BurmaNet News, April 27, 2010

[Editor]

April 27, 2010, Issue #3949


INSIDE BURMA
AFP: Four wounded in grenade attack at Myanmar power project

ON THE BORDER
Kaladan Press: Forty Rohingyas pushed back to Burma
SHAN: Will ceasefire Shan Army split into two factions?

BUSINESS / TRADE
Nation (Thailand): PDI looks to Laos and Burma

INTERNATIONAL
VOA: Activists hold little hope for 2010 elections in Burma
Mizzima News: Pressure mounts on international energy firms in Burma to
come clean

OPINION / OTHER
Irrawaddy: Time to dig in – Yeni
DVB: Singapore mentors Burma in sham elections – Seelan Palay

PRESS RELEASE
EarthRights International: Oil companies in Burma urged to open their
books: Total, Chevron, and PTTEP would become first oil companies to
practice revenue transparency in Burma




____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

April 27, Agence France Presse
Four wounded in grenade attack at Myanmar power project

Yangon – A series of grenade blasts hit a hydropower project in Myanmar
Tuesday, wounding four workers in the latest unrest in the military-ruled
country, officials said.

The attacks occurred at the Thaukyegat hydropower plant under construction
in Bago Division, about 220 kilometres (137 miles) northeast of the
country's main city Yangon, a local official told AFP.

"Four workers were injured during three grenade attacks at the Thaukyegat
hydropower project site," the official said, asking not to be named
because he was not authorised to speak to the media.

The Myanmar company behind the project, Asia World Construction, was also
involved in a controversial dam project in Kachin State where there was a
series of bombs blasts earlier this month, injuring one engineer.

Three other bombs on April 15 hit a water festival in Yangon, in the
city's worst attack in five years. The death toll from that attack has now
risen to 10 people, with at least 170 people wounded.

Myanmar authorities have arrested some suspects in their search for the
perpetrators of those blasts, officials said, but they did not give any
further detail as the investigation is still underway.

Myanmar has been hit by several bomb blasts in recent years which the
junta has blamed on armed exile groups or ethnic rebels.

The latest attacks come as the country prepares for elections planned for
this year, which critics have dismissed as a sham due to the effective
barring of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi because she is a serving
prisoner.

The military has ruled Myanmar since 1962, partly justifying its grip on
power by the need to fend off ethnic rebellions that have plagued remote
border areas for decades.

Armed minorities in Karen and Shan states continue to fight the government
along the country's eastern border, alleging they are subject to neglect
and mistreatment.

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

April 27, Shan Herald Agency for News
Will ceasefire Shan Army split into two factions? – Hseng Khio Fah

The ceasefire Shan State Army (SSA) ‘North’ is likely to split into two
factions due to some of its brigades’ response to comply with Naypyidaw’s
demand that requires 900 to 1,000 of their men to form three home guard
battalions without agreement by all the fighters, according to reliable
sources from the Sino-Burma border.

The response came on 22 April, the latest deadline for all ethnic groups
to give their consent on the border guard force (BGF) proposal.  The
group’s top leader Maj-Gen Loimao with 12 other top members accepted the
proposal at a meeting with Maj-Gen Aung Than Tut, Commander of the Burmese
Army’s Northeastern Region Command at Lashio headquarters.

The military junta was reported to have planned to hold a ceremony to
honour it officially at the SSA’s Hsengkeow HQ, Hsipaw township, Shan
State North, on the following day. But the plans came a cropper as the
group’s other faction did not allow the Burmese delegation to enter the
areas, said a source close to the group’s leadership.

The group is reportedly yet to sign the agreement officially, he said. “It
was just an oral acceptance. It appears the group is going to break up
into two camps.”

The SSA-N has three brigades (1, 3, and 7), one border force and one HQ
Security Force led by Maj-Gen Loimao. He is able to give orders only to
brigades 3 and 7. Its paramount leader Maj Gen Hso Ten is serving a 106
year jail sentence in Khamti.

