TOTAL Annual General Meeting Disrupted by Burma Activists

Posted to Burmaoil@yahoogroups.com by: “Johnny Chatterton” johnny.chatterton@burmacampaign.org.uk jwac26

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.

 

Total & Kouchner see eye to eye on Burma – Oliver Dours

March 25, Bakchich.info
Posted by: Edith Mirante

maje@hevanet.com emirante

Wed Mar 26, 2008 8:58 pm (PDT)

In Asia, the French Minister of Foreign Affairs never misses a chance to lend a hand to his pals at Total, who are getting bogged down in the Buddhist monks’ rebellion.

Total’s CEO, Christophe de Margerie, is determined to protect his company’s assets in Burma. On October 16, 2007, he rambled somewhat senselessly before the National Assembly’s Foreign Affairs Commission. In answer to a question put by Commission Chair Axel Poniatowski, de Margerie claimed that neither Aung San Suu Kyi nor representatives of the Burmese opposition had ever, “asked Total to leave.” He also boasted about the “opinion shared by a great number of people on the spot (i.e. in Burma) as well as all of the eyewitnesses who have been there, that Total’s activities are essential, and should be sustained in the interests of the Burmese people, for whom they are directly beneficial.”

Bizarre notions that the Burmese Prime Minister-in-exile, Dr. Sein Win, and his UN representative, Than Htun were quick to dispel during their recent stay in Paris, late last October. In actual fact, as far back as 1992, Burmese pro-democracy forces asked Total to abandon its project for a natural-gas pipeline from Burma to Thailand to produce electricity. To make matters worse, since it was put into service in 2000, they have never stopped pleading for the suspension of this financial windfall, which has
already brought in some $3 billion to the Burmese generals’ regime. For the opposition, it is abundantly clear that Total has been indeed been essential… to the change in the junta’s status on the international scene, from disreputable “narco-dictatorship” to the more presentable “gas-pipeline-dictatorship.” At a press conference in Paris last
October, Messrs. Sein Win and Than Htun expressed surprise that the letter they had
addressed to the French government just before the meeting of the European Council in Luxembourg on October 8 had not been taken into account. In it, the Burmese government-in-exile requested the establishment of effective sanctions – which inevitably meant seizure or international control of natural-gas revenues. In actual fact, the European Ministers made haste to exclude fossil fuels from the scope of the sanctions. Decision which can surely be blamed on pressure from the French.

When asked, “Who is your leader ?”, certain monks have been known to confess under torture, “His name is Siddhartha.” As the agitator’s identity and description was passed through the ranks of the uniformed hierarchy, in order to establish a warrant for his arrest anywhere in the country, one officer – slightly cleverer than the rest – realized that Siddhartha is the name of the historical Buddha born 2,500 years ago in
Kapilavastu, now part of Nepal…

To console his woes, Christophe de Margerie can always go sob on Bernard Kouchner’s shoulders : after all, once upon a time, the high-spirited French Minister of Foreign Affairs was a consultant for Total-Burma. This week, the French doctor performed a strange belly dance in a neighboringcountry he was visiting. In Singapore on October 29, he came up with another suggestion based more on smoke and mirrors than true substance : a funding project for Burma that would allow the international community to finance micro-credits to assist the country’s development, on condition that the junta become more democratic. All under the auspices of the World Bank… which can no longer operate in Burma since the Americans vetoed it.

On October 30, 2007, in Bangkok, Kouchner laid it on even thicker by singing the praises of Total’s pipeline, which, he said, was beneficial for the people of Burma and Thailand. And again, on October 31 in Beijing, he tried to sweet talk Chinese leaders – to get them to reason with their Burmese protégés – by offhandedly mentioning that French president Nicolas Sarkozy could be convinced not to receive the Dalai Lama during his planned visit to Paris in August 2008. Unlike a certain George W. Bush. During his visit to Beijing in December 2007, President Sarkozy asked his Chinese counterpart to intercede with his Burmese protégés in order to have visas granted to Bernard Kouchner and Rama Yade, his Secretary of Human Rights –raising snickers in diplomatic circles around the region, but otherwise to no avail…

Translated by: Regan Kramer

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EarthRights International has an open letter to the CEO of Chevron,
Dave O’Reilly, and a petition to him, regarding the brutal crackdown on
peaceful protests in Burma:
The Petition to sign is here:
http://www.petitiononline.com/urgeChev/petition.html