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The Rangoon Post
A Day to Remember. Profits by Proxy and Genocide in Burma. Total silence of Lord Alexander of Weedon August 18, 2000 Few people know that one of the most well-known of the noble Lord is sitting on top of a powder-keg. Worse, he's holding the match. The historic date of August 8 is a most appropriate time to finally lift the curtain on the noble Lord. Even in the recent debate in the House over urging the Labour Government to impose economic sanctions against the brutal dictatorship in Burma, once again he escaped the public eye. In fact, Lord Alexander of Weedon has been a board member of Total, the French energy giant, now the world©s 4th largest oil and gas company, ever since the early days when the Burmese army launched, and now maintains, a campaign to wipe out the local non-Burman population in a military campaign of extermination and pacification in Lower Burma. After 38 years of dictatorship, the controversial pipeline investments by western companies like Premier Oil, Total, Unocal, of California, are pumping the natural gas from offshore across Burma and intoThailand. Glenda Jackson, Lord Alton of Liverpool, and other partisans of freedom and ethical investment in Burma have been clearly outspoken on behalf of the movement for economic sanctions against the Rangoon junta. But in all the fray, one very important voice has not been heard. How odd that Alexander of Weedon, NatWest's ex-chairman should so conspicuously stayed silent. The Lord, quite naturally, speaks glowingly about the importance of shareholder value. Merger frenzy crushed his once sprawling banking empire until the raid from the Scottish predators from the north. Then, he narrowly escaped the demise of Great Britain©s third largest bank, and emerged Chancellor of Exeter University. Still, for someone so grand (he stands some six-and-a-half feet of blue-blood conservatism), the nick-named "Silky Silk" Lord so far has succeeded in remaining aloof from public debate. Formerly chairman the Bar Council (1985-86) and made Queen's Counsel in 1973 before summoned by The City ; it is said that he still performs a cherished function as one of Her Majesty's the Queen favorite conseillors. Even having survived the shake-up this spring at TotalFinaElf, - as the company is now called following its acquistion of the giant french oil company, Elf Aquitaine approved last March, - Alexander is hopelessly and directly involved in the controversial pipeline investment, and at the same time utterly obscure which makes the whole thing most extraordinary. On August 8, 1988, the military Burmese rulers gunned down thousands of non-violent and defenseless men, women, children and monks, and slaughtered students in the streets of Rangoon. As a result, that day has been forever been engraved into the non-violent resistance movement and worldwide demonstrations for the restoration of democracy in Burma. Terror and fear spread throughout the country, leaving 10,000 people dead or missing. Foreign journalists were banned, and an official policy of censureship imposed on foreign news agencies left the barely a voice of victims to be heard abroad. Systematic rape and ethnic cleansing of the minority non-Burman population continues uninterrupted. Forced labor is condoned " at the highest level ", according to a UN report on gross human rights violations. Far away from daily terror of repression condoned " at the highest level " of the regime, according to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights, one day we see the Alexander shaking hands with the son of Princess Anne to whom he has awarded a diploma. And on another day, he is off gallantly shaking hands with the Total board. In fact, since 1996, Alexander is one of the managing directors of the french energy multinational ranked as France's largest company with hundred billion dollars in market capital. That©s all very disconcerting in light of the on-going uproar in Great Britain over the complicity of the Premier Oil©s Yetagun gas pipeline investment in Burma. Last April, Foreign Secretary Robin Cook declared " Premier Oil had said that they had been given the green light by the Foreign Office. I was very angry with that...we made it clear to Premier Oil that we would prefer it ... if they ceased their investment within Burma. " With Lord Alexander of Weedon's experience of 25 years at the Bar, Total knows it has an expert legal opinion ready to defend its investment in European and American courts where it is currently embattled alongside its Burma partner, Unocal. A key legal decision in the case is expected before the end of the year to decide if Total and Unocal can be held responsible for human rights violations. Nor has Alexander has not made his fame as a defender of social causes, whether to clean up British beaches and too polluted for safe swimming, or business in Burma. He has made his position, in general, somewhat clear. " Supporting social causes can draw high praise but it can also draw comment in the financial press : why is this guy not tougher in terms of delivering a return on equity? There are so many issues where you can never give satisfaction to everybody", Alexander said last year to the Guardian. A director since 1996, Alexander holds at least 800 shares of TotalFinaElf stock. Thierry Desmarest, chairman since May 1995, has logged over twenty years at the company and holds 32,000 shares. Last September he paid off Elf's boss, Philippe Jaffré in a hushed-up deal worth well over $50m in cash, share options and other assets. French banks BNP, Crédit Agricole-Suez picked up another $50m just for having agreed to pour money into Elf's counter-bid; the banks are well represented on both the Total and Elf boards. Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs raked in still another $50m between them, also for the famous loan that was never used! How much Desmarest is worth is a well-kept secret. In France's new liberal economy, CEOs are not required to publish their salaries or remuneration, scaled up or down according to increased market capital and shareholder value. Total reported this year a 24% increase in net revenue with a 35% operational net; in two years ending 1999, the french company boasted an 183% gain in oil reserves and dropping the cost of production to $4 a baril. By 2005, Total anticipates producing 2,8m barils a day, or 35% above last year's level when the price of oil rose 42%. In three years, the company expects to double its net earnings and increased by a strong dollar. In 1996, Total's public spokesman and former security officer explained why Mr. Desmarest picked Lord Alexander to join his small power elite composed principally of bankers and corporate chieftons most products of the french civil service and members of its incestuously interlocked economy. Was the noble Lord duped by the cynical frenchman? Preposterous, and hardly credible. Desmarest sought out his legal and financial expertise, as well as his connections in the City. Total's head of corporate communications explained, "Because 45% of our capital is held abroad, about 20% at which is in Great Britain, mostly in pension funds, it seemed important to us to have a member on our Board who represented a certain Anglo-Saxon and British sensitivity, since we have more than 20% of our capital there. But NatWest is not a capital shareholder". Today, more than 60 % of Total's capital is held abroad, most of it in western pension funds. Last May, Total shareholders approved of the Board's decision to allot $5m in directors fees. Last fall and winter, at the same time as the £ 21 billion bank battle to save NatWest, elsewhere, in Paris, the TotalFina-Elf merger was rammed through in just over six months. Merrill Lynch was a key element among the financial advisors pushing both the NatWest and Total-Elf mergers hoping to boost share prices - and pocket enormous fees, to the tune of a hundred million dollars on each merger. Share prices remained relatively unchanged. What is most striking about the french megadeal, however, is that it came at a time when the ship, the Erika, sailing under a Maltese flag of convenience, last December, dumped half of its 30 000 ton fuel cargo off the Brittany coast. For the next six months, in France, the Erika pollution sea saga has been a lead story. The wrecked hull actually sits at the bottom of the ocean while a massive pumping operation has already recovered some 10 000 tons of fuel - or waste product - from its cargo tanks. Its still not clear what the oil or waste product is, nor who will pay for the final bill for the massive million-dollar clean-up. Meanwhile, across the Channel hardly a ripple in the British press. Imagine the Lord's relief during the storm, as he sat comfortably by the fireside in his plush home in London's Little Venice while thirty foot seas and fierce currents swept the diastrous oil pollution away from England's southern coastline to the French coast of Brittany. The problem, if any, would have been more about image, than insurance. By the way, Total©s board is heavily represented by Europe's leading insurance companies. The result is total silence about Alexander's directorship with a company that for nearly a decade now has worked hand in hand with the narco-dictatorship. Thus, the other billion dollar gas pipeline, Yadana, built and operated by Total, and its royal connection, have gone largely ignored. What we have here is a royal scandal of the most wicked and obscene proportions insulting to all possible human decencies. The initial Yadana deal was signed in June 1992, by Total. A year later, Unocal, of California, joined the consortium with the generals, via its front company, the Myanmar Oil and Gas Entreprise (MOGE), as a financial partner in a 30 year contract to provide 525m cubic feet of gas daily to Thailand. All the money generated by the gas projects will go directly to support the generals and their ruthless repression. That is why, in France, the organisation, Fondation Aide Birmanie (Paris) has called for the Lord's resignation from Total, and an immediate end to the Total gas investment. Premier's Yatagun field has proven reserves of 1.4 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, whereas the Yadana gas field is much larger, with 5 trillion cubic feet of reserves. For years now, Total continues to deny the use of forced labor on its pipeline in a territory that was once the ancestoral lands of the proud and peaceful Karen people. That area was completely