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2/6) FIDH REPORT ON THAI/BURMESE GA



Subject: 2/6) FIDH REPORT ON THAI/BURMESE GAS PIPELINE

FIDH REPORT ON THAI/BURMESE GAS PIPELINE (2/6)
RECEIVED date: Wed, 27 Nov 1996 18:36:28 +0100 (GMT)
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 II - SUPPORT FOR THE JUNTA

The gas project of Yadana may be criticised for the support it lends to the
Burmese junta in several regards:

        - morally and politically, by the implicit backing given to an
illegal and illegitimate military dictatorship considered among the most
brutal regimes in the world.
        - economically, by the support afforded through the contribution of
foreign currency and a guarantee of future revenue allowing it to acquire
medium and long-term loans - financial means which, far from benefitting
the population, essentially serve to reinforce the military power,
particularly through the purchase of weapons.
        - militarily and logistically, by the direct support of the army in
the regions of struggle against the armed ethnic groups.
        - in the field of human rights, by the massive violations of these
rights due to this project.

A. De facto, an act of moral and political support

The military junta in power in Burma, the SLORC, is among the most
dictatorial regimes of the world, and its human rights performance is
recognised as particularly terrifying - by all accounts, sufficiently
horrific to have led to:

 The nomination of a Special Rapporteur by the UN's Commission of Human
Rights since 1993 (who had himself replaced an expert assigned to monitor
the Burmese situation).

 A resolution against it by the UN General Assembly every year since 199=
condemnations by the Commission of Human Rights and several by the
Sub-Commission.

 Its condemnation every year since 1964 by the International Labour
Organisation for the systematic use of forced labour, a condemnation which
was renewed at its 83rd conference in June 1996. A complaint has been
initiated against Burma on the grounds that forced labour is used
"systematically on an even larger scale in an increasing number of areas" .

 The prohibition of entry on American soil for all who "formulate, apply
or support the policies hindering Burma's transition to democracy, as well
as for their immediate family", announced by President Bill Clinton in
October 1996. The confirmation by the Council of the European Union of
existing sanctions against Burma (expulsion of military personnel, arms
embargo, suspension of aid other than humanitarian), and the adoption of
new sanctions (prohibition of entry on EU soil for SLORC officials and
their families, suspension of high-level bilateral visits), pronounced on
October 28, 1996.

 Its firm condemnation by all prominent international human rights
organisations .

In this context, investing in Burma (and particularly in the form of a
joint-venture with a corporation under full control of the SLORC) amounts
to an act of moral and political solidarity with the SLORC, an act of
complicity: in signing a contract with the junta, TOTAL agrees to turn a
blind eye to the massive, systematic and documented human rights
violations, rendering it a de facto accomplice. The fact that the notion of
complicity is retained by criminal courts is not incidental : being an
accomplice to a crime, even in a passive form, is (in the best of cases)
not having hindered it, thus indirectly allowing it to occur. This is why,
on a larger scale, there is an obvious fallacy in the argument which
attempts to disassociate the economics and the politics, and which contends
that entering into a business venture with a dictatorship is not a
political matter. When, under a dictatorship, people are deprived of
liberty, forced to work, tortured, the mere act of settling there with
one=EDs own interest as the sole object constitutes an act of moral and
political solidarity with the reigning dictatorship, and a tacit acceptance
of the inhumanity at play. There are the seemingly innocuous acts of heavy
moral significance, and likewise, economic acts of heavy political
significance: possession of economic power today equals a political power,
whether one desires so or not. Mr. Daniel Valot's argument that "our role
is not to be involved with either the politics or morals"  is consequently
inacceptable since TOTAL's economic investment is already, in view of the
regime in place in Burma, an act of politics and morals, regardless of how
ardently its orchestrators are arguing against it.

Adding, as Mr. Joseph Daniel, the director of the group's institutional
relations, does that "TOTAL is present in 80 countries, and inevitably, not
all are models of democracy " , is not enough: investing in several
dictatorships does not justify investing in any one of them, and, in
addition, in the opinion of all foreign observers, Burma is considered an
exception, insofar as the human rights violations and the ferocity of the
repression are of such extent that the threshold of what can be tolerated
clearly has been passed. Professor Tom Donaldson author of Ethics of
International Business, writes the following on the subject of investing in
dictatorships:

"Basically, we will tolerate a fair amount of unethical bahavior from a
person, firm or nation with whom we just have business dealings, but when
matters reach the point of a dramatic threshold, most people say you just
don't do business with that type of person. I don't think China reaches
that point, but if any country might qualify as passing the threshold, it
would be Burma" .

