Burma

Burma’s Unjustified Detention Of Aung San Suu Kyi

Today, Condoleezza Rice, secretary of the US State Department, issued the following statement concerning Aung San Suu Kyi:

Tomorrow, on June 19, Aung San Suu Kyi will spend yet another birthday in custody, denied her liberty and fundamental political and civil rights by Burma’s military rulers. This deplorable situation must end.

Sadly, the regime not only continues to keep this distinguished Nobel laureate under house arrest, but there are nearly 2,000 other political prisoners currently in custody. Burma’s rulers should release all political prisoners and begin to move in earnest to transform Burma into a democratic society.

Meanwhile, the regime has backtracked on even the modest steps it had taken – naming a liaison to meet regularly with Aung San Suu Kyi and allowing her to meet with her colleagues in Burma’s National League for Democracy. There have been no meetings with either since January, and Aung San Suu Kyi has even been denied regular access to medical care and legal counsel.

Rather than risking further unrest in Burma by its unjustified detention of political prisoners and its holding of a rigged referendum in May on a sham constitution, the regime should release all political prisoners, including Aung San Suu Kyi, and begin a genuine dialogue with her and other democratic and ethnic minority leaders on a transition to democracy.

UNHCR Condemns Systematic Rights Violations

The United Nations Human Rights Council today condemned “ongoing systematic violations of human rights” in Myanmar and called on the Government to stop making politically motivated arrests and to release all political prisoners immediately.

In a resolution adopted without a vote, the Council also called on the Government of Myanmar to fully implement commitments it made to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon that it would grant relief workers “immediate, full and unhindered access” to people in need in the wake of last month’s catastrophic Cyclone Nargis.

It called on the Government to refrain from sending victims of the disaster back to areas where they would not have access to emergency relief, and to ensure that any returns are voluntary, safe and carried out with dignity.

The resolution, introduced before the Geneva-based Council by the European Union, also condemned the recruitment of child soldiers by both Government forces and non-State armed groups and urged “an absolute an immediate stop of this appalling activity.”

In addition, it called for an independent investigation into reports of human rights violations, including enforced disappearances, arbitrary detentions, acts of torture and forced labour, and called for those responsible for such crimes to be brought to justice.

The resolution also called on the Government “to engage in a real process of dialogue and national reconciliation with the full and genuine participation of representatives of all political parties and ethnic groups who have been excluded from the political process.”

Introducing the resolution on behalf of the EU, Slovenian representative Andrej Logar said previous resolutions had not been implemented by Myanmar and many political prisoners remained in detention.

The recent constitutional referendum was conducted in complete disregard of basic standards on such issues as freedom of expression and freedom of assembly, he said.

Myanmar’s representative U Wunna Maung Lwin described the resolution as politically motivated and lopsided and said powerful States were trying to influence matters through political interference.

The representative said Myanmar was working with the international community in the response effort to Cyclone Nargis, which struck the country on 2-3 May, and was also making efforts on the political front, such as with the recent holding of the constitutional referendum.

Meanwhile, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon briefed the General Assembly today on his recent trip to Myanmar, saying that overall the relief effort there is continuing to improve and to be scaled up.

More than 134,000 people are dead or missing as a result of Cyclone Nargis and the subsequent tidal wave, and as many as 2.4 million people were affected and now need humanitarian assistance.

In his address to Assembly members, Mr. Ban stressed that the humanitarian tragedy wrought by the cyclone should not be politicized, and he plans to remain focused on the issue, drawing on the efforts of his Special Adviser, Ibrahim Gambari.

The Secretary-General also covered other issues in his remarks to the Assembly, including his latest travels, the most recent developments in the global food crisis and the situation in Zimbabwe.

Burma’s forced labour

The brutal Burmese government has for years forced citizens to work for free. Twenty per cent of those sentenced to prison with hard labour perish. Meanwhile, just who will rebuild the cyclone-hit country?

The Burmese military government has come under huge international pressure and criticism since cyclone Nargis destroyed large parts of Burma, killing at least 78,000 and leaving 56,000 more missing.

A month on, the UN estimates that 2.4 million people are in need of food, shelter or medical care, and more than a million have yet to receive foreign aid. Huge numbers of people are surviving in appalling conditions, with little or no help.

In the month since the disaster, only a small number of international aid workers have been granted access into the affected regions, and there is growing concern that the reconstruction effort will depend on forced labour – be it from children or migrant adult workers.

The International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) liason officer in Rangoon, Steve Marshall, said there had not been any verified reports of forced labour linked to the disaster. But he added: “We’re not saying it isn’t happening.”

Burma is well known for its use of forced labour. The Tatmadaw (Burmese military) routinely forces civilians to work on state infrastructure projects, such as the building of roads, bridges, military bases or even towns.

The military will typically demand labour from local villages, with the threat of fines if households are unable to supply the required amount of people. The ruling State Peace and Development Council’s (SPDC) search for labourers is made easier by the existence of registration documents with details of the exact number of inhabitants, property and livestock within any given village.

Inhabitants have no choice but to apply for national identity cards and register their details or risk fines or arrest.

The military is increasingly relying on SPDC-appointed village chairpersons as intermediaries through whom to disseminate their demands.

One particularly brutal example of forced labour is SPDC’s use of villagers as human minesweepers to clear the way for the safe passage of soldiers.

Projects vary in length and intensity, but they always mean that people are taken away from their land and livelihoods without any remuneration in return.

Military personnel operate under blanket impunity, and know that they will not be held accountable for any mistreatment of civilians. Furthermore, low level officers and soldiers in charge of forced labour projects are under pressure to meet demands, quotas and timetables ordered by their superiors.

Threats, harassment, beatings and even killings are not uncommon, and women risk rape and other sexual abuses. Forced labour often means that villagers are unable to work on their own agricultural work for days or even weeks on end. Regular forced labour in Mon State (South-eastern Burma), for example, has been a primary factor leading to increasing food insecurity.

Prison Labourers

Human rights organisations have reported the continuous use of forced prison labour in Burma, and it is estimated that as many as 20 percent of prisoners sentenced to ‘prison with hard labour’ die as a consequence of the conditions of their detention. It has been reported that at least 91 labour camps operate in areas across the country and the thousands of prisoners in these camps are used to build highways, dams, irrigation canals, and to work on special agricultural projects. Prisoners are reportedly being forced to work 12 hours a day without rest, and the sick and weak are not exempted from work. Inmates who cannot afford bribes are condemned to the harshest labour.

The living conditions and the general treatment of forced prison labourers are widely reported to be far worse than for civilian forced labourers. The work is more dangerous, they have to work even longer hours and health provisions are non-existent. The prisoners are viewed as expendable labour and there are countless reports of their torture, beatings and killings. A constant supply of prison labour is ensured by the continuing arbitrary arrests, as well as the imposition of lengthy sentences for minor misdemeanours. Those arrested often do not receive due legal process and are told that they will be released on payment of a bribe. Those who are unable to bribe the police or the judiciary are automatically sent to prison, whether there is evidence against them or not.

Forced conscription and child soldiers

Human rights groups, meanwhile, believe boys as young as 12 are recruited to fight against ethnic minority rebels. Human Rights Watch (HRW) estimated that there may be more than 70,000 child soldiers in the SPDC Army.

The children are often kidnapped without their parents’ knowledge while on their way home from school. They are then brutalised and physically abused during their induction and basic training before being shipped off to fight in the country’s ethnic states. “Child soldiers are sometimes forced to participate in human rights abuses, such as burning villages and using civilians for forced labour,” said HRW. “Those who attempt to escape or desert are beaten, forcibly re-recruited or imprisoned.”

Following the suppression in 1988 of the nationwide pro democracy demonstrations, the ruling military council initiated a dramatic effort to modernize and expand the armed forces. To tighten its control over its population, the SPDC Army instituted a dramatic expansion of military personnel throughout the country.

Service in the armed forces is for many a dangerous and gruelling experience, and soldiers are often subjected to mistreatment by senior officers. According to the junta’s military meeting minutes, there were about 9,000 desertions during 2006, whereas the army was only able to recruit 6,000. This trend continued in 2007, and the army is facing an acute shortage of trained personnel as a result.

Burma continues to have one of the highest numbers of child soldiers in the world – despite an official age of enlistment of 18.

According to Thein Sein, it is under-18s that are to blame for the problem because they lie about their true age or did not inform their parents that they had enlisted in the army.

Though, in a tacit admission that there remained underage soldiers in the armed forces, he further stated that soldiers with stunted growth were not sent to forward areas but were instead given light work duties at military bases, and that illiterate youth were sent to army schools to be educated.

With forced labour being such a common occurrence in the country, it is expected Burma will make use of it for the reconstruction process. Burma has a long history of ignoring the advice of International Organisations and actively hampering their freedom of movement and investment in the country, and is not about to change its stance.

Once again, the military junta will throw a spanner in the works and prevent ILO from monitoring the reconstruction process properly, adding further suffering to the devastated area and a population that has been through so much already.

[Source: New Statesman]

Video: Displaced children in northern Karen State

In December 2007, Burma Army soldiers operating under Military Operations Command (MOC) #4 conducted a series of attacks against villages in the Th’Ay Kee area of southeastern Toungoo District, northern Karen State. This Karen Human Rights Group video includes footage of the initial attack and the following days as children and their families from the Th’Ay Kee area continued to flee on foot in order to evade the Burma Army soldiers who were hunting them down.

[Source: KHRG]

A Dirty List

Burma Campaign UK has published its ‘Dirty List’ of companies that are helping to prop up the Burmese junta. The list is provided with a view to encouraging individuals/groups to write to companies calling upon them to stop funding the Burmese regime. For those who are sceptical that such action works, Burma Campaign UK have reported that since they launched the list 6 years ago, over 100 companies have withdrawn from Burma because of pressure so applied. Among the companies listed on the new list are BBC Worldwide, Jetstar Asia,  Lonely Planet, Mitsubishi, Qantas, Siemens and Toyota.

I try to keep up to speed on what’s happening in Burma, and usually post on Burma-related issues at Civicus.

A Dirty List

Burma Campaign UK has published its ‘Dirty List’ of companies that are helping to prop up the Burmese junta. The list is provided with a view to encouraging individuals/groups to write to companies calling upon them to stop funding the Burmese regime. For those who are sceptical that such action works, Burma Campaign UK have reported that since they launched the list 6 years ago, over 100 companies have withdrawn from Burma because of pressure so applied. Among the companies listed on the new list are BBC Worldwide, Jetstar Asia, Lonely Planet, Mitsubishi, Qantas, Siemens and Toyota.

A

Abercrombie & Kent
Abercrombie & Kent (A&K) is an American holiday company with 45 offices around the world, including offices in the UK. In 2003 the UK branch of A&K informed the Burma Campaign UK that A&K would no longer include Burma in its brochures or promote tourism to Burma. However today both the UK and US branches operate tours to Burma. Aung San Suu Kyi and the Burmese democracy movement have asked tourists not to visit Burma because it helps fund the regime and gives it legitimacy. Forced and child labour was used to develop many tourist facilities.

Geoffrey Kent
Chairman and CEO
Abercrombie & Kent, Inc.
1520 Kensington Road, Suite 212
Oak Brook, Illinois 60523-2156
USA

Alcatel
Alcatel is a French multinational specialising in communication technology. Alcatel is working closely with the regime in Burma to help it develop telecommunications such as landlines and mobile networks. The regime is the only mobile service provider in Burma, and is keen to expand the service because of high revenues and its importance to companies investing and trading with Burma, in particular, gem miners and exporters.

President
Alcatel HQ
54, rue La Boétie
75008 Paris
France
Email: caroline.mille@alcatel.com

Managing Director
Alcatel
7a The Long Room
CopperMill Lock
Canal Side
Harefield
UB9 6JA
UK

Andaman Club
The Andaman Club is a luxury casino/hotel complex located on Thahtay Kyun Island in Southernmost Burma. It was launched by Vikrom Isiri in 1995, who leases the land from the Burmese junta. Isiri has since gone on to become a Thai senator and the complex has provided the seed money for numerous other ventures, including Phuket Airlines.

Vikrom Isiri
Andaman Club
1168/71 25th- A Floor,
Lumpini Tower Building
Rama IV Road
Thungmahamek
Bangkok
Thailand 10210

Fax: + (662) 285 6408-9
Email: andamanclubmm@hotmail.com

Andaman Teak Supplies Pty Ltd
Andaman is an Australian teak supplier to the marine sector, which only uses Burmese teak. The Burmese regime owns all teak plantations in Burma and teak sales earn the regime millions of pounds every year.

Andaman Teak Supplies Pty Ltd
59 Magnesium Drive
Crestmead Qld 4132
Australia

Fax: +61 (0)7 3803 1118
Email: andamanteak@bigpond.com

Andrew Brock Travel
Andrew Brock Travel is a tour operator that organises tours to Burma. Aung San Suu Kyi and the Burmese democracy movement have asked tourists not to visit Burma because it helps fund the regime and gives it legitimacy. Forced and child labour was used to develop many tourist facilities. Owner Andrew Brock has said that Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi is ‘oppressing Burma’s people’.

Andrew Brock
ANDREW BROCK Ltd.
29a Main Street,
Lyddington,
Oakham,
Rutland LE15 9LR
UK

Fax: 01572 821072
Email: ABROCK3650@aol.com

Aquatic
Aquatic is a privately owned Scottish company that provides specialist services to the oil and gas industry. Aquatic has an office in Burma, through which they assist the oil and gas industry. Gas exports are the regime’s largest source of income.

Managing Director
Aquatic
Palmerston Centre
29-31 Palmerston Road
Aberdeen AB11 5QP

Fax: 01224 577361
Email: admin@aquatic.co.uk

Archaeological Tours
Archaeological Tours is a US tour operator specialising in archaeological and historical study tours led by distinguished scholars. Their 2007-2008 programmes includes a ‘Khmer Kingdoms Tour’ which begins in Burma. Aung San Suu Kyi and the Burmese democracy movement have asked tourists not to visit Burma because it helps fund the regime and gives it legitimacy.

Archaeological Tours
271 Madison Avenue
Suite 904
New York
10016
USA

Fax: + (212) 370-1561
Email: ArchTours@aol.com

Asia Optical
Asia Optical is a Taiwanese company and is one of the biggest lens producers in the world. It invested $12m in Burma to build a lens factory, which opened in early 2004. Customers of Asia Optical include: Canon, Epson, Hitachi, Kodak, Konica, Minolta, Nikon, Olympus, Panasonic, Sony, and Sharp.

