The Companies They Keep in Burma

The world has been informed in no uncertain terms of the concern of the First Family of the USA over the cause of democracy and freedom in Burma. The commitment of Washington to the corporate cause, however, has proven greater.

On September 19, Laura Bush told a UN Roundtable Discussion that the US government would take steps to ensure that the issue of democracy in Burma was "not overlooked" in the Security Council. Kristin Silverberg, US assistant secretary of state for international organization affairs, called this "incredibly ... moving." It might have been as moving as her earlier, much-quoted statement, "I am a Desperate Housewife." But it made no mention of a main pillar of support for Burma's military junta - corporate carpetbaggers.

Now comes the word that President George Bush himself has decided to take a hand in the matter and take on the junta. On September 24, US National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley proclaimed that the president was to "unveil new steps" against the junta and "try and force the regime into a change." The new steps, however, did not seem to include any sanctions against US or other foreign big-money operations aimed at profiteering at the expense of the Burmese people.

Hadley told the media: "He (President Bush) is going to announce that there will be additional sanctions directed at key members of the regime, and those that provide financial support to them." But Hadley, however, acted coy about further details, pleading that he needed to preserve "a little element of surprise" so that those targeted "don't, quite frankly, hide their assets before the sanctions come into force.... So we're going to be a little bit - intentionally a little vague on what is intended, so that they will have their intended effect." The statements of Bush and his administration on the subject are even more intentionally vague about the most important source of the ill-gotten wealth of the members of the junta. The pro-democracy movement in Burma has repeatedly pointed out that the military rulers have allowed ruthless exploitation of the country's coveted oil and gas resources by multinational corporations and, in the process, enriched themselves.

The offshore activities of these corporations have made no difference to the grinding poverty of the people. Ironically, in fact, they have led to a situation where the junta ordered a 500 percent hike in fuel prices, triggering a revolt in August 2007.

The contribution of a giant US corporation to the situation has been conspicuous, according to the anti-junta camp. Prominent among the multinationals included in a "Dirty List" of such companies, brought out by the camp in December 2005, was Chevron, formally Unocal. Authors of the list noted that Chevron was one of the joint venture partners developing the Yadana offshore gas field in Burma, which earns the military regime millions of dollars. (Chevron also owns Texaco.)

The Unocal Corporation figured earlier in internationally backed Burmese campaigns against forced labor, land appropriation and similar other gross human-rights violations in the gas and oil projects initiated by the junta behind the people's backs. The affected villagers came together in 1996 and sued Unocal and France's Total for complicity in the abuses. The villagers charged that the companies knew about and benefited from the Burmese army's use of torture, rape and unlawful land seizures to uproot people from areas slated for "development." The lawsuits were settled after the companies agreed to make due compensation only eight years later, in 2004.

The Bush regime has not cared all these years to persuade either its old or newfound allies to discipline their own corporate giants in the cause of Burmese democracy.

Appearances, of course, were kept up. In December 2005, Britain's former prime minister and fervent Bush backer Tony Blair called on companies not to trade with Burma. A survey released then, however, showed that, since Labor came to power, imports from Burma had quadrupled, rising from 17.3 million pounds in 1998 to 74 million pounds in 2004.

It was also found that Britain ranked as the second-largest investor in Burma, as it allowed foreign companies to use the British Virgin Islands to channel investment. The Blair government remained deaf to repeated demands from Burma's democracy movement and the British trade unions for discontinuing this investment. No one expects any improvement in the official British attitude in this regard during the Gordon Brown regime, despite its lip service to the cause of democracy in Burma.

Friends of Bush in the media see efforts by his administration to influence India, too, in favor of democracy in Burma. The efforts, however, do not concern New Delhi's ever-growing cooperation with the junta in the energy sector.

Washington has not concealed its attempt to keep New Delhi away from participation in an Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline project. But it has articulated no such objection to India's plans for a gas pipeline from Burma, through either Bangladesh or the eastern Indian states of Mizoram and Tripura.

The democracy movement is particularly disturbed over the involvement of a consortium of Indian and South Korean corporations, collaborating with the junta, in exploration and proposed exploitation of a "world class gas deposit" in wells labeled Shwe (Gold) off Burma's western coast. The Shwe Gas Movement points out: "Previous gas earnings have been directly linked with military arms purchases and allow the regime to continue its oppressive grip on the whole of Burma's population in defiance of international pressure." The movement is not opposed to development, but wants the Indian and South Korean corporations to "refrain from further investment ... until a dialogue can be held with a democratically elected government."

New Delhi, however, has once again shown utter disregard of democratic opinion by sending its petroleum and natural gas minister, Murli Deora, on a state visit to Burma September 23. The purpose of the visit is to talk to Burmese officials to step up energy links and witness the signing of three new contracts between Indian and Burmese oil firms for three deepwater exploration projects. Protests against the pro-junta role imposed on India, which once conferred its highest honor on Burma's pro-democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, have gone entirely unheeded.

What the cause of democracy in Burma needs is not a ban on visas for some members of the junta, but a ban on multimillion-dollar investments that have supplied a far more vital need of the forces bent upon denying fundamental freedoms to the Burmese people.

A freelance journalist and a peace activist in India, J. Sri Raman is the author of "Flashpoint" (Common Courage Press, USA). He is a regular contributor to Truthout.

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