January 5, The Nation (Thailand)
Understanding new Thai policy towards Burma – Kavi Chongkittavorn

AFTER EIGHT YEARS, it will not be easy to undo the Thai foreign policy towards Burma initiated by the Thaksin-led government and its nominees. A complete overhaul of the Burma policy is out of the question. However, some major shifts by the current government could be forthcoming that would firm up bilateral ties and strengthen Bangkok’s voice on Burma within Asean. Additional principled guidelines, drawing from the Asean Charter, are imperative aimed at supporting the international community’s effort to promote an open society there.

Gone quickly would be the preponderance of one-man decisions on key policies, especially those dealing with cross-border security, investment and trade cooperation.

In the past few years, Thailand has been rather compromising in its security considerations in exchange for economic benefits, which often went to individuals rather than the country as a whole. In particular,
from 2001 to 2006, the Thai side allowed the Burmese side greater leeway along the 2004-km border such as issues related to Burmese migrant workers, illegal cross-border activities and harassment of minorities and Burmese exiles.

Picking up the pieces of Burmese policy where the Democrat-led government left off in early 2001, this time around the Thai foreign policy will be decided in a transparent way without any hanky panky as in the past. Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya said succinctly that from now on, Thailand will deal with Burma in a straightforward manner without any dubious deals or transactions based on “four-eye meetings”, which was the trademark of Thaksin’s personalised diplomacy.

Prior to the return of the Democrat-led government, Thai-Burmese relations were very superficially closed, representing no real national agenda.  Thai leaders were myopic, deluded in thinking that defending the Burmese regime within Asean and the international community would help them win favours from the junta leaders and subsequently secure the country’s future energy and natural resources need. Indeed, the energy dependence on Burma was exaggerated to justify Thailand’s closer ties with Burma, including its passivity.

Throughout the year 1999-2000, before Thaksin came to power, the Burmese people’s struggle for democracy and open society was at its peak with all the support of the international community. Asean was far more united as far as peer pressure on Burma was concerned. Thailand dutifully played the leading role on Burma throughout by bringing in the international community. Former foreign minister Surin Pitsuwan, currently the Asean secretary-general, pushed Asean to engage in enhanced dialogue with Burma as well as emerging transnational issues affecting the region.

However, soon after the arrival of the Thaksin-led government in early 2001, Thai policy towards Burma turned upside down. After a few weeks of border tension and tough talks on Burma’s role on cross-border illegal drugs trade, former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra unexpectedly softened his Burmese policy, much to the chagrin of the international community. Since then, Thailand’s credibility on Burma has disappeared.

During the Cambodian conflict, Thailand’s role in Asean as a frontline state was well recognised as it was pursued based on the region’s interest, not tempered with vested personal interests. Asean helped to
internationalise the conflict playing out at the UN continuously for nearly a decade, which gave Asean an international voice, before the Paris peace agreement in 1989. In Burma’s case, it was the opposite. Thailand failed miserably to assert itself in the Asean overall approaches albeit it was the most affected by the Burmese growing oppression. Bangkok’s willingness to play second fiddle to Burma further divided Asean and stymied broader cooperation with international community.

Subsequent revelations by Surakiart Sathiratai, foreign minister in the Thaksin government, showed that investment and commercial deals with Burma at that time were not honest as they were coaxed with conflict of interest.

The scandal over the Export and Import Bank of Thailand’s Bt4-billion loan to the junta was just one example. Like rubbing more salt into the wounds, former prime ministers Samak Sundravej and Somchai Wongsawat made ridiculous remarks defending Burma.

Samak was the most embarrassing as he praised the military junta leaders as peace-loving leaders and boasted about their closed friendship. Under the Surayud Chulanont government (2006-7), Thailand maintained a strict policy of no new contacts or improvement of existing ties.

Burma could have made a transition to democracy if the Thai governments in question had not indulged in personalising, nationalising and making the Burmese problem bilateral. The leader’s personal and group interests linked to Burma weakened not only Thai credibility, it also belittled Bangkok’s voice within Asean. That helps explain why in the absence of a Thai role, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia have become more pro-active in shaping the grouping’s views and positions on Burma.