Mr Robert Lai
Chairman
Asia Optical
No. 22-3 South 2nd Road
T.E.P.Z, Taichung 427
Taiwan R.O.C

Email: service@asia-optical.com.tw

Audley Travel
Audley Travel is a travel company that organises tours to Burma. It also promotes holidays to Burma in national newspapers, including the Sunday Telegraph, The Times, The Guardian and The Observer.

Craig Burkinshaw
Managing Director
Audley Travel Ltd
6 Willows Gate
Stratton Audley
Oxfordshire OX27 9AU
UK

Fax 01869 276 214
Email: mail@audleytravel.co

Asia World Company – NEW
Asia World Company is an Australian company that is involved with the Shweli River dam project. The project has been associated with numerous human rights abuses. Dam projects in Burma have been associated with forced relocations, extrajudicial killings, forced labour, death by labour and torture.

Level 2, 403 Pacific Highway
Artarmon,
Sydney
NSW 2064
Australia
Phone: +61 2 9906 6372
Fax: 61 2 9906 1874

Aban Offshore – NEW
Aban Offshore is an Indian Oil company which won a $25 million contract from the Thai company PTTEP International to help increase the revenues the regime gains from Burma’s oil and gas reserves. In 2007 the regime received $2.7 billion from the oil and gas sector.

Managing Director
Aban Offshore
Janpriya Crest
113, Pantheon Road
Egmore
Chennai 600 008
India

A.L.T Inter Corporation – NEW
A.L.T Inter Corporation is a Thai telecoms company, which has been undertaking contract work for the Burmese regime. A.L.T Inter operates in Burma through a joint venture company called Kordia Solutions Thailand with the New Zealand government owned Kordia. Their joint venture company has been working on a $80,000 contract with the regime owned Myanmar Post and Telecommunications on mobile phone towers in Burma. Mobile phone services are strictly controlled in Burma and it is extremely difficult for ordinary citizens to afford or acquire a mobile phone. However, for supporters of the regime it is relatively easy to acquire a phone through the pro-regime Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA). It is reported that the USDA members raise funds by selling mobile phones, which they acquire due to their close ties to the regime.

A.L.T Inter Corporation
52/1 M00 5
Bangkruay-Trinoi Road
Bangsithong
Bangkruay District
Nonthaburi 11130
Thailand

B

Baker Hughes
Baker Hughes is a supplier of products and services to the oil and natural gas industry. Headquartered in Houston, Texas, the company operates in over 90 countries, including Burma, where it has offices in rangoon. Its subsidiaries- Hughes Christensen and Baker Petrolite have further offices in South East Asia designated to serve the industry in Burma. As well as supplying equipment to the oil and gas industry in Burma, Baker Hughes operate a rig count service within the country. Baker Hughes has worked in joint venture with Singapore based MPRL E&P Pte. Ltd in Burma.

Baker Hughes
Corporate Headquarters
2929 Allen Parkway Ste
2100 Houston
TX 77210-5177
USA

Fax: + 713 439 8699
Email: info@bakerhughes.com

Bales Worldwide
Bales Worldwide is a travel company that organises tours to Burma. Although the company admits there are ‘conflicting views’ on whether tourists should visit Burma, it argues in favour of tourism. Aung San Suu Kyi and the Burmese democracy movement have asked tourists not to visit Burma because it helps fund the regime and gives it legitimacy.

Managing Director
Bales Worldwide Holidays
Bales House
Junction Road
Dorking
Surrey RH4 3HL UK

Email: enquiries@balesworldwide.com

Bamboo Travel
Bamboo Travel is a UK company which aims to deliver bespoke itineraries for tourists wishing to visit China and South East Asia. Burma is included as one of the company’s destinations. Aung San Suu Kyi and the Burmese democracy movement have asked tourists not to visit Burma because it helps fund the regime and gives it legitimacy.

Bamboo Travel Ltd
1E Elms Road
Clapham
London SW4 9ET

Email: info@bambootravel.co.uk

BBC Worldwide – NEW
On October 1st 2007 the BBC’s commercial arm, BBC Worldwide, bought a 75% stake in Lonely Planet. Lonely Planet is an Australian multinational publishing company specialising in travel guides. Lonely Planet publishes a guide to Burma, which encourages tourists to visit the country. Lonely Planet vigorously defends tourism to Burma, attempting to undermine calls by Aung San Suu Kyi and Burma’s democracy movement for tourists to stay away. The BBC charter states that the activities of BBC Worldwide must not “jeopardise the reputation of the BBC or the value of the BBC brand”. BBC Worldwide maintains that Lonely Planet will continue to publish its Burma guidebook; even though the book fails to warn readers which hotels are regime owned or highlight which tourists facilities were built or prepared for tourism with forced labour (such as the “ huge gleaming” airport in Mandalay and Mrauk U in Rankaing State). The Burmese regime has identified tourism as a vital source of income.

John Smith
BBC Worldwide
Woodlands
80 Wood Lane
London W12 0TT
UK

Ben Line Agencies/ EGT Holdings
Ben Line Agencies is a Scottish shipping line with offices in Burma. It operates a range of port services for companies exporting cargo from Burma. Ben Line is owned by EGT Holdings.

William Thomson
Chairman
Ben Line Agencies
Suite 7, Bonnington Bond
2 Anderson Place
Edinburgh EH6 5NP

Fax: 0131 557 4742
Email: info@egtholdings.com

BJ Services
BJ Services is an American oil services company. It provides services to oil companies operating in Burma. The oil and gas sector are a major source of revenue for the Burmese regime.

J. W. Stewart
Chairman, President and CEO
BJ Services 5500 Northwest Central Drive
Houston Texas 77092
USA

Email: rcoons@bjservices.com

C

Chevron
Since its 2005 takeover of Unocal, US oil giant Chevron has been one of the joint venture partners developing the Yadana offshore gas field in Burma, which earns the military regime millions of dollars. Chevron also owns Texaco.

David J. O’Reilly
Chairman and CEO
Chevron
6001 Bollinger Canyon Rd.
San Ramon
CA 94583
USA

Email: comment@chevron.com

CHC Helicopter Corporation
CHC Helicopter Corporation, a Canadian company, is the world’s largest provider of helicopter services to the global offshore oil and gas industry. It has aircraft operating in more than thirty countries around the world including Burma where it has supported offshore operations of international oil companies operating in the country. CHC trades on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbols FLY.A and FLY.B; and on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol FLI.CHC.

CHC Helicopter Corporation
4740 Agar Drive
Richmond, BC
V7B 1A3
Canada

Email: communications@chc.ca

China Heavy Machinery Corporation – NEW
China Heavy Machinery Corporation is a Chinese company that is involved with the Yeywa dam project in Burma, which has been associated with numerous human rights abuses. Dam projects in Burma have been associated with forced relocations, extrajudicial killings, forced labour, death by labour and torture.

The Chief Exeuctive
China Heavy Machinery Corporation
RM 8-1-1603
Jingang Plaza
NO. 19 Xindawang Rd.
Chaoyang District
Beijing
China 100022

Email:xyang@chmbnet.com, cbc@chmbnet.com

China International Trust and Investment Company (CITIC Group) – NEW
The state-owned CITIC Group is China’s largest financial conglomerate, with over 40 subsidiaries worldwide, including in North America and Asia Pacific. Some of these have had substantial dealings with the Burmese military regime. One subsidiary, CITIC Technology has ongoing involvement in numerous projects within Burma, the majority of which are hydroelectric related, though it has also been involved in resource extraction. As recently as last October a delegation from CITIC Technology met publicly with members of the junta at a hotel in Nanning, China.

Chang Zhenming
Vice-President & Chairman, CITIC Group
Capital Mansion
6 Xinuan Nan Road
Beijing 10004
Peoples Republic of China
Tel: +86-10-6466-5534
Fax: +86-10-6466-1186
Web: http://www.citic.com

China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC)
CNOOC is China’s offshore and overseas oil company. It is involved in several gas fields in Burma. Most recently its involvement has been through its China Oilfield Services Ltd subsidiary. In 2006 it agreed a deal to provide drilling services at three onshore sites in Burma’s Arakan state, having previously secured a drilling contract from Daewoo to drill for gas offshore.

Chairman
CNOOC
Offshore Petroleum Plaza
NO.6, Dongzhimenwai Xiaojie
DongCheng District
Beijing
P.R. China 100027

Fax: 00 86-10-84521441
Email: xiaozw@cnooc.com.cn

China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC)
CNPC is China’s largest oil and gas company. It has been involved in Burma’s oil and gas industry for more than a decade, increasing its investment in 2001 through its subsidiary – Chinnery Assets. In 2004 it entered into production sharing contracts with the Myanmar Ministry of Energy for offshore exploration of oil and gas through another of its subsidiaries- China Huanqiu Contracting and Engineering Corporation. CNPC’s largest subsidiary PetroChina signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Burmese junta in 2005 for the supply of natural gas from Burma to China.

Mr. Chen Geng
President
CNPC
6, Liupukang Jie
Xicheng Dist., Beijing
100724
China

Fax:00 86 10 6209 4806
Email:master@cnpc.com.cn

China Nonferrous Metal Mining Company (CNMC) – NEW
Owned by the Chinese State, China Nonferrous Metal Mining Company plans to invest US$600 million in a new nickel mine. Situated approximately 200 kilometres north of Mandalay, Tagaung Taung mine is a joint venture with the regime’s Number 3 Mining Enterprise, who will keep a 25% stake in the venture. Early estimates suggest that 85,000 tonnes of ferronickel and 22,000 tonnes of nickel per year could be produced, making it one of the largest in Burma. This will generate significant income for the Burmese regime.

6/F China NonFerrous BLD
25 Lianhuachi South Road
Beiljing
Beijing Municipality
China, 100055
Phone: +86 10 63420715
Fax: +86 10 63485616
Email: CNMC@nfcg.com.cn
Web: http://www.nfcg.com.cn/en

China PetroChemical Corp (Sinopec)
Sinopec is China’s second largest oil company, and is listed in Hong Kong and New York. Its subsidiary – Dian-Quin-Gui Petroleum Exploration Bureau – signed a contract for oil and gas exploration with the regime in September 2004.

Wang Tianpu
President
Sinopec
No.A6 Huixin East Street
Chaoyan District
Beijing 100029
China

China Power Investment Corporation – NEW
China Power investment Corporation is a Chinese company that is involved with the Irrawaddy Myitsone dam project in Burma, which has been associated with numerous human rights abuses. Dam projects in Burma have been associated with forced relocations, extrajudicial killings, forced labour, death by labour and torture.

The Chief Executive
China Power Investment Corporation
Building 3,
No.28 Financial Street
Xicheng District
Beijing,China

Tel:+86-10-66298000
Fax:+86-10-66298095

China Southern Power Grid – NEW
China Southern Power Grid is a Chinese company that is involved with the Irrawaddy Myitsone dam project in Burma, which has been associated with numerous human rights abuses. Dam projects in Burma have been associated with forced relocations, extrajudicial killings, forced labour, death by labour and torture.

The Chief Exeuctive
China Southern power Grid
6 Huasui Rd.
Guangzhou, 510623
China

Phone: 86-20-3812-1080
Changjiang Institute of Surveying, Planning, Design and research – NEW
China Southern Power Grid is a Chinese company that is involved with the Irrawaddy Myitsone dam project in Burma, which has been associated with numerous human rights abuses. Dam projects in Burma have been associated with forced relocations, extrajudicial killings, forced labour, death by labour and torture.

The Chief Executive
Changjiang institute of Surveying, planning, design and research
Wuhan 430010
China

CH. Karnchang Co – NEW
CH. Karnchang is a Thai engineering company, which is involved in the Salween Dam project. The US$ 6 billion project has led to over 300,000 people being forcibly relocated and the militarisation of the surrounding area which has resulted in an increase in reports of torture, extrajudicial killing and other human rights abuses. Over four fifths of the electricity from the project will be exported to Thailand.

Managing Director
CH. Karnchang Co
587 Viriyathavorn Building,
Sutthisarn Road,
Dindaeng Subdistrict,
Dindaeng District,
Bangkok,
Thailand.

Colenco Power Corporation – NEW
Colenco Power Corporation is a Swiss company that is involved with the Yeywa dam project in Burma which has been associated with numerous human rights abuses. Dam projects in Burma have been associated with forced relocations, extrajudicial killings, forced labour, death by labour and torture.

The Chief Executive
Colenco Power Engineering Ltd.
Hydropower Plants
Department Täfernstrasse
26 CH-5405
Baden
Switzerland
Tel: +41 56 483 1717
Fax: +41 56 483 1799

CNA Group Ltd
CNA is as Sesdaq listed company headquartered in Singapore. It was, in 2005, awarded a contract for the expansion of Yangon International Airport. Under the contract C.N.A. will design, supply, install and commission 24 engineering systems for the airport terminals. The project is to be completed by early 2007 but the CEO has commented “we will continue to expand our presence in the region (Myanmar).”

Ms. Amanda Shen
CNA Group Ltd (Singapore Headquarters)
28 Kaki Bukit Crescent
Kaki Bukit Techpark 1
Singapore 416259

Fax: + 65 68429606
Email: amandashen@can.com.sg

Crown Relocations
Crown Relocations is a Hong Kong based company with offices in the UK. It is employed by governments, corporations and non-government agencies to arrange relocation of staff when they need to work overseas. Crown has an office in Burma that facilitates the transfer of expat staff employed by foreign investors in Burma. Crown strongly defends foreign investment in Burma.

Managing Director
Crown Worldwide Ltd.
19 Stonefield Way
London
South Ruislip
Middlesex HA4 OBJ
UK

Fax: 020 8839 8155
Email: london@crownrelo.com

D

Danford Equities Corporation
Danford Equities Corporation is an Australian oil company owned by Twinza Oil. It signed a production sharing and exploration contract with state-owned Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise in November 2006. It covers the Yetagun East Block. Twinza Oil’s CEO, Bill Clough, boasts of the company’s “close relationship” with the regime. Gas exports are the regime’s largest source of income.

