Campaigns put pressure on firms to leave
Source : Asia Times(13-12-01)
By Danielle Knight
WASHINGTON - US environmentalists and human rights activists have joined labor unions to pressure the a New York-based oil company to sell its ownership of a British company that invests in Myanmar. Meanwhile, consumers are being urged to boycott a European lingerie maker until it closes its factory in Myanmar.
Citing the Myanmar military regime's abuse of human rights, activists are urging Amerada Hess, best known as a petrol retailer in the eastern United States, to divest its 25 percent stake in London-based Premier Oil, which does business in Myanmar. Carl Tursi, a spokesperson for Amerada Hess, said that the company's investment in Premier is "ring fenced" and does not include contracts in Myanmar. "We do not have any people in Myanmar and we do not participate in discussions or decisions about Myanmar," he said. Tursi acknowledged, however, that the company is concerned about its image and reputation and hinted at possible action.
Until last month, Hess's investment in Premier was subject to a standstill agreement that barred the US company from adding to or selling from its stake in the British firm. "Now that it has expired, we are free to look at that investment, like we look at all our investments," Tursi said.Activists said that they are determined the company not just look, but act. This week, they began picketing Hess petrol stations across the United States.
Heidi Quante, coordinator of the non-governmental Myanmar Project, said that Amerada Hess should follow the example of US companies that have pulled out of Myanmar. These include Texaco, ARCO, and Amoco. "Hess's connection to Myanmar's junta puts it in the company of a small number of pariah corporations still doing business with this internationally reviled regime," said Quante.
Relations between Myanmar and the United States have been poor since the Myanmar military refused to honor the results of 1990 elections swept by the National League for Democracy (NLD) and its leader, Aung San Suu Kyi. Suu Kyi, who later won the Nobel Peace Prize, and other opposition and civil society leaders were arrested in a crackdown that has effectively lasted more than 10 years. Suu Kyi has called for sanctions against the regime as the best way to force it into negotiations over a transition to democratic rule. In November, in an unprecedented action, the International Labor Organization (ILO) called for all member countries to "review their relations" with Myanmar in light of that country's failure to redress confirmed reports of forced labor.
In addition to concern about military repression, Washington accused the junta and top military officers of failing to cooperate with its efforts to combat opium and heroin production, protecting known traffickers, and sharing in the profits of the drug trade. Under pressure from grass-roots activists, former president Bill Clinton banned all new US investment in Myanmar from 1997, but his order did not address existing contracts, such as a major gas pipeline project co-financed by San Francisco-based Unocal, or orders by apparel companies for goods produced by Myanmar factories.
Amerada Hess's 25 percent ownership of Premier Oil apparently was not subject to Clinton's executive order because it was not considered a direct investment in Myanmar, said Marco Simon, a fellow at Washington-based Earth Rights International, which also called on Hess to divest from Premier.
So far, over 50 companies worldwide have left Myanmar due to international pressure. But many Asia-based companies, including Malaysia's Petronas energy company, and some European companies, such as France's TotalFinaElf oil firm, remain.
British activists have pressured Premier to divest from projects including the Yetagun natural gas pipeline, a joint venture with the Myanmar government that, activists said, is one of the junta's principal sources of revenue. Rights activists have charged that soldiers providing security for the pipeline have subjected civilians to forced labor, forced relocation, rape, torture, and murder.
Environmentalists have also protested against the pipeline because it cuts through the Tenasserim rainforest, one of the largest intact forests in Southeast Asia and home to numerous endangered species, including elephants and rhinoceros.
Activists said that abuses in the Yetagun pipeline region are not isolated occurrences but are part of a pattern of increased military presence near energy infrastructure. Despite oil executives' assertions to the contrary, abuses continue and "severe forced labor and beatings have occurred in the pipeline region within the past year", said Quante.Suu Kyi, who remains under house arrest, has also called for the oil company to withdraw.
A growing number of global corporations have left Myanmar as a result of mounting pressure by human rights groups, including such companies as British Home Stores, Liz Claiborne, C&A, Ericsson, Heineken, Phillips, Levi Strauss, Apple, Pepsi Cola, Reebok and Fosters. Many multinational corporations are reconsidering their Myanmar operations, including Orient Express/Sea Containers, Unocal, Total, Mitsubishi, Suzuki, and British American Tobacco, most of whom have public campaigns directed against them.
Human rights groups are now urging consumers to boycott European lingerie maker Triumph International until it closes its factory in Myanmar. The Myanmar Campaign UK said that "Foreign companies and Myanmar's dictators are becoming richer, while Myanmar's oppressed people grow ever poorer".
Triumph International, a Swiss-based multinational company, have a factory located on an industrial estate called Pyin-Ma-Bin, north of Yangon. In its defense, Triumph has said that it is concerned about dismissing over 1,000 of its workers in Myanmar. "The Triumph factory in Myanmar is built to European standards and offers our employees safe and modern working conditions," Triumph said. "The factory is operated within the Triumph code of conduct therefore no child or enforced labor is employed. In keeping with the whole Triumph International Group, the welfare of our employees is of paramount importance."
Under the slogan "Support Breasts - not Dictators", the Myanmar Campaign UK-led campaign against Triumph features a barbed wire bra, a hard-hitting image which protesters say represents the company's disregard for human rights in Myanmar.
(Inter Press Service, with additional reporting by Asia Times Online)