BurmaNet News May 18, 2005

[Editor]

May 18, 2005 Issue # 2721


INSIDE BURMA
Irrawaddy: Security tightens and tension mounts after bombings in Rangoon
SHAN: Beyond the deadline: Do Wa have what it takes?
Myanmar Times: Myanmar gets $12m share in Red Cross tsunami aid

ON THE BORDER
Irrawaddy: Trafficking of Kachin women exposed
Kaladan News: Forced repatriation: harassment continues

DRUGS
SHAN: China losing patience

BUSINESS / FINANCE
Financial Times: Total chief rejects calls to quit Burma
Thai Press Reports: Private sector points to potential of Myanmar economic
link road

INTERNATIONAL
Reuters: Bush renews sanctions against Myanmar
AP: East Asian Summit should be transparent and inclusive, U.S. official says
Reuters: Myanmar bomb allegations 'nonsense,' says U.S.

OPINION / OTHER
Financial Times: Total-ly deaf

______________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

May 18, Irrawaddy
Security tightens and tension mounts after bombings in Rangoon - Ko Jay

After the latest bomb blasts in Rangoon, the military regime has tightened
security in the capital city. People in crowded teashops avoid talking
about the attacks for fear that police or government authorities are
monitoring them.

Residents and political observers say that authorities in Rangoon have
been carefully searching houses where they suspect terrorists are hiding.
Rumors of some arrests made in connection with the bombings have been
spread in some corners of Rangoon, but they cannot be confirmed. Ethnic
Karen communities living on the outskirts of Rangoon are also under heavy
surveillance, journalists in Rangoon reported.

Authorities are eager to catch the culprits. Police distributed leaflets
Tuesday at major road junctions and other public places, which offered a
reward for any information on the bombings. “Anyone who can provide
information leading to the arrest of the bombers will be given a reward of
10 million kyats (US $10,500),” says the leaflet.

Police had previously offered a 5 million kyat reward, but the Police
Chief Brig-Gen Khin Yi told reporters at a press conference on Sunday that
the reward would be doubled “to give a greater incentive to the public” to
help.

On May 7, 2005, three bombs exploded nearly simultaneously in Rangoon at
crowded shopping areas frequented by foreigners. According to government
figures, 19 people were killed and more than 160 were injured.

A few days after the bomb blasts, authorities began to crack down on
civilian drivers pretending to be army officers by placing caps on their
car dashboards to intimidate traffic police and avoid getting tickets.

Observers said that the junta suspected that rebel groups might have
pretended to be army officers and then infiltrated the tightly controlled
city.

Automobiles with special entry passes to government buildings are also
being thoroughly checked. “There is a deep-seated mistrust among
government officials,” said one Burmese observer speaking to The Irrawaddy
from the capital. Some dissident groups maintain that the bombs were
planted because of internal conflicts within the military leadership.

A police officer based in Rangoon said it is a common practice among some
civilians to place army officers’ caps and other official markings on
their cars. "Some civilians also use a ceasefire group's badge or sticker
on their cars," said the policeman. Ethnic ceasefire groups in Burma have
special privileges to enter the city and conduct business.

Sources in Rangoon said that business people who have contracts with the
military government's toll gates and bridges are also losing out.
Civilians pretending to be military officers, as well as some members of
ethnic ceasefire groups do not have to pay taxes for toll gates.

Meanwhile, the United States issued a travel warning on 17 May. It warned
US citizens of the possibility of new terrorist attacks in Rangoon and
other cities, and alerted US citizens traveling or residing in Burma to
exercise extreme caution in public places. But some shopping centers that
were close down in the wake of the bomb blasts have been reopened. Some
shops at City Mart and Dagon Centre have also reopened.

Lt-Gen Thein Sein, Secretary One of the ruling junta, visited victims of
the bombings receiving medical treatment at Rangoon Hospital yesterday.
Rangoon residents are still afraid of further attacks, but as one resident
put it, “[Rangoon] is still very tense but life goes on.”

______________________________________

May 18, Shan Herald Agency for News
Beyond the deadline: Do Wa have what it takes?