militarized by Burmese soldiers paid and financed by Total, with forced labor used to build infrastructure, carry munitions, and company helicopters used to transport troops, according to human rights investigators, and the french press. Total has denied the accusations and insists it has never had recourse to use forced labor. On the contrary, as recently as last June, following heated encounters at the general assembly meeting in May, in Paris, Mr. Desmarest, vowed to remain in Burma, and declared, "we do not want to interfere in the political problems of countries where we are established ". Nobel Peace Prize laureate and leader of the democratic opposition in Burma, Aung San Suu Kyi disagrees, and accuses Total as "the principal support of the military regime ". She has been saying it for several years and the company knows that all too well. EarthRights International, the environmental and human rights organisation, declared in the report "Total Denial Continues ", published in May and based upon several hundred testimonies gathered in Burma and in Thailand argues that Total "closely collaborates with the Burmese army". As early as 1991, during negotiations for the pipeline project, the entire pipeline area was brutally "pacified", and flooded with soldiers. " One villager after another reports that these Burmese troops are there to protect the projects, " according to the ERI report (www.eri.org). " They forthrightly state their knowledge that some battalions " were hired by the companies to provide security , all the villagers know this ". " It is all well known to the French, American and British governments. It is difficult not to believe that the noble Lord of Weedon knows it all, too, if not as well. Last spring, Michel Viallard, head of Total Myanmar, admitted to the french TV crew, " What I know is that in the very early stages of the project, in the very first months, we learnt about the use of forced labor by the army ". However, a US embassy cable, known as "The Robinson Cable", reveals a direct link between the natural gas pipeline projects, human rights abuses and the companies. The cable records a meeting between Total's partner, Unocal, and US embassy personnel. Unocal's Joel Robinson, admitted in the meeting that Total and Unocal hired and paid the Burmese government leaders for pipeline security, and had knowledge that the Burmese army used civilians to porter on the project. According to Robinson, the pipeline consortium " hired " and paid the burmese army for security through the Myanmar Oil and Gas Entreprise. And while Premier executives have confirmed that it finances the Burmese army, Total continues to deny it. Another 1996 US cable reported how Brumese troops and "Total battalions" are used to heavily guard foreigner camps : " The Total base camp at Kanbauk has three chain-link permimeter frences tropped with barbed wire...The exterior fence is separated from the others by a clear field of fire, possibly mined, about 20 meters wide. In the center of the camp are two underground bunkers. A squad of Burmese army infantry and another local-national Total security personnel were stationed at the dual gatehouses of the compound's only entrance... European Total security personnel commanded by a former French Foreign Legion officer of German origin were present at or near Kanbauk... ". Nor were french parliamentarians, who interviewed Mr. Desmarest and visited the pipeline last summer, duped. Their findings published last October concluded, " It seems artificial to separate the construction of the pipeline which required the hiring of qualified labor and considerable technical means from the measures taken by the Burmese regime to ensure its safety...These security measures were what generated forced labor and population displacements in the area. " It was in that year same year, 1996, that Alexander, still the head of NatWest and poised to lose £3 billion, joined the french company. Atrocities were commonplace, and still are today. According to Lord Alton in a debate in the House of Lords, in 1998. (Alexander acquired a Life peerage in 1988, taking Conservative whip, and chairs House of Lords Delegated Powers and Deregulation Scrutiny Committee). Then, Lord Alton declared, " In 1996, Burmese soldiers raped four Karen women in the Pa Pun district.They then killed two of the women, who were pregnant, by stamping on their bellies. They murdered the other two by driving sharpened bamboo stakes into them. Saw Wah Lay, aged 34, says that in June 1997,"Some people went to get some rice and the Burmese met with them and shotthem. They shot a child. Both of his legs were broken. And they killed the child. They smashed his head. His mother was shot in the chest and died too. Now the villagers do not dare stay in our village any more. They have gone to stay all over the place". Two years later, last April, there was another debate again raising
the issue of genocide, in the House of Commons. Horror stories of
innocent victims being repeatedly beaten and raped before being murdered were
recorded in the official record, while massacres in Shan State, in upper Burma,
and violent repression of the Karens, Mons and other indigenous peoples of Burma
failed to attract the attention of the western press.
