Activists campaign to revoke Unocal

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Subject: Activists campaign to revoke Unocal charter


Monday April 19, 9:35 pm Eastern Time
Activists campaign to revoke Unocal charter
By Timna Tanners

LOS ANGELES, April 19 (Reuters) - Activists on Monday revived their calls
for California to revoke oil company Unocal Corp.'s (UCL - news) state
charter, saying its interests in Myanmar were tantamount to complicity in
human rights abuses.

Unocal, the only big U.S. oil company with interests in Myanmar (Burma),
strongly defended its operations in the country and called the accusations
politically motivated.

The company also said it had called off talks for an Afghan pipeline project
criticized by the group.

The United States imposed unilateral sanctions in 1997 against Myanmar to
protest the military government's human rights record. The sanctions barred
any new investments in the country but allowed existing projects to go ahead.

Human rights activists, including attorneys, feminist and gay groups and
environmentalists, signed on to a second attempt to persuade the state
attorney general to revoke Unocal's charter. Former state Attorney General
Dan Lundgren rejected a previous petition last September.

But the activists hope that new Attorney General Bill Lockyer will
reconsider the plea, led by human rights group, the National Lawyers Guild.
They delivered a 120-page petition that documents what they call complicity
in human rights violations in Myanmar and Afghanistan.

``The Attorney General has a duty to seek a court order forfeiting the
company's corporate existence,'' said Jim Lafferty, head of the National
Lawyers Guild chapter in Los Angeles.

El Segundo, Calif.-based Unocal is an investor and not an on-the-ground
partner in the Myanmar natural gas pipeline, spokesman Mike Thacher said.
French oil group Total supervises the pipeline, he said.

``We understand the complexity and sensitivities, but we feel very
comfortable with our role in the Myanmar project (in Burma) and some of the
changes and benefits that we have brought to the pipeline region,'' Thacher
said.

The activists accuse Unocal of complicity in human rights abuse due to its
pipeline talks in Afghanistan and the Myanmar pipeline. They cited crimes
against women and homosexuals by the Taleban militia in Afghanistan and
forced labor and relocations at the Myanmar pipeline.

``Unocal's pipeline project is in a civil war zone, which had to be pacified
and must be guarded by troops,'' the group said in a report. ``Unocal knew
or should have known that the pipeline would lead to human rights violations
and death.''

They also said Unocal did not condition its canceled Afghan pipeline
negotiations on an improved women's rights record.

Thacher said Unocal decided not to participate in Afghanistan because its
government was too unstable and was not recognized by the United Nations,
adding that U.N. recognition would likely require an improved human rights
record.

The activists encouraged California to take the example of New York state's
lawsuits against cigarette research companies, charging them with deceiving
the public about health risks. Unocal should answer to human rights
violations overseas in its home state of California, according to the
activists.

``We're a business and not a diplomatic corps,'' Thacher said. ``We make
business investment decisions that follow ethical standards. We have
consistently taken the position that it's better that we be there.''

A September 1998 report on Myanmar labor practices by the U.S. Department of
Labor's Bureau of International Labor Affairs does not say Unocal
participated in the forced labor or relocations, but says partner Total may
have had knowledge of the military's abuses.

The last time California revoked a company's charter was in 1976 when a
Republican Attorney General, Evelle Younger, dissolved a private water
company after charges it served contaminated water. 



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