With the June deadline to declare the Wa region along the Chinese border a
drug free zone just over a month away, many officers and men in the United
Wa State Army are asking whether the leadership in the Wa capital of
Panghsang is really ready to take the bull by the horns, reports Hawkeye
from the border:

Many questions from battalion commanders downwards still await convincing
answers from the leadership, according to an insider source from Panglong,
Hopang township, such as

Who is going to feed the people and for how long?
What crop substitution projects are there in store?
Can the leadership guarantee reliable markets for the substitute crops?

"The leaders may say there are several legitimate businesses, like the
Yangon Airline, Hongpang Company, and others," said an officer with the
rank of major. "But most of the stocks and shares in these firms do not
belong to the UWSA but to the individual holders. how then are they going
to feed, clothe and arm the army?

Other sources predict a classic balloon effect, the movement of poppy
cultivators to previously untouched areas to escape enforcement measures,
like when one part of a balloon is squeezed, the air moves to another part
and the result is that the total amount of air remains more or less the
same. "And they don't have to worry about the capital", argued another
officer, "because there is no shortage of pawliang (financiers) when it
comes to growing opium."

The New Era Journal, May issue, also quotes a former UWSA member Ah Jae
who recently returned to Thailand where his family has a home: "In the
Panghsang area, rubber, tea and oranges are being grown extensively. The
gem enterprise and zinc mining are being expanded. There is also a
cigarette factory. However, success depends largely on China."

As for Thailand, it does not impose tariffs on the import of fruits grown
under the UWSA control, reported Bangkok Post, 20 April issue, because
Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra wants to help the Wa in renouncing their
centuries-old way of life.

However, even Thaksin acknowledges that "the war on drugs will not be
successful without national reconciliation in Burma", noted Thai Press
Reports on 15 October 2003.

Chairman Bao Youxinag has long promised to "chop off my head" if a poppy
plant is found after the 26 June 2005 deadline.

______________________________________

May 18, Myanmar Times
Myanmar gets $12m share in Red Cross tsunami aid - Thet Khaing

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies has
allocated more than US$12 million to Myanmar as part of a massive aid
program to assist countries affected by the December 26 tsunami.

The allocation is being provided under a $1.25 billion, five-year program,
the biggest and longest to be mounted by the Geneva-based organisation, it
said in a statement released on May 9.

The program will begin this year in ten Asian and African countries around
the Indian Ocean that were affected by the tsunami, the statement said.

The funds will be used for “rebuilding or upgrading homes, hospitals and
clinics, water and sanitation systems...as well as training
community-based volunteers and putting in place sustainable disaster
preparedness measures,” the statement said.

The program seeks to “put in place sustainable solutions that meet the
real needs of the tsunami affected communities in each country and will
empower people to protect themselves in this very disaster-prone region,”
the head of the federation’s Asia Pacific Department, Mr Simon Missiri,
was quoted as saying in the statement.

The federation’s Yangon representative, Ms Joanna MacLean, told Myanmar
Times on May 10 that about half the funding allocated to Myanmar under the
program had been received from the organisation’s counterparts in Asia and
Europe, including those in Australia, Canada, China, Britain, France,
Germany and New Zealand.

Ms MacLean said the Myanmar Red Cross Society, to which the federation
provides technical and financial support, will mount the aid operation in
Myanmar under the program.

She said the aid operation would include providing food and household
necessities, construction materials, health care and safe drinking water
for about 15,000 people in tsunami-affected areas of Ayeyarwaddy and
Tanintharyi divisions and Rakhine State.

It will also be used to buy boats and nets for fishing communities, Ms
MacLean said.

In other activities under the program, Ms MacLean said the federation will
support efforts by the MRCS to improve its logistics capacity. It will
also help the MRCS to increase its emergency stockpile of relief supplies
so it can cater for 20,000 families.

She said the MRCS would provide community-based disaster management and
life-guard training. The allocation would also enable the society to
expand its network of emergency-relief volunteers.

The official death toll in Myanmar from the tsunami was 61.

______________________________________
ON THE BORDER

May 17, Irrawaddy
Trafficking of Kachin women exposed - Khun Sam

A recent study has highlighted the plight of young women from Burma’s
northern Kachin State, who are being sold into prostitution, trafficked
across the border into neighboring China or disappearing altogether.

A report released on May 17 by the Kachin Women’s Association of Thailand,
titled “Driven Away: Trafficking of Kachin Women on the China-Burma
Border”, warns that girls as young as fourteen are getting tricked and
exploited as they look for ways to make money to pay school fees and
support their families.

Researcher Gum Khong explained that women are being transported to border
towns and deep into China’s Yunnan province, as far as the North Korean
border, where they are forced to marry Chinese men or work in the sex
industry. Domestic trafficking is also common, with some women being
traded to karaoke bars and massage parlors in the mining areas of Kachin
and Shan states as well as ones in the capital Rangoon.

The report lists 63 instances of trafficking from 2000 to 2004, involving
85 victims from the Kachin towns of Myitkyina, Bhamo, Laiza and Mogaung,
as well as Muse and Kutkai in Shan State. The report claims inefficient
government policies, such as the neglect of social services in favor of
extending military forces, have plunged the country into poverty and
unemployment. This has in turn increased the numbers of youths forced to
move away from home in the search for work, which provides traffickers
with easy targets.

Statistics from Burma’s ruling military junta indicate that 335 convicted
human traffickers were imprisoned between July 2002 and June 2004, though
the KWAT believe the trafficking to be a growing problem.

Though the report could not detail how many cases of human trafficking
occur in Burma, it openly questions the government’s anti-trafficking
statistics. “You can’t address the problem of trafficking in Burma, said
KWAT coordinator Shirley Seng, without challenging state policies. For
this to happen there must be political reform.”

______________________________________

May 18, Kaladan News
Forced repatriation: harassment continues

Cox’s Bazar: Harassment centering forced repatriation of Rohingya refugees
from Bangladesh camps continues.

On May 11, 2005, Abdul Hamid — a refugee from Nayapara camp — was sent to
Teknaf police station with a fabricated allegation of being ‘a criminal’.
Later, he was released as police investigation proved otherwise.

Kaladan Press sources said, refugee Nur Alam (75) and 10 members of his
family were forcefully ‘repatriated’ a while back. Nur Alam happens to a
close relation of Abdul Hamid. Allegedly, Hamid earned his release by
bribing the Teknaf Police Taka 4,000 (US$ 65). His family was assisted in
the process by Mostaq — a ‘Majee’ from Block D, Nayapara camp.

‘Majees’ or camp volunteers and their local accomplishes were trying to
repatriate the family forcefully several times. But as the family is not
eager to go back to Burma unless peaceful atmosphere of living and basic
rights and securities are not ensured, they failed. So, Majees tried to
shift the family within the camp, which also failed for as the family
strongly protested the move.

Later, Majees as instructed by camp officials tried foiling the protestors
and to forcefully repatriate them. Majees cooked up a story that they were
robbed and attacked by ‘criminal refugees’ Nur Alam, Abdul Hamid and other
innocents. Then they gathered in a place, while Abdul Hamid was picked up
and handed over to the concerned authorities with a criminal allegation.

The camp authority sent him to the Teknaf police station for necessary
action without carrying out any investigation on the incident that
occurred in the camp but police officials from Teknaf studied the matter
and released Abdul Hamid.

Though Hamid was released, the family members of Abdul Hamid and Nur Alam
are being threatened by the camp authorities that if they fail to comply
with their orders, they will be arrested again and jailed.

Names of 3 members from Nur Alam’s family were taken off the ration book
by the Nayapara Camp-in-Charge Asaduzzaman as they refused repatriation.

A UNHCR official in Cox’s Bazar said, such harassment centering
repatriation may exist but UNHCR is not aware of the situation.

Ruthless torture campaigns and discriminatory policies against the
Rohingyas resulted in two large-scale exoduses of more than 250,000
Rohingya refugees to Bangladesh in 1978 and 1991/92.  Each refugee crisis
was followed by mass repatriation, whose voluntaries had been seriously
questioned.  Today, about 19,000 Rohingya refugees remain in two camps in
Bangladesh and, renewed attempts to repatriate them led to coercion,
intimidation and forced repatriation.  In addition to the refugees in the
camps, hundreds of thousands of Rohingya also fled to Bangladesh, as well
as Malaysia, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, where they live as irregular
migrants.

“We are at risk at camp officials lodging a false case against them and
sending them to jail. If we mention our concern to foreigners visiting the
camps, we are punished for daring to express their grievousness once the
foreigners depart”, said Alam from Nayapara camp.

“We are under pressure from local authorities and majees to sign
“Declaration of Voluntary Repatriation (DVR)” when we refuse to go back,
they encounter ill treatment such as beatings, arbitrary arrests and
confiscation of ration cards” he further said.

A recent visitor to the camps says that, even with what UNHCR presence
does exist, refugees are being forced back to Burma against their will in
any event. The visitor went on to say that the situation in the camps is
terrible, and that local authorities are trying to prevent any outsiders
from visiting, thus the present blackout on any news concerning these
refugees.

______________________________________
DRUGS

May 17, Shan Herald Agency for News
China losing patience

China has recently become close to calling a spade a spade, according to
Chinese-Shans in Yunnan.

"In the past, drugs were always 'coming from the Golden Triangle', never
from Burma," said a businessman of Shan nationality, known as Dai (Tai) in
China. "Now they are coming from 'across the border'."

Shan officials in Yunnan's Dehong autonomous prefecture, opposite northern
Shan State, also question the annual output figures given by the UN and US
that have been shrinking each year. "What we are seeing here in Mongmao
(Ruili) is a rise not only in trafficking but also addictions," said a
drug enforcement source who finds more than 3,000 users in Ruili's Zegang
neighborhood alone, at least 10% of them female. "If there is really a
drop in the production then the logical question is from where are we
getting all the dope?"

According to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Burma's 2003-2004
output was 370 tons, down from the previous season's 810.

China's drug busters are also reportedly sour about Burma's ability to
hand over less than 10 of its 34 drug fugitives taking refuge there.

China has since the beginning of the year have been waging a revitalized
campaign on three fronts: HIV/AIDS, Drugs and Gambling.

On the drug front, increased vigilance is being placed in 3 areas: border
crossings from Burma, the road network from the border to Kunming (Nawng
Sae) and another leading from Kunming to Guangzhou and on to Hong Kong.

One reason for the upsurge in drug trafficking and drug abuse in China has
been given as the all-out War on Drugs in Thailand that has forced the
drug operators in Burma to reroute their products into other neighboring
countries including China. Another reason is the typical Chinese approach
to life: It is better to die than to be poor.

This year with most reports agreeing that opium output in Burma's Shan
State is once again on the increase side, the Middle Kingdom has immense
cause to worry, said the sources.

Drugs, especially opiates, have been a historical pain in the neck for
China, according to them. "The bitter memories of the 1840-42 Opium Wars
bury deep inside their psyche," said a learned Shan. "With the Japanese,
it's Hiroshima and Nagasaki. With the Chinese, it's the Opium Wars."

Bangkok Post, 25 March issue, reported that there are 1.14 million addicts
in China, equally divided between heroin and methamphetamine, quoting Yang
Fengrui, spokesman for the Ministry of Public Security, who said, "The
situation has begun to deteriorate."

______________________________________
BUSINESS / FINANCE

May 18, Financial Times
Total chief rejects calls to quit Burma - Martin Arnold

Paris: Thierry Desmarest, chief executive of Total, yesterday rejected
calls for the French oil group to pull out of its natural gas operations
in Burma, despite accusations from human rights organisations that it
props up the country's military junta.

Many of the 7,000 small shareholders attending Total's annual meeting in
Paris were handed leaflets entitled "Stop the Totalitarianism in Burma" by
human rights activists, outlining their arguments against the company's
Burmese presence.

The protests are part of a global campaign by more than 50 human rights
organisations and trade unions, launched in February, targeting the French
group's investment in Burma.

Mr Desmarest said: "It is not by leaving Burma that we would further the
progress of democracy. We believe in the link between economic development
and respect for human rights."

In the US, activists yesterday demonstrated outside French diplomatic
buildings in six US cities, to protest over Total's presence in Burma, and
France's resistance to greater sanctions against the south-east Asian
country.

Human rights groups argue that Total's gas operations in the country are a
key reason why France opposes the introduction of further sanctions
against Burma, as it is understood to have done in the European Council
last year.

However, Mr Desmarest said: "If we decided to leave, we would immediately
be replaced by other companies who do not perhaps have the same commitment
to human rights as us."

The leaflets distributed to shareholders in Paris said: "Total's
investment in Burma contributes to maintaining the military regime by
supplying it with an important source of foreign exchange, as well as a
moral and political support." They quoted imprisoned Nobel peace prize
winner Aung San Suu Kyi, leader of the Burmese pro-democracy movement, as
saying: "Total has become the main support for the military regime in
Burma."

