The United Nations Security Council should act to prohibit any new investment in Burma’s oil and gas fields and block company payments that help sustain Burma’s brutal military rule, Human Rights Watch said Monday.
Human Rights Watch said that until the Security Council imposes sanctions, members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), China, India, the European Union, the United States and other countries that have economic ties to Burma should act to suspend any further development of Burma’s oil and gas sector.
To encourage an end to ongoing repression, Human Rights Watch also called for targeted financial sanctions on companies owned and controlled by the Burmese military or whose revenues substantially benefit the military.
OLIEINDTÆGTER GØR GENERALER IMMUNE OVERFOR PRES UDEFRA
“Burma’s generals act as if they are immune from worldwide condemnation because they’re still getting cash from foreign-financed oil and gas projects,” said Arvind Ganesan, director of the Business and Human Rights Program at Human Rights Watch.
In a detailed new compilation of information on foreign investment in oil and gas released Monday, Human Rights Watch identified 27 companies based in 13 countries as having investment interests in Burma’s oil and gas fields.
Thirteen of those companies are wholly or partially owned by foreign governments, and these state-controlled companies are invested in 20 of the 30 projects currently underway.
The Burmese military government relies heavily on the oil and gas sector to sustain itself in power.
Lucrative revenues from gas sales allow it to ignore demands to return to civilian rule and improve the country’s human rights record.
The oil and gas sector is one of the few sectors in the badly managed economy to experience growth in recent years.
Outside investors in Burma’s oil and gas industry include companies from:
* Australia
* British Virgin Islands
* China
* France
* India
* Japan
* Malaysia
* Netherlands
* Russian Federation
* Singapore
* South Korea
* Thailand
* United States
Many of the foreign companies involved are wholly or partially owned by governments. That is the case for China, India, Japan, Malaysia, Russia, South Korea, and Thailand.
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