Contact: Michael Vachon             (212) 887-0668           mvachon@sorosny.org

For Immediate Release               

New York, NY-- April 18, 1996--In its latest issue, the award-winning

bimonthly magazine Burma Debate exposes the politics behind doing

business in Burma, a country ruled by a military junta with one of the

worst human rights records in the world.

Excerpts from a series of confidential memoranda written by New York

businesswoman Miriam Marshall Segal to Burma's Minister of Livestock,

Breeding and Fisheries reveal the cozy relationship between foreign

investors and Burma's notorious State Law and Order Committee (SLORC).

The excerpts are part of the evidence in a law suit against Segal

brought by her former business partner, Peregrine Holdings Inc., a

Hong-Kong investment bank with offices in 16 Asian countries.

The memos also show that, at a time when international pressure to

isolate Burma for its human rights abuses is mounting and students on

college campuses are rejecting companies that do business there, Segal

and others are working to pave the way for increased foreign

investment in and involvement with the country.

Burma Debate is published by the Burma Project of the Open Society

Institute. Through a wide variety of initiatives and programs, the

Burma Project is dedicated to building the framework for a free and

open society in Burma. The Open Society Institute is a private

operating foundation established by international philanthropist and

financier George Soros in 1993 to promote the development of open

societies worldwide.

The current Burma Debate also includes excerpts from recent expert

testimony on Burma given to the House Committee on International

Relations Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific, as well as an article

by former Merrill Lynch Asia Chairman Michael Dobbs-Higginson, in

which he calls for a "more objective" assessment of events in Burma.

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