Burma

Re “Exiting the Burma Road,” editorial, Feb. 14:

You failed to mention the two American giants, Unocal and Texaco which, with Total of France, recently signed a $400 million deal with the military thugs in Rangoon to build a pipeline through the Mon tribal homeland to transport natural gas from Burma to Thailand.

What is so repulsive is the use of slaves to build roads, railroads and other backbreaking projects to catch up with the 20th Century in haste.

The State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC), Burma’s ruling junta, has defied the U.N. and the international community by going full-steam ahead violating each and every article of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights with impunity.

Earlier this month, the SLORC spurned a U.N. deputy secretary general’s request to see imprisoned Nobel Peace Laureate Aung Sun Suu Kyi when he was sent to Burma by a United Nations resolution.

Appearing on the day former Burmese Prime Minister U Nu died in Rangoon, I hope your piece arouses the conscience of freedom-loving Americans. The President and the Congress should take the moral high ground by insisting that the international community deny the benefits of trade with Burma as was done so successfully in South Africa.

U KYAW WIN

Laguna Hills