The 1st Brigade is based in Wanhai, Kehsi township, Shan State South,
under the command of Maj-Gen Parngfa; Brigade No.3 is in Mongkhurh,
Mongyai township, Shan State North, under the command of Maj-Gen  Loimao;
Brigade No.7 in Kali, Hsipaw township, Shan State North, is led by Maj-Gen
Gaifa.

The 1st Brigade is the strongest with approximately 2,500 fully armed men
and its commander Maj-Gen Parngfa is said to be hardliner.

The faction that has refused to transform is the 1st Brigade. It is said
to have joined hands with other ethnic ceasefire armies that still remain
defiant to the BGF programme:  the United Wa State Army (UWSA), National
Democratic Alliance Army-Eastern Shan State (NDAA-ESS) and Kachin
Independence Army (KIA), a source said.

Maj-Gen Aung Than Tut was reported to have said that the remaining groups
have also accepted the proposal on the same day with the SSA.

“No need to worry for the remaining brigade of your group, the 1st
brigade. It will be following your footstep soon,” Aung Than Tut was said
to have told Maj-Gen Loimao.

But the Wa, Mongla and Kachin replied that they were not aware of the
commander saying this and they have yet to give their consent.

In the meantime, unconfirmed sources said that the 7th brigade’s leader
Maj-Gen Gaifa is reported to be preparing to contest the general elections
under the aegis of the group’s former political arm, Shan State Progress
Party (SSPP).

An official report from the SSA-North says the Brigade was marking the
founding of the first SSA on 24 April 1964.
____________________________________

April 27, Kaladan Press
Forty Rohingyas pushed back to Burma

Teknaf – Continuing with its drive against infiltration, Bangladesh pushed
back 40 Arakanese Rohingyas arrested from various places along the border.
The push back to Burma was done by the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) on April
26, said a Teknaf source.

They were arrested from local areas and transit points in the border areas
in raids by BDR personnel.

They crossed the Burma-Bangladesh border in search of work in Bangladesh
as in their own land they can’t able to search jobs for movement
restriction and other persecution, which compile them to flee their home
land in Burma. Most Arakanese Rohingyas are oppressing and persecution
with so many restrictions by ruling junta in their own country, a
businessman said.

Among them, some have been living in Bangladesh for a long time, but
others crossed the Burma-Bangladesh border to seek jobs in Bangladesh
recently, a local from Teknaf said.

After arrest, they were pushed back to Burma through the transit point of
Shapuri Dip under Teknaf by BDR personnel in the evening of the same day.

A refugee said Rohingya refugees working along the border areas are
apprehensive of arrest by the Bangladesh authorities. He said arrests by
Bangladesh authorities can increase in the near future.

____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

April 27, Nation (Thailand)
PDI looks to Laos and Burma

Padaeng Industry is witnessing progress on its new concessions in Laos and
Burma, while preparing for the orderly shutdown of its Mae Sot mine in
2016 when it reaches the end of its commercial viability.

Andre van der Heyden, managing director of the zinc miner, said on Monday
that the concession in Laos would be a major project for the company over
the next few years.

 "Already, the company has started exploration work in the northern part
of Vientiane province. Results from the initial drilling suggested high
potential of deposits of one million tonnes of zinc ore."

 The company has acquired the operating rights to a mine located in Burma
near Mae Sot district, and operations are expected to commence this year,
he told the annual shareholders meeting.

Land remediation work on the Mae Sot site began in 2003, with more than 13
million shoots of vetiver grass planted in areas where mining activities
had ceased.

This makes the Mae Sot mine one of the largest growers of vetiver grass in
Thailand. Vetiver grass, which helps prevent soil erosion and enhances
soil improvement for agricultural uses, is first used as a pilot plant to
rehabilitate the soil before growing perennial plants, thereby reviving
the once-mined area.

 The company showed a consolidated net profit of Bt296 million, up from
Bt265 million during the same period of the previous year. Shareholders
approved the dividend of Bt0.92 per share.

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

April 27, Voice of America
Activists hold little hope for 2010 elections in Burma – Laurel Bowman

Burma is now preparing for elections at the state, regional and national
level. But the country's much-criticized election laws prompted the main
opposition party to opt out, leaving many activists disheartened and
disgruntled.

This is how Burmese, pro-democracy advocates living in India reacted to
new election rules in Burma. The rules essentially bar Nobel laureate Aung
San Suu Kyi and other opposition leaders from running.

"Because General Than Shwe led by military government they are cheating
the people," said one protester.

Burma's ruling military junta says it will hold free and fair elections
this year for the first time in two decades. Priscilla Clapp, the former
mission chief at the U.S. Embassy in Burma, says that while elections are
a step in the right direction, Burma's constitution finalized in 2008
ensures strong control by the military.

"Many senior military leaders have resigned and they are already out
campaigning," said Priscilla Clapp.

Burma's constitution bars political prisoners from running for office. The
iconic Aung San Suu Kyi heads the main opposition party, the National
League for Democracy or NLD, but she has been under house arrest for 14 of
the last 20 years.  Her party has opted out.

"How can the NLD in good conscience register themselves as a political
party and participate in these elections when all of their leaders who
have suffered so heavily for their engagement would be precluded from
engaging with this new government," said Jared Genser.

Washington attorney Jared Genser is Aung San Suu Kyi's international
counsel. He has a lot to say about the junta's upcoming elections, none of
it good.

"I think they learned their lesson from 1990 when they actually allowed
for a free and fair election and lost in a landslide and they are not
going to allow that sort of thing to happen again," he said.

Genser is the president of Freedom Now, a group in Washington that works
for the release of political prisoners worldwide.  He recently helped to
secure freedom for Burmese-born American Kyaw Zaw Lwin, also known as Nyi
Nyi Aung. The pro-democracy activist was arrested in September in Rangoon
where he traveled to visit his sick mother.

"I am seeing people dying in front of me without any water or any
treatments," said Nyi Nyi Aung.

Nyi Nyi Aung says most Burmese feel the junta's elections are a sham,
reminiscent of the elections in 1990, when the military refused to
relinquish power despite losses at the polls. He says democracy's best
hope is constant, steady pressure from the international community.

"In my case when the U.S. government requests to the regime for my release
and right now I am sitting in front of Congress and I am in the United
States and I am free," he said.

Nyi Nyi Aung and other Burmese pro-democracy advocates say the United
States has less leverage on Burma, following years of economic sanctions. 
Last year, the Obama administration announced a new policy toward Burma of
pragmatic engagement.  Analysts say the junta still responds to
international criticism, but that China, India and Burma's other allies
within the Association of South East Asian Nations should be at the table
for any dialogue on national reconciliation.

Japan and Malaysia recently urged Burma to hold free, fair and inclusive
general elections.  And Ambassador Clapp thinks even a flawed election
holds promise.

"They are going to have to start somewhere," said Priscilla Clapp. "They
will have to allow some degree of debate.  Right now they allow absolutely
none."

Hope still for democracy in what was once one of Southeast Asia's
wealthiest nations, but now among the poorest.

____________________________________

April 27, Mizzima News
Pressure mounts on international energy firms in Burma to come clean –
Larry Jagan

Bangkok – International pressure is mounting on multinational oil and gas
companies operating in Burma to reveal how much they have paid to the
junta over the last 18 years, campaigners say.

Matthew Smith, an activist for Earth Rights International, which is
leading a new campaign to make the oil companies that operate in Burma
more transparent, told Mizzima: “These companies should open their books
to public scrutiny.”

“The Burmese junta is a bunch of crooks who are pocketing millions of
dollars, siphoned off from these oil companies and should be brought to
book,” Mr Smith said. “Everyone would benefit from their greater
transparency and accountability.”

The French company, Total, US-based Chevron and Thailand’s PTTEP company
are all working with the Burmese government to develop the Yadana gas
field in the Andaman Sea, eastern Burma, and the pipeline that connects
the project to Thailand.

They are being urged to set an example for all international oil and gas
companies operating inside the country and reveal how much they have paid
the regime in taxes, royalties, fees and benefits since they started the
project in 1992.

