When the United States promotes economic and political stability, we open new markets for our goods and create new jobs for Americans. We gain partners in our efforts to protect the global environment. We reduce dependence on our military. We decrease migration. We improve the quality of life in very tangible ways for everyone involved. Voluntary family planning is a critical part of the equation. In light of the extreme cuts to international family planning programs in FY 96, Audubon urges the Committee to appropriate at least the FY 95 appropriated level of $616 million in population assistance. The Administration has also requested $30 million for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). UNFPA is the principal multilateral organization providing family planning and maternal and child health care. It is active in 140 countries worldwide, many of which do not receive U.S. bilateral assistance. UNFPA's activities are particularly important as the U.S. Agency for International Development (AID) continues to downsize. UNFPA programs contribute to improving the quality and safety of contraceptives, reducing the incidence of abortion, improving reproductive and child health and strengthening the status of women. UNFPA has never funded abortion in any country. Furthermore, under current law, no part of the U.S. contribution to UNFPA can be used in China. Congress has consistently voted to contribute to UNFPA. Funds appropriated by this committee for FY 1994 are the first actual contribution in a decade. Audubon urges the Committee to continue its support for UNFPA by appropriating the Administration's request for $30 million. OUR PLEDGE Audubon recognizes that foreign assistance is perhaps the most misunderstood part of the federal budget. Survey data indicates that the public supports modest investments, beyond what is actually being spent, on programs which protect the global environment, provide family planning, improve health, alleviate poverty, and create trade opportunities. The data also indicates that there exists a great misperception about how little the United States actually spends on these programs. We pledge to help correct these misperceptions and continue to build vocal support for sustainable development programs through our public education and grassroots campaigns nationwide. Thank you for consideration of these issues. We look forward to working with you during this session of Congress. The volunteers of the non-profit, tax-exempt nongovernmental organization, the Burma American Fund (BAF), based in New York, thank you for your promise that the State Department will allocate $1 million for 1996 for refugees (160,000 in Thailand alone) fleeing the brutally repressive narco-military dictatorship in Burma. The BAF has testified in past years on the vast underpinnings of the Burma Army and its ruling clique provided by the ever-expanding heroin and prostitution industries. A pure grade of heroin, No.4, is increasingly available in US cities. One of the narco regime's most powerful generals is jocularly addressed by his fellow generals as "4 Khin Nyunt" because his immense wealth (in US dollars) is based on No.4 heroin which Khin Nyunt's intelligence agents peddle to young people in Burma on college and school campuses. Recently Khin Nyunt's deputy, Col.Kyaw Win, assured rebel delegates that if they agreed to a ceasefire with the Burma Army, they too (like the druglords) would enjoy freedom of all the country's routes (tightly controlled by the Army since grabbing absolute power in 1962). Colonel Kyaw Win, who is spokesman for the ruling SLORC (State Law & Order Restoration Council), told the astonished rebels about a truckload of heroin that had been stopped on the highway by Burmese police. The driver demanded the police telephone Gen. Than Shwe, chairman of SLORC. The police did so, and promptly allowed the truck to pass. The latest druglord to surrender, Khun Sa, was given a golden welcome by SLORC in the capital, Rangoon. Sources report that Khun Sa paid $20 million to SLORC, plus an additional $2 million to each of the Burma Army government ministers. The indigenous, ethnic people who grow opium do so for basic subsistence (earning $80 to $100 per year per household in times of good harvest), while in other areas, indigenous Shan farmers who cultivate other crops must y the Army a penalty tax for NOT growing opium. Heroin manufacturers pay hefty sums to the Army for licenses to refine opium into heroin. continued page 2 Congressional testimony page two AIDS is spreading rapidly but the military dictatorship under-reports cases, while eagerly touting tourism at the expense of young women, boys and girls recruited into brothels. Decades- long looting of all the country's resources by the narco-military regime results in deepening poverty nationwide. Increasingly