A United States oil company is under attack by British rights and democracy campaigners based on concerns over the legality of its investments in Myanmar (formerly Burma).
Burma Campaign UK launched a campaign last week aimed at persuading energy firm Amerada Hess to withdraw its 25 percent stake in the British company Premier Oil, which operates a major pipeline in Myanmar, the name given to Burma by the military junta which seized power in 1988.
Myanmar has been considered one of the world's worst violators of human rights and became particularly notorious for its system of forced labor, prevalent in areas across which the pipeline was laid.
"By investing in Premier Oil, Amerada Hess are indirectly supporting Burma's brutal military dictatorship," said John Jackson, director of the Campaign. "We are going to make sure Amerada Hess don't get a moment's peace until they sell their stake in Premier Oil."
The campaign on Amerada will raise questions about whether its shareholding in Premier breaches a 1997 U.S. ban on all new investments in Myanmar by U.S. companies. Last month a British coalition of human rights organizations began a campaign asking Prime Minister Tony Blair to impose similar sanctions.
Andy Mitchell, corporate affairs manager at Amerada's London office, said Friday that the company was fully compliant with British and U.S. laws and was disappointed that the campaign was being launched during an "ongoing dialogue" with Premier.
"Obviously there are continuing concerns and arguments [over] whether constructive engagement or isolation is the best," Mitchell said. The company is "actively looking" at its investment--which evolved from Premier's 1995 acquisition of one of Amerada's holdings, Pict Petroleum--but indicated it would not take immediate measures. "We can't walk away from this investment. We have a responsibility to our own shareholders," said Mitchell.
Premier was the target of scathing criticism in a report presented to the European Parliament last October which contained witness testimony on how the Burmese military protected corporate interests by forcing local citizens into labor and into acting as human "minesweepers."
The London-based company, which has oil and gas interests in Britain and across South and Southeast Asia, defended its presence in Myanmar as one of constructive engagement, claiming alternative companies would be less committed to upholding human rights standards. It told European lawmakers it could not be held responsible for the behavior of guards used to protect its pipeline and employees.
Military officials of Myanmar's ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) have made tentative steps over recent months in establishing a political dialogue with the opposition National League for Democracy, which swept to power in 1990 elections that were annulled by the junta. In apparent goodwill gestures, SPDC has been periodically releasing groups of political prisoners, the latest being a group of 28 pregnant women freed in February.
Yet people continue to be jailed for their political beliefs, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW), and more than 1,000 political prisoners remain incarcerated. The organization last week condemned the regime for handing down a seven-year prison sentence on a Burmese academic who distributed a petition calling for a general election.
"The harshness of the sentence suggests that, political dialogue notwithstanding, the Rangoon regime is fundamentally unchanged," said Mike Jendrzejczyk, the Washington director of HRW's Asia Division.