“This could provide a model for the future and help set international
standards and practises for the country’s lucrative oil and gas industry,”
Naing Htoo, also of Earth Rights, told the press conference for the
campaign’s launch in Bangkok.

All the companies involved in this sector are foreign owned but co-operate
with the Burmese government and local companies. Burma’s oil and gas
industry creates more than 60 per cent of the country’s national income –
estimated to be more than US$3 billion a year. The junta is taking most of
this, the campaigners say.

Through currency-exchange manipulation and fraudulent activities – less 
than 1 per cent of this ends up in the government’s coffers for use on
education, health and social provisions. Since the Yadana project started
producing gas in 2000, until 2008, it has generated more than US$7
billion, of which nearly US$5 billion went to the junta. Most of that
share has ended up in secret accounts at two banks in Singapore, Mr Smith
said.

This kind of secrecy also contributes to repression. The massive
militarisation and excessive human rights abuses in the areas where there
are oil and gas projects, according to Wong Aung of the Shwe Gas Movement,
which monitors developments in Burma. “Land confiscation and forced labour
are routine in these areas,” he said.

In the past month, more than a thousand villagers in the country’s west
near the new Chinese pipeline project have been forced to sign away their
land without compensation – leaving them destitute and hungry with no
prospect of planting their normal rice crop in the coming season,
according to the Shwe group.

“In too many countries, dictators use the country’s natural resource
wealth to keep themselves in power,” Professor Michael Ross, a political
scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles, in the United
States, said. “Revenue secrecy makes that possible – revenue transparency
can help to change that.”

The campaign is supported by 160 non-government organisations, labour
unions, investment firms, scholars and policymakers, including the former
prime minister of Norway Kjell Magne Bondevik and the former president of
Ireland and head of the UN Human Rights Council, Mary Robinson.

The key company in this conglomerate, Chevron, already practises revenue
transparency in many of its other operations worldwide, including
developing countries. “All we are asking them to do is to follow this
practice, which they themselves extol,” Mr Smith said. “At previous
shareholders’ meetings the company’s senior executives have said that the
confidentiality clause in their contracts with the Burmese regime prevents
them disclosing this kind of revenue information.”

“This is patently untrue,” said Mr Smith, who has managed to see the
actual signed contracts. “There is no such confidentiality clause, and
expert legal advice confirms there is nothing preventing Chevron or the
other companies involved from disclosing the information on how much they
have paid the junta each year, since the project started 18 years ago.”

Chevron shareholders are set to vote at the company’s annual meeting next
month in the US on a resolution that would make it compulsory for the firm
to disclose all payments made to foreign entities, including the junta.

The government and the country could only benefit from these sorts of
disclosures, the campaigners said.

“It’s fundamental information for macroeconomic policymaking,” Dr. Sean
Turnell, an economist at Macquarie University, Australia, told Mizzima.
“It would have an impact on taxation planning, exchange-rate movements and
interest rates.”

Burma is routinely listed as the one of the most corrupt countries in the
world, and greater scrutiny of the oil and gas earnings will help better
governance and lead to greater economic stability and development in the
long run, according to the campaigners. This kind of transparency would
give Burma a greater chance to avoid being robbed blind by its leaders.

“The people of Burma have a right to know the financial dealings
surrounding the country’s natural resources, including payments made to
foreign oil companies,” said Mr Htoo.

This would become even more important if the country did move towards
having a civilian government after this year’s planned elections, the
activists said.

“Burma’s generals are kleptocrats, and the international community should
do all it can to avoid aiding and abetting their larceny,” Dr Turnell
said.

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

April 27, Irrawaddy
Time to dig in – Yeni

The recent rejection of the Burmese regime's Border Guard Force (BGF) plan
by up to a dozen armed ethnic groups exposes the cease-fire agreements as
increasingly unsustainable. The grim prospect of conflict looms on Burma's
horizon yet again.

