of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities, and Substance Abuse Services, there are approximately 17,544 known IV drug users in the State of North Carolina, most of whom use heroin; and
Whereas, approximately 2,315 addicts received treatment through public programs; and
Whereas, the United States State Department report of June 1996 states that "Burma ... is the source of over sixty percent (60%) of the heroin seized on U.S. streets." Further it states that the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) military regime maintains good relationships with leaders of "drug-trafficking armies," and has allowed several of them to participate in the Government's national constitutional convention in the guise of ethnic leaders." Furthermore, "during the past six years there has been no progress in reducing opium cultivation or in stopping the heroin-trafficking activities of the ethnic armies now considered part of the 'legal fold'"; and
Whereas, Robert Gelbard, Assistant Secretary of State, International Narcotics/Law Enforcement, stated in November 1996, that "Before Burma's military took power in 1962, Burma played a relatively minor role in the global drug trade.  But by the 1980s it has emerged as the world's largest producer of opium and heroin.  SLORC is protecting the drug trade and flaunting its defiance of international concern."; and
Whereas, The National League for Democracy, led by Aung San Suu Kyi and most leaders of allied ethnic resistance groups are strongly opposed to the drug trade, so that democracy would be expected to bring a decrease in the amount of heroin grown in Myanmar and exported to the United States; and
Whereas, Aung San Suu Kyi and the rightfully elected leadership of Myanmar, winners of the 1990 elections, have called upon the world community to impose economic and arms sanctions against the SLORC as well as companies operating in Myanmar; and
Whereas, the United Nations and elected representatives of the United States, including President Clinton and many in the Congress, have repeatedly shown support for the people of Myanmar by urging the SLORC to release all political prisoners, to respect the results of the May 1990 elections, and to commit to undergo genuine democratic reforms; and
Whereas, the 1996 Cohen Feinstein Amendment to the Foreign Appropriations Bill gives the President of the United States full authority to impose sanctions on new investment in Myanmar if there is further repression of the democracy movements or harm to Aung San Suu Kyi, and section 138 of the United States Customs and Trade Act of 1990 instructs the President to impose comprehensive trade sanction against Myanmar's military regime; and
Whereas, the United States has currently suspended economic aid to Myanmar, placed an embargo on arms sales to Myanmar, denied trade preferences to Myanmar, decertified Myanmar as a narcotics cooperating country, placed Myanmar on the list of international outlaw states and adopted numerous resolutions calling for the return of democracy on Myanmar; and
Whereas, dozens of international companies such as PepsiCo, Motorola, Amoco, Levi-Strauss, Apple Computer, and Hewlett Packard have pulled out of Myanmar citing human rights abuses and economic instability; and
Whereas, state and local governments in the United States have passed laws prohibiting them from contracting with companies doing business with Myanmar; and
Whereas, the SLORC, acting as the government of Myanmar, has implemented a reign of terror preventing political participation by various methods, including:
(1)	Ignoring the results of the 1990 elections in which pro-democracy candidates received over sixty percent (60%) of the vote and over eighty percent (80%) of the seats in the government;
(2)	Forcing the imprisonment, death, or exile of many of these candidates, including the six years' house arrest of pro-democracy leader and 1991 Nobel Peace Prize recipient Aung San Suu Kyi;
(3)	Failing to convene a Constitutional Convention as promised in 1990;
(4)	Imposing martial law barring freedom of the press and gatherings of more than five people;
(5)	Forcibly relocating hundreds of thousands of people, both those in neighborhoods with strong pro-democracy support and ethnic minorities including the Muslim Rohingyas and indigenous groups in areas with extractive resources, to locales in which malaria and other diseases are rampant and where food, water, and sewers are scarce, if available at all;
(6)	Barring all labor and trade union organizing and implementing forced labor for the purpose of road and tourist site construction, portaging of military goods and human minesweeping;
(7)	Harming the men, women, and children of Myanmar by pillaging villages and townships, and by attacking and burning refugee camps; and
Whereas, the military regime is currently attempting to enhance its standing in the international community and to increase the flow of foreign funds and investment through various means; and
Whereas, the National League for Democracy's call for sanctions is supported by Nobel Peace Prize Laureates Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the Dalai Lama, Oscar Arias Sanchez, Mairead McGuire, Betty Williams, Adolpho Perez Esquival, and many others including the AFL-CIO; and
Whereas, the State of North Carolina declares the right to measure the moral character of its business partners with whom it seeks to have business relations; Now, therefore,
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
Section 1.  The General Assembly recognizes that it is in the public interest that the State of North Carolina refrain from doing business in or with the Union of Myanmar, formerly Burma.
Section 2.  The heads of all State departments, agencies, and institutions are authorized to send letters to all companies with which they do business which are also doing business in the Union of Myanmar, formerly Burma, informing them of the State's concern about the importation of heroin into the United States and the human rights abuses in the Union of Myanmar, and requesting that they withdraw all operations from the Union of Myanmar as soon as possible as requested by the duly elected leadership of the Union of Myanmar, the National League for Democracy led by Aung San Suu Kyi.
Section 3.  The General Assembly requests that companies affected by this act withdraw from doing business in the Union of Myanmar by the end of one calendar year from the date of the enactment of this bill.
Section 4.  The State shall monitor the situation in the Union of Myanmar and the effects of this correspondence.
Section 5.   A list of the companies currently doing business in the Union of Myanmar shall be obtained through the resources of the Investor Responsibility Research Center and other reliable sources.
Section 6.  The heads of all State departments, agencies, and institutions affected by this act shall file a written report with the Joint Legislative Commission Governmental Operations detailing compliance with this request.
Section 7.  This act is effective when it becomes law.