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.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
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