Managing Director
Twinza Oil
Head Office & Principal Registered Office
Level 6
251 St Georges Terrace
Perth
Western Australia 6000

Daewoo International Corporation
Daewoo is a South Korean conglomerate with interests ranging from oil and gas, to grain, televisions and cars. It is a partner in the Bay of Bengal gas exploration project in Burma which could earn the regime hundreds of millions of dollars. Daewoo Motors also has a car assembly plant which is a joint venture with Myanmar Automobile and Diesel Industries (MADI). MADI is owned and controlled by the regime. In addition, Daewoo supplies IT services to the regime, and has timber manufacturing and clothing interests in Burma.

Lee Tae-Yong
Chief Executive Officer
541 5-Ga Namdaemunno,
Chung Gu,
C.P.O Box 2810
Seoul
Korea

Fax: 00 8227539489

Managing Director
Daewoo Int’l London Branch Office
Missing Link House,
3 Eastbury Road,
Northwood
Middlesex HA6 3AB
UK

Fax: 00 441923 833 487
E-mail: iplee@daewoo.co.uk

DBS Group Holdings Ltd
DBS Group Holdings Ltd is the holding company of DBS bank and is one of the largest companies in terms of market capitalisation listed on the Singapore Exchange, with total assets amounting to over S$180 billion. Included in its international banking network is a representative office in Burma.

DBS Bank
6 Shenton Way
DBS Tower One
Singapore 068809

Diethelm Keller/STA Travel
Diethelm Keller Group is a private Swiss company with a wide range of investments, including Diethelm Travel, which operates holiday tours to Burma. Diethelm boasts that it pioneered tourism to Burma. Diethelm also owns STA travel. Aung San Suu Kyi has asked tourists not to visit Burma because it helps fund the regime and gives it legitimacy. Forced and child labour was used to develop many tourist facilities.

Andreas W. Keller
Diethelm Keller Holding Ltd
Muhlebachstrasse 20
8032 Zurich
Switzerland

Fax 00 411 1 265 3399
Email: info@diethelmkeller.com

Dragon Travel
Dragon Travel is a travel company based in Wales that organises tours to Burma. Aung San Suu Kyi and the Burmese democracy movement have asked tourists not to visit Burma because it helps fund the regime and gives it legitimacy. Forced and child labour was used to develop many tourist facilities.

Managing Director
Dragon Tours & Travel Ltd.
13 Howells Crescent
Llandaff
Cardiff
CF5 2AJ
UK

Email: sales@dragontravel.co.uk

Dive the World – NEW
Based in Thailand, Dive the World facilitates diving holidays to Burma. Their promotional materials state, “You will be accompanied by an immigration official for the duration of your cruise … therefore, every cruise is supervised by the Burmese authorities and is extremely safe”. Aung San Suu Kyi and the democracy movement have asked for tourists not to visit Burma at the present time.

Sheldon Hey, General Manager
Dive the World
Ratuthid Road
Patong Beach
Phuket
83150 Thailand

Phone: +66 83 5057794
Fax: +66 76 344736
Email: Burma@Dive-The-World.com
Web: http://www.DiveTheWorldBurma.com

Dusit Thani Hotels – NEW
Based in Thailand, Dusit Thani Hotels took over the management of the luxury 211-room Inya Lake Hotel in Rangoon in 2002. It is regarded as the one of the most luxurious places to stay in Rangoon, Aung San Suu Kyi, and the country’s democracy movement asks tourists not to visit Burma because it helps fund the regime and gives it legitimacy. Forced and child labour was used to develop many tourist facilities.

The Dusit Thani Building
946 Rama IV Road
Bangkok 10500
Thailand
Tel: +66 2200 9999
Fax: +66 2 636 3630

E

EGAT
The Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT) Public Limited Company is a subsidiary of Thailand’s state run power utility, EGAT, formed to increase private sector involvement in electricity supply. EGAT Plc signed a Memorandum of Understanding in late 2005, with the Burmese military junta for the construction of a series of five hydro electric dams along the Salween river. The project will not only secure electricity for Thailand, but also much needed income for the SPDC.

Kraisi Kanasuta
EGAT Plc.
53 Moo 2 Charunsanitwong Road
Bangkruai
Nonthaburi 11130
Thailand

Email: Hydro_eng@egat.com

Elder Treks – NEW
Based in Toronto, Elder Treks is a tour organiser that specialises in ‘small group adventures for travellers 50 plus’. Describing Burma as a ‘sublime country’, it organises 18-day holidays to Burma. Aung San Suu Kyi and the democracy movement have repeatedly asked for tourists not to visit Burma, as it helps funds the regime and gives it legitimacy.

Gary Murtagh
President, Elder Treks
597 Markham Street
Toronto
Ontario M6G 2L7
Canada
Tel: +1 (0)808 234 1714
Web: www.eldertreks.com
Email: adventure@eldertreks.com

Essar Group
Essar Group is an Indian conglomerate. In 2005 its Essar Oil subsidiary signed contracts with the regime to make onshore and offshore explorations for oil and gas.

Shashi Ruia
Chairman
Essar Group
Essar House
11 Keshavrao Khadye Marg
Mahalaxmi
Mumbai – 400 034
India

Email: corporatecommunications@essar.com

F

First Choice Expeditions – NEW
First Choice Expeditions is an American company who, with its associated companies Country Walkers and Travcoa, have in the past or currently sell holidays to Burma. Aung San Suu Kyi and the Burmese democracy movement have asked tourists not to visit Burma because it helps fund the regime and gives it legitimacy. Many of Burma’s tourists facilities were built with forced labour.

Managing Director
First Choice Expeditions
4340 Von Karman Ave.
Suite 400
Newport Beach
CA 92660
USA

Focus Energy
Focus Energy is a small British oil company – registered in the Virgin Islands. Focus Energy operates and develops onshore oil fields in Burma. It began operations in 1997, and in late 2004 announced a new investment of 4 million dollars to drill new wells.

Maurie Drew
General Manager
Focus Energy Ltd
Focus House
Mya Yeik Nyo Royal Estate
20 Pale Street
Bahan Tshp
Yangon
Burma

Fodor’s/Random House
Fodor’s is an American publishing company that specialises in travel guides. Their South East Asia guide includes a section on Burma which helps facilitate tourism to the country. Fodor’s is part of the Random House publishing group. Aung San Suu Kyi has asked tourists not to visit Burma because it helps fund the regime and gives it legitimacy. Forced and child labour was used to develop many tourist facilities.

Managing Director
Random House, Inc.
1745 Broadway
New York,
NY 10019
USA

FOSCE – NEW
FOSCE is a German company that is involved with the Yeywa dam project in Burma, which has been associated with human rights abuses. Dam projects in Burma have been associated with forced relocations, extrajudicial killings, forced labour, death by labour and torture.

The Chief Executive
FOSCE Lorentzenstr.
30 Bad Oldesloe
23843 Germany

Fraser and Neave, Limited – NEW
Fraser and Neave is a Singaporean company that operates a brewery in Burma in joint venture with the state owned Union of Myanmar Economic Holdings Ltd, their joint venture is called Myanmar Brewey Limited (MBL). MBL produces brands such as Tiger Beer and Myanmar Beer; exporting to 10 countries including Malaysia, Singapore, India and China. The venture generates significant income for the Burmese regime.

Corporate Communications
Fraser and Neave, Limited
#21-00 Alexandra Point
438 Alexandra Road
Singapore 119958
G

Gas Authority of India Ltd (GAIL)
GAIL is an Indian gas company. It is a partner is the massive Shwe gas field consortium off the coast of Burma. It has a 10% stake.

The Chairman
GAIL (India) Limited
16,Bhikaiji Cama Place
New Delhi – 110 066
India

Gecko’s Adventures
Gecko’s describes itself as a travel company for ‘grassroots adventures’. It is a sister company of Peregrine Adventures, which has offices in Australia and the UK. Gecko’s organises tours to Burma.

Managing Director
Gecko’s Adventures
First Floor,
8 Clerewater Place,
Lower Way,
Thatcham,
Berkshire
RG19 3RF

Email: sales@peregrineadventures.com

Managing Director
Gecko’s Adventures
258 Lonsdale St
Melbourne VIC 3000
Australia

Email: websales@peregrine.net.au

Geopetrol
Geopetrol is a private oil and gas exploration, and production, company. Through GoldPetrol, the company’s joint venture with Interra Resources, this French based firm has a participating interest in two major oil producing fields in the sub-Salin basin of Burma. It plans to undertake further development drilling to significantly increase its production.

Geopetrol
Gildo Pastor Center
7 Rue Du Gabian
MC 98000
Monaco
France

Fax: + 377 9310 1250
Email: contact@geoholding.com

German Travel Network – NEW
The German Travel Network is a German tourism company which organises holidays to Burma. Aung San Suu Kyi has asked tourists not to visit Burma because it helps fund the regime and gives it legitimacy. Forced and child labour was used to develop many tourist facilities.

Managing Director
German Travel Network
Bahnhofstrasse 22
91126 Schwabach
Germany
Fax: +49 9122 634 526

Ginnacle Import-Export Pte Ltd
Ginnacle is a company located in Singapore involved in the sales and marketing of Burmese teak lumber, decking and furniture. The Burmese regime owns all teak plantations in Burma and teak sales earn the regime millions of pounds every year.

Ginnacle Import-Export Pte Ltd
7500A Beach Road
05-318, The Plaza
Singapore 199591

Fax: + (65) 6 296 6629
Email: teakwood@singnet.com.sg

GMS Power Public Company Limited – NEW
GMS is one of Thailand’s largest power developers, with its parent company MDX group it is involved in the Salween Dam project, in Eastern Burma. The US$ 6 billion project has led to over 300,000 people being forcibly relocated and the militarisation of the surrounding area which has resulted in an increase in reports of torture, extrajudicial killing and other human rights abuses. Over four fifths of the electricity from the project will be exported to Thailand.

Managing Director
GMS Power Public Company Limited
14th floor, The Column Tower
199 Ratchadapisek Road
Klongtoey
Bankok, 10110
Thailand

Golden Aaron Pte. Ltd
Golden Aaron Pte. Ltd. is a Singaporean oil corporation. The company is part of a consortium which in 2005 signed three production sharing contracts with state run Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise, to explore for oil and gas in Burma, both on and offshore. It is a project which will undoubtedly provide the Burmese junta with a large and valuable source of income. The same consortium signed similar deals in 2004.

Golden Aaron Pte. Ltd.
3 Shenton Way 10-01
Shenton House
Singapore 068805

Gold Water Resources Co Ltd. – NEW
Gold Water Resources is a leading Chinese power company which is involved in the Salween Dam project, in Eastern Burma. The US$ 6 billion project has led to over 300,000 people being forcibly relocated and the militarisation of the surrounding area which has resulted in an increase in reports of torture, extrajudicial killing and other human rights abuses. Over four fifths of the electricity from the project will be exported to Thailand.

No Contact detail available

H

Hanergy/Farsighted Investment Group – NEW
Hanergy, also known as Farsighted Investment Group, is a Chinese power company which is involved in the Salween Dam project, in Eastern Burma. The US$ 6 billion project has led to over 300,000 people being forcibly relocated and the militarisation of the surrounding area which has resulted in an increase in reports of torture, extrajudicial killing and other human rights abuses. Over four fifths of the electricity from the project will be exported to Thailand.

Managing Director
Hanergy/Farsighted Investement Group
North of Floor 11
Office Building of Capital Times Square
No. 88 Xichang’an Jie
Xi Cheng District
Beijing 100031
People’s Republic of China

Tel: +86-10-83914567
Fax: +86-10-83914666
Email: office@farsighted.cn
Web: www.farsighted.cn/english

Hapag-Lloyd
Hapag-Lloyd is a German container shipping line and holiday cruise operator. Its container division has an office in Burma as part of its operation to export Burmese products. Hapag-Lloyd Cruises includes Burma on their cruises in Asia. Hapag-Lloyd is active in the UK container shipping market.

Michael Behrendt
Chairman
Hapag-Lloyd AG
Ballindamm 25
D-20095 Hamburg
Germany

Managing Director
Hapag-Lloyd UK
48a Cambridge Road
Hapag-Lloyd House
Barking
Essex IG11 8HH
UK

Fax: 0044 20 8507 4165

Helicopters New Zealand
Helicopters New Zealand (NZ) are a New Zealand helicopter hire company that specialises in helicopter hire for difficult environments, including the oil and gas industry. Helicopters NZ have been hired by Daewoo to work on the Shwe gas field.

Managing Director
Helicopters NZ
Private Bag 9
Nelson
New Zealand

Fax: 00 643 5475598
Email: enquiries@helicoptersnz.com

Hunter Publishing/Nelles Guides
Hunter Publishing is an American publishing company that produces a guide to Burma under its Nelles Guide imprint. Aung San Suu Kyi has asked tourists not to visit Burma because it helps fund the regime and gives it legitimacy. Forced and child labour was used to develop many tourist facilities.

Managing Director
Hunter Publishing
PO Box 746
Walpole,
MA 02081
USA

Email: comments@hunterpublishing.com

Hutchison Whampoa/3 Mobile/Superdrug
Hutchison Whampoa Ltd is a Hong Kong based company with a wide range of investments around the world. In Burma it operates Myanmar International Terminals Thilawa (MITT), a major port in Burma. It describes these port terminals as “strategically positioned to facilitate and service Myanmar’s international trade.” In the UK, Hutchison owns 3 Mobile, Superdrug, three major ports – Felixstowe, Harwich International and Thamesport, and has major stakes in luxury property developments such as Royal Gate in Kensington, Belgravia Place near Sloane Square and Albion Wharf in Chelsea.

Mr. Li Ka-shing
Hutchison Whampoa Limited
22/F Hutchison House
10 Harcourt Road
Central
Hong Kong

Email: info@hutchison-whampoa.com
Email: laurac@hwl.com.hk
I

Impact Publications
Impact Publications is an American publishing company that publishes a guide to Burma. The guide is available in several countries. Aung San Suu Kyi has asked tourists not to visit Burma because it helps fund the regime and gives it legitimacy. Forced and child labour was used to develop many tourist facilities. Impact Publications have sent abusive emails to people writing to express their concern about Impact promoting tourism to Burma.

Ron and Caryl Krannich
Impact Publications
9104 Manassas Drive, Suite N
Manassas Park, VA 20111-5211
USA
Fax: 00 1 703 3359486
Email: krannich@starpower.net

Insight Guides
Insight Guides is an independent publishing company that produces holiday guides, including a guide to Burma that promotes tourism to the country. Aung San Suu Kyi has asked tourists not to visit Burma because it helps fund the regime and gives it legitimacy. Forced and child labour was used to develop many tourist facilities.

Managing Director
Insight Guides
58 Borough High Street
London SE1 1XF
UK

Fax: 0044 20 7403 0290
Email: feedback@insightguides.co.uk
Email: pr@insightguides.co.uk

Interra Resources
Singapore listed Interra Resource’s principal activities are the exploration and operation of oil fields for the production of crude petroleum. It operates in Indonesia and Burma. In Burma its subsidiary Goldwater Oil was the first foreign oil company to extract oil in Burma. It is currently engaged in oil and gas exploration and production through its jointly controlled venture with Geopetrol called Goldpetrol.

Interra Resources Limited
391A Orchard Road 13-06
Ngee Ann City Tower A
Singapore 238873

Fax:+ (65) 6738 1170
Email: interra@interraresources.com

Itera Group
Itera Group is a Russian oil and gas company. In September 2006 it signed a production sharing contract for oil and gas exploration with the regime.

Igor Viktorich Makarov
Chariman
Itera Group
117209, Sevastopolsky Prospekt,
28, Bldg1
Moscow
Russian Federation

Itochu Corporation Ltd – NEW
Marubeni-Itochu is a joint venture company between two Japanese steel companies, Marubeni and Itochu. Marubeni-Itochu’s subsidiary in Burma, Myanma Steel Industries Co., Ltd, supplies steel tubulars to the gas industry in Burma. Gas revenues are a major source of revenue for the Burmese regime, supplying over $2.7 billion in 2006.

Managing Director
Itochu Corporation Ltd
37990
Kita-Aoyama 2-chome
Minato-ku
Tokyo 107-8077
Japan

Ivanhoe Mines
Ivanhoe Mines is a Canadian mining company which was the largest foreign mining investor in Burma operating the Monywa Copper mine in a joint venture with the regime. Rail and power infrastructure in the area of the mine was built using forced labour. It is estimated that the mine could be earning the regime over $40 million a year. Following pressure from a business partner Ivanhoe attempted to sell its interests in the mine in 2006. Having failed to find a buyer the mine has been put into a trust. However Ivanhoe and the regime still receive the profits from this project.

Robert Friedland
Ivanhoe Mines
World Trade Centre
Suite 654-999 Canada Place
Vancouver BC
Canada V6C 3E1

Email: info@ivanhoemines.com

J

Jet Gold Corp
Jet Gold Corp is a Canadian mining company. Its major focus is searching for gold in Shan state in Burma.

Robert L Card
President
Jet Gold Corp
1102 – 475 Howe Street
Vancouver, BC
Canada V6C 2B3

Fax: 00 1 604 687 7848
Email: info@jetgoldcorp.com

Jetstar Asia – NEW
Jetstar Asia promotes Burma as a tourist destination and flies to the country in partnership with regime owned Myanmar Airways International. Burma’s democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, and the country’s democracy movement asks tourists not to visit Burma because it helps fund the regime and gives it legitimacy. Forced and child labour was used to develop many tourist facilities. Jetstar Asia is based in Singapore and is a partnership between Qantas, who hold the controlling 49% share, Tony Chew, FF Wong and Temasek Holdings.

Managing Director
Jetstar Asia
Qantas Centre
203 Coward Street
Mascot NSW 2020
Australia

Journeys International, Inc. – NEW
Journeys International is an American tour holiday company that sells tours to Burma. Aung San Suu Kyi and the Burmese democracy movement have asked tourists not to visit Burma because it helps fund the regime and gives it legitimacy. Many of Burma’s tourists facilities were built with forced labour.

Managing Director
Journeys International, Inc.
107 Aprill Drive
Suite 3
Ann Arbor
MI 48103-1903
USA
Fax +1 734 665 2945

JSC Zarubezhneft Joint Stock Company – NEW
JSC Zarubezhneft is a Russian oil and gas company which has interests in the gas sector in Burma, specifically the M-8 block. The gas sector is the regime’s chief source of income generating over $2.7 billion in 2006.

Managing Director
(JSC) Zarubezhneft Joint Stock Company
Building 1
9/1/1 Armiansky pereulok
Moscow 101990
Russian Federation

K

Kajima
Kajima is a Japanese construction company with contracts all over the world. Kajima has an office in Burma and has undertaken several construction contracts for the regime. In the UK, Kajima has won several PFI projects, including building schools in Camden and Ealing.

Managing Director
Kajima Europe UK
Grove House
248a Marylebone Road
London NW1 6JZ
UK

Fax 0044 20 7465 8634
Email: haverstockmail@kajima.co.uk

Managing Director
Kajima Head Office
2-7, Motoakasaka 1-chome
Minato-ku
Tokyo, 107-8388
Japan

Keppel Corporation
Singapore’s Keppel Corporation is a multinational corporation with interests in three key business areas: Offshore and Marine, Property and Infrastructure. Its property wing- Keppel Land has a presence in eight Asian countries including Burma where it owns the Sedona Hotels in Rangoon and Mandalay.

Keppel Corporation Ltd.
Group Corporate Communications
1 HarbourFront Avenue
18-01 Keppel Bay Tower
Singapore 098632

Fax: + (65) 6413 645
Email: keppelgroup@kepcorp.com

Kerry Logistics Group/Kuok Group
Kerry Logistics is a goods transport logistics company with branches in 12 countries, including the UK. Kerry Logistics also operates in Burma, facilitating the export of Burmese goods. Kerry Logistics is part of the Singaporean conglomerate, Kuok Group.

Managing Director
Kerry Logistics (UK) Ltd
Unit 1 Broadoak Industrial Park
Ashburton Road West
Trafford Park
Manchester
M17 1RW
UK

Fax: 0044 161 872 9016

Kuok Nock Nien
Kuok Group
No. 1 Kim Seng Promenade, #07-01
Great World City
Singapore 237994

Kinden Corporation – NEW
Kinden is a Japanese engineering company with investments in Burma. The company’s investments, such as the Yangon Commercial Tower, help provide funding to the Burmese regime.

Managing Director
Kinden Corporation
2-1-21 Kudan-Minami,
Chiyoda-ku
Tokyo 102-8628
Japan

KOGAS
KOGAS – The Korea Gas Corporation – is a South Korean gas company. KOGAS is a partner is the massive Shwe gas field consortium off the coast of Burma. It has a 10% stake.

The President
KOGAS
215 Chongja-dong
Paundang-gu
Songnam
Kyanggi-do
463-754
Korea

Email: kogasmaster@kogas.or.kr

Kordia – NEW
Kordia is a New Zealand state owned telecoms company which has been undertaking contract work for the Burmese regime. Kordia operates in Burma through a joint venture company called Kordia Solutions Thailand with the Thai firm Alt Inter Corporation. Their joint venture company has been working on a $80,000 contract with the regime owned Myanmar Post and Telecommunications on mobile phone towers in Burma. Mobile phone services are strictly controlled in Burma and it is extremely difficult for ordinary citizens to afford or acquire a mobile phone. However for supporters of the regime it is relatively easy to acquire a phone through the pro-regime Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA). It is reported that the USDA members raise funds by selling mobile phones, which they acquire due to their close ties to the regime.

Managing Director
Kordia
Level 4 , Fidelity House
81 Carlton Gore Road
Newmarket
Auckland 1023
New Zealand

Kunming Hydroelectric Investigation, design and Research Institute – NEW
Kunming is a XX company that is involved with a hydroelectricity project in Burma that has been associated with human rights abuses. Dam projects in Burma have been associated with forced relocations, extrajudicial killings, forced labour, death by labour and torture.

The Chief Executive
Kunming Hydroelectric Investigation, design and Research Institute

115 East Road, people in Kunming
50051
Zip Code: 650051
China

Tel:0871-3062043 Tel :0871-3062043

Tel: 0871-3162550 Fax :0871-3162550
Email: khidi@public.km.yn.cn

Kuoni – NEW
Kuoni describes itself as “one of Europe’s leading tourist travel corporations” and “Britain’s best luxury travel and tour operator”. The company sells tours to Burma through its French and Spanish brochures as well as through its subsidiary Asian Trails. In 2003 the company stopped selling tours to Burma but backtracked on the decision and recommenced selling tours in 2005. Aung San Suu Kyi has asked tourists not to visit Burma because it helps fund the regime and gives it legitimacy. Forced and child labour was used to develop many tourist facilities.

The Chief Executive
Kuoni Travel Holding Ltd.
Neue Hard 7
CH-8010 Zurich
Switzerland
Fax: 00 41 44 271 52 82

L

Leeward Capital Corp
Leeward Capital Corp are a Canadian mining company. They are in a joint venture with the regime to mine and export amber.

Managing Director
Leeward Capital Corp
Unit 4, 1922 – 9th Avenue SE
Calgary, Alberta T2G 0V2
Canada

Email: president@leewardcapital.com

Lonely Planet
Lonely Planet is an Australian multinational publishing company specialising in travel guides. Lonely Planet publishes a guide to Burma, which encourages tourists to visit the country. On October 1st 2007 the BBC’s commercial arm, BBC Worldwide, bought a 75% stake in Lonely Planet. Lonely Planet vigorously defends tourism to Burma, attempting to undermine calls by Aung San Suu Kyi and Burma’s democracy movement for tourists to stay away. The BBC charter states that the activities of BBC Worldwide must not “jeopardise the reputation of the BBC or the value of the BBC brand”. BBC Worldwide maintains that Lonely Planet will continue to publish its Burma guidebook; even though the book fails to warn readers which hotels are regime owned or highlight which tourists facilities were built or prepared for tourism with forced labour (such as the “ huge gleaming” airport in Mandalay and Mrauk U in Rakhaing State). The Burmese regime has identified tourism as a vital source of income.

Judy Slatyer
Chief Executive
Lonely Planet
90 Maribyrnong Street
Footscray, Victoria 3011
AUSTRALIA

Fax: 00 61 3 8379 8111
Email: talk2us@lonelyplanet.com.au

Lumber Mart SDN BHD – NEW
Lumber Mart International is a Malaysian company that exports Burmese timber products. The company plans to establish over 100 wood based factories in Burma. The Burmese regime owns all teak plantations in Burma and teak sales earn the regime millions of pounds every year.

Mr Charles Lee
Lumber Mart SDN BHD
No.2, Jalan Teknologi 3/1
Selangor Science Park 1
Kota Damansara
47810 Petaling Jaya
Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia

M

Maersk
A.P.Møller Maersk is a Danish multinational company that specialises in shipping, but also has interests in oil & gas exploration, air transport, and supermarkets. In Burma Maersk act as a shipping agent through a company set up to act as their local representative. The agent – Win Trade Ltd – arranges exports from Burma using the regime owned Myanmar Five Star Line. Maersk are joint owners of Dansk Supermarket, Denmark’s second largest supermarket chain, which includes Netto supermarkets.

Jess Søderberg
Chief Executive Officer
A.P. Møller
Esplanaden 50
1098 Copenhagen K
Denmark

Email: cphinfo@maersk.com

Marubeni
Marubeni is a Japanese company with interests ranging from oil and gas to clothing and timber. In Burma they helped finance the Monywa Copper mine developed by Ivanhoe. Marubeni-Itochu is a joint venture between Marubeni and another Japanese steel companies, Itochu. Their subsidiary in Burma, Myanma Steel Industries Co., Ltd, supplies steel tubulars to the gas industry in Burma. Gas revenues are a major source of revenue for the Burmese regime; supplying over $2.7 billion in 2006. In the UK Marubeni develops oil and gas reserves in the North Sea.

Managing Director
Marubeni UK Plc
120 Moorgate Street
London EC2M 6SS

Fax: 020 7826 8686

Managing Director
Marubeni
4-2 Ohtemachi 1-chome
Chiyoda-ku,
Tokyo 100-8088,
Japan

Fax: 00 813 3282 2455

MDX PCL – NEW
MDX is one of Thailand’s largest power developers, with its subsidiary GMS Power Public Company it is involved in the Salween Dam project, , in Eastern Burma. The US$ 6 billion project has led to over 300,000 people being forcibly relocated and the militarisation of the surrounding area, which has resulted in an increase in reports of torture, extrajudicial killing and other human rights abuses. Over four fifths of the electricity from the project will be exported to Thailand.

Managing Director
MDX PCL
International public company
12A/F 199 Ratchadapisek Rd
Khlong-Toei
Bangkok
Thailand

Mekong Travel
Mekong Travel is a travel company based in Buckinghamshire which specialises in holidays to Indochina, including Burma. On their website they describe how decades of isolation as a result of military dictatorship “have preserved here many of the traditional features, physical and cultural, which have been lost in other Asian countries.”

Managing Director
Mekong Travel
16 Ledborough Wood
Beaconsfield
Buckinghamshire HP9 2DJ
UK
Fax: 01494 681631
Email: go@mekong-travel.com

Mitsubishi – NEW
Mitsubishi describes itself as “Japan’s largest general trading company”. The company maintains an office in Rangoon, where it facilitates the distribution and sale of numerous products and services. Historically, Mitsubishi has invested US $70 million in the Yetagun gas project; Nippon Oil is also a Mitsubishi Company. Mitsubishi also carries out work for the Myanmar Port Authority, supplying cranes and dredgers – by increasing the capacity of Rangoon Port the company is enabling the regime to increase the profits it makes from trade.

Mitsubishi Corporation
Mitsubishi Shoji Building
3-1, Marunouchi 2-Chome,
Chiyoda-ku,
Tokyo, 100-8086,
Japan

Mitsubishi Corporation (UK Office)
Mid City Place
71 High Holborn
London
WC1V 6BA
United Kingdom

Tel: 020 7025 3000
Fax: 020 7025 3499

Mitsui OSK Lines
M.O.L is a global business concerned with marine shipping and logistics in what it calls a ‘truly borderless transportation network that brings goods to market all over the world’. Yangon is one of the company’s major calling ports.

Mitsui O.S.K. Lines Ltd.
1-1 Toranomon 2-chome
Minato-ku
Tokyo 105-8688
Japan

Fax: +81-3-3587-7734

Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance
Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance is one of Japan’s largest non-life insurers with a workforce of over 13,000 and a net income in 2006 of over 124,000 million yen. Included in its large overseas network is a representative office in Yangon.

Takeo Inokuchi- Chairman and CEO
Hiroyuki Uemura- President and CEO
Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Company
27-2, Shinkawa 2-Chome
Chuo-ku
Tokyo 104-8252
Japan

Fax: + 81 3 3297 6888

Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Company (Europe) Ltd.
6th Floor, New London House
6 London Street
London
EC3R 7LP

Fax: 020 7816 0220

Mountain Travel Sobek
Mountain Travel Sobek is an adventure travel company with offices in the US and UK. They operate tours to Burma. Aung San Suu Kyi has asked tourists not to visit Burma because it helps fund the regime and gives it legitimacy. Forced and child labour was used to develop many tourist facilities.

Managing Director
Mountain Travel Sobek U.K.
67, Verney Avenue
High Wycombe
Bucks HP12 3ND
UK

Fax: 01494 465526
Email: sales@mtsobekeu.com
Email: info@mtsobek.com

MPRL E&P Pte Ltd. – NEW
With headquarters in Singapore, and registered in the British Virgin Islands, MPRL E&P was founded in 1996, when it was in a joint venture with Baker Hughes; it is now in 100% charge of the Mann Oil Field on which it has already invested approximately US$ 90 million, making it the third largest investor in the onshore oil projects in Burma. In January 2006 it signed another contract with the state-owned MOGE for the development of the offshore Block A-6, in a deal over five years worth a minimum of US$ 35.5 million to the junta. The company plans to increase its investment in the country yet further, stating ‘MPRL believes that there are still many opportunities to expand further in the country and MPRL has in fact applied for additional onshore acreage’. The gas sector is the regime’s chief source of income generating over $2.7 billion in 2006.

Mr Terence J. Howe
MPRL E&P Pte Ltd.
20 Cecil Street
#13-02, Equity Plaza
Singapore 04970
Web: www.mprlep.com
Email: cm-mprl@mprlnet.com.mm

N

New Horizons Travels and Tours Ltd
New Horizons Travels and Tours is a London based company that organises holidays to Burma. They promote them through their website burmaexpeditions.com.

MiMi Tin Tun
New Horizons Travels & Tours Ltd.
50 Burrard Road
West Hampstead
London NW6 1DD
UK

Nikko Hotels International/Japan Airlines
Nikko Hotels International, a subsidiary of Japan Airlines, owns hotels all over the world. In Burma Nikko operate the Hotel Nikko Royal Lake Yangon. In the UK they own the Montcalm-Hotel Nikko London.

Shosuke Machida
Chief Executive
Nikko Hotels
JAL Bldg.
2-4-11, Higashishinagawa,
Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo 104-0002
JAPAN

Fax: 00 81-3-3458-3950
Email: akatz@nikkohotels.com
Email: montcalm@montcalm.co.uk

Managing Director
Japan Airlines
JAL Bldg.
2-4-11, Higashishinagawa,
Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo 104-0002
JAPAN

Fax: 00 81-3-3458-3950

Nippon Oil
Japanese oil firm Nippon Oil are one of the joint venture partners developing the Yadana offshore gas field in Burma, which earns the military regime millions of dollars. It is part of the Mitsubishi group of companies.

Fumiaki Watari
President
Nippon Oil
3-12 Nishi Shimbashi 1-chome
Minato-ku, Tokyo 105 8412, Japan

A Suzuki
Managing Director
Nippon Oil Exploration and Production UK Ltd
38 Finsbury Square
London EC2A 1PX
UK

Fax: 020 7309 7676

Noble Caledonia
Noble Caledonia is a British holiday cruise company offering cruises all over the world. Their brochure includes cruises on the Irrawaddy River in Burma. Aung San Suu Kyi has asked tourists not to visit Burma because it helps fund the regime and gives it legitimacy. Forced and child labour was used to develop many tourist facilities.

Managing Director
Noble Caledonia Limited
2 Chester Close, Belgravia,
London SW1X 7BE

Fax: 020 7245 0388
Email: info@noble-caledonia.co.uk

NYK Shipping
NYK is the world’s largest shipping company. It transports garment exports from Burma. Since being placed on the Dirty List in 2004 NYK has taken some welcome steps to reduce its involvement in Burma. It has stopped carrying timber exports from Burma and its American subsidiary Crystal Cruises has stopped visiting Burma. NYK has significant operations in the UK, operating out of ports across the country.

President
NYK Line
3-2, Marunouchi 2 Chome
Chiyoda-Ku, Tokyo
100-0005 Japan

Fax: 00 8133284 6105

Managing Director
NYK Line Europe
CityPoint, 1 Ropemaker Street
London EC2Y 9NY

Fax: 020 7090 2404

O

OCBC Bank
OCBC Bank is Singapore’s longest established bank, and is today one of Asia’s leading financial services groups with gross assets of S$136 billion. The group has a global network of more than 310 branches and representative offices in 15 countries including Burma.

OCBC Bank
65 Chulia Street
OCBC Centre
Singapore 049513

Fax: +65 6535 7477
Email: corpcomms@ocbc.com.sg

Old Burma Tour and Trading Co
This Florida based company, with offices in Rangoon, is a provider of custom made tours of Burma. Aung San Suu Kyi has asked tourists not to visit Burma because it helps fund the regime and gives it legitimacy. Further, forced labour has been used to develop certain tourist facilities.

Old Burma Tour and Trading Company
1825 Ponce De Leon Boulevard
P.O. Box 383
Coral Gables, Florida
33134 USA

Fax: 305 569 0074
Email: info@oldburma.com

ONGC Videsh
ONGC Videsh is one of the largest companies in India. It is a partner in the massive Shwe gas field consortium off the coast of Burma. It has a 20% stake.

Subir Raha
Chairman
ONGC VIDESH
6th Floor, “Kailash”
26, Kasturba Gandhi Marg,
New Delhi 110 001
India

Fax: 00 91 11 23730369

Orient Express
Orient Express has its registered office in Bermuda, is managed from London, and is listed on the New York stock exchange. The company specialises mainly in hotels, but also offers holidays to Burma including ‘Road to Mandalay’ cruises on the Irrawaddy River. It has expanded its interests in Burma by taking a stake in the Pansea hotel chain – now rebranded as ‘Pansea Orient Express’ – which has a hotel in Rangoon. Pansea Orient Express is also building a new hotel in Bagan, Burma.

James B. Sherwood
Chairman
Orient-Express Hotels Ltd
Sea Containers House
20 Upper Ground
London SE1 9PF

Fax: 020 7805 5938

P

Peregrine Adventures
Peregrine Adventures is an Australian travel company with an office in London. Peregrine offers 12 day tours of Burma. Aung San Suu Kyi has asked tourists not to visit Burma because it helps fund the regime and gives it legitimacy. Forced and child labour was used to develop many tourist facilities.

Managing Director
Peregrine Tours
First Floor, 8 Clerewater Place,
Lower Way, Thatcham
Berkshire RG19 3RF

Email: sales@peregrineadventures.com

Managing Director
Peregrine Adventures
258 Lonsdale St
Melbourne VIC 3000
Australia

Email: websales@peregrineadventures.com

Petronas
Petronas is a Malaysian state owned oil and gas company. It has several contracts with the regime in Burma to extract and explore for oil and gas in the country.

Tan Sri Datuk Seri Azizan Zainul Abidin
Chairman
Petronas, Tower 1
Petronas Twin Towers
50088 Kuala Lumpa
Malaysia

Email: ooiinnhoe@petronas.com.my

PETROVIETNAM – NEW
Wholly owned by the Vietnamese government, PETROVIETNAM (officially known as the Vietnam Oil and Gas Corporation) is responsible for all oil and gas production in that country. In August of 2007, PETROVIETNAM entered into an agreement with the regime’s ‘Myanmar Energy Planning Department’ for the “strategic cooperation in oil and gas”.

The Chief Executive
PETROVIETNAM
22 Ngo Quyen Street
Hoan Kiem District
Hanoi
Vietnam
Phone: 84-4-8252526
Fax: 84-4-8265942
Email: hdqt@hn.pv.com.vn
Web: www.petrovietnam.com.vn

Pettitts
Pettitts is a travel company based in Kent. They offer a 9 day tour of Burma. They are one of the few travel companies to mention that there are ethical problems with visiting Burma. Aung San Suu Kyi has asked tourists not to visit Burma because it helps fund the regime and gives it legitimacy. Forced and child labour was used to develop many tourist facilities.

Steven Pettitt
Managing Director
Pettitts
Bayham House
12-16 Grosvenor Road
Tunbridge Wells
Kent TN1 2AB

Fax: 01892 521500
Email: pettitts@btclick.com

PSL Energy Services Ltd. – NEW
PSL Energy Services is a UK based oil and gas company which provides services to companies operating in Burma. The gas sector is the regime’s chief source of income generating over $2.7 billion in 2006.

Managing Director
PSL Energy Services Ltd.
Badentoy Avenue
Portlethan
Aberdeen AB12 4YB
UK

PTTEP
PTTEP – The PTT Exploration and Production Company, is a Thai company that is largely state owned. PTTEP owns a 25.5 % stake in the Yadana gas field in Burma, and a 19.3% stake in the Yetagun field. PTTEP is also planning to expand its operations in Burma.

Mr. Maroot Mrigadat
President
PTT Exploration and Production Public Company Limited
PTTEP Office Bldg.
555 Vibhavadi-Rangsit Rd.
Chatuchak,
Bangkok 10900
Thailand

Fax: 00 66 2537 4444

Purple Dragon
Purple Dragon is a sister company of Thailand based Utopia Tours. It specialises in holidays for gays and lesbians. Aung San Suu Kyi has asked tourists not to visit Burma because it helps fund the regime and gives it legitimacy. Forced and child labour was used to develop many tourist facilities.

Managing Director
Purple Dragon
Door East Ltd.
119/5-10 Suriwong Road
Bangkok 10500
THAILAND

Q

Qantas – NEW
Qantas holds a controlling majority 49% stake in Jetstar Asia. Despite stating in 2004 that Qantas and Jetstar Asia would “do the right thing” on Burma and expressing support for the democracy movement’s call for tourists not to holiday in Burma. Jetstar Asia now promotes Burma as a tourist destination. It flies to the country in partnership with regime owned Myanmar Airways International. Burma’s democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, and the country’s democracy movement asks tourists not to visit Burma because it helps fund the regime and gives it legitimacy. Forced and child labour was used to develop many tourist facilities. Jetstar Asia is based in Singapore and is a partnership between Qantas, who hold the controlling 49% share, Tony Chew, FF Wong and Temasek Holdings.

Managing Director
Qantas Centre
Level 9
Building A
203 Coward Street
MASCOT
NSW
AUSTRALIA 2020
Tel: +61 2 9691 3636
Fax: +61 2 9691 3339

R

Ratchaburi Co – NEW
Ratchaburi Co. is a leading Thai power company which is involved in the Salween Dam project, in Eastern Burma. The US$ 6 billion project has led to over 300,000 people being forcibly relocated and the militarisation of the surrounding area which has resulted in an increase in reports of torture, extrajudicial killing and other human rights abuses. Over four fifths of the electricity from the project will be exported to Thailand.

Managing Director
Ratchaburi Co
SCB Park Plaza East,
Tower 3,
Fl. 20th,
19 Ratchadapisek Rd.
Chatuchak
Bangkok, 10900
Thailand

Road to Mandalay
Road to Mandalay is a travel and export company based in Burma and the UK. In Burma it operates under the name Golden Pagoda Travel. Aung San Suu Kyi has asked tourists not to visit Burma because it helps fund the regime and gives it legitimacy. Forced and child labour was used to develop many tourist facilities.

Gerry Haines
Road to Mandalay
c/o 16 Wynnstay Road
Broughton
Flintshire CH4 0RE

S

SapuraCrest Petroleum Bhd
SapuraCrest is a leading oil and gas services provider in the Southeast Asia region, with further projects in Australia, the Middle East, and India. The company has been involved in offshore oil and gas drilling in Burma.

SapuraCrest Petroleum Bhd
7 Jalan Tasik
The Mines Resort City
43300 Seri Kembangan
Selangor
Malaysia

Tel: +603 8659 8800
Fax: +603 8659 8811

SBM Offshore
SBM Offshore is a Dutch company formerly known as IHC Caland. It is a management holding company of a group of international companies working as suppliers to the offshore oil and gas industry on a global basis. It owns and operates a Floating Storage and Offloading System in Burma under a long term lease contract with Petronas.

SBM Offshore N.V.
PO Box 31
3100 AA Schiedam
The Netherlands

Fax: +31 (0) 10 232 0999

Scansia Sdn Bhd
Scansia Sdn Bhd is a Malaysian company. Scansia Myanmar manufactures garden furniture in a plant in Rangoon. All its timber is purchased from the regime owned company Myanmar Timber Enterprise (MTE). Scansia also give 20 percent of the profits from their Burmese operations to the regime.

Mr Arve Verleite
Managing Director
Scansia Sdn Bhd
98 Lorong Semartak 4
Taman semarak
0900 Kulim, Kedah Darul Aman
Malaysia

Schenker
Schenker is a German logistics company with an office in Rangoon, through which it facilitates the export of Burmese goods. Schenker also has offices in several UK ports.

The President
Schenker AG
Corporate Communications
Alfredstrasse 81
45130 Essen
Germany

Fax: 00 49 201 8781 8495
Email: info@schenker.com

Schlumberger
Schlumberger is a technology company, which operates all over the world. Schlumberger Oilfield Services operates offshore gas rigs in Burma. It also operates oil rigs in UK waters in the North Sea.

Managing Director
Schlumberger Oilfield Services
Unit 1, Enterprise Drive,
Westhill Industrial Estate
Westhill
Aberdeenshire AB32 6TQ

Fax: 01224 385601
Email: ukinfo@slb.com

Andrew Gould
Chairman
Schlumberger
153 E. 53rd St., 57th floor
New York,
NY 10022-4624
USA

Fax: 00 1 212 350 94 57

SGS Group
SGS Group, headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, is a global leader in the inspection, verification, testing and certification industry. It has over 34,000 employees and a presence in well over 120 countries. This includes Burma where it has a subsidiary – SGS (Myanmar) Ltd which plays a key role in the facilitation of Burma’s international trading.

SGS Societe Generale de Surveillance S.A.
1 place des Alpes
P.O. Box 2152
1211 Geneva 1
Switzerland

Fax: + (41 22) 739.98.86
Email: enquiries@sgs.com

Shangri-La Hotels
Shangri-La Hotels is a Singaporean hotel company. It operates the Traders hotel in Rangoon. Aung San Suu Kyi has asked tourists not to visit Burma because it helps fund the regime and gives it legitimacy. Forced and child labour was used to develop many tourist facilities. In the UK, Shangri-La plans to operate an opulent 5 star hotel in the proposed ‘shard of glass’ tower block at London Bridge.

Managing Director
Shangri-La International Hotel Management Ltd
21/F CITIC Tower
1 Tim Mei Avenue, Central
Hong Kong SAR

Fax: 00 852 2599 3131

Siam Divers – NEW
Siam Divers is a Thailand based tourism company which organises diving safaris and adventures in Thailand and Burma. Aung San Suu Kyi has asked tourists not to visit Burma because it helps fund the regime and gives it legitimacy. Forced and child labour was used to develop many tourist facilities.

Managing Director
Siam Divers
68/14 Soi Katekwan,
Mu 2,
Kata Beach
Phuket 83100
Thailand

Sichuan Machinery Equipment Import Export Co.- NEW
Sochuan Machinery is a Chinese company that is involved with a hydroelectricity project in Burma that has been associated with human rights abuses. Dam projects in Burma have been associated with forced relocations, extrajudicial killings, forced labour, death by labour and torture.

The Chief Executive
Sichuan Machinery Equipment Import Export Co.
2 Tongfuxiang
Xiyulongst.

Chengdu
sichuan
P.R. China

Fax: 86-28-6743535 6743571
Tel: 86-28-6743535 6755264
E-mail:scmcmtr@scsti.ac.cn

Siemens
Siemens are a German engineering and technology company operating all over the world. Siemens are supplying gas turbines to Total for a new platform in the Yadana gas field.

Chairman
Siemens
Wittelsbacher Platz 2
D-80333 Munchen
Germany

Email: welcome.pgi@siemens.com

Silverbird Travel
Silverbird Travel is a London based travel company that operates tours to Burma. Aung San Suu Kyi has asked tourists not to visit Burma because it helps fund the regime and gives it legitimacy. Forced and child labour was used to develop many tourist facilities.

Managing Director
SilverBird Travel
4 Northfields Prospect
Putney Bridge Road
London SW18 1PE

Fax: 020 8875 1874
Email: mail@silverbird.co.uk

Silver Wave Energy – NEW
Silver Wave Energy is Singapore registered but also has links to Russia and India. It has interested in Onshore Block B-2 and Offshore block A-7 in Burma. It reportedly has close links with the Burmese regime. The gas sector is the regime’s chief source of income generating over $2.7 billion in 2006.

Managing Director
Silver Wave Energy
714 Traders Hotel
Yangon
Myanmar

Sinohydro Corporation – NEW
In June 2006, Sinohydro (formerly known as China National Water Resources and Hydropower Engineering Corporation) signed a deal with EGAT (see above) and the Burmese military junta to construct a US $1 billion dam at Hat Gyi, in Karen state. Forced relocations have been recorded in Karen state. Sinohydro – China’s largest dam constructor – has been previously criticized by the Chinese government over “safety or environmental pollution accidents”.

No. 22 West Road Che Gongzhuang
Hai Dian District
Beijing 100044
People’s Republic of China
Email: infocenter@sinohydro.com
Web: www.sinohydro.com/english

Sompo Japan
Sompo Japan is a Japanese insurance company that provides insurance and reinsurance services to companies operating in Burma. Sompo Japan has offices across the world, including in the UK.

Hirosho Hirano
President
Sompo Japan
26-1, Nishi-Shinjuku 1-chome
Shinjuku-ku
Tokyo 160-8338
Japan

Sri Asia Tourism
Sri Asia Tourism service is a Burmese travel company offering holidays to Burma through offices in the UK and Australia.

Managing Director
Sri Asia Tourism
1A Gregory Place
Kensington, London W8 4NG

Fax: 020 7938 2194
Email: ameriuk@dircon.co.uk

Steppes Travel/Steppes East
Steppes East is a UK travel company offering holidays to Burma. They continue to operate tours to the country despite Nicholas A G Laing of Steppes East admitting to the Burma Campaign UK that: “Myanmar is a highly controversial subject which I have yet to fathom.” Aung San Suu Kyi has asked tourists not to visit Burma because it helps fund the regime and gives it legitimacy. Forced and child labour was used to develop many tourist facilities.

Nick Laing
Managing Director
Steppes East
51 Castle Street
Gloucestershire GL7 1QD

Fax: 01285 885888
Email: nick@steppeseast.co.uk

Sumitomo Corporation
Sumitomo Corporation is a Japanese conglomerate with extensive financial interests in the UK. Sumitomo is in a joint venture with Myanmar General and Maintenance Industries (MGMI) producing steel. MGMI is owned and controlled by the military regime.

Motoyuki Oka
President and Chief Executive
Sumitomo Corporation
1-8-11 Harumi, Chuo-ku
Tokyo 104-8610
Japan

Mr Takaaki Shibata
Managing Director
Sumitomo Corporation Europe Plc
Vinters’ Place,
68 Upper Thames Street
London EC4V 3BJ

Fax: 020 7246 3921
Email: info@sumitomocorp.co.uk

Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group
SMFG was established in 2002 as a holding company for the Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC). SMBC came into existence the preceding year through the merger of the Sakura Bank and the Sumitomo Bank. SMBC operates a representative office in Yangon and, through the services it provides, serves to facilitate trade and financial transactions in Burma.

Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group
Investor Relations Department
1-1 Yurakucho 1-chome
Chiyoda-ku
Tokyo 100-0006
Japan

Tel: + 81-3-5512-3411

Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation Europe Limited
Temple Court
11 Queen Victoria Street
London
EC4N 4TA

Fax: 020 7236 0049

SUN Group Enterprises Pvt Ltd – NEW
The Sun Group is an Indian investment group that has interests in the offshore M-8 block in Burma. The gas sector is the regime’s chief source of income generating over $2.7 billion in 2006.

Managing Director
SUN Group Enterprises Pvt Ltd
8th Floor
Meridien Commercial Tower
Raisina Road
New Delhi 110001
India

Sun Wood Industries
Sun Wood Industries is a Thailand timber exporter which sources teak from Burma. Timber exports are an important source of income for the regime.

Managing Director
Sun Wood Industries
75/4 Moo 2 Udomsorayuth Rd
Klong Jig
Nabg-Pa-In
Ayuthaya 13160
Thailand

Email: info@sunwoodgroup.com

Sutech Engineering Co Ltd
Bangkok-based Sutech Engineering Company is primarily involved in the construction and running of processing mills. In Burma it is engaged in the production and processing of sugar in conjunction with the state run Myanmar Sugarcane Enterprise and Myanmar Economic Corporation (MEC). In late 2006 it agreed a further joint venture with the MEC for the construction of what will be Burma’s largest sugar mill.

Sutech Engineering Co. Ltd
17th Floor Sinn Sathorm Tower
77/64 Krungthonburi Klongsarn
Bangkok 10600
Thailand

Fax: +66 (0) 2440-0208
Email: info@suenco.co.th

Suzuki
Suzuki’s main business is the manufacture of cars and motorbikes. In 1998 Suzuki invested $6.9 million to set up a joint venture with Myanmar Automobile & Diesel Engine Industries (MADI). MADI is controlled by the military regime. Suzuki owns 60% of the business, MADI 30% with the remaining 10% split between two Burmese companies with close government links.

Managing Director
Suzuki GB PLC
46-62 Gatwick Rd
Crawley
West Sussex RH10 2XF

Osamu Suzuki
Chairman
Suzuki Head Office
300 Takatsuka
Hamamatsu
Japan

Swift
Swift is a financial services co-operative company owned and controlled by many of the world’s largest banks, including Citibank, HSBC and ABN Amro. Swift hosts an electronic network that banks use to make transfers to each other. Following the imposition of financial sanctions by the United States government in August 2003 the regime faced a crisis, unable to use dollars in financial transactions. Swift came to their aid, making four Burmese banks part of its network. The regime is now able to avoid US financial sanctions by making financial transfers in Euros using Swift’s network.

Jaap Kamp
Chairman, Swift
C/O ABN AMRO Bank N.V.
Head Office
Gustav Mahlerlaan 10
1082 PP Amsterdam
The Netherlands

Leonard H Schrank
Chief Executive Officer
Swift
Avenue Adèle 1
B-1310 La Hulpe
Belgium

Fax: 00 32 2 655 32 26
Email: kara.condon@swift.com

Managing Director
Swift
7th floor, The Corn Exchange
55 Mark Lane
London EC3R 7NE

Fax: 020 7762 2222

T

Taiga Consultant Ltd
Taiga Consultant Ltd is a Canadian geological consulting firm. Taiga has an office in Burma and works closely with the regime exploring for base and precious metals.

Managing Director
Taiga Consultants Ltd
No 4, 1944 – 9th Avenue SE
Calgary,
Alberta T2G 0V2
Canada

Email: taigaltd@taiga-ltd.com

Taisei
The Taisei Corporation is a Tokyo headquartered transnational construction and civil engineering corporation. With employees numbering nearly 10,000 and a history of involvement in over 50 countries worldwide, the corporation maintains a branch in Yangon. Their involvement there has included a leading role in the upgrade of Yangon International Airport alongside the Myanmar Construction Ministry, as well as office renovations for leading banks.

Taisei Corporation
1-25-1, Nishi-Shinjuku
Shinjuku-ku
Tokyo, 163-0606
Japan

Fax: +81 3 3345 0481

Tata – NEW
Tata is an Indian Conglomerate with investments all over the world. In 2008 it bought Jaguar and Land Rover, it also owns Tetley Tea and Corus. Tata has a wide range of investments in Burma many of which fund the regime. Their interests in Burma include the timber, tourism, energy, vehicle and information technology sectors. Tata companies have sold vehicles directly to the regime.

Managing Director
TATA group
Bombay House
24 Hoimodi Street
Fort, Bombay 1
40001
India

David Good,
Chief representative for North America
Tata Sons (US)
1700, North Moore
St Suite 1005
Arlington, VA 22209
USA

Tennyson Travel
Tennyson Travel is a UK travel company that trades under the name Visit Vietnam. As well as tours to Vietnam it also operates tours to Burma, which it advertises in national newspapers. Aung San Suu Kyi has asked tourists not to visit Burma because it helps fund the regime and gives it legitimacy. Forced and child labour was used to develop many tourist facilities. Tennyson Travel also trades as Visit Asia.

Hung Nguyen
Managing Director
Tennyson Travel
30-32 Fulham High Street
London SW6 3LQ

Fax: 020 7736 5672
Email: tennyson@visitvietnam.co.uk

Total Oil
Total is in a joint venture with the military regime developing an offshore gas field in the Andaman sea. The gas is exported to Thailand through a pipeline that travels 65 kilometres through Burma. Total is one of the biggest foreign investors in Burma.

Christophe de Margerie
Chief Executive
Total
2 Place de la Coupole
La Defense 6
92400 Courbevoie
France

Managing Director
Total Holdings UK Limited
33 Cavendish Square
London W1G OPW

Fax: 020 7416 4497

Toyota – NEW
Toyota is the world’s biggest car manufacturer. One of Toyota’s subsidiaries, Toyota Tsusho, is in Business with Suzuki and Myanmar Automobile & Diesel Engine Industries (MADI). MADI is controlled by the military regime. Vehicles from this joint venture are used by the Burmese military.

Graham Smith
Senior Vice President
Toyota
Toyota Motor Europe NV/SA
Avenue Du Bourget 60
Borgetlaan 60
B-1140 Brussels
Belgium

Miguel Fonseca,
Toyota (GB)
Great Burgh
Burgh Heath
Epsom
Surrey
KT18 5UX

Mr Kiyoshi Tojo
General Manager
Europe Division
Toyota Motor Corporation
Toyota City
1 Toyota-Cho
Toyota
Aichi
471-8571
Japan.

Trailblazer Guides
Trailblazer Guides publishes a guide to South East Asia that includes a section on Burma. This section facilitates tourism to the country. Aung San Suu Kyi has asked tourists not to visit Burma because it helps fund the regime and gives it legitimacy. Forced and child labour was used to develop many tourist facilities.

Managing Director
Trailblazer Publications
The Old Manse, Tower Rd
Hindhead
Surrey GU26 6SU

Fax: 01428 607571
Email: info@trailblazer-guides.com

Trans Indus Ltd
Trans Indus is a British holiday company that operates tours to Burma. Aung San Suu Kyi has asked tourists not to visit Burma because it helps fund the regime and gives it legitimacy. Forced and child labour was used to develop many tourist facilities.

Managing Director
Trans Indus Ltd
Northumberland House,
11 The Pavement, Popes Lane,
Ealing,
London W5 4NG

Travel World Media
Travel World Media owns Elephantguide.com. Elephantguide.com is an online travel guide which includes a section facilitating tourism to Burma.

Managing Director
Travel World Media
Court Lodge
Avening,
Tetbury
Gloucestershire, GL8 8NY

Email: feedback@elephantguide.com

Twinza Oil – NEW
Twinza Oil, parent company of Danford Equities, is an Australian company that works in the oil and gas sector in Burma. Its CEO, Bill Clough, boasts of the company’s “close relationship” with the regime. Gas exports are the regime’s largest source of income.

Managing Director
Twinza Oil
Head Office & Principal Registered Office
Level 6
251 St Georges Terrace
Perth
Western Australia 6000

U

The Ultimate Travel Company/Worldwide Journeys & Expeditions
Worldwide Journeys is part of The Ultimate Travel Company. It offers tours to Burma. No mention is made of the military dictatorship. . Aung San Suu Kyi has asked tourists not to visit Burma because it helps fund the regime and gives it legitimacy. Forced and child labour was used to develop many tourist facilities.

