City Urged to Boycott Firms Trading in Myanmar

Chanting “Free Burma Now” and holding signs that read “L.A. taxpayers don’t want to support the heroin trade,” dozens of supporters of human rights for citizens of Myanmar urged Los Angeles officials Monday to boycott firms that do business in the Southeast Asian nation formerly known as Burma.

The activists want the city to help pressure the military government in Myanmar to surrender power. Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the U.S. State Department and the United Nations have criticized the military regime’s human rights record, according to the Burma Forum, the group that organized the protest.

“As was the case in South Africa, corporate investment in my country of Burma plays an important role in propping up the illegal dictatorship,” said U Kyaw Win, a counselor and professor of psychology at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa.