Human Rights Watch condemns business as usual in Myanmar

Oct 2, 2007, 5:26 GMT

   Bangkok - Companies doing business in Myanmar should condemn the country's ruling junta and shut down their operations in the wake of a brutal crackdown on peaceful protests, the New York-based Human Rights Watch said on Tuesday.

   'Companies doing business in Burma argue their presence is constructive and will benefit the Burmese people, but they have yet to condemn the governments abuses against its own citizens,' said Arvind Ganesan, director of the Business and Human Rights Program at Human Rights Watch.

   While governments around the world have roundly condemned Myanmar's military regime for its brutal crackdown on peaceful monk-led protests last week that left at least ten people dead, the corporate world has kept quiet.

   'Keeping quiet while monks and other peaceful protesters are murdered and jailed is not evidence of constructive engagement,' Ganesan added in a statement made available in Bangkok.

   HRW's appeal was aimed primarily at the Chinese, Indian and Thai companies, especially in the energy sector, that are arguably keeping Myanmar's military regime afloat financially.

   The US government has prohibited US companies from doing business in Myanmar since 1990, as part of their sanctions against the brutal regime. Although the European Union has not applied a similar sanctions on their companies, few Western multinationals have dared to invest in Myanmar over the past two decades for fear of condemnation and boycotts in their home markets.

   Asian countries and companies have suffered fewer qualms about doing business in the pariah state, especially in the petroleum sector.  

   'Gas exports accounted for fully half of the country's exports in 2006,' said HRW. 'Burma's gas business brought in revenue of 2.16 billion dollars in 2006 from sales to its main buyer, Thailand,' it claimed.

   Thailand is the main buyer of Myanmar's natural gas fields in the Gulf of Martaban owned by Total of France, US-based Chevron and PTTEP of Thailand.

   Myanmar's natural gas exports account for almost 30 per cent of Thailand's gas usage, industry sources said. Sources familiar with Myanmar's oil industry estimate the junta's earnings off gas sales was closer to 1 billion dollars last year, but this would still make gas revenues its highest source of income.

   Current investors in Myanmar's oil and gas industry include companies from Australia, the British Virgin Islands, China, France, India, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, Russia, and the United States (providing they got in before 1990).

   Besides Thailand, China and India are the main potential markets for Myanmar's gas.

   Last week, while anti-government protests rocked the streets of Yangon, India's minister for oil, Murli Deora, travelled to the Burmese capital last week to sign the agreement on petroleum exploration for a partly-owned Indian petroleum company, noted HRW.

   Chinese oil companies are studying plans to invest billions of dollars in a pipeline from Sittwe, in western Myanmar, to Yunnan province, China, to deliver natural gas from Myanmar's Shwe gas field.

   The huge field has the potential to generate about 12 to 15 billions dollars for Myanmar's generals.

   The two Chinese companies that have shown strong interest in the proposed new Myanmar-China pipeline projects are Sinopec and China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC).

   HRW noted that both firms are major sponsors of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

   'The junta's largest trading partners should insist that Burma's rulers stop stuffing their own pockets and instead use these immense revenues to improve the lives of ordinary Burmese,' said Ganesan.