Nick Van Gruisen
Managing Director
The Ultimate Travel Company
27 Vanston Place
London
SW6 1AZ

Fax: 020 7828 4856
Email: enquiry@theultimatetravelcompany.co.uk

Undiscovered Destinations Ltd – NEW
Undiscovered Destinations is a UK based specialist tour operator which runs four different tour trips to Burma, from 4 days beach holidays to 18 day cultural tours. Aung San Suu Kyi and the Burmese democracy movement have asked tourists not to visit Burma because it helps fund the regime and gives it legitimacy.

Managing Director
Undiscovered Destinations Ltd
Saville Exchange
Howard Street
North Shields
Tyne and Wear
NE30 1SE

United Overseas Bank Group
The United Overseas Bank was founded in 1935 and is today a leading bank in Singapore and a dominant player in Asia-Pacific. As of 31 December 2005, the UOB Group had total assets of S$145.1 billion and shareholders’ equity of S$14.9 billion. UOB has a global network of branches, offices and subsidiaries, one such office being in Burma. UOB also has diversified interests and through its subsidiary United Overseas Land the group operates the Park Royal Yangon hotel.

United Overseas Bank Ltd.
80 Raffles Place
UOB Plaza
Singapore 048624

Utopia Tours
Utopia Tours is a travel company based in Thailand which specialises in holidays for gays and lesbians. It advertises tours to Burma in Gay and Lesbian media in the UK. Aung San Suu Kyi has asked tourists not to visit Burma because it helps fund the regime and gives it legitimacy. Forced and child labour was used to develop many tourist facilities.

Managing Director
Utopia Tours
Door East Ltd.
119/5-10 Suriwong Road
Bangkok 10500,
THAILAND

Email: info@utopia-tours.com
V
Voyages to Asia
Voyages to Asia operates tours to Burma and other countries in Asia. Aung San Suu Kyi has asked tourists not to visit Burma because it helps fund the regime and gives it legitimacy. Forced and child labour was used to develop many tourist facilities.

Castle House
Castle Street
Hereford
HR1 2NW
Telephone: 0845 838 5474
Y

Yunnan Joint Power Development Company NEW
Yunnan Joint Power is a Chinese company that is involved with a hydroelectricity project in Burma that has been associated with human rights abuses. Dam projects in Burma have been associated with forced relocations, extrajudicial killings, forced labour, death by labour and torture.

No address available.

Z

Zarubezhneft
JSC Zarubezhneft is a Russian oil and gas company. In September 2006 it signed a production sharing contract for oil and gas exploration with the regime.

Nikolay Tokarev
Director Geneneral
Zarubezhneft
Building 1, 9/1/1 Armiansky pereulok
Moscow 101990
Russian Federation

Email: nestro@nestro.ru

John Pilger on the cowardice of silence

‘When I phoned Aung San Suu Kyi’s home in Rangoon yesterday, I imagined the path to her door that looks down on Inya Lake. Through ragged palms, a trip-wire is visible, a reminder that this is the prison of a woman whose party was elected by a landslide in 1990, a democratic act extinguished by men in ludicrous uniforms. Her phone rang and rang; I doubt if it is connected now. Once, in response to my “How are you?” she laughed about her piano’s need of tuning. She also spoke about lying awake, breathless, listening to the thumping of her heart.

Now her silence is complete. This week, the Burmese junta renewed her house arrest, beginning the 13th year. As far as I know, a doctor has not been allowed to visit her since January, and her house was badly damaged in the cyclone. And yet the secretary-general of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, could not bring himself to utter her name on his recent, grovelling tour of Burma. It is as if her fate and that of her courageous supporters, who on Tuesday beckoned torture and worse merely by unfurling the banners of her National League for Democracy, have become an embarrassment for those who claim to represent the “international community”. Why?

Where are the voices of those in governments and their related institutions who know how to help Burma? Where are the honest brokers who once eased the oppressed away from their shadows, the true and talented peacemakers who see societies not in terms of their usefulness to “interests” but as victims of it? Where are the Dennis Hallidays and Hans von Sponecks who rose to assistant secretary-general of the UN by the sheer moral force of their international public service?

The answer is simple. They are all but extinguished by a virus called the “war on terror”. Where once men and women of good heart and good intellect and good faith stood in parliaments and world bodies in defence of the human rights of others, there is now cowardice. Think of the parliament at Westminster, which cannot even cajole itself into holding an inquiry into the criminal invasion of Iraq, let alone to condemn it and speak up for its victims. Last year, 100 eminent British doctors pleaded with the minister for international development, then Hilary Benn, for emergency medical aid to be sent to Iraqi children’s hospitals: “Babies are dying for want of a 95 pence oxygen mask,” they wrote. The minister turned them down flat.

I mention that because medical aid for children is exactly the kind of assistance the British government now insists the Burmese junta should accept without delay. “There are people suffering in Burma,” said an indignant Gordon Brown. “There are children going without food … it is utterly unacceptable that when international aid is offered, the regime will try to prevent that getting in.” David Miliband chimed in with “malign neglect”. Say that to the children of Iraq and Afghanistan and Gaza, where Britain’s role is as neglectful and malign as any. As scores of children in Shia areas of Baghdad are blown to bits by America and what the BBC calls Iraq’s “democratic government”, the British are silent, as ever. “We” say nothing while Israel torments and starves the children of Gaza, ignoring every attempt to bring a ceasefire with Hamas, all in the name of a crusade that dares not say its name. What might have been a new day for humanity in the post-cold war years, even a renewal of the spirit of the Declaration of Human Rights, of “never again” from Palestine to Burma, was cancelled by the ambitions of a sole rapacious power that has cowed all. The “war on terror” allows Australia and Israel to train Burma’s internal security thugs. It consumes both most humanitarian aid indirectly and the very internationalism capable of bringing the “clever” pressure on Burma, about which Aung San Suu Kyi once spoke.

Dismissing the idiocy of a military intervention in her country, she asked: “What about all those who trade with the generals, who give them many millions of dollars that keep them going?” She was referring to the huge oil and gas companies, Total and Chevron, which effectively hand the regime $2.7bn a year, and the Halliburton company (former chief executive Vice-President Dick Cheney) that backed the construction of the Yadana pipeline, and the British travel companies that send tourists across bridges and roads built with forced labour. Audley Travel promotes its Burma holidays in the Guardian. The BBC, in contravention of its charter, has just bought 75% of Lonely Planet travel guides, a truculent defender of “our” right to be tourists in Burma regardless of slave labour, or cyclones, or the woman beyond the trip-wire. Shame’.

[Source: The Guardian]

Burma Update

This just in from Burma Campaign:

Aung San Suu Kyi’s detention

Yesterday, the regime extended Aung San Suu Kyi’s detention again. No formal announcement was made, but reports say the detention is for at least another six months. She has now spent over 12 of the last 18 years under house arrest. Her current period of house arrest began in 2003. The regime is once again breaking its own laws by extending her detention for a total of more than five years. The State Protection Law 1975, under which she is held, only allows the regime to detain her for a maximum of five years. Around 20 members of the National League for Democracy were also arrested yesterday as they marched to her home to call for her release.

Even though UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon was in Burma in the run-up to Aung San Suu Kyi’s detention expiring, he did not call on Burma’s generals to release her. In fact, he didn’t even mention her name. The international community is failing to put pressure on the regime because it is afraid it will affect aid deals. However, the current humanitarian crisis is being caused by a political problem, a dictatorship that refuses to allow aid to reach the people and Aung San Suu Kyi is key to solving that political problem.

Cylcone update …

More than three weeks after the devastating cyclone in Burma, at least 200,000 people are feared dead and 2.5 million people remain in urgent need of aid. Most people have still not received the aid they desperately need because the regime continues to deny aid workers free access to operate in the areas most severely affected by the cyclone. Following reports that UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon had secured agreement from Burma’s generals for aid workers to be allowed into the country, it was hoped that things would change. However, it is now clear that the regime is not keeping its word. We continue to receive reports that aid workers are being denied visas and unable to operate freely in the worst affected areas. The US, UK and France are still being blocked from using their resources to deliver the large scale emergency and medical assistance needed.

Is Burma’s military junta diverting aid on ethnic grounds?

According to recent reports received by KHRG from residents of the Irrawaddy Delta, the SPDC has not only been restricting aid supplies and access by international humanitarian workers, but has also been doing so on the basis of ethnicity. Increasing reports on the military’s restrictions and misappropriation of aid supplies necessitate immediate international investigation, as all affected residents of the delta regardless of their ethnicity remain in urgent need humanitarian assistance. The regime’s obstructions of humanitarian aid increasingly appear to fall under the criteria of crimes against humanity. In such a case, the responsibility to protect this population falls on the international community.

The Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG) has received disturbing reports from ethnic-Karen residents of the Irrawaddy Delta that the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) is blocking the distribution of aid from getting into particular areas of the delta affected by Cyclone Nargis due to the fact that they are predominantly ethnic-Karen.  The Irrawaddy delta region as a whole is estimated to be more than 60% ethnic Karen with some villages largely or entirely populated by Karen residents.  Speaking to KHRG, one Karen resident from the delta said that it is because many of the villages are predominantly ethnic Karen and were formerly “populated totally by Karen” that “the regime is not interested in aid reaching the area.”

According to another report received by KHRG, “In the rural areas the SPDC are not allowing assistance to villagers…  The authorities have set up check points along the roads on the way to Labutta, Pathein [Bassein], Myaung Mya and Bogale in order to block relief from reaching those in desperate need.”  Labutta, a predominantly ethnic-Karen town, has reportedly been decimated by Cyclone Nargis; as has Bogale, which outside of the town centre is also predominantly Karen.  Myaung Mya, like Bogale, is predominantly ethnic Karen outside the town centre and in the surrounding countryside.  Bassein, while now largely populated by non-Karen residents, was previously a majority-Karen town and the surrounding villages remain heavily populated by Karen.

The SPDC’s hostile attitude to the Karen population in the delta may be due to the regime’s perception of ethnic difference being a threat to centralised military rule.  The delta region was also the location of an unsuccessful attempt in 1991 by the Karen National Union (KNU) and Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) to gain a foothold in the area.  At that time, there was heavy fighting between Karen forces and the Burma Army, especially around the town of Bogale and, as one resident explained to KHRG, the Karen community in the delta “was also the target of massive retaliatory actions by the Burma Army.”  As part of the then State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC)’s retaliation against civilians, “Villages were burned, helicopter gunships strafed villages and schools, and thousands of Karen community leaders, pastors and schoolteachers were arrested, sentenced en masse and imprisoned.“[1] The event came to be known as the ‘Bogale Crisis’ and the SPDC’s distrust of the local Karen population likely still lingers.

The above statements by Karen residents living in the delta are, furthermore, supported by ongoing reports of aid restrictions and diversions in the area more generally.  Associated Press, for example, stated that

“Checkpoints manned by armed police were set up Tuesday [May 13th] on roads leading to the Irrawaddy River delta and all international aid workers and journalists were turned back by officers who took down their names and passport numbers. Drivers were interrogated… high-energy biscuits rushed in on the World Food Program’s first flights were sent to a military warehouse.”[2]

SPDC authorities also appear to be capitalising on the catastrophe by forcibly relocating affected communities out of the area.  According to a United Nations report on Tuesday, May 13th “Myanmar’s military regime is forcing cyclone survivors out of their devastated villages and into other parts of the country… There are a growing number of reports of families being forcibly displaced to non-affected townships.“[3] Forced relocation of disparate civilian communities into consolidated population centres is a widespread practice which the Burma Army employs in Karen State to enforce military control over civilian populations.  The current forced relocations in the delta may likewise be intended to serve the purpose of increasing civilian control, rather than for the benefit of the affected population.

The SPDC’s current restrictions on international access into the delta have so far limited any opportunity for a more thorough investigation into whether aid is in fact being restricted and diverted on ethnic grounds.  Regardless of whether the SPDC is using ethnicity as a criterion for allowing access to humanitarian assistance, reports of ongoing military restrictions and diversions of aid more generally continue.  International observers must be allowed to access all affected areas to ensure that aid and assistance get through to survivors of Cyclone Nargis, irrespective of ethnicity.  Unless restrictions and the misappropriation of aid supplies cease, more civilians will face the unnecessary threat of starvation, disease and death.  Furthermore, as International Crisis Group Director Gareth Evans stated on Monday,

“If what the generals are now doing, in effectively denying relief to hundreds of thousands of people at real and immediate risk of death, can itself be characterised as a crime against humanity, then the responsibility to protect principle does indeed cut in.”[4]

The responsibility to protect principle affirms that when the government of a country is unwilling or unable to protect its citizens from war crimes, crimes against humanity, ethnic cleansing or genocide then this responsibility falls on the international community.  In relation to crimes against humanity, the responsibility to protect principle applies to “Other inhumane acts of a similar character intentionally causing great suffering, or serious injury to body or to mental or physical health” when committed as part of a widespread and systematic attack against a civilian population.  As the military regime continues to obstruct aid efforts, their actions increasingly appear to be “intentionally causing great suffering“.  In such a case, the responsibility to protect principle applies.  The international community must not allow Burma’s military regime to deny crucial aid to affected populations, irrespective of the grounds on which they do so.  Applying the responsibility to protect principle in this case gives added leverage in challenging the regime’s increasingly disastrous restrictions on humanitarian assistance to the affected population.

Footnotes

[1] Conditions in the Irrawaddy Delta, KHRG, August 1995.

[2] “UN warns another cyclone is forming near Myanmar,” Associated Press, May 14th 2008.

[3] “Traffickers target child survivors of Myanmar cyclone: UN,” The Straits Times, May 14th 2008.

[4] “Facing Up to Our Responsibilities,” Gareth Evans, The Guardian, May 12th 2008.

Source: KHRG

Honouring Aung San Suu Kyi

Spain Honors Suu Kyi and Dr Cynthia Maung

A leading Spanish honor has been awarded to Burma’s pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and Dr Cynthia Maung, who runs a clinic for Burmese refugees and migrant workers at the Thai-Burmese border. They will share the 2007 Catalonia International Prize, consisting of the sum of 100,000 euros and a sculpture. The prize is awarded annually by Spain’s regional government of Catalunya to persons judged to have decisively contributed through their creative work to the development of cultural, scientific or human values around the world. Catalunya’s prime minister, José Montilla, will present the award at a ceremony in Barcelona in November.