According to ethnic sources, all the top-ranking leaders of the cease-fire
groups and their delegations were defiant following their talks with
Naypyidaw's negotiator, Lt-Gen Ye Myint, whose arrogant conduct and
acrimonious remarks scuttled what little amity had previously existed at
the respective negotiating tables.
Yeni is news editor of the Irrawaddy magazine. He can be reached at
yeni at irrawaddy.org.

Chief of Military Affairs Security Ye Myint reportedly threatened the
ethnic leaders with legal action if they failed to sign up for the BGF
plan by April 22, which was interpreted to mean that they would be
declared unlawful organizations by the military government.

In southern Shan State, fears of a conflict have increased since the
cease-fire deadline passed last week for the largest of Burma's armed
ethnic groups, the United Wa State Army (UWSA), which has upward of 20,000
troops. According to local sources, the Burmese military has deployed
tanks and artillery in Mongton, Mong Saik and Tachilek townships in
preparation for war. Many local villagers are making preparations to
evacuate their homes and move temporarily to the Thai side of the border
to avoid any bloodshed.

Meanwhile, some 400 Mon people from resettlement sites located close to a
New Mon State Party (NMSP) military base have fled their homes to avoid a
potential conflict between the Burmese army and the NMSP, following a
breakdown in talks. They arrived a few days ago at the Hlokhani Mon
refugee camp on the Thai-Burmese border.

Last year's siege of the Kokang headquarters by the Burmese army has set
an alarming precedent. Some 37,000 Kokang and Chinese refugees fled their
homes and took refuge on the Chinese side of the border after government
forces overran the Kokang stronghold of Laogai in August.

Similarly, between three and four thousand Karen villagers fled to
Thailand when conflict broke out in Karen State between a joint force of
Burmese-DKBA troops and the rebel Karen National Liberation Army.

Now, with the scent of war in the air again, many innocent civilians—who
all too often get caught in the crossfire—are packing their bags in
advance.

The junta’s move to transform the troops of the cease-fire groups into
BGFs before the upcoming  election is believed to be in accordance with
the constitutional provision that the “Union of Myanmar” have only one
army. But their demands have largely been met with resistance from the
ethnic groups who say they have nothing to gain from a BGF unit under
Burmese regional command. Several ethnic leaders have also said that they
don't have any faith in the new Constitution, which was passed through a
farcical referendum in 2008.

In fact, the BGF issue must be frustrating the generals in Naypyidaw as
the plan has failed to bear fruit. Instead, suspicion between the military
government and the ethnic groups has increased. Moreover, in response to
the crisis, Beijing, the Burmese generals' stanchest ally, has made
repeated calls for stability on the border and for guarantees for the
safety of Chinese people in Burma.

Frustration is undoubtedly a sentiment felt by detained democracy leader
Aung San Suu Kyi and her party, the National League for Democracy. They
have decided to boycott the 2010 election as a response to the regime's
unjust election laws, which were drafted to prevent Suu Kyi and other
political prisoners from participating in the election or even remaining
as members of their respective parties.

The NLD position is based on its Shwegondaing Declaration, released in
April last year, which calls for a review of the controversial
constitution, political dialogue and the unconditional release of all
political prisoners.

However,  instead of showing the world that they truly wish to move toward
a legitimate government and gain international recognition, the military
regime, led by Snr-Gen Than Shwe, has firmly responded that there will be
no review of the Constitution, and that this year's election will go ahead
with or without the opposition.

Faced with being disbanded after the election deadline on May 6, and
fearing that their offices will be raided and their leaders arrested, the
NLD and its political allies are preparing for the worst. Likewise, the
ethnic armies are also being forced to dig in and prepare for a conflict.

It seems that everyone in Burma is forever taking to the trenches and the
bunkers. The next move is the junta's.

____________________________________

April 27, Democratic Voice of Burma
Singapore mentors Burma in sham elections – Seelan Palay

As preparations for the sham elections in Burma get into full swing, it is
not difficult to notice similarities in electoral practices between the
Burmese generals in uniform and Singapore’s leaders in civilian clothes.

The Burmese regime is bending over backwards to stage the fraudulent
elections while refusing to respect the results of the country’s polls in
1990 that led to the landslide victory for the National League for
Democracy (NLD).

Why reinvent the wheel, when what happened two decades ago remains
unfulfilled? The same military that massacred thousands of innocent
civilians, including Buddhist monks, is now pretending that everything is
hunky-dory.

It is an undeniable fact that the military regime holds close economic
ties to Singapore – the top brass of the Burmese army are known to have
parked their ill-gotten millions in Singapore’s banks, while they and
their family members own properties in upmarket areas and their children
go to top schools and drive flashy cars, flaunting their wealth to the
envy of ordinary Singaporeans.

Burmese drug lords who are banned from entering the US freely come and go
in Singapore and some even have offices in the posh commercial district
along Shenton Way. It is no wonder that Singapore is the third largest
investor in Burma, helping to prop up the pariah regime.

Singapore has even named a hybrid Orchid, its national flower, after the
Burmese prime minister, General Thein Sein. Orchids in the same Singapore
Botanical Gardens were previously named after Princess Diana and Nelson
Mandela.

The similarities between Burma and Singapore do not stop there. The
election process in Singapore is as opaque as it is in Naypyidaw, the new
capital of the Burmese regime. Although Singapore claims to hold
periodical elections to legitimise the rule of the People’s Action Party
(PAP), the exercise itself is highly questionable.

To start with, there is no independent elections commission. Only a
department that comes under the Prime Minister’s Office that decides on
last-minute boundary delineation, exorbitant deposits for candidates
(presently $US9,900 but expected to be raised to $US11,000 in the next
election), and other regular gerrymandering practices, including what is
known as the Group Representation Constituencies (GRC).

This so-called electoral system has led to almost half of the seats in
parliament being uncontested on Nomination Day. Presently, Singapore’s
‘parliament’ has 84 MPs, of which 82 are from Lee Kuan Yew’s PAP. And that
is “democratic elections” in Singapore for you!

The paradox of Singapore’s elections is that the electorate, some of whom
are nearing their 50s, have never voted in their entire lives. This
so-called anomaly is glaring in Singapore, where voting is compulsory
under the Parliamentary Elections Act.

With all these well-entrenched undemocratic practices, it is not
surprising to even a distant observer to understand how the ruling PAP has
been in power since 1959.

What is worse is the irrefutable reality in Singapore that one man, by the
name of Lee Kuan Yew, has been in power for the last 51 years. The
octogenarian Lee, who is now 87 years old, calls himself Minister Mentor
in the cabinet headed by his prime minster son, Lee Hsien Loong.

Compare this to the reality in Burma where the army generals have held
sway since the 1962 coup, ousting the democratically elected government of
U Nu. Even against this, Lee Kuan Yew’s grip on power extends longer by
three years, but he continues to claim that elections in his republic are
based on the Westminster model of democracy.

Anyone who believes in democratic values could easily see that it is next
to impossible to continue to have a one-party dominated parliament in the
name of freedom and democracy. Obviously the uniformed generals are under
tutelage by the authoritarian regime in Singapore, clad in civilian
clothes.

While the Burmese generals continue to not recognise the results of the
1990 elections, preparations are in full swing to hold yet another
elections based on its 2008 constitution, aimed at hoodwinking the people.
Singapore too is notorious for amending its constitution just before every
general election to give a legal facade to what is clearly an illegitimate
exercise.

The Burmese generals also appear to have been keen and obedient students
to their teacher, Singapore. Burmese intelligence agents are known to
visit on a routine basis to study the latest electronic eavesdropping
gadgets for their surveillance of Burmese political dissidents, including
the NLD leaders.

The recent announcement by NLD to boycott the army-orchestrated sham
elections is the right move. How can the elections be legitimate when
NLD’s leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, remains under house arrest and barred
from taking part? Singapore too, has a history of barring genuine
opposition leaders who were daring enough to challenge, through
constitutional means, the regime of Lee Kuan Yew.

Victims of Lee’s political vendetta include prominent figures such as the
late J B Jeyaretnam, Singapore’s former solicitor-general Mr Francis Seow
(now in exile in the US), Singapore’s leading corporate lawyer Mr Tang
Liang Hong (now in exile in Australia), and Dr Chee Soon Juan, who remains
bankrupted and unable to stand for elections.

