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Chevron's involvement connected to HR abuses in Burma: ERI |
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by Solomon
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Tuesday, 29 April 2008 21:17 |
New Delhi - The US based Chevron Corp. should shoulder the responsibility of the ongoing human rights abuse by Burmese soldiers, guarding Chevron's gas pipeline, a report released on Tuesday by a human rights watchdog said.
The EarthRights International in its report draws on interviews with villagers and Burmese refugees in Thailand. It accused Burma's military of raping, extra-judicial killings and terrorizing villagers living along the Yadana gas pipeline, in which Chevron has a share.
Katie Redford, US Director of EarthRights International told Mizzima that they have found evidence that link Chevron's involvement in the pipeline with the ongoing human rights violations perpetrated by the Burmese military, which is responsible for guarding the pipeline.
"Our organization has harvested about Chevron's complicity and human rights abuses by the Burma Army guarding the Yadana pipeline," Redford told Mizzima over telephone after the press conference in Bangkok.
Redford said while Chevron is not directly involved in human rights abuses along the Yadana pipeline project, the Burmese military which is guarding the pipeline continues to violate the rights of the local people in the name of safety of the pipeline.
Chevron became a co-owner of the pipeline, when in 2005 it bought Unocal, one of the original partners in the Yadana project, and inherited a share of the pipeline. Chevron, with its 28 percent share, now co-owns the pipeline along with French oil giant Total and the Burmese junta-owned Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprises (MOGE).
In 1996, EarthRights represented residents of nearby villages, who sued Unocal over alleged forced labour on the pipeline. Unocal settled out of court for an undisclosed amount in April 2005.
The new report argues that the Yadana pipeline is the junta's single largest foreign income, fetching an estimated USD 969 million per year. However, the report said that this income does not benefit the local villagers but rather is used to strengthen the Burmese Army.
"Income from this project is not used for the people of Burma but is rather used to strengthen the army by purchasing more weapons for killing and abusing the Burmese people," said Ka Hsaw Wa, Executive Director of ERI and one of the researchers for the report.
EarthRights also called on Chevron to withdraw from Burma and end its involvement in the ongoing human rights violation.
Total and Chevron are a few large western companies who still have a stake in Burma, which has economic sanctions imposed on it by the west for its human rights violation and failure to implement democratic reforms.
The U.S. sanctions prevent most American companies from investing and doing business in Burma. However, since the Yadana project – both the pipeline and the offshore natural gas wells - were built before the sanctions were imposed, it was exempted.
EarthRights said they have found evidence that it is the same abuses that prompted the Unocal lawsuit. The group said Chevron could be sued unless it withdraws from all business in Burma.
"We consider a lawsuit and legislation a large resource so if Chevron does not make any changes in its business relationship and if human rights abuses continue on the pipeline route than we do have the ability to file a lawsuit against it," Reford said.
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