Suu Kyi ‘Honorary Citizen’ of Canada

The Canadian government will grant honorary citizenship to Burma’s detained dissident leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Monday in recognition of her long struggle for democracy, during a ceremony on parliament hill. Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier will present the honorary citizenship to Suu Kyi’s cousin, Sein Win, the Washington-based prime minister of the Burmese exile government.

Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, has spent almost 12 years of the past 18 years in detention under house arrest in Burma. The honorary Canadian citizenship is a testament to Canada’s long-standing respect and admiration for Aung San Suu Kyi’s struggle for freedom and democracy in Burma. Suu Kyi will become the fourth person, and the first woman, to be granted honorary citizenship-after Nelson Mandela, the Dalai Lama and Raoul Wallenberg.

Source: The Irrawaddy

A sombre afterword: With the catastrophes in Burma (and China), let us not forget that the only voice that Rangoon seems to listen to is that of Beijing who again seem to blocking UN Security Council action and failing to use all its influence to press the junta to open up Burma to relief efforts. Perhaps Rangoon can host the next Olympics.

Growing up under militarisation

The Karen Human Rights Group has just released a 174-page report on the effects on children growing up in the context of violence – because of both ongoing armed conflict in Burma and Karen State (Kawthoolei; lit. ‘the land without evil’) and because of other more serious structural violence committed by the State. The report makes for sombre reading even while its very existence is a voice of hopeful protest; or, as Moltmann puts it, ‘There is already true life in the midst of the life that is false’. Here’s a blurb:

As the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), the military junta currently ruling Burma, works to extend and consolidate its control over all areas of Karen State, local children, their families and communities confront regular, often violent, abuses at the hands of the regime’s officers, soldiers and civilian officials. While the increasing international media attention on the human rights situation in Burma has occasionally addressed the plight of children, such reporting has been almost entirely incident-based, and focused on specific, particularly emotive issues, such as child soldiers. Although incident-based reporting is relevant, it misses the far greater problems of structural violence, caused by the oppressive social, economic and political systems commensurate with militarisation, and the combined effects of a variety of abuses, which negatively affect a far larger number of children in Karen State. Furthermore, focusing on specific, emotive issues sensationalises the abuses committed against children and masks the complexities of the situation. In reports on children and armed conflict in Karen State and elsewhere, individual children’s agency, efforts to resist abuse and capacity to deal with the situations they live in, as well as the efforts made by their families and communities to provide for and protect them, tend to be marginalised and ignored. Drawing on over 160 interviews with local children, their families and communities, this report seeks to provide a forum for these people to explain in their own words the wider context of abuse and their own responses to attempts at denying children their rights. With additional background provided by official SPDC press statements and order documents, international media sources, reports by international aid agencies, as well as academic studies, this report argues that only by listening to local voices regarding the situation of abuse in which they live and taking as a starting point for advocacy and action local conceptions of rights and violations can external actors avoid the further marginalisation of children living in these areas and begin to build on villagers’ own strategies for resisting abuse and claiming their rights.

The full report can be downloaded here as a pdf.

As for Burma’s ruling junta, that trinity of evil – Maung Aye, Than Shwe and Shwe Mann – convert or kill them Lord. How long, O Lord? How long?

The Politics of Hypocrisy

John Pilger, one of my favourite journalists, has written a wee piece in this week’s Guardian which turns the spotlight onto British, North American, Australian and Israeli business interests in Burma – all, of course, at the expense of justice. Thank you John. Here’s the piece:

‘The news is no more from Burma. The young monks are quiet in their cells, or they are dead. But words have escaped: the defiant, beautiful poetry of Aung Than and Zeya Aung; and we know of the unbroken will of the journalist U Win Tin, who makes ink out of brick powder on the walls of his prison cell and writes with a pen made from a bamboo mat – at the age of 77. These are the bravest of the brave. What shame they bring to those in the west whose hypocrisy and silence helps to feed the monster that rules Burma.

Condoleezza Rice comes to mind. “The United States,” she said, “is determined to keep an international focus on the travesty that is taking place in Burma.” What she is less keen to keep a focus on is that the huge American company, Chevron, on whose board of directors she sat, is part of a consortium with the junta and the French company, Total, that operates in Burma’s offshore oilfields. The gas from these fields is exported through a pipeline that was built with forced labour and whose construction involved Halliburton, of which Vice-President Cheney was chief executive.

For many years, the Foreign Office in London promoted business as usual in Burma. When I interviewed Aung San Suu Kyi a decade ago I read her a Foreign Office press release that said, “Through commercial contacts with democratic nations such as Britain, the Burmese people will gain experience of democratic principles.” She smiled sardonically and said, “Not a bit of it.”

In Britain, the official PR line has changed; Burma is a favourite New Labour “cause”; Gordon Brown has written a platitudinous chapter in a book about his admiration of Suu Kyi. On Thursday, he wrote a letter to Pen, waffling about prisoners of conscience, no doubt part of his current empty theme of “returning liberty” when none can be returned without a fight. As for Burma, the essence of Britain’s compliance and collusion has not changed. British tour firms – such as Orient Express and Asean Explorer – are able to make a handsome profit on the suffering of the Burmese people. Aquatic, a sort of mini-Halliburton, has its snout in the same trough, together with Rolls-Royce and others that use Burmese teak.

When did Brown or Blair ever use their platforms at the CBI and in the City of London to name and shame those British companies that make money on the back of the Burmese people? When did a British prime minister call for the EU to plug the loopholes of arms supply to Burma. The reason ought to be obvious. The British government is itself one of the world’s leading arms suppliers. Next week, the dictator of Saudi Arabia, King Abdullah, whose tyranny gorges itself on British arms, will receive a state visit. On Thursday the Brown government approved Washington’s latest fabricated prelude to a criminal attack on Iran – as if the horrors of Iraq and Afghanistan were not enough for the “liberal” lionhearts in Downing Street and Whitehall.

And when did a British prime minister call on its ally and client, Israel, to end its long and sinister relationship with the Burmese junta? Or does Israel’s immunity and impunity also cover its supply of weapons technology to Burma and its reported training of the junta’s most feared internal security thugs? Of course, that is not unusual. The Australian government – so vocal lately in its condemnation of the junta – has not stopped the Australian Federal Police training Burma’s internal security forces.

Those who care for freedom in Burma and Iraq and Iran and Saudi Arabia and beyond must not be distracted by the posturing and weasel pronouncements of our leaders, who themselves should be called to account as accomplices. We owe nothing less to Burma’s bravest of the brave’.

www.johnpilger.com (HT: Guardian Unlimited)

Scandalised by my own hypocrisy (which is no excuse for Rice’s, Brown’s or Howard’s), I am regularly reminded of Kierkegaard’s words from his Either/Or:

Do you not know that there comes a midnight hour when every one has to throw off his mask? Do you believe that life will always let itself be mocked? Do you think you can slip away a little before midnight in order to avoid this? Or are you not terrified by it? I have seen men in real life who so long deceived others that at last their true nature could not reveal itself; … In every man there is something which to a certain degree prevents him from becoming perfectly transparent to himself; and this may be the case in so high a degree, he may be so inexplicably woven into relationships of life which extend far beyond himself that he almost cannot reveal himself. But he who cannot reveal himself cannot love, and he who cannot love is the most unhappy man of all.

Works of the Spirit

I have been encouraged in recent days over reports of defiance by Burmese monks and nuns against what is surely one of the most oppressive regimes in recent history. You can read more here, here, here, and here (starts at around 24 mins). Also, there’s a wee Reuters video here.

Another story of hope appeared in this week’s LA Times. It concerns the recommencement of rehearsals by The Iraqi National Symphony Orchestra. For many of the players, ‘music is their balm.’ Read on here. (HT: Geoff)

Are these not works of the Spirit for which all who serve Jesus must give thanks?

Recent Meanderings

1. I really enjoyed listening to this talk on the relationship between theology and science by Professor John Polkinghorne.

2. Ben, the father of a growing family, gives us a great wee review and critique of Spong’s latest book, Jesus for the Non-Religious. I reproduce his punchy conclusion here:

‘in spite of Spong’s characterisation of his own book as radical, “shocking” and “audacious” (pp. 10, 290), the real problem is that this book is not radical enough. The Jesus who emerges from these pages is ultimately indistinguishable from any other respectably innocuous, politically correct member of the Western middle classes. Instead of provoking a challenging political or theological response, therefore, this Jesus serves to justify our own values and assumptions. To adopt such a Jesus is like the new tendency of consumers to purchase “carbon offsets” as compensation for their own greenhouse emissions: one makes a seemingly radical gesture precisely in order to ensure that nothing changes! Like purchasing a carbon offset, Spong’s Jesus – far from challenging us or provoking us to action – simply reassures us that all is well. Bishop Spong’s Jesus may be useful and consoling, then, but he is not especially interesting, much less unique. He poses no threat, no challenge. He makes no demands. He tells us nothing that we didn’t know already. And for just that reason, it’s hard to see why “the non-religious” – or anyone else, for that matter – should have any special regard for this Jesus’.

3. I was inspired by this. The photo gallery is brilliant and you can read more here.

4. The ongoing Karen-Burmese conflict on the Thai-Burma Border continues to sporadically make news. The discussion starts about 18 minutes into this podcast.

5. ‘Any word you have to hunt for in a thesaurus is the wrong word. There are no exceptions to this rule’ (Stephen King). Whadda load of debris, dregs, dross, junk, litter, lumber, offal, refuse, rubble, rummage, scrap, sweepings, trash, waste, balderdash, bilge, bunkum, claptrap, crap, drivel, gibberish, hogwash, hooey, junk, moonshine, poppycock, rot, tommyrot, balderdash, baloney, bilge, etc… you get the idea.

Weekly Meanderings

‘Hundreds of demonstrators have defied the military junta in Burma to stage a rare protest march, despite the arrests of 13 leading pro-democracy activists.

Witnesses said 300 people staged an hour-long march then were dispersed by gangs of unidentified men, believed to be members of the regime-created Union Solidarity and Development Association (Usda).

There has been a series of midnight raids aimed at confronting the growing protests over rising fuel prices. Among those arrested were some of the country’s most important dissidents.’ Read on here.

Also, there’s a wee interview with Pat Dodson, Pete Postlethwaite, Michael Long and Bishop John Selby Spong here and, more interestingly, Clive James here. Also, there’s an interview here with an Iraq veteran speaking out against the war and media coverage of Iraq.

More MP3’s of interest include this one on Religious Toleration in an Age of Terrorism (at about 18 mins) and this one on Minority Religious Groups in Iraq, and The War For Children’s Minds.

I really enjoyed this wee piece by Brendon O’Connor entitled Just something about George or is an anti-American century likely? and this piece by George Williams on ‘Does Australia need a Charter of Rights?’

And finally there’s Robert Fisk, who is always worth reading, on The Iraqis don’t deserve us. So we betray them… and this shocker on Abu Ghraib abuse.

And after all that heavy reading and listening …

Burma News

As someone who routinely follows the news in and about Burma, I was encouraged to read two articles in today’s The Independent. In this article, Forgotten and locked in the shadow of the past, Peter Popham recounts the student uprising of August 1988, SLORC’s (now renamed) refusal to give up power, and the ongoing popularity on Aung San Suu Kyi, who was placed under house arrest.

That was 17 years ago, and Burma has been living in the deep shadow of those events ever since. The ruling junta have consolidated their power: by keeping Suu Kyi locked away (she has been given her freedom several times since, but every time she proves to be as popular as ever, she is isolated again); by handing out ferocious jail sentences to her supporters and anyone else who defies the regime; and by conducting unending, brutal wars against the ethnic minorities on the country’s borders. Burma’s wealth of resources have encouraged companies such as Total, the French oil giant, to do deals with the regime.

Suu Kyi remains locked in her home, more isolated than ever. And the spasmodic, mostly symobolic pressure from the West has yet to precipitate anything in the way of democratic reform.

In the second article, Conservative MP John Bercow, reflects on a recent visit to Burma with a number of other MP’s from different parties. His article is entitled Burma: A plight we can ignore no longer ignore. The piece is well worth reading, especially for those unfamiliar with the situation. He asks, ‘The people of Burma endure human rights abuses on an unimaginable scale. Rape, torture and forced labour are facts of their lives. So why does the world refuse to act?’

Finally come the poets

Burmese students from Pegu College in lower central Burma who had been arrested and detained by authorities for writing and distributing a poem titled Daung Man (The Might of the Fighting Peacock), were released this week (10 April). How and why nobody knows. Hnin Wint Wint Soe, May Su Su Win, Ne Linn Kyaw, (Kyaw) Thet Oo, Win Min Htut, (M)aung (M)aung Oo, and Zeya Aung – were arrested on 29 March. Zeya Aung, son of U Aung, the proprietor of King Star teashop in Pegu, was detained in the border town Myawaddy in eastern Burma on 29 March with copies of Daung Man poem. Aung Aung Oo, proprietor of A2O Desktop Publishing Business in Pegu was also arrested for printing the poem. The important thing though is that this 2,500 year old civilisation continues to pack in the toursists who come in their plane load to see that promised rich and vibrant cultural heritage, great natural beauty, magnificent temples and of course, the welcoming and hospitable people. Did I mentioned that these welcoming and hospitable people live in fear. If only there was oil in Burma. If only the poets poeted … If only …

In his engaging book, Finally Comes the Poet, Walter Brueggemann, writes:

“The cry of the helpless, if they have a voice, will mobilize God to act …It is the same in the presence of Jesus. Bartimaeus, the blind man daringly initiates interaction with Jesus. He cries out saying, ‘Son of David, have mercy’ (Mark 10:47). Remarkably, the people around him try to silence him, to drive him back to his muteness (verse 48). In an act of urgent hope, however, the beggar cries out all the more. Jesus hears. Jesus heals and concludes, ‘Your faith has made you well’ (verse 52). A capacity to cry out the pain has caused health to come. The pain of the world, embodied in the largely silent congregation of ancient Israel and in the silence of this blind beggar, is the stuff out of which new life comes. Newness, however, requires faith in order to speak the pain. Out of voiced pain, Bartimaeus is permitted a new life. ‘Immediately he received his sight and followed him on the way’ (verse 54). Had he not cried out in pain, he never would have come to a new life of discipleship.”

May those who have eyes to hear, hear. And those with ears to see, see. And may those who dare to write, write.