These are well-known democrats who stood up against Lee Kuan Yew, who had
openly declared in 2003 that: “If we had considered them serious political
figures, we would not have kept them politically alive for so long. We
could have bankrupted them earlier.” Is this not what the generals in
Burma are doing while loudly proclaiming to the world that there will be
“free and fair” elections in the country before the end of the year?

While Singapore leaders are shedding crocodile tears and sermonizing the
Burmese generals on the need for free and fair elections, is it not
appropriate for them to look at their own backyard?

When Singapore’s Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong met the Burmese generals,
including Than Shwe, last year, he urged them not to allow the ongoing
trial of Suu Kyi to affect the national reconciliation process and to make
sure that the proposed elections are free and fair.

It is better for Goh to take a hard look at himself in the mirror: he will
then be able to see the ugly features that include a well-documented law
providing for indefinite detention without trial, under which detainees
are subject to regular physical and mental torture. It is also common in
Singapore to prosecute opposition politicians for speaking in public and
distributing flyers; laws that are no different from the Burmese junta.

Goh Chok Tong’s “advice” is double-speak at best. What right has he got to
advise the generals when the same despicable acts are committed at every
election in Singapore? Are elections in Singapore free and fair in the
first place? Is the media in Singapore free and pluralistic for the voters
to be informed before they go to the polls to choose their representatives
to parliament?

Burma’s media laws are the strictest in the world, and so are Singapore’s,
the most notorious being the Newspapers and Printing Presses Act that
gives sweeping powers, including the appointment of editors to the 14
daily newspapers that are all under the control of the PAP government.
Burma is ranked 171 out of 175 countries in the recent Reporters Without
Borders’ Press Freedom Index. Singapore is also in the miserable position
of 133, several ranks below that of even Angola and Congo.

The Singapore Press Holdings, whose chairman was a former deputy prime
minister, runs all the newspapers of which its flagship daily is the
Straits Times. It’s a known fact that intelligence operatives masquerade
as reporters and journalists in Singapore’s media scene. The Straits Times
has its equivalent in Burma, the New Light of Myanmar, which is nothing
but a mouthpiece of the military regime.

Similarities between the autocratic rule in Singapore and the equally
notorious regime in Burma are endless. Learning from Singapore on how to
perpetuate one-party rule through sham elections is a natural progression
for Burma under the bloodthirsty generals.

Seelan Palay is an artist and activist from Singapore. He works with Free
Burma Campaign Singapore and blogs here.

____________________________________
PRESS RELEASE

April 27, EarthRights International
Oil companies in Burma urged to open their books: Total, Chevron, and
PTTEP would become first oil companies to practice revenue transparency in
Burma

Bangkok, Thailand -- In an initiative launched today, over 160
non-governmental organizations, labor unions, investment firms, scholars,
and policy leaders, including the former Prime Minister of Norway and the
former President of Ireland, called on the oil companies Total, Chevron,
and Thailand’s PTTEP to publish over 18 years of payments to the Burmese
military regime. The companies, who partner with the military government
on the Yadana natural gas pipeline to Thailand, stand to become the first
to practice revenue transparency in the military-ruled country.

In a 2-page public statement, the group urged the companies to publish
“comprehensive data and information” including taxes, fees, royalties, and
bonuses paid to the Burmese authorities since 1992, the year the
companies’ governing contract with the military regime was signed.

While it is common, and very controversial, for oil and gas contracts to
be kept strictly confidential, the group revealed today that Total,
Chevron, and PTTEP’s contracts with the Burmese authorities are legally
public documents, and that the “governing contracts do not prohibit Total,
Chevron, or PTTEP from practicing full revenue transparency” in Burma .
The contracts were obtained through landmark human rights litigation in US
courts between Burmese citizens and Unocal Corporation (now Chevron),
according to the group’s statement.