It seems that the press was too preoccupied by the fallout of the big money mergers in the banking and oil industries, and enraptured by reports of hundreds of millions of dollars paid out to the finanical speculators in the companies that pushed the industry shakeout, while some 18,000 to 30,000 of 94,000 face losing their jobs as a result of the takeover to save costs reduce unnecessary or redundant expenditures. Oddly, while his peers were eloquently outspoken in the royal House, Alexander was absent from it all. Lord Alton rose to call attention to the plight of Karen refugees on the Burmese-Thai border and to the continued violations of human rights by the Burmese junte, and to move for Papers. He was joined, by the noble Countess Lady Mountbatten of Burma, who praised the debate, writing " I know what a high regard my father had for the Karens and the sacrificezs they made to help us win the appaling difficult Burma Campaign. I do hope a way will he found to help these apparently 'Forgotten Allies' - whose aim is surely the same as ours in this country - that of working for the Democracy which we prize so much. " More concern was proffered by the Baroness, Lady Cox. Lord Alton drew attention to the aging General Saw Bo Mya, president of the Karen National Union and holder of the Burma Star, while "some 5,000 to 10,000 troops" fight pitted in jungle warfare against some 400,000 Burmese soldiers. "The largest of these, the Karen-now thought to number some 7 million people-were, within a year, locked into a civil war which continues to this day. It is one of the world's longest running civil wars. In the past five years alone, an estimated 20,000 Karen people have been killed by the Burmese military, " Lord Alton said as he spoke on behalf of the Jubilee Campaign of his return from the Thai refugee camps to which predominantly Karen people have been fleeing, an exodus which began 14 years ago. " Cheryl Gillan of Chesham and Amersham, declared in the House of Commons , last spring, after meeting with the Committee for Internally Displaced Karen People put the figure of Karen civilians dead " as a result of Burmese military action " at 30 000 . She declared, " Many have died of starvation and illnesses resulting from being displaced. Since 1995, the slaughter has intensified, as more extensive parts of Karen territory have come under Burmese military control. In fact, since the 1990s, the Burmese military has delilberately targeted civilians during military operations. There are more than 300,000 internally displaced Karen people in Burma... Many of those people are hiding from the Burmese army in the jungles, with little or no food and water. They are shot on sight. " She added, " Counting other ethnic groups as well as the Karen, the total population of internally displaced people in the region is about 2 million -- one of the highest in the world. There are about 120,000 Karen refugees in Thailand. " Lord Alton, for his part, said that of the Karen exile population in Thailand, 95,000 are Karen, and more than 10,000 more are hiding in jungle areas on the Burma side of the border, desperate to escape. The regime has been systematically clearing out whole villages, forcibly resettling villagers and conscripting others as forced labour. Those who try to escape are shot on sight. The Burmese military have transformed their country into a vast concentration camp where there is genocide on a par with that practised in Rwanda and Bosnia." Today, in Shan state an estimated 300,000 Shan have been forcibly displacement and are to make way for the highly controversial Salween mega dam project . As happend with the Tenasserim pipeline territory, ethnic-cleansing rages in this projected reservoir area. "What typically happens is that youâ?Tre given three days notice to leave and if you are found in that area after three days, you are shot," said Harn Harn Yawnghwe recently in the Japanese press, and the son of a Shan "sapha", or prince, Shan State's first president, who died a prisoner of Ne Win shortly after the 1962 coup d'etat . Certainly, anyone in their right mind must know that Alexander is fully well aware of the situation in Burma where he and his fellow directors manage pipeline operations, using slavery and forced displacement, burning homes and entire villages, raping women and children, to their benefit as well as for their shareholders and the burmese generals. Adding to the tragedy is the fact that the Thai government does not even recognise the Burmese exiles as refugees. According to an eye-witness, and echoed in the House of Lords, "Desolation is everywhere. I saw abandoned rice fields, empty villages, destroyed homes. Field upon empty field. The land was desolate. Not even the birds sing. " Because there has been no end to the tragedy, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, and her supporters have called for investment sanctions and consumer boycotts. Business with Burma and tourism only fills the pockets of the generals and their friends, while leaving the people more repressed and isolated than ever in the death grip. On the other side, critics of sanctions say they never work. However, the people of Burma have called upon the international community to cut trade instead of encouraging the junta to hold on to power. Viscount Lord Slim, the distinguished son of the General and later Field Marshall, joined the House of Lords debate, as did Lord Weatherhill who called upon " the important role of Parliament to draw attention to matters which may not have a direct impact upon our own domestic economy but which are nevertheless matters of honour ". Lord Chalfont reminded the House " that the Government had not ruled out economic sanctions ". Others continue to speak out for sanctions, including the Baroness Lady Cox, and Glenys Kinnock in the European Parliament, declaring that the Karens and other non-Burman minorities have been isolated and targetted for extermination by the regime financed by Total. Baroness Williams of Crosby reminded the House of Burke's famous dictum " that for injustice to triumph it is enough for good men to remain silent. Noble