Coming to power at this juncture poses serious challenges to both Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva and Foreign Minister Kasit on Burmese policy. They have to revitalise and synergise the role of Thailand, Asean and the international community to move the situation in Burma forward.

At present, the Asean Charter, imperfect as it is, will serve as a useful tool to encourage reluctant Asean countries to get more involved on issues of human rights and democracy. The rumblings over the charter’s ratification in Indonesia and Philippines were indicative of the strong desire for such endeavour.

As the Asean chair, Thai leaders will adopt a comprehensive strategy on Burma that put together various parts and needs from within region. Furthermore, this strategy must also work in tandem with the current
international efforts, especially through the offices of the United Nations and related agencies and its special envoy.

After all, the Burmese quagmire is not the problem of any particular country or regional community. It must be kept at the multilateral level so that all stakeholders can work together to end the current impasse and sufferings.

The Daily Aztec

San Diego State University newspaper

Issue date: 10/8/07 Section: State of Mind

A new TV commercial includes shots of oceans, blue skies, loving
families, cuddly animals, rising suns, people of all nationalities and
amputees running sprints.

What could it be for?

Greenpeace? No.

Life insurance? No.

It’s an advertisement for the multi-national mega corporation Chevron.
Its new two-and-a-half-minute TV spot, part of its “Power of Human
Energy” campaign and shot and directed by the cinematographer of “Lost
in Translation” and “Being John Malkovich,” boasts that Chevron is not
a “corporate titan” but “human beings doing our share.”

The ad first aired during a break for “60 Minutes” on CBS and gave the
distinct impression that Chevron cares for every living person on Earth
and that it’s committed to helping everyone’s needs.

This couldn’t be further from the truth.

Chevron is one of the few remaining corporations with ties to the
deadly regime behind Burma (also referred to as Myanmar), thereby
indirectly aiding the killing of Buddhist monks, reporters and
civilians.

In 1997, the Clinton Administration barred all new investments in the
junta-run nation. However, companies already investing inside the
country were exempted because of a grandfather clause. Chevron is one
of the companies that was exempted by the clause and continues business
in the country and pays taxes to the government.

By doing so, they are supporting the human rights violations of the
Texas-sized nation in the last few weeks and its military buildup of
the last few years. Natural gas, an important part of Chevron’s
operations in Burma, brought $2.16 billion to the military regime of
Burma through taxes and operation fees, according to the Human Rights
Watch.

It is imperative that this San Ramon-based corporation get out of Burma
if it wants to continue to call itself an American corporation. The
government is threatening the freedom of millions of people, which is
something that no citizen or user of gas should stand for.

Without the oil pipelines that run from Burma to Thailand, the military
government would not be able to have money to kill civilians.

Chevron should be the first to stop business in Burma because of the
murders of pro-Democracy protesters. Chevron should stand up for the
political ideology that allowed it to become a multi-national
corporation based in the United States.

In order to stop having an American corporation’s oil flow through
pipelines, the U.S. government needs to force Chevron out of Burma,
given its human rights violations. If the United States is willing to
go to war for freedom of itself and others, the least it could do is
prevent a U.S. corporation from financially supporting a freedom-hating
regime.

If it doesn’t want to leave, major restrictions should be imposed on
its ability to sell petroleum inside the United States until its
policies are changed.

Chevron leaving Burma, however, will not stop the violence in the
region. Thai and Chinese petroleum companies will only go in and take
over the void left by the American company, not changing the
socio-political dynamics of the region. It’s more important, though,
that an American company take responsibility to leave an embattled
region if it wants to call itself a corporation, an entity that is made
up of “human beings doing our share” for the rest of humanity.

Even if Chevron chooses to be anti-American and stay in Burma, the
least it could do is stop airing its misleading ad campaign,
championing itself as the “Power of Human Energy.”