According to EarthRights International, the Burmese regime has received
multi-billion dollar profits from export gas sales and payments from
Total, Chevron, and PTTEP, buttressing the regime from democratic
pressures. With the highest poverty rates and lowest social spending in
Southeast Asia, “shining a light on this revenue is critical for Burma’s
future development, and for the responsible management of the country’s
vast resource wealth,” according to the organization.

“The people of Burma have a right to know the financial details
surrounding the country’s natural resources, including payments made by
foreign oil companies” said Naing Htoo, an ethnic Karen representative of
EarthRights International. “This statement and its broad local and
international support are a testament to the importance and need for
transparency and accountability in the country,” Htoo added.

The statement’s impressive signatories include over 60 Burmese-led
organizations representing every major ethnic group in the diverse
Southeast Asian country and the world’s leading human rights,
anti-corruption, and environmental NGOs, hailing from over 20 countries
worldwide. Also behind the effort are labor unions representing 24 million
workers, investment firms managing a cumulative US$15 billion dollars of
capital, and policy leaders from the United States and Europe, including
Mary Robinson, the former President of Ireland and former U.N. High
Commissioner for Human Rights, Kerry Kennedy, the founder of the Robert F.
Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights, and Kjell Magne Bondevik, the
two-time former Prime Minister of Norway.

Norway is widely regarded as the world’s leader in the responsible
management of natural resource wealth.

During Mr. Bondevik’s second term in office, clear ethical guidelines were
established in Norway to ensure the highest ethical standards are met by
the investments of the country’s massive sovereign wealth fund, which
comprises nearly US$500 billion from Norway’s surplus petroleum wealth.

According to Mr. Bondevik, who in principle is against foreign companies
operating in Burma: “The least we should expect from the companies
operating inside Burma is full revenue transparency. We’ve seen decades of
military dictatorship and years of irresponsible management of Burma's
natural resource wealth – hence this initiative is a positive step towards
changing that.”

A who’s who of economists and political scientists also back the
initiative, including best-selling author and Oxford University economist
Paul Collier, and UCLA Professor of Political Science Michael Ross, whose
quantitative research has focused on the causal links between resource
wealth and authoritarianism. According to Professor Ross, “in too many
countries, dictators use natural resource wealth to keep themselves in
power. Revenue secrecy makes this possible. Revenue transparency can help
change it.”

The statement released today only adds to the mounting pressure on the
Yadana companies to disclose revenue payments to the Burmese junta.
Legislation pending before the U.S. Congress – the Energy Security through
Transparency Act (S. 1700) – will require all oil, gas, and mining
companies registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission to
disclose information about payments to host governments around the world,
including to the Burmese regime. If passed, this will impact nearly every
major oil and gas corporation around the world.

Likewise, Chevron’s shareholders are set to vote next month at the
company’s annual shareholder meeting on a proposal that would require the
company to disclose payments to foreign governments, including the junta
in Burma.

According to Wong Aung, Coordinator of Burma’s Shwe Gas Movement, “revenue
transparency must be practiced for the citizens of Burma, who can use the
information to monitor the government’s use of natural resource wealth and
demand accountability where none presently exists.”

In 2009, EarthRights International estimated that the Yadana gas pipeline
had generated over US$7.5 billion in gas sales to Thailand. The
organization exposed that a significant portion of the junta’s gas sales
were siphoned to bank accounts in Singapore rather than to the fledgling
national economy, development, or humanitarian relief. EarthRights
International also linked the Yadana pipeline to forced labor, killings,
and other human rights violations in the project area.

“Transparency in payments to host states is a minimum element of corporate
responsibility in the oil and gas sector,” according to EarthRights
International representative Matthew Smith. “ There’s no defensible
argument against revenue transparency, especially in this context,” Smith
added. EarthRights International is encouraging more endorsements of the
two-page statement “until the effort is a success.”

Contact:
Matthew Smith +66.85.028.0044, matthew at earthrights.org; Naing Htoo
+66.81.531.1256, nainghtoo at earthrights.org; Wong Aung +66.87.300.8354,
global at shwe.org; Paul Donowitz +1.917.345.2787, paul at earthrights.org.