Lords have not remained silent, but many others do. " A striking observation and not unthinkable that it was not intended as a hidden warning to Alexander . In July at its annual trade summit in Asia (Asean), in Bangkok, the European Union, with the French occupying the presidency, stumbled over the de facto exclusion of Burma. Yet it has been two years since Baroness Williams of Crosby, for her part, successfully urged the Lords to take a more aggressive stance against Burma in favor of publicly discouraging new investment. Still, it hasn't wrenched the junta from power. Nothing short of full sanctions and a legal ban on investment is likely to do that. That is all that is needed to be done. Total has said it will withdraw, once a law is passed forcing it to do so. Numerous NGOs and exile groups and dissidents worldwide, while praising the humanitarian aid approved by western governments, call for full and complete economic sanctions the Burmese narco-dictatorship. Michael J. Martin, in Commons last spring, underlined the appeals of Aung San Suu Kyi, leader of the National League for Democracy who won the vast majority of votes in the 1990 elections, and who " has repeatedly urged the international community to institute economic sanctions against her country ". Only last 6 September 1999, she told the worlds© press " Burma is like a huge prison with a military dictatorship holding the keys and locking us away from freedom. Help us open the door of our prison. Economic sanctions are necessary for the fast democratisation of Burma. We would like the European Community, the United States and the rest of the world to be aware that sanctions help the movement for democracy in Burma. Unilateral sanctions are better than on sanctions at all. " Michael J. Martin aptly described the problem confronting all investors and legislators today when he said, " Foreign investment, I am sorry to say, has directly caused human rights violations ". He added, " whatever the intentions of the company may be, the Yetagun gas pipeline operated by the British company Premier Oil has fuelled the forced displacement of many Karen and Mon minority peoples by the Burmese army as the pipeline runs through their areas. The Burma Campaign UK reports that since oil companies first invested in Burma, with plans for piping gas across the Tenasserim division into Thailand, the Burmese military have stepped up their activity in the area. In 1990, there were 1,750 armed soldiers in the investment area, but by 1998 this had increased to 11,230 and two artillery units. Villagers have been forcibly relocated, partly to secure the division for foreign investment. There is no compensation for any houses, crops or belongings stolen or burnt by the Burmese army. " Lord Alexander of Weedon, as a Total board member responsible for his company' s investment, is certainly morally responsible, as well, for the repression and murder of the Burmese people. He should be held publicly accountable for these crimes against humanity, and use his influence to urge governments to stop them. Mr. Martin added, " It would be tragic and irresponsible if Governments continued to wallow in indecision and ignore the plight of the Shan and Karenni peoples as they are systematically treated in this way. If there is one lesson that the world ought to have learned from the tragedies of the 20th century, it is that the only way to deter genocide is to respond to it swiftly and firmly. If we do not, this century may prove to be even bloodier that the previous one. " Mr. Martin added, though making only casual rÃ?fÃ?rence to the French government and Total, " There is no doubt that genocide is being committed by that regime. The destruction of villages, forced labour and murder is being authorised at the highest level.... We have a responsibility to do something, not least because British companies are seeking to invest there. To be fair to British industry, most companies have heeded the Government's warning that further investment is unacceptable. Not only has Premier Oil ignored the advice of the British Government, but its very acts have exacerbated the situation. To be fair, Britain has played a small part in trying to bring about democracy and justice in Burma, but much more needs to be done. We need to raise the matter robustly in the United Nations and the European Union. We have a serious problem with foreign policy issues and the EU. For example, if the French decide not to play ball because they have oil interests in a country, that presents difficulties for Britain as a member of the EU, but we must take a much more robust position. Small countries, such as Norway, are doing more than Britain to re-establish human rights and democracy in Burma. " Denmark and Sweden are also taking a firmer line against investment. Martin Smith, of Belfast, South, also declared in favor of sanctions, saying " There are some who claim that the Karen and Karenni are seeking to be independent. I am not convinced that that is true. They want to be able to live in their own country, perhaps as part of a proper democratic Burmese society. Is the European Union prepared to respond to Aung San Suu Kyi's views that economic sanctions should be imposed on Burma by ending all links--tourism, trade or investment by European companies--between the European Union and Burma? People will say immediately that that will put pressure on the poorest, but the harsh reality is that the State Law and Order Restoration Council, or the State Peace and Development Council -- SLORC or the SPDC: it changes its initials to suit different situations--already imposes such sanctions on its own people. " He urged the Government " to maintain pressure not only on British companies, which, by and large, have abided by that concept, but on their European counterparts ". According to John Jackson of the Burma Campaign UK, 40 % of Burma's gross domestic product is spent on the military. Actually the figure is closer more than half the total budget expenditure towards supporting an army of over 450 000 " a figure double that of 20 years ago, despite the fact that Burma has no real