Sadly, unless the government steps up – which is unlikely – Chevron
will not change its policies. Chevron will continue to do business how
it wants because one of its former board of directors is now the
Secretary of State of the United States: the corporate-friendly
Condoleezza Rice.

As record-high profits continue to drive the company, there is no
reason to change.

In its ad, Chevron says that humans have an ever increasing demand for
energy, and they plan to be there to help fulfill the need. If
anything, people need to decrease their need for energy, not have the
world’s 14th largest energy corporation tell them that we need to use
more.

Chevron may claim that it cares about the world and its needs, but it
only cares about its own needs: making money. As long as it continues
to spend $63 million in advertising – like it did in 2006, according to
Brandweek – it will be able to convince people that Chevron does care,
which is a very scary thought.

Because it’s unlikely that the U.S. government will step in, Americans
must help in the only way they can: Stop pumping gas at Chevron gas
stations.

-John P. Gamboa is a pre-journalism junior.
Published on Monday, October 8, 2007 by The Daily Camera (Boulder,
Colorado)

Usually we use this email list to share specific things you can do to help the struggle for human rights in Burma or ask for your financial help.

This time, we are sending you a message to let you know how we have used your support.

The U.S. Campaign for Burma and the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners just completed a major research study on political prisoners in Burma.  We found that the Burmese military regime has nearly doubled the number of political prisoners in Burma over the past 15 months, in direct defiance of the United Nations.

The report — and the thousands of emails you have sent to the UN Secretary General — have caused a stir at the United Nations.  Yesterday, the Secretary General called for the release of all political prisoners in Burma, and threatened to cancel his December trip to Burma if the Burmese junta doesn’t make progress on this issue.

Also, the report received quite a bit of media attention.  Here are just a few links:

- Report: Number of political prisoners in Myanmar rising

- Call for Burmese prisoners to be freed

- Political prisoners nearly double in Burma: activists

- Myanmar junta raises suppression, says opposition

We are strongly urging the Secretary General to secure the release of all political prisoners by the end of December.  While we still have much work to do, we are glad to see that the issue is getting a lot of attention.

Your support makes it possible for us to compile cutting-edge research, gain media attention for Burma, and have a real impact on governments and at the United Nations — we thought you would like to see some of the public results.

Thank you,

Aung Din, Jeremy Woodrum, Jacqui Pilch, Jennifer Quigley, Mike Haack

Support 1991 Nobel Peace Prize recipient Aung San Suu Kyi and the struggle for freedom and democracy in Burma:

by Than Htike Oo

Twenty seven Burmese children fell ill from food poisoning after eating physic nuts in 2007, a Rangoon based weekly journal reported.

Dr. Kyi Kyi Thin from the Institute of Medicine 1 (IM 1) revealed this in a lecture on ‘World Crises in Food, Water and Energy’ held at the Myanmar Medical Doctors Association.

“The children fell ill from food poisoning after eating physic nut planted in their residential areas to produce bio diesel. The children like to eat them as it looks like betel nut and has a sweet taste. After the food poisoning they suffered from diarrhea, vomiting and low blood pressure. Some children had to be admitted to hospitals and clinics,” the 29th August issue of ‘Weekly Eleven’ reported quoting Dr. Kyi Kyi Thin.

The severity of food poisoning suffered by the children was in varying degrees. Some recovered from the illness within 48 hours. About 56.5 per cent of 27 children who suffered food poisoning from physic nuts were in the age group of 10 to 15, the journal reported citing medical records.

The regime ordered the whole country to grow physic nuts in December 2005. It was a brainchild of Snr. Gen. Than Shwe for fuel self-sufficiency. In this nationwide campaign, physic nuts were grown on seven acres of land in all 14 States and Divisions.

The concerned regional military command commanders put pressure on the people to grow physic nuts. But the extraction of bio-diesel from physic nuts has not yet materialized significantly but the planting of saplings continue in some areas.

