EU probes Burma pipeline abuses
BBC, Friday, 12 October, 2001
By Shirin Wheeler in Brussels
Members of the European Parliament have accused two of Europe's leading oil companies of complicity in human rights abuses by the military forces in Burma. The allegations arose out of a report by the pressure group, Earth Rights International, which claims local villagers have been subjected to forced labour, rape and even murder by army units working for the oil companies to protect the pipelines.
At the opening of a hearing before the parliament's Development and Co-operation committee the oil companies - British owned Premier Oil and the French company TotalFinaElf - were on the defensive, protesting their commitment to uphold human rights. They totally rejected the allegations that indirectly they and their partners had been responsible for crimes committed by the Burmese authorities.
Forced labour
It is now widely understood that forced labour is imposed on the civilian population in Burma and particular concerns have been voiced about pipeline building projects in the country's Kanbouk region. The latest allegations from Earth Rights International concern the army units used by oil companies to guard the pipelines.Dozens of witness statements collected in the last year claim they have forced villagers to work as porters, attacking and intimidating those who refuse.
British MEP Richard Howitt tabled a parliamentary resolution last year calling for a code of conduct to govern how EU based companies operate abroad, and for annual hearings to investigate particular allegations.
"Premier Oil and Total are directly responsible through a link of complicity with the use of slave labour by the Burmese Military," he said this week. "These so called porters are forced to carry arms and supplies... they are threatened with shooting if they escape or forced to make payments to avoid that forced labour."
In recent years many companies, including oil giant Texaco, have pulled out of Burma. But despite pressure from the British Government, Premier Oil is staying. The company says its health and education programmes, as well as its human rights training for army units and a new human rights monitoring system, are evidence of good intentions.
'Constructive engagement'
Premier Oil's corporate responsibility officer, Richard Jones, believes the company is improving the lives of local people. But he admits it is not always easy to know what the army units used by the companies are up to.
Reports from people like Earth Rights international and Amnesty International have helped us come to this stage where we recognise that we just do not have the capacity ourselves at this point in time to give everybody a full assurance that we understand exactly what is going on in the pipeline area," he says.
Asked why, if he couldn't guarantee human rights are being respected, Premier Oil was still in operation in Burma, he said: "That is exactly what we are working towards - a system of human rights monitoring and training that would allow us to assure that there aren't any of those alleged human right abuses going on."
But Marco Simons from Earth Rights International, rejected the oil companies' arguments that constructive engagement with Burma's repressive regime is better than isolation.
"If it is indeed impossible for them to operate in Burma without pervasive and egregious human rights abuses then they have no business working there at all," he said.
Members of the European Parliament are now calling for the EU to follow the example of the US by banning all new investment in Burma. They want the oil companies to compensate the victims of violence by the Burmese military - and in the longer term they are hoping that strict guidelines on how EU based companies operate abroad will be enshrined in law.