destitute children and women, at the mercy of the military and police, also provide a neverending supply of captive flesh to neighboring Thailand's booming tourism-and-sex trade. The indigenous people are sick and tired of decades of abuse, beatings, torture, routine rape, conscription as slaves for the Burma Army, of running to hide while Burmese soldiers burn their homes and take their grain and livestock. They have long understood that the Burmese leadership wants to eliminate them because their homeland comprises more than half the entire country and possesses practically all of the natural resources claimed and exploited by the Burmese. The GAO report of March 1996 states the key to stopping heroin flow is addressing opium production in Burma which is 60% of worldwide production. GAO believes achieving this objective will be difficult due to several reasons, among which is the inability or unwillingness of the Burmese government to end the lucrative drug trade. Indeed the key to the opium problem in Burma rests with two factors. One, the overwhelming system of extortion developed since 1962 by the ruling Burma Army which enables even poorly-paid soldiers to adorn their wives with heavy gold chains and precious gems. The second factor lies in helping indigenous growers cultivate other marketable crops. Contrary to the conclusion by the GAO, citing U.S. officials (none of whom have ever met with the Wa leadership), that the indigenous Wa army leadership would not agree to participate in stopping opium culivation and production, the Wa leadership does want to explore how their people might grow other crops i will continue their communication with Chairman Ben Gilman of the House International Relations ommittee. Despite the vehement opposition of the Burmese government to co-operation between any indigenous, ethnic group and the US, Wa and other indigenous growers and their political leadership are anxious to work closely with the Congress and the Administration. The State Department acknowledged in 1992 that US satellite photographs confirmed that the indigenous Kachin organization north of Burma had successfully eradicated opium cultivation in areas controlled by the Kachins. Since then, AIDS from infected needles and growing prostitution is threatening the indigenous people (as well as the Burmese population in Burma). Under guidance of the Kachins, indigenous growers among the Wa, Shan, Lahu and other ethnic groups in the Shan State are seeking a feasible solution. They ask only for your understanding of their difficult situation. They need to survive in face of a ruthless enemy regime. Thank you. Attachments follow. 1. 2. 21 Methods of Torture in Burma by Burma Army dictatorship, SLORC (State Law & Order Restoration Council) HIV-positive Burmese soldiers are told they will die either from a bullet or from AIDS. They are told to rape as many indigenous, ethnic minority women as possib in order to infect them rape women, insert beer bottle in vagina, smash bottle with rifle butt 3. cut off penis; put penis in victim's mouth 4. tie string very tightly around testicles; pull testicles off 5. cut open abdomen of live victim; pull out intestines 6. 7. thrust victim's head in sack of stinging chilli peppers, tie sack securely around victim's neck; leave victim in boiling hot tropical sun victim drowned in barrel of water 8. victim's face covered with cloth; water poured on cloth until victim dies 9. boiling water poured down a funnel placed in victim's mouth 10. women are burned by boiling water; their scalded, naked bodies are immersed in an abrasive mixture of lime, chilli peppers and salt 11. women holding their babies are forced to stand in mud under the tropical sun for days 12. victim forced into barrel of water up to neck for five days and forced to drink water he has fouled during this period of time 13. insert rifle shell cases between victim's fingers; squeeze victim's hand, hard 14. pull out teeth, pull out fingernails 15. rub victim's shin with stick until skin comes off 16. hoisted upside down with feet tied, victim is beaten 17. hands tied in front, har across victim's back inserted through crook of elbows, victim is hung up IN BURMA'S PRISONS 18. cell designed for 4 is jammed with at least 20 prisoners; to terrify them, a leprosy patient is thrust into the same crowded cell 19. crowded cell contains a half-barrel for feces and 3 jars for urine; all in cell are punished if urine is detected in feces container AT FRONTLINE OF BURMA ARMY'S 50-YEAR WAR AGAINST THE INDIGENOUS, ETHNIC PEOPLE 20. villagers are forced to surround Burmese Army bunker with their bodies as shield, while village elders and clergy are tied and placed on top of bunker 21. villagers are forced to stand as Burmese soldiers crouch behind them and shoot from behind their human shields |