Destruction and removal of physic nut plantations around the Mandalay palace moat was witnessed in early August. But government officials usually avoid commenting on this sacred physic nut plantation project.

August 13, Democratic Voice of Burma
Fuel price protestors face new charges

Eight students and human rights activists arrested during protests against fuel price hikes last year have had five further charges added to their original charge of sedition, said their family members.

The student activists and Human Rights Defenders and Promoters network members will now be charged under sections 143, 145, 147, 295(a) and 505(b) of the penal code.

Sections 143, 145 and 147, which relate to unlawful assembly and rioting, carry a potential combined prison sentence of up to four and a half years, while 295(a) on offences against religion and 505(b) on inciting offences against public tranquility each carry a maximum two-year term. Along with the possible three-year sentence for sedition, this means the defendants could now face up to 11 and a half years’ imprisonment each.

Ma Thi Thi Soe, sister of HRDP member Ko Myo Thant (also known as John Nawtha), said her brother and his co-defendants – Ko Zin Linn Aung, Ko Sithu Maung, Ko Thein Swe, Ko Ye Myant Hein, Ko Ye Min Oo and Ko Kyi Phyu – heard the new charges against them during a hearing at Insein prison yesterday.

Ko Myo Thant went on a hunger strike in March to protest against violations of inmates’ rights in Insein prison.

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6/18/2006

Villagers in Kyauk Taw Township, northern Arakan State, were forced to attend the Castor Oil Plantation training by the military authority from June 9, 2006.The Burmese junta is setting up a project of mass plantation of castor oil plants in Arakan State, as part of this project, it is forcing the local people to plant castor oil trees says a villager.

As part of this castor oil project in Arakan State, trainings on how to plant castor oil trees have been given to the villagers by the local command areas of the military. At the Military Operation Management Command ( MOC), Sakhaka 9 in Daung Taung Roe, Kyauk Taw Township, five persons from surrounding villages have been ordered by the SakhaKa 9 authority to attend the plantation training with their own cost for 30 days.

The attending villagers have to pay 10,000 kyats each for the training and living costs. Many of the villagers engaged in the rice cultivation, but since the Arakan State authority wants to see plantation of castor oil plants, they are also being forced to attend the training neglecting their own livelihood of rice cultivation at the start of rainy season.

One of the farmers in the area comments that if they cannot cultivate their own livelihood, they are likely to face a hard time ahead, but the military authority does not seem to care much about their already difficult lives.

http://www.narinjara.com/details.asp?id=717

Wed May 28, 2008 6:18 pm (PDT)

May 28, International Herald Tribune
Even with access, distributing aid in Myanmar is difficult

A sport-utility vehicle for $250,000 and a cellphone for $3,000. As
foreign aid workers test Myanmar’s commitment to allowing them to
operate
inside the country as part of the relief effort for Cyclone Nargis, they
face not only administrative hurdles erected by a xenophobic military
government but also an economy warped by years of misrule.

Myanmar’s military limits the sale of cellphones, bans satellite phones,
sharply restricts car imports and rations gasoline to one or two gallons
(between 3.5 and 7 liters) a day. The main beneficiaries of this system
are government employees and military officers, who profit by selling
permits, gasoline and many other items on the black market.

Aid workers from the United Nations and private aid agencies continued
Wednesday to travel into the Irrawaddy Delta, the area hardest hit by
the
May 3 cyclone, after an agreement last week reached with the Myanmar
government. Richard Horsey, the spokesman for the UN relief effort, said
the military was requiring aid workers to give 48 hours’ notice before
traveling into the delta but that he was hearing only positive news
about
their access.

“I’m not aware of any rejections or people not able to go where they
wanted to go,” Horsey said.

By government count, the storm left 134,000 people dead or missing, and
the United Nations estimates that 2.4 million survivors face hunger and
homelessness. Yet as the number of aid workers increases, Myanmar’s
capacity and willingness to accommodate their needs are likely to be
stretched.