external enemies in that part of Asia ". Mark Oaten of Winchestser chided the Government for not yet honoring the Labor party pledge " to support a Danish-led European sanctions campaign ", and urged the Government that it has " not been as robust as they could have been in fulfilling their pre-election promises to impose investment sanctions. " " Sanctions are never an easy option ", Mr. Oaten said during the Commons debate, and he added, " Investment sanctions could be imposed and would be protected under article 60.2." The legislators are faced with a sundry of legal issues. " The Government originally claimed that they could not impose sanctions against Burma because of article 73(g) of the Treaty of Rome, which forbids any European Union member state to impose unilateral trade sanctions separately from the Union. A number of us are calling for not trade but investment sanctions, which are protected under the Treaty of Rome (Article 60.2), provided that there are serious political reasons and that the situation is urgent. It is my belief that genocide and such extensive human rights violations, no matter how long they have been going on, remain an urgent matter." As it stands today, the Labor Government has withdrawn all financial support for trade missions to Burma and no longer encourages British companies to trade or invest there. Nor does it encourage tourism, but it has backed off the drive for tough economic sanctions. Lord of Weedon can so far claim victory for Total board. But not for long. In an unprecedented series of events over several years since the U.N.©s International Labor Organisation, with headquarters in Geneva, first launched its inquiry of the systematic use of forced labor, in the Total pipeline region, as well as throughout the country, the regime now has until late November this year to comply with the ILO's findings, or risk further sanctions. It already has been virtually, or defacto excluded. The ILO Commission of Inquiry decided, in June 1998, that forced and compulsory labour in Burma was practised in a "systematic manner with a total disregard for the human dignity, safety and health" of the people. Further, a study by the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions put the number of people in Myanmar subjected to different forms of forced labour at more than 800,000. Then, ILO delegates, in June last year, voted in an unprecedented move to de-facto expel Myanmar because of its alleged widespread use of forced labour. That led eventually to a meeting, last May 12, in Manila, of Southeast Asian labour ministers who announced that the Burmese generals, in a last-ditch effort, had agreed to accept an ILO mission to Rangoon. Looking back, Alexander was smart to get out of NatWest when he did, in
April 1999, a few months before the raid by the Bank of Scotland. At the same
time, Mr.Desmarest©s board was secretly preparing plans to take over the Elf©s
oil and gas empire. After ten years at the helm, the bank had a sullen
reputation as Britain's worst, with falling profits, failed strategies, and a
dismal record of losing three billions of pounds of shareholder value. When he
first joined the bank, one of his first responsabilities was liquidating £ 6
billion in bad loans. Pressure mounted as disgruntled shareholders threatened a
revolt, setting the tone for the Bank of Scotland attack last September. In both
deals, the lawyer-banker Lord walked away handsomely with his pockets full of
millions of pounds in options, bonuses and shareholder profits. When Alexander
finally was forced to step aside, it was all too late for the crippled bank to
recover and bounce back.
Like in Burma, the damage was severe but all was not lost. Alexander could admit a record profit before tax of £2.1 billion , up 120 % compared with the losses of 1997. Before the NatWest merger ranked 13th in the world, and the Royal Bank of Scotland 31st, with a pretax profit of £ 1 billion for 1998 and a foreign exchange dealing profits estimated at £107.2 million. NatWest boasted profits on foreign exchange from the subsidiary Global Financial Markets (GFM ), ranked among the world's top ten, active in over 60 currencies, amounted to £317 million, up 33% on the previous year, while the foreign exchange dealing profits of the Group as a whole amounted to £363 million. In total, GFM made a pre-tax profit of £393 million, up 61% and a return on equity of 40.3% in 1998. According to a NatWest report, GFM "has been a consistent contributor to shareholder value averaging a return of over 30% for the last three years ". This, at a time when up to 20 % adult population in Great Britain is without a bank account. Ironically, it is this endless and insatiable drive for increasing
shareholder value, with financial companies raking in hundreds of millions of
pounds, fortified with promises to stream line costs and increase
performance yield that finally destroyed Weedon's ten year tenure at the
bank, and changed the way banking and business is done in the city so that it
will never be the same. That same drive for shareholder value, pushed by Merrill
Lynch, Goldman Sachs and other powerful investment banks, has also fired up a
storm in every shareholder meeting of the oil and gas companies in Burma, and
throughout the world, to the extent that the investors have become obsessed with
increasing profits, howling and shouting down anyone who dares to challenge
them.
These are the allies of the Burmese generals. To witness one of their recent shareholders meetings is to confront a
pathos and see how terribly mad they are driven by greed. Its lends explanation
to the staged blindness of the company directors to the human atrocities and
their refusal to accept moral responsability. For they too are caught up
in the logic of a general syndrome of the global economy and they feel
themselves to be the newborn masters, invincible and impossible to stop without
the looming threat of a severe reversal of fortune. Don't overlook that
the NatWest staff costs increased by 39%. The incentive for making more profits
has its rewards down to the average salary of the GFM staff , well over
£150,000.
