Military Regime in Burma Propped up by Western Energy Companies

A rights group has accused Western energy giants Total and Chevron of helping the military regime in Burma earn nearly $5 billion from gas projects that they run in the Southeast Asian country.

Reports compiled by the rights group EarthRights International, which has offices in the U.S. and Thailand, says that not only are the U.S energy group Chevron and their French counterparts Total helping the junta in Burma generate billions of dollars in revenue, which is then deposited with banks in Singapore, but they are also seemingly condoning the use of forced labor and overlooking rights abuses committed by Burmese troops guarding the Yadana gas pipeline. The pipeline transports gas from fields off the coast of Burma to Thailand. Both Chevron and Total have denied that they are in any way involved in a project which does not respect human rights, permits the use of forced labor, or is corrupt. They have said instead, according to the BBC, that they "play positive and constructive roles in communities" through "development and educational programmes". Similarly the banks in Singapore, named by the Bangkok Post as the Overseas Chinese Banking Corporation (OCBC) and the DBS Group (DBS), have rejected the suggestion that they are holding money deposited with them by a regime which continues to suppress dissent, most notably placing pro-democracy campaigner Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest, and allows many of its people to live in poverty. Burma is the subject of sanctions from both the U.S. and the European Union, but Chevron and Total appear able to evade those sanctions without any great effort. Indeed the Bangkok Post says that Total's presence in Burma has been defended by the French government. Citing $4.83 billion as the amount Burma's military rulers have been able to move to the banks in Singapore as a result of the revenue generated by the Yadana project, EarthRights International asserts that the money is "a critical leverage point that the international community could use to support the people of Burma". Referring to the sanctions imposed on Burma by the likes of the U.S. and the EU and the apparent ease with which those sanctions are avoided, associate professor of economics at Sydney's Macquarie University, Sean Turnell, said:

Burma's generals are able to evade these using other countries and I think what could be an interesting step forward would be for the countries that are levying these sanctions to try and pressure some of the other countries to similarly apply sanctions

Another organization facing criticism in the reports produced by EarthRights International is CDA Collaborative Learning Projects. A U.S. non-profit organization that is actually commissioned by Total, CDA is accused of "covering up" and "whitewashing" the abuses that are allegedly associated with the activities of Total and Chevron in Burma. The two main authors of the reports by EarthRights International are Matthew Smith and Naing Htoo and the former man has said that the regime in Naypyidaw, the capital city of Burma, is "hiding billions of dollars of the people's revenue in Singapore while the country needlessly suffers under the lowest social spending in Asia". Burma, a country with a population reportedly in excess of 50 million, is officially known as the Union of Myanmar and has been under military rule for well over four decades. It gained independence in 1948, having previously been under the rule of the British.