“I assume we will be running out of quite a lot of things when the
influx
comes,” said Hakan Tongul, deputy country director in Yangon of the
World
Food Program, a UN agency delivering supplies to the victims of the
storm.
“There will be logistical problems for sure.”

In the days after the storm, the World Food Program asked for permission
to import six vehicles, Tongul said. “We haven’t heard anything from the
government.”

To the outside world, the government’s torpor in reacting to the cyclone
has come across as callous indifference. But dysfunction has also been a
factor. When a domestic Myanmar Airways passenger plane crashed in 1999
only five kilometers, or three miles, from the airport in Tachileik,
near
the border with Laos and Thailand, it took the authorities five days to
locate the wreckage.

“Passengers who might have been saved all perished,” said a frustrated
Myanmar government official who requested that his name be withheld
because talking to a foreign reporter could cause him to lose his job or
worse.

“The same thing is happening now,” the official said, referring to the
cyclone. “We don’t have the infrastructure for the kind of rescue work
we
need in times like this. In this country, where everything moves through
the military chain of command, no government official takes the
initiative.”

China, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and other countries struck in recent years
by
natural disasters have varying degrees of political restrictions. But
they
all allow something Myanmar has lacked for the past 46 years under
military rule: the right to do business.

Myanmar’s government controls many of the country’s largest industries -
including timber, gems and petroleum – and requires permits for the
importation of the most basic items, including rice. The World Food
Program, which fears shortages later this year, has been denied permits
to
bring in foreign rice. “It’s an issue of pride,” said Paul Risley, the
agency’s Asia spokesman.

The economy is highly inefficient. Electricity – even in most parts of
the
commercial capital, Yangon – is available just five or six hours a day.
To
ride in a taxi in Yangon means a rickety journey on 20-year-old shock
absorbers.

India, Myanmar’s neighbor to the west, is preparing to roll out a $2,500
car. To the east, Thailand exports half a million pickups. But those
fortunate enough to own a car in Myanmar are often stuck with a leaking
jalopy. The government allows only a few thousand cars to be imported
each
year, many fewer than are needed in a country with nearly 50 million
people. Import restrictions have skewed the prices of used cars to
levels
that would be considered absurd in neighboring countries: A 1986 Toyota
Chaser, a model the company stopped selling eight years ago, sells here
for $16,000. Those vehicles allowed for import are parceled out among
high-ranking military officers and civil servants. The richest residents
of Yangon have been seen driving Hummers and Italian sports cars.

In such a restrictive environment, the black market thrives. Rationed
gasoline, which goes for $2.50 a gallon, or about 65 cents per liter,
sells for at least twice that at the roadside bamboo shacks that serve
as
illegal but tolerated gasoline stations. The military, which has easier
access to cheap gasoline, is one of the largest sellers, say drivers who
regularly fill up with the illegal fuel.

Government officials and military officers also make money from
reselling
mobile telephone numbers and car and motorcycle registration documents,
all of which are very difficult to obtain.

The Myanmar official gets $120 a month for his official salary, but that
hardly meets his needs. “Everyone must find a way to survive,” he said.
The police collect bribes at checkpoints from truck drivers. At
airports,
pilots and ground crews split the extra-luggage surcharges from
passengers. “Everyone is doing it,” the official said. “If you don’t or
can’t, you are doomed.”

Business people in Yangon say it is impossible to do business without
connections to generals or their children.

“Do you see the car out there?” the Myanmar official said, pointing to a
used Japanese sport-utility vehicle parked outside a restaurant. “It
will
probably cost $50,000 to import that car. But it’s sold here for
$250,000.
The $200,000 balance is for all kinds of government permits.”

The going rate for a cellphone on Yangon’s black market is $2,500 to
$3,000.

The government also makes money by doing business with the United
Nations.
Each UN agency was allowed to buy 10 cellphone numbers – at $1,500 each,
according to Tongul, of the World Food Program. In Thailand, by
contrast,
cellphone numbers are sometimes given away by companies counting on
making
their money back on use of the phone.

