Andy Rowell, 11 October 2007 

As the brutal military oppression of pro-democracy demonstrators and Monks continues behind the scenes in Burma, calls for international investors to pull out of the country have been ignored. In fact the opposite is true, especially for the oil and gas industry. For them it is business as usual.

The oil industry sees pro-democracy demonstrations as an annoyance standing in the way of the prize of lucrative oil and gas deals.

The ugly truth is that it covets the security and stability that despotic regimes often provide. Years ago I remember one oil executive from British-based Premier Oil, who was under fire at the time for investing in Burma, saying that despotic regimes were better for investing in than democracies because they offered “stability”.

But that stability only comes at a dreadful price as we have witnessed over the last six weeks. There are reports that thousands of protestors have been killed with bodies hidden in the jungle. The most senior official to defect so far, Hla Win, said last week: “Many more people have been killed in recent days than you've heard about. The bodies can be counted in several thousand.” Some 1,700 Monks and democracy activists are believed to being held in a “concentration” camp in Rangoon.

Internet and phone lines remain cut-off from the outside world as the military junta tries to erase its brutalities. Last week, the Japanese government had to formally ask for the return of the video camera of its slain journalist, Kenji Nagai, that the military are refusing to hand over. Even the dead of those who bear witness to these atrocities cannot keep their possessions.

The situation in the country is horrific. The revolution has been so brutally put down it has failed and the generals have won once again. Liselotte Agerlid, a Swedish diplomat, argues the Burmese people now face decades of repression again. “Now the military has cracked down, the result may very well be that the regime will enjoy another 20 years of silence, ruling by fear,” she argues.

But the military would not be able to rule without foreign investment, especially from the oil and gas industry. “The oil and gas companies have been one of the major industries keeping the regime in power”, argues Marco Simons, from EarthRights International, an environmental and human rights group with offices in Thailand and Washington. At the height of the violence last month EarthRights called on the oil and gas industry to help stop the military’s abuses. 

However, according to EarthRights, “the multinational corporations involved in Burma’s natural gas industry, such as Chevron and Daewoo, have shown no sign of using their influence to protect human rights and prevent further violence.”

Rather than stop the violence, state owned and private oil companies are carrying on as business as usual. At the end of last month, as the Buddhist monks led thousands in a huge demonstration in Rangoon, the Indian Oil Minister Murli Deora was also in Rangoon, the capital for the signing of contracts between state-controlled ONGC Videsh and the brutal military to explore three onshore concession blocks.

Last week, the non-governmental organization, the Shwe Gas Movement (SGM) urgently called on the Government of India to suspend all oil and gas investments in the country. According to Wong Aung, from the SGM, “India’s financial support for the junta through lucrative gas deals and trade cooperation is integral for the regime to maintain its stability, and a stable junta is a violent junta.”

But his words are likely to fall on deaf ears as Chinese, South Korean, Thai and Indian companies are all looking to exploit Burma’s oil and gas deposits. They are looking to join the nine foreign oil companies already involved in 16 onshore blocks and nine companies also offshore, including the French company Total and South Korea's Daewoo.

French energy giant Total remains the biggest single economic operator in the country. Despite economic sanctions against Burma by America and the EU, Total continues to operate the notorious but lucrative Yadana gas field. The American oil company Chevron has a 28 per cent stake in the block after its takeover of Unocal in 2005. Both these investments are exempt from the investment ban.

Both companies have defended their Burmese investments. A Total spokesperson argues that “a forced withdrawal would only lead to our replacement by other operators probably less committed to the ethical principles guiding all our initiatives”.

The French President Nicolas Sarcozy, also under fire because of Total’s investment, has now called on the company to freeze investments, which is nothing short of a political charade as Total are not looking for new investments in the country. It already has its prize investment: the Yadana offshore field. One French diplomat said last week: "Announcing a freeze of what is already frozen is hardly revolutionary. It allows (the president) to surf on the notion of a French 'new deal' for human rights, while protecting French economic interests."

Chevron too is trying to protect its corporate backside. The company’s interest in the Yadana project is “a long-term commitment that helps meet the critical energy needs of millions in people in the region,” argues a spokesperson.

Whilst Total and Chevron have been in Burma for years and are unlikely to look for new oil and gas reserves, it is the Chinese who are rapidly stepping up their investment. Just last month, EarthRights conducted research that found over 26 Chinese multinational corporations involved in more than 62 hydropower, oil & gas, and mining projects in Burma. There were at least 17 Chinese oil and gas projects, with investment from at least seven companies, including the three major Chinese energy companies.

But China is not only interested in Burma’s oil and gas. It is also using Burma as a strategic oil and gas transit route to get Middle East oil and gas to China’s burgeoning southern cities. Chinese companies are due to begin construction of an oil and natural gas  pipeline which will stretch 2,380 km from Burma’s Arakan coast to China’s southwestern cities of Kunming and/or Chongqing.

The omens do not look good. There is already a brutal example of what happens when you build a pipeline in Burma, a country where there is no public participation in decision-making, and no environmental, social, or human rights impact assessments undertaken.

For example, the Yadana pipeline stretches across Burma from the Gulf of Andaman to Thailand. The pipeline, whose partners are Total and Chevron, was plagued with human rights abuses and ecological destruction. The construction involved mass forced labour torture, rape, murder and other human rights abuses, committed by the army on behalf of the oil companies.

In the mid-nineties, EarthRights International was one of many organizations that documented the testimonies of those who had been abused. One fifty-four-year-old woman from the Karen tribe told them that she and her granddaughter were raped: “Old woman, if you tell anyone about that [the rapes], I'll kill you and your relatives”, she was told. EarthRights also documented young girls being used as forced labour to build the pipeline. Those who were forced to work even had to provide their own food, even though they were not even paid.

Some were just tortured: One person told EarthRights of what happened to someone from their village “Then the Major beat him and the other soldiers interrogated him and beat him, so blood came out from his mouth and nose. They kept torturing him without giving him any food or water all day. They interrogated him once every week”.

When the person was released, he “had lost his left eye, and his arms and legs were wounded and swollen. His back was bruised and swollen severely. I saw the scar from the rope on both of his arms and legs. He lost [so much] weight I could not recognize him at that moment. My youngest daughter cried out loud as soon as she saw.  After three weeks he could walk slowly, but he couldn’t work as before.” A few months later the person died from his injuries. In 2005, prior to being acquired by Chevron, Unocal settled a lawsuit brought by EarthRights against it in US courts on behalf of those who had been abused.

The experience of Yadana does not bode well for the people of Burma. Moreover the bottom line is that the oil industry is only interested in profit not human rights.  Last week as spokesperson for Thailand's PTTEP, a partner in Total's Yadana project said “It is business as usual. I don't see any impact in the near future” from the unrest. “When we have a contract with the government, it doesn't really matter who the government is.”  

That said, the bitter truth is that the oil industry does prefer to do business with military despots, no matter what the human and ecological cost to the people.