WHEN: WEDNESDAY MAY 1st
Day of Hess Annual Shareholder Mtg

Let's flood Hess with calls & faxes!!!

SEE BELOW FOR
I. WHY
II. FREE AMERADA HESS TEL # & Talking Points
III. SAMPLE LETTER YOU CAN FAX

WHY:
AMERADA HESS & DICTATORSHIP

*Amerada Hess, a U.S. oil company with gas stations in the U.S. owns 25% of Premier a British oil company.

*TOMORROW is a KEY MOMENT TO CALL HESS & tell THEM TO CLEAN UP THEIR MESS & DIVEST!

*Premier is the largest British company invested in Burma, a Southeast Asian country ruled by a brutal military regime.

*Premier's pipeline in Burma is one of the single largest sources of cash for the military junta.

*Entire villages have been relocated at gunpoint, women have been raped and children killed by Burmese military units providing security for the gas pipeline; whole families have been forced into slave labor to construct infrastructure used by foreign oil companies like Premier

*Premier's pipeline cuts directly through the Tenasserim rainforest,one of the largest intact forests in Southeast Asia, home to numerous endangered species including Asian elephants and rhinos.

*Premier has no public face in England and so it is far more difficult for the British public to pressure them.

but

*Hess owns 25% of Premier

*Hess has gas stations where U.S. consumers shop -or not- and is vulnerable to consumer pressure.

*Hess is deciding whether to stay or divest from Premier

*HESS FAMILY MEMBERS, HESS CEO & top shareholders will be meeting TOMORROW to discuss HESS's FUTURE.

*Exiles from Burma and NYC activists will be outside the meeting protesting and need your support.

Help amplify their voices by calling HESS headquarters Tomorrow!


PLEASE CALL HESS & Tell Them to CLEAN UP THEIR MESS & DIVEST

FREE TELEPHONE #
Hess's Customer Service Hotline
800 HESS OIL (800-437-7645)

Sample Talking Points:
*I am calling because I am shocked to learn that Hess is connected to Burma's brutal military regime

*I know that Hess prides itself on its clean gas stations but how can you call yourself "clean" when you support Burma's brutal military regime?

*Hess should clean up its mess and salvage its good name by divesting immediately from Premier Oil

*Until Hess cleans up its mess I will not shop at Hess gas stations

FAX NUMBER for LETTERS
(212) 536-8494 (CEO John Hess's direct fax #)

SAMPLE LETTER TO Chairman and CEO JOHN HESS

John B. Hess
Chairman of the Board & CEO
Amerada Hess Corporation
1185 Avenue of the Americas
New York, New York 10036

Dear John Hess,

I am writing because I was shocked to learn that Amerada-Hess is connected to Burma's brutal military regime. Amerada Hess owns 25% of Premier,the British oil company that still chooses to do business with Burma's bruta military regime even though many other companies including ARCO, Amoco and Texaco have left Burma. Premier's pipeline in Burma is connected to gross human rights abuses including slave labor, rape, torture and murder,and is one the largest sources of revenue for the military.

The United States, the United Nations and Amnesty International have condemned Burma's brutal military for its human rights violations and suppression of democracy. Just singing a democracy song will land you in prison in Burma and the military forbids more than 5 people from meeting in public.

I know that Amerada Hess prides itself on its "clean stations." How can you label your company "clean" when you have blood on your hands, profiting from a partnership with a brutal military regime? How can you call yourself "clean" when you profit from a pipeline project that has benefited from slave labor, torture and even murder?

Until Hess cleans up its mess and divests from Premier I have no desire to patronize gas stations owned by a company that is reaping profits from other peoples' blood and suffering.

As Aung San Suu Kyi, Nobel Peace Prize winner and leader of Burma's human rights movement has stated, Premier "should be ashamed of itself," its pipeline "does a great disservice to the cause of democracy" and "contributes to repression in the country."

I support human rights and democracy, in the United States and abroad, and therefore I do not support Hess's connection to Burma's brutal military regime.

John Hess clean up your Mess!

I await your written response as to what Amerada Hess intends to do about its investment in Premier.

Sincerely,

(Name)
(Address)


For more information on the HESS is a MESS campaign, and other campaigns to pressure US oil companies to withdraw from Burma please contact:

Heidi Quante
Burma Project
c/o Global Exchange
2017 Mission Street, #303
San Francisco, CA 94110
Telephone: (415) 503-0888
E-mail: zquante-AT-igc.org


III.

More information on why now is so critical AMERADA HESS, PREMIER OIL AND DICTATORSHIP

Premier Oil, a British company, has a major gas pipeline operation in Burma, creating not only a major security zone in the pipeline region resulting in mass human rights violations, but also supplying the regime with a continuous stream of hard currency in gas revenue. The last payment the regime received for gas was spent immediately on Russian MIG fighter jets.

Amerada Hess owns 25% of Premier. When Amerada increased its stake in Premier Oil in 1999 it signed a contract that it would not sell its shares until after November 2001. Premier Oil has not proved to be a good investment for Amerada and it is quite likely they will choose to sell their shares in Premier. Petronas, the Malaysian State Oil company who also own 25 % of Premier, is quite likely to buy up Amerada's shares, giving it 50% of ownership, and precipitating Premier's de-listing from the British stock exchange, a major blow to this oil and gas company. De-listing becomes a major threat to other companies operating or planning to invest in Burma, making it a less and less attractive place to do business.

We have a unique opportunity to pressure one of the largest owners of Premier Oil to dump their shares in the company!!!!

PLEASE CALL TOMORROW Tell Hess to Clean Up Its Mess and Divest from PREMIER!