A Chinese-made motorcycle in the northern city of Mandalay costs $300
but
sells for around $1,000 when the black-market registration is included.

“They squeeze you for money,” said a retired teacher in Yangon who did
not
want to be named for fear of retribution. “You know the Abraham Lincoln
speech about government of the people, by the people, for the people?”
the
teacher asked. “The people get nothing here, and the military takes
everything.”

Woods is a trailblazer and already a legend for his ability to perform
when the spotlight is at its hottest. But he has also established a
reputation for reticence when confronted with the real world off the
greens. For all his cultural capital, Woods has refused to take stands
on issues that should hit close to home, such as restricted golf
courses, or even when the Golf Channel’s Kelly Tilghman suggested young
PGA players “lynch him in a back alley” in a “joke” about how they
might overcome his dominance. Tiger has largely maintained the tight-
lipped silence of a Benedictine monk.

After the lynching comment, ESPN’s Scoop Jackson became so frustrated
with this disciplined quietude he wrote, “Because of who he is, Tiger
Woods has the power to make people listen. Not just hear his words–but
embrace what he has to say…. It’s a stand he needs to take because
people who change the world eventually have to take stands. Whether
strong or silent, good or evil, they take stands not to prove their
beliefs, but to rectify a situation or condition.”

His defenders have always said that behind the scenes Woods has been an
agent for change, and that he shouldn’t be criticized just because he
does his good deeds without media fanfare. They say he wields that
influence through his nonprofit Tiger Woods Foundation. Go to the
website, and a virtual Woods walks right onto your screen and welcomes
you to a place where “kids can achieve anything.” The site boasts:
“more than 10 million young people have benefited from the Tiger Woods
Foundation since its inception in 1996. What started out with limited
access throughout America, now reaches out to young people around the
world.”

Yet now the Foundation is “reaching around the world” in a way that has
human rights activists concerned about a business partnership that
smells like sulfur.

The Tiger Woods Foundation has entered into an extensive five-year
partnership with Chevron Corporation, with the oil and energy giant
becoming the title sponsor of the Tiger Woods Foundation World
Challenge Golf Tournament.

“Chevron has a track record and a commitment to bettering the
communities where they operate,” Woods said in a press release on April
3. And Chevron’s executive vice president chimed in, “Chevron, Tiger
and the Tiger Woods Foundation share similar values…as well as a deep
commitment to make a difference in local communities.”

They have certainly “made a difference in local communities,” but it’s
nothing they should be bragging about, and certainly nothing with which
Woods should want his name attached. Chevron is in full partnership
with the Burmese military regime on the Yadana gas pipeline project,
the single greatest source of revenue for the military, estimated at
nearly $1 billion in 2007, nearly half of all the country’s revenue.
These are the same people who are blocking international aid workers
from assisting the victims of Cyclone Nargis. The death toll has been
estimated at 78,000, but this number can explode as disease spreads and
help isn’t allowed through the military lines. Even the US State
Department has called the actions of the government “appalling.”

Ka Hsaw Wa, co-founder and executive director of EarthRights
International, wrote in an open letter to Woods, “I myself have spoken
to victims of forced labor, rape, and torture on Chevron’s pipeline–if
you heard what they said to me, you too would understand how their
tragic stories stand in stark contrast to Chevron’s rhetoric about
helping communities.” ERI’s request to meet with Woods or someone from
the foundation has been met with silence

But while the Burmese junta’s crimes are localized in Southeast Asia,
Chevron is global. Lawsuits have been issued against Chevron’s toxic
waste dumping in Alaska, Canada, Angola, California. Then there’s the
matter of 18 billion gallons of toxic waste the company has been
accused of dumping in the Amazon.

In a US District Court in San Francisco, the case of Bowoto v. Chevron,
Nigerian plaintiffs have accused Chevron of actually arming and
outfitting Nigerian oil security forces to shoot and kill protesters.
Judge Susan Illston has refused to dismiss the case because, as
Democracy Now! recently reported, “evidence show[s] direct links to
Chevron officials.”

