COURT CASE
"To get people to listen, you have to provide concrete proof that abuses are taking place, that the natural environment is being destroyed. Foreign companies won’t invest in Burma if they think abuses are taking place, for example, that indigenous people are being forcibly relocated, or being raped and murdered by the military if they try to resist. And if investment is coming from a country which itself is involved in human rights violations, such as China, then our target are those companies which finance and insure these projects"
"Ka Hsaw Wa." Whitley Awards. Whitley Fund For Nature...
“The methods of the Burmese military were well known, and Unocal knew when it joined the Project that these abuses were certain to be committed for its benefit.” |
DOE & ROE V. UNOCAL
After waiting six years, in 2003 Burmese villagers' suit against California oil company Unocal for human rights violations was joined with a similar case:
Doe V. Unocal- EarthRights International focused on villager testimonies of abuse
Roe. V. Unocal- International Labor Rights Fund focused on forced labor Goal- To set a legal precedent of making multinational companies responsible for their actions overseas |
Kaneva, Milena, dir. Total Denial. MK Production, 2007. Yout...
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Adjacent Video: Unocal Defense argues that the timing of the charges does not fit the pipeline construction dates; however, it was with the use of Ka Hsaw Wa's documentation of abuses that they were able to prove that human rights violations were in fact taking place during the time specified. Without his work, there would be no justice for the abuses or representatives of the Burmese people.
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DEFENSE: UNOCAL & TOTAL"Claims of sexual assault, this tragic story about the baby who was burned and then later died... we don't know whether those things happened or not, but what we do know is that they did not have to do with this pipeline project because we have documents, including newspaper articles, where these folks were interviewed and they themselves said that it had to do with the railroad. This is simply a case of political advocates trying to generate publicity for their cause. They do not want American companies doing business in burma...and at the end of the day they will be completely unable to prove up these charges and some of them are not only false, but some of them are fabricated against the company." -Unocal OfficialDemocracy Now. Oil Giant Chevron Ties with Burmese Military ...
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PLAINTIFF: ERI & HUMAN RIGHTS SUPPORTERS"First of all, if your corporate values include respect for human rights, you do not hire one of the most abusive militia in the world to provide security for your project, and that's exactly what has happened on the ground in the region of this pipeline that was Unocal's and now belongs to Chevron. The Burmese military today as we speak are providing security for chevrons project in Burma, so Chevron's rhetoric about values and human rights do not play out on the ground for the people who are living in their pipeline region, who are living with Chevron's security guards, the Burmese military, in their villages, in their homes, doing forced labor for them and committing human rights abuses on Chevron's behalf." -Katie Redford, EarthRights Representative and Co-founderDemocracy Now. Oil Giant Chevron Ties with Burmese Military ...
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