INTERNATIONAL CORPORATIONS:
TOTAL & UNOCAL PERSPECTIVE
Foreign corporations Unocal (bought by Chevron) and TotalFinaElf partnered with the Thai national oil company and the Burmese military to create the Yadana oil pipeline that will be used to power Thailand. With no benefits for the Burmese people, the additional forced labor and displacement due to its construction motivated Ka Hsaw Wa to investigate its effects on his people. It travels through the largest rainforest in Southeast Asia and is a hazard to the existing wildlife there as well.
In the above image, the red dotted line represents the Yadana Pipeline, the black men represent pipeline security (therefore, the presence of the despotic military junta), and the circles represent villages near the construction of the pipeline (therefore, abused by the despotic military presence).
"The $1.2 billion Yadana gas pipeline is the largest foreign investment in Burma's history. Built by the US oil giant Unocal and the French firm TotalFinaElf, it carries 800 million cubic feet of natural gas a day to a power station in Thailand. None of the power is used by the Burmese people. With ill-conceived irony, 'Yadana' is Burmese for treasure."
Smith, Jeremy. "Tortured Soul." Ecologist 34.6 (2004): 40. B...
"By the very nature of our business, energy companies must go to the resources. Unlike oil, natural gas cannot be transported over great distances. A natural gas development project must have all related production and transportation facilities located within a reasonable distance to a hard currency energy market with sufficient demand for that gas.
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"With the knowledge I have now I would never have gone to Burma...[I] condemn Total, as they were very well aware what was going on." -Former Expatriate Yadana Pipeline Worker
Htoo, Naing, et al. Total Impact. EarthRights International...
"The operator of the pipeline set up extraordinary socioeconomic programs to assist the people who lived in the areas where the pipeline was being built: hospitals, schools, computer training, technical job training. Mortality rates have gone down, they built recreational facilities for children, there has been extraordinary developments for the betterment of the local population, and we don't hear this story being told by the plaintiffs; it's a story they don't want being told." - Unocal Official
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Despite the undeniable evidence of both environmental and human rights abuses, Unocal and Total claim that they had no knowledge of it. The company produced promotional videos, explaining their extensive efforts for development in the villages located near the pipeline, as quoted to the left.
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"We are proud of the Yadana project because it does what current government policy fails to do: improve the lives of others. It is an outstanding model of responsible economic development that can make a difference to the
people of Myanmar and Thailand. For the first time in many villagers' lives, our project
brings hope and the chance of a better way of life."
-John Imle, President of Unocal
California. U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and U...
Above Image: A school building surrounded by police barracks, all built by the exploitation of the villagers labor
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"Total claims that the program's priorities were defined with the villagers, covering four target areas: education, health, economic development, and infrastructure.The socio-economic program originally included 13 villages, and in 2001 was expanded to include a total of 25 villages. The companies estimate the population of the pipeline corridor at 50,000 people."
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RESPONSIBILITY
"The Aliens Tort Claims Act (ATCA) is an obscure provision in the US first Judiciary Act, signed by George Washington in 1789. Almost forgotten for the next 190 years, its potential for use in human rights cases was unearthed in 1979 by New York lawyer Peter Weiss, who was attempting to stop a Paraguayan torturer being deported from the US."
"Weiss discovered that the ATCA enables victims of human rights violations committed abroad to sue for damages in US courts. Following his successful case, the ATCA began to be uses against numerous human rights offenders, including former Filipino dictator Ferdinand Marcos and former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic." |