Total faces lawsuits in France and Belgium, filed by villagers abused by
Burmese soldiers while working on or near the gas pipeline. A similar suit
in the US against California-based Unocal, the junior partner on the
Yadana gas project operated by Total, was settled out of court in December
for an undisclosed amount. Unocal has since agreed to be acquired by
Chevron.

The issue could become a serious problem for Total, which has in recent
years made greater efforts to clean up its image in the wake of the 1999
Erika oil tanker disaster off Brittany and the AZF chemicals factory
explosion in Toulouse in 2001.

_____________________________________

May 18, Thai Press Reports
Private sector points to potential of Myanmar economic link road

A Chinese-sponsored road linking Myanmar's Kayah State with Thailand's
northern province of Mae Hong Son will help give a boost to the province's
economy, the head of the provincial chamber of commerce said today.

Urging the government to take advantage of the situation, Mr. Phoolsak
Suntharaphanich said that the road would lead to Myanmar purchasing more
consumer goods from Thailand.

At the end of this month, the chamber of commerce will invite security
officers for a meeting on border trade in the hope of ironing out
obstacles to the export of Thai goods to Myanmar.

Although the eventual aim is greater trade liberalisation, the Thai
authorities will first have to make thorough preparations.

_____________________________________
ASEAN

May 18, Agence France Presse
ASEAN lawmakers to gather in Singapore to put heat on Myanmar

Kuala Lumpur: Lawmakers from five Southeast Asian countries will gather in
Singapore on June 2 to press for Myanmar to be stripped of the ASEAN chair
next year unless it introduces political reforms, a Malaysian
parliamentarian said Wednesday.

Opposition leader Lim Kit Siang told AFP the Association of Southeast
Asian Nations (ASEAN) Inter-Parliamentary Myanmar Caucus would meet in
Singapore in conjunction with the launch of the Singapore branch of the
group.

The lawmakers would urge ASEAN to take a strong stand on Myanmar,
including a demand for the release of opposition leader and democracy icon
Aung San Suu Kyi, when the foreign ministers meet in Vientiane, Laos in
late July, Lim said.

"We want an immediate release of Aung San Suu Kyi and introduction of
democratic reforms," he said.

Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi is under house arrest, and
Myanmar's ruling junta has ignored international demands that she should
be freed.

Lim warned that recent remarks that Myanmar may withdraw from holding the
rotating ASEAN chair next year could simply be a "smokescreen by the
Myanmar military junta to buy time and fob off the mounting regional and
international pressures.

"The fundamental question about it being a rogue state with its egregious
human rights record as well as the breach of its longstanding promise when
it joined ASEAN in 1997 to embark on democratization and national
reconciliation remain outstanding issues," he said.

The European Union and the United States have warned they would boycott
ASEAN meetings if Myanmar was allowed to chair the 10-member group.

_____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

May 18, Reuters
Bush renews sanctions against Myanmar

Washington: U.S. President George W. Bush on Tuesday renewed broad
sanctions against military-ruled Myanmar because of its continued
repression of opposition threatens U.S. interests.

Bush formally notified Congress that he was extending the sanctions for
one year because Myanmar had made little progress on human rights and
democracy.

"These actions and policies, including its policies of committing large
scale repression of the democratic opposition in Burma, are hostile to
U.S. interests and pose a continuing unusual and extraordinary threat to
the national security and foreign policy of the United States," Bush said
in a message to Congress.

"For this reason, I have determined that it is necessary to continue the
national emergency with respect to Burma and maintain in force the
sanctions against Burma to respond to this threat," Bush said.

The United States and Europe have shunned Myanmar and slapped sanctions on
Yangon to induce the military government to release democracy icon Aung
San Suu Kyi.

In its annual human rights report issued in February, the U.S. State
Department said the former Burma's "extremely poor human rights record
worsened" during 2004.

_____________________________________

May 18, Associated Press
East Asian Summit should be transparent and inclusive, U.S. official says
- ROD Mcguirk

CANBERRA: The United States supports efforts by Asian countries to further
integrate their economies, but any trading bloc shouldn't exclude
countries in a wider area outside the region, a senior U.S. official said
Wednesday.

