WASHINGTON,DC – Newsday reported today that the Bush campaign is selling merchandise made in Burma. American voters and Burmese activists are outraged. Not only does the sale of goods from Burma benefit the brutal military regime, it also violates the law that Bush signed last year banning Burmese imports.

"With all the talk about the Bush administration lying to the public about issues like weapons in Iraq, I thought I could count on the administration to stand for human rights and labor rights in my country," said Ka Hsaw Wa, a Burmese activist and Co-director of EarthRights International.

On July 28, 2003, President Bush signed the Burmese Freedom and Democracy Act of 2003. That law states that "no article may be imported into the United States that is produced, mined, manufactured, grown, or assembled in Burma." The sale of campaign gear made in Burma for the Bush-Cheney re-election campaign appears to violate this law.

The news of the campaign’s sale of banned Burmese merchandise has circulated today on Capitol Hill and created a buzz on the Internet through an email action alert circulated by EarthRights International. Sherrod Brown, Representative from Ohio (D), issued a “Dear Colleague” letter to Congress this morning that included the Newsday story. Brown comes from a district in Ohio that has been hard hit by the outsourcing of jobs overseas.

Ted Jackson, the President of the Spalding Group which supplied the Burmese goods to the Bush campaign, apologized in a letter to the campaign for what he called a “mistake”.

“As a voting American, I think it’s outrageous that the Bush administration claims to stand for human rights and jobs for Americans, and then outsources the manufacture of its campaign merchandise to a country notorious for human rights abuses and labor violations,” said Kate Greene, an EarthRights International staff member.

EarthRights International

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