Just a small part of the cake. While the Lord of Weedon received a
salary of £720,000 from the scandal-ridden institution, including
performance-related bonuses, and stood to gain £90,000 on exercising share
options granted in 1998, he held another 40,000 ordinary shares of
£1 at the end of the year, and 113,540 shares as part of a medium-term equity
plan. Further, he was granted 16,455 share options the year before he was sacked
and replaced his boardroom colleague Lord Blyth, the chairman of Boots. And at
the end of 1998 possessed 99,139 share options at a weighted price of 501 pence
(market price of shares averaged 1159 pence in 1998). Driven by market
forces and their eager financial advisors, today©s corporate board directors
will do anything to increase shareholder value.
Another shareholder windfall for the Lord was also in the cards, this time across the channel. Is that why Lord Weedon remains on the board of Total? Odd, that the UK press not make a big stink about the Lord's ship going down off the Atlantic coast, and truly not too far to be indifferent about oil washing up the English and Irish shoreline ? Perhaps it would not have been taken too kindly, in the middle of the
battle for NatWest. Not fair play and all that good form that belongs to the era
of gentlemen, long since gone. Yet, after all, the Lord is also a government
shipping expert having led an investigation into how unjustly the island's
shrunken industry is taxed. The pipeline investment in Burma, is that "
fair play " ? Surely it is not. So how is it heavenly possible that
Alexander, not only was untouched by the NatWest takeover that created Europe's
8th largest bank and ended 342 years of independence, but rather had everything
to gain, transferred far from the front line to Exeter, all while he watched
from afar the sad fate of his ship sinking off-shore.
You might say that at Total, Alexander is still broadening his horizons,
surrounded by a lot of very influential people like Paul Desmarais,
the self-made billionaire of Power Corp of Canada, Baron Albert FrÜre, the
richest man in Belgium, Serge Tchuruk, the CEO of Alcatel, the french
telecommunications and defense industry giant, as well as an entire world-class
network of French, German, Belgium and Swiss Banks. Incidently, most of
these banks all have offices which opened offices around 1995, in
Rangoon, where drug money laundering from the opium, heroin and amphetamine
production,and a legal no-questions 25% commission to the generals
is standard business. Surely the students of Exeter have good reason to
question their Chancellor on the how the banks do business in Burma, the world's
second largest producer of opium, after Afganistan. They may even wish to invite
Keith Hellawell, the Government©s "drug czar", or publish their names and
passport numbers, along with the black list for assets seizure and visa ban,
recently made public by the European Union, of the junta generals.
In fact, the NatWest mergers that sent millions into the pockets of the banks top executives and outside financial firms, after five months of a roller-coster ride in reality, hardly pushed up their market shares. It will still take several years before it proves to be profitable if ever. But the prospect of earning an easy billion for shareholders and driving an out-moded and diverted economy is far too appealing an attraction than helping a foreign nation on the road to democracy, especially when its easier to make a profitable deal with a dictator, and protected by international law in the hands of the high and mighty. The real takers were the banks financial advisers at Goldman Sachs,
Merrill Lynch and Warburg along with the public relations firms and lawyers, at
least half a billion pounds. With so much money in the game, the clamor for
human rights is drawfed in comparison. Unless of course, your honor cannot be
bought or sold in the bidder's frenzy, and for whom the bottom line is saving
lives, and restoring the democratic rights of a legitimate political party. As
Pierre SanÝ, of Amnesty International has said, "Human dignity is not quoted on
the stock market." Truly, that is something for Alexander to think about
as he prepares to reconcile moral values with corporate profits to younger
generation on campus.
There are so many questions that are raised over the Burma investment
problem, and remain unanswered. Until now, why has the British press not taken
up the fact that Weedon has been on the board since 1996? Would it have been too
much to have informed the 6.5m NatWest customers, that their chairman was
directly linked to the pipeline and death railway in a former British colony
? Unfortunately, the crisis has worsened. Massacres, especially of
the Karen and Shan population, are going on daily, along with systematic rape
and torture by the Burmese army.
Total, Premier and Alexander have blood on their hands. He has a lot of
explaining to do about his role in the Burma genocide.
A timely occasion would have been last June, in a celebrity revue at the
Royal Court to honour the birthday of Aung San Suu Kyi who had prepared a
special video to address the gathering. " Her bravery and stubborn refusal to
use violence against the Burmese military regime in the fight for democracy have
earned her only harassment, intimidation and personal tragedy, " Glenda Jackson
wrote eloquently of her in the "Times". She added, "Yet hers is not a unique
situation, as she has emphatically pointed out. Burmese families have been
ripped apart as a result of internal displacement through ethnic-cleansing
campaigns, the detention and torture of at least 1,500 political prisoners and
the forced labour or 8-10 million people, threatened with torture, rape and
murder. A democratically elected Government has been denied power by a military
regime. Aung San Suu Kyi has long called for the international community to
impose full economic sanctions on Burma. The regime is in desperate need of
foreign currency, and investment sanctions will help to cut off one source of
revenue. The economy is the military's Achilles' heel, and unlike other cases,
sanctions will have little effect on the population as foreign investment has
done more damage than good." Without effective economic sanctions, it is clear
that the international community has betrayed the Burmese democrats and their
leaders. Worse, the upcoming US elections and a possible Republican
victory would mean a return to business as usual in Burma ; Dick Cheney, the
vice-president nominee is the former chairman of the oil company, Halliburton,
with a long record of investment in Burma.