Delegates at the inaugural East Asian Summit, scheduled for December, will
discuss creating a trading bloc that would include the 10-member
Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, China, Japan, South
Korea, India, Australia and New Zealand.

"From the U.S. point of view, we want to ensure that the East Asian Summit
is an open process; is an inclusive process," said Christopher Hill, the
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs. "We
support greater integration in the region."

Hill declined to comment on Australian plans to sign a nonaggression
treaty with ASEAN in return for becoming a foundation member of the
summit, which will be held in Kuala Lumpur. Critics say the nonaggression
treaty could conflict with Australia's existing alliances, including with
the United States.

"I can't speak for Australia on that," Hill told reporters in the national
capital Canberra during a two-day visit before flying to Laos. "I'm sure
the Australian government will do what it needs to do in that regard."

Australia's staunch support of the United States in its war on terror and
policy of pre-emptive attack on perceived threats in other countries has
created suspicion in the region.

Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi reminded Canberra of those
tensions in a television interview earlier this year in which he said
Australia was more concerned about its relationship with the United States
than its Asian neighbors.

ASEAN's members are Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar,
the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

_____________________________________

May 18, Reuters
Myanmar bomb allegations 'nonsense,' says U.S. - Darren Schuettler

Bangkok: The United States on Wednesday dismissed as "nonsense"
allegations by Myanmar's junta that the U.S. played a key role in bombings
that killed 19 people in the former Burma this month.

Myanmar officials said on Sunday the people who attacked the capital
Yangon on May 7 had been trained and financed "by a world-famous
organization of a certain superpower nation" -- an apparent reference to
Washington and the CIA.

"This suggestion is nonsense, unworthy of dignifying with a comment," a
U.S. embassy official in Bangkok told Reuters.

"We condemn all violence such as this. They are cowardly and senseless
acts," the official added.

Thailand has also rejected Yangon's insinuations that the bombers received
some of their training on Thai soil, and that the military-grade
explosives used in the attack may have come from Thailand.

Other observers have questioned the credibility of Yangon's investigation
into the bombings.

"So, according to the junta, CIA operatives based in Thailand trained
dissidents to plant bombs in Rangoon. Who on earth is going to believe
that?," Aung Zaw, editor of the Thai-based Irrawaddy magazine, wrote in a
commentary for the Bangkok Post.

In Washington, President Bush renewed broad sanctions against the military
regime, saying its repression of the opposition threatened U.S. interests.

The United States has been a fierce critic of Myanmar's human rights
record and tightened sanctions against the junta after Nobel laureate Aung
San Suu Kyi was detained in May 2003. She remains under house arrest at
her home in Yangon.

The State Department, in its latest travel advisory for Myanmar, has
warned U.S. citizens to exercise extreme caution "in light of increasing
incidents of bombings, and the possibility of additional attacks in the
capital."

The junta, which has ruled Myanmar in various forms since 1962, has often
accused the United States and former colonial ruler Britain of meddling in
its affairs.

On Sunday, Myanmar officials suggested that the CIA had provided $100,000
to a leader of the exiled National Coalition Government of the Union of
Burma, a coalition of opposition MPs the junta has accused of involvement
in the bombings.

The junta says the NCGUB colluded with student activists based in
Thailand, and Shan, Karen and Karenni rebels fighting decades-old
insurgencies from bases near the Thai border.

The groups have rejected the charges and suggested the bombings may be
linked to an internal power struggle since the purge of former Prime
Minister Khin Nyunt last October on allegations of corruption.

_____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

May 18, Financial Times
Total-ly deaf

How saddening for Total that its small shareholders do not share the
concern for "open dialogue with our partners and with civil society" that
the French oil giant recently boasted about in its corporate social
responsibility report.

When a human rights activist stood up at yesterday's annual meeting in
Paris to ask if it was considering pulling out of a gas project in Burma,
which provides critical support to the country's military junta, he was
greeted with booing and jeering.

The cat-calls and abuse from the 7,000-strong audience were so loud that
Thierry Desmarest, Total's chief executive, had to appeal for the man to
be heard.

Not that Desmarest was sympathetic. Total would not withdraw from Burma,
he replied, as "we believe in the link between economic development and
respect for human rights".

His small shareholders do not agree. Despite seeing their stock rise
almost 50 per cent in two years, they are not willing to let anything be
said that could stain the reputation - and share price - of their beloved
national champion.