When pressed for comment, Tiger Woods Foundation President Greg
McLaughlin issued this statement to The Nation: “The Foundation’s
vision is to help young people reach their full potential. All our
partners share in this vision, allowing us to make a positive impact in
millions of young lives.” That response, to very serious and very
direct charges, is the golf equivalent of a triple bogey.

President McLaughlin should think more seriously about what Chevron is
and what they do: they pollute, they destroy, they conspire with
dictators, and heaven help anyone who gets in their way. Now they want
to burnish their “brand” by partnering with Tiger Woods. Tiger’s late
father Earl, once said of his son, “He will transcend this game…and
bring to the world…a humanitarianism…which has never been known
before. The world will be a better place to live in…by virtue of his
existence…and his presence.”

The partnership with Chevron makes a mockery of Earl Woods’s hopes.

To use an analogy from a different sport, the ball is now in Tiger’s
court. Will he allow himself to be tamed by corporate interests, or
will he roar?

About Dave Zirin
Dave Zirin is the author of Welcome to the Terrordome: the Pain
Politics and Promise of Sports (Haymarket) and the forthcoming A
People’s History of Sports in the United States (The New Press). and
his writing has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Sports
Illustrated.com, New York Newsday and The Progressive. He is the host
of XM Radio’s Edge of Sports Radio.

Thu May 22, 2008 3:57 am (PDT)
TOTAL Annual General Meeting Disrupted by Burma Activists
16 May 2008

Info Birmanie, The Burma Campaign UK, and the Fédération Internationale des
Droits de l’Homme (FIDH) today questioned TOTAL¹s board of directors over
the French company¹s moral and financial support to the Burmese regime
through its gas projects in the country.

Last October the Chief Executive of TOTAL, Christophe de Margerie, stated
that the Yadana gas project, which TOTAL operates, earned the regime 350
million euros in 2006. ³350 million euros is a huge amount of money, that¹s
nearly a million euros a day² commented Frederic Debomy, of Info Birmanie.
³Today we asked how much TOTAL¹s gas project earns the Burmese Junta, last
year they admitted it was 350 million euros, today they claimed its only 125
million euros. Once again TOTAL is making contradictory statements and
trying to downplay their funding of Burma¹s brutal regime², concluded
Debomy. Furthermore when the board was asked to clarify their financial
support to the junta TOTAL¹s chairman Thierry Desmarest stated ³I do not see
what interest the total amount represents to you².

The NGOs questioned TOTAL on how it was dealing with the human rights abuses
committed by the Burmese army, which the company employs to protect its gas
project. According to a report published last month by EarthRights
International (ERI), the Burmese Army, continues to commit numerous human
rights violations against the region¹s populations. In an open letter dated
5 May sent to ERI, TOTAL stated ³Unacceptable practices are systematically
reported and the perpetrators are prosecuted². ³We asked for more detailed
information on the type and number of reported violations and the measures
taken to punish those who committed them.² said Isabelle Brachet, Asia
Director for FIDH. ³We also asked TOTAL if the company is ready to provide
the security for the gas pipeline through other means, without resorting to
Burmese army² she continued. De Margerie replied ³If there are some other
(violent acts), we will react, rapes do not occur only in Burma².

TOTAL were also questioned over the money they paid to a solidarity fund in
2005, under the terms of an amicable settlement putting an end to legal
proceedings against the company in France over the use of forced labour on
the pipeline project. De Margerie attempted to dodge the question by
highlighting TOTAL¹s support for Burmese refugee camps in Thailand and
stated that there is enough information on the company¹s website, ³if here
are no enough information, tell us, we will provide more² he said.

Faced with criticism of the companies support for Burma¹s brutal
dictatorship the company¹s board replied ³(there are people) outside of the
country, sat in leather chairs, who wish to see the country collapse, hoping
it will bring about a revolution². ³Unfortunately, the country is already on
its knees, 90% of the population live with less than one dollar per day²,
concluded Johnny Chatterton of the Burma Campaign UK.