Encouraged by a recent debate in the House, Ms. Jackson urged an end to the
pipeline business with the generals, and wrote, "Any company in the EU
already in Burma should disinvest and not consider any future investment. We, as
consumers, are quite prepared not to buy products from companies that we believe
are investing in illegal and unethical regimes. We have reached a point in
history where governments should be able to harness the energy and commitment of
people around the world who play their part as consumers to help to reduce the
power of regimes such as that in Burma. "
Having been the son of a petrol station proprietor in Stoke-on-Trent, educated in Brighton, then at Cambridge, and graduating in English and Law, Alexander has gone far. Perhaps, too far. Ambition can often lead a man astray like the ill-fated Total ship, lost at sea. He remains a Trustee of the " Economist ", and governor of the Royal Shakespeare Company, as Total informs its shareholders, Alexander sits on the management committee of the Prince of Wales Summer School on the Environment. Earthrights has described damage caused by the two pipelines to the Burma-Thai ecosystem and environment as imminently " monumental " with severe threat to endangered animal species including half the mammal population and forests. Total claims its a lie. There is no mistake. Total, Premier and the Burmese army keep the people
poor and living like animals born to fight, hunt and work as slaves. Total needs
the natural gas to increase the company's reserves, along with oil, its only
capital though it is heavily invested in the nuclear sector as well. As a
result, Total makes a mockery of human rights violations and prefers publicly to
ignore them because it harms its illustrous high-profile as Europe's
leading energy company, and diminishes its responsibility. All it wants is the
gas, a high return on shareholder investment and increased dividends for them
and the generals against the rest of the people. The military regime's revenues
from the Yadana gas field, according to a study by the energy consultants Wood
Mackenzie, and published by ERI, will amount to $2.8 billion, and from Yetagun,
another $823m. The Thai company, PTT, partner in the Yadana deal, has already
paid the junta $50m, and is currently holding off payment on another $280m on a
" take or pay " contract for the gas, which it says it no longer wants, nor
needs, after the 1997 asian currency crisis and economic recession.
What has been happening in Burma, and elsewhere, from the City, to Paris,
has its roots also in all the financial centers of the world of a global economy
struggling to keep its balance, between, on one side an unrestrained race for
shareholder profits, stock options, giant corporate bonuses, and lay-offs, and
on the other, a reasonable and just consumerism where trade restrictions, and
economic sanctions have a place to save lives and reduce unwanted
suffering.
Total chairman Mr. Desmarest, speaking on behalf of Alexander and his
fellow directors, publicly ignores his company's role in the organised crime and
genocide of the Burmese narco-economy funded by money laundering and heroin
trafic. Burma is the world's second largest producer of opium and heroin. To
this day, Total prefers to praise the achievement of constructive engagement and
the development of the pipeline region ! The oil and gas energy companies,
as well as their proxy generals, know that there is no good will that their
weapon of wealth cannot buy ten times over. The corruption has deep roots in the
corridors of power like the tunnels bored thousands of meters into the earth
powerless to conceal its treasure now keeping the band of thieves in Rangoon
entrenched in power. One can only wonder how long Alexander is prepared to play
along with Total to deceive the world.
Meanwhile, more religious groups and NGOs are reaching out to help the
Burmese win their struggle against the oil companies and friends of the junta.
Jubilee Campaign UK has taken up the case of James Mawdsley, the courageous
human rights teacher of Karen refugees and devoted Christian, now serving a
17-year sentence in northern Burma. James was teaching Karen refugees, in
Thailand, who lost their homes because of the pipeline. The Burmese Army
then came and burned down the school. Indeed, Burma is very far away, and
God is very high above. Recently, his mother, Diana Mawdsley, wrote to the
"Guardian", how James is forced to live " in solitary confinement and foul
conditions. His "crime" was to peacefully express his concern for the suffering
of the Burmese people. " She added, "Mr Jamieson of Premier Oil denies any
accountability for the ethnic cleansing required to keep the oil pipeline. James
met him last year and received the same answer as your newspaper - "he is
unaware of any abuse". There are none so blind as those who will not see.
And this includes the noble Lord Alexander of
Weedon. |