Commission under pressure over Total business in Burma

Date: 16/12/04

The European Commission is being pressed to explain whether loopholes in revamped EU sanctions on Burma have been designed to allow the French energy giant Total to continue working with the country's oil and gas monopoly.

In late October EU foreign ministers decided to tighten their political and economic sanctions on the military regime in Rangoon, to step up pressure for the release of pro-democracy leader Aung Saan Suu Kyi. But the new measures have led human rights activists to conclude that European companies with investments in Burma will in no way be affected.

Socialist MEP Glenys Kinnock has urged the Commission to state why some of the most lucrative state-owned monopolies in Burma are excluded from the list of enterprises targeted by the sanctions. Among those omitted are the Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE), Myanmar Timber (MTE) and Myanmar Post and Telecommunications (MPT).

Kinnock is still awaiting a response to a Parliamentary question which she has put forward on the sanctions. She complained that commercial activities by Total and logistics company DHL in Burma would be "safe" because of the exemptions conferred on them. Total has been developing the Yadana gas field in conjunction with MOGE since 1992, while Deutsche Post subsidiary DHL has been in a joint venture with MPT since 1997.

"Burma is one of the most brutal and repressive regimes in the world," Kinnock added. "It has more child soldiers than any other country in the world in proportion to its population. We cannot allow investment in such a country."

Mark Farmaner of the Burma Campaign UK estimates that 80% of the Burmese economy is outside the scope of the sanctions. Gas is the biggest source of revenue for the regime, with exports worth €737 million in 2003-04.

"The interests of one French oil company are dictating the entire policy of the EU with regard to Burma," he alleged.

A spokeswoman for Total - one of the main foreign investors in Burma - said that the company "could not comment on governmental decisions".

French diplomats deny that their government is keener to protect Total than to defend human rights in Burma. One said that Paris supported the EU's sanctions policy and complied fully with it.

Article reports on allegations that several Burmese state-owned monopolies were excluded from the list of enterprises targeted by the EU sanctions against the military regime in Burma. Socialist MEP Glenys Kinnock pointed out in a Parliamentary question that commercial activities by Total and logistics company DHL in Burma would be 'safe' because of the exemptions conferred on them.