Most of the researchers agree on drawing the line on investments at any
collabouration (even in the most passive form) with regimes guilty of
massive human rights violations, such as is the case in Burma. Richard
DeGeorge, director of the International Center for Business Ethics at the
University of Kansas writes:

"One of the guidelines I would put out is that a company should not
knowingly cooperate with any supplier, government or entreprise that
engages in slavery, slave labour, or even child labour (...). If you know
it's being done, you're ethically responsible for it" .

The Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in
1984, has repeatedly condemned the policy of "constructive engagement" in
Burma, which reinforces the junta's legitimacy rather than encouraging it
to respect its international obligations:

"It is now time to admit that the policy of constructive engagement with
the SLORC is a failure (...). International pressure can change the
situation in Burma. Tough sanctions, not constructive engagement, finally
brought (...) the dawn of a new era in my country. This is the language
that must be spoken with tyrants - for, sadly, it is the only language they
understand" .

The particularity of the Burmese situation is such - and so indefensible -
that a consensus is beginning to emerge in the international economic
community to restrain commerce with and investments into Burma:

=85 Burma is under imposition of economic sanctions since 1989, by both the
IMF and the World Bank.

=85 The European Commission has opened an enquiry into the issue of forced
labour in Burma, in view of a temporary restraint on the benefits of the
Generalised System of Preferences, which gives a favourable status to
developing countries. However the European Parliament delegation which
intended to investigate the issue on site has just been denied access to
Burma.

=85 Denmark has put forward a proposal that the European Union apply economc
sanctions against Burma . In its resolution of June 20 1996, the European
Parliament calls upon European and Asian nations to employ all measures in
order to isolate the SLORC politically and economically and to support the
democratic forces.

=85 The Committee on External Economic Relations of the European Parliament
suggested the idea of elaborating a "code of conduct" for the use of
European multinational companies, a code which would carry an "anti-forced
labour label". The European Commission does not seem opposed to the idea .

=85 Following the proposal of American senators William Cohen (R-ME) and
Diane Feinstein (D-CA), a law, adopted by the Congress in July, was signed
by Bill Clinton on September 30, 1996 which will prohibit all new
investments in Burma if the government "has physically harmed, rearrested
for political acts or exiled Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, or has committed
large-scale repression of or violence against the democratic opposition" .

=85 The American Secretary of Commerce, Mickey Kantor spoke, in June 1996,
in favour of economic sanctions against the SLORC: "There are cases where
economic sanctions, applied in an appropriate way (...) can be very useful
(...). I am in favour of effective sanctions [against the SLORC] " .

=85 Several American cities have adopted rules prohibiting all purchases by
he city of goods and services offered by the companies which invest in
Burma. Among those cities are: San Francisco, Berkeley, Santa Monica,
Oakland, Ann Arbor and Madison. Similar legislation has been enacted in the
state of Massachusetts.

Several multinational companies have already decided not to invest in
Burma: Levi-Strauss, who indicated that it would be impossible to trade
with Burma "without directly supporting the military government and its
systematic policy of human rights violations" , Liz Claiborne, Eddie Bauer,
Macy & Co., more recently Heineken and Carlsberg in June and July 1996 and
Apple in October 1996. In 1994, G. Soros pulled out of his Peregrine
investments due to Peregrine's own investments in Burma.

In July 1996, the Danish life-insurance company Kommunernes
Pensionforsikring, KP, sold its portfolio of stocks of the TOTAL group,
valued at about 10.5 million USD "in anticipation of a possible
international boycott of TOTAL due to its involvement in Burma" .

Two lawsuits have been filed in the US against UNOCAL, the second of which
is against TOTAL as well, on September 3rd and October 3rd 1996,
respectively. The first complaint was filed by the NCGUB and the FTUB and
the second by Burmese plaintiffs.
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