According to banana worker leaders in Honduras, on January 13, 1999 Chiquita Brands International said it would abandon Honduras and not rehabilitate plantations damaged by Hurricane Mitch if workers didn't sign by Friday, January 15 a new agreement that would weaken the union and roll back advances previously won by the union. Chiquita employs approximately 7,000 banana workers in Honduras. The company had already survived a P.R. debacle in the U.S. when a Cincinnati Enquirer newspaper series last summer detailing Chiquita's abusive labor and environmental policies in Central America prompted a lawsuit and an abject apology by the newspaper. The company claimed some of the material supporting the newspaper series' claims had been illegally obtained, but never offered any evidence that the gist of the story was in any way incorrect. Now, with this ploy to take advantage of the misery caused by the greatest natural disaster in the recent history of the Western Hemisphere, it seems to have proven the point. --Geov Parrish

The Bangkok Post reports that two oil companies, the U.S.-based Unocal and Total (of France), are paying a Myanmar military unit to protect a $1.2 billion gas pipeline from attack by ethnic rebels. The ethnic Karen people have been struggling for autonomy from various Burmese governments for over 50 years. In 1992, when Unocal and Total struck a deal with the military junta and the Petroleum Authority of Thailand to build the gas pipeline, the project was widely criticized by international human rights groups, the National League for Democracy (headed by Nobel Peace Prize winner, Aung San Suu Kyi), and the Karen people of eastern Burma, because it would provide a steady source of income for an illegitimate government and provide it with the means to beef up its military. Obviously revenues from the pipeline are currently funding the government's expensive counterinsurgency war against the Karen people and an ongoing crackdown on NLD party members. Human rights groups have also charged that local people were forcibly displaced to build the pipeline, and that the Myanmar government has used forced labor on the project. Since February 1996, when the pipeline was attacked by Karen rebels, it has been under heavy guard. Two weeks ago, the Bangkok Post reported that an artillery battalion and five rapid response battalions are being supported by Unocal and Total. Both companies are denying the charge, but it wouldn't be the first time that Unocal has been in trouble; in 1997 a California court ruled, in a precedent-setting case, that Unocal could be sued in U.S. court for human rights abuses in Burma.--Maria Tomchick

Green Party members in the European Parliament recently proposed that tropical storms and hurricanes be named after Global Climate Coalition members like Ford, General Motors, and Exxon, who deny that carbon emissions contribute to climate change. The Greens said the new names would change headlines to read, for example, "Exxon Kills 20 in Miami." Sadly, parliament rejected the measure. --G.P.

In other Burma news, the Burmese military government has accused Aung San Suu Kyi of having ties to the Karen rebels. Suu Kyi has spent several years under house arrest and undergone numerous voluntary fasts; this new charge is an effort to convict her of treason and lock her up in prison--probably in hopes that she'll die. Until now, the Burmese military has been constrained from imprisoning the Nobel laureate because of pressure from abroad. Obviously, they feel that the world has forgotten about the NLD and Suu Kyi. Meanwhile, the Burmese military is conducting a murderous dry-season offensive against ethnic Karen separatists. And in recent months, the military has rounded up over 1,000 NLD members and jailed them under appalling conditions. In early January, 256 people obtained release from detention only after renouncing their NLD memberships.--M.T.