28 aug. 2003,

Dear friends,

Two moths ago I send out an information to you on imports from the Swiss companies Migros and Fenaco from Burma. According to several discussions at Swiss medias and written replies from the companies, I'm glad to inform you today, that Migros and Fenaco have stopped their imports.

Migros:
In June 2003 it became public, that Migros imported two articles (outdoor pants) from Burma. Migros management immediately ordered a social audit at this factory (realised by Eco-Tex). Shortly after they received the first results, Migros communicated in a press release on Monday, August 25 2003, that they stopped their cooperation with that supplier. Eco-Tex found severe non-compliance with the Migros-Non-Food-Code (mainly in OSH, there was no child labour and no forced labour). But this kind of control was not able to uncover the role of the army in production and within the trade of the garments. Migros did not announce a general stop for trade with Burma (but there are no other imports from Burma planned today). Behind this stands the fact, that Migros' Travel Agency (Hotelplan) still sells trips to Myanmar.

Fenaco:
The Swiss agro giant Fenaco has stopped any further imports of rice from Burma. The Swiss TV (Rundschau on TVDRS) yesterday showed a spokesman from Fenaco, saying that this decision was taken for purely political reasons. It really was an evil situation, in which rice from Burma was fed to Swiss animals, while Birman peoples are starving.

But still after this success for the Burma solidarity movement, Switzerland plays an important role for trade with rice from Burma. The Geneva based companies Louis Dreyfus Trading and Novel Commodities are involved in Birman rice exports (not only to Switzerland). Asked by Berne Declaration, they did not wanted to comment on this issue.

The impact of confiscation of land and the compulsory procurement of rice in Burma has been documented in a study from Edith Cowan University in Australian in collaboration with NCUB and FTUB (see Link below).

Please find more details on the homepage from Berne Declaration:
German press release: http://www.evb.ch/index.cfm?page_id=2433
Study on land confiscation (see pdf-files): http://www.evb.ch/index.cfm?page_id=2434
Market information from Unctad: http://r0.unctad.org/infocomm/anglais/rice/companies.htm

Thanks to everybody who supported our intervention.

In solidarity

Stefan Indermühle, Berne Declaration
Swiss Clean Clothes Campaign

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Stefan Indermühle, Clean Clothes Campaign,
c/o Erklärung von Bern / Berne Declaration,
Postfach, CH-8031 Zürich, Switzerland,
Tel.: 0041 1 277 70 10, Fax: 0041 1 277 70 01
E-Mail: ccc@evb.ch, Web: www.cleanclothes.ch
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