‘Cablegate’ exposes French business concerns

Thursday, 2 December 2010
By FRANCIS WADE


French President Nicholas Sarkozy stands next to former foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner (Reuters)


France’s President Nicholas Sarkozy had considered withdrawing French companies from activity in Burma before he was reined in by advisors, leaked US diplomatic cables claim.

Washington’s ambassador to France, Craig R. Stapleton, described the French leader as “forward-leaning” in his policies on Burma in an October 2007 cable sent from Paris to the US. Classified as “confidential”, it forms part of the vast disclosure of diplomatic correspondence passed to news agencies earlier this week by whistleblowing website, Wikileaks.

“While Sarkozy seems forward-leaning (he reportedly considered French disinvestment before being dissuaded by advisors), thus far France remains unprepared to implement unilateral sanctions,” the cable said.

France’s business presence in Burma is substantial. It is led by oil giant, Total, which operates the controversial Yadana oil and gas project along with US company Chevron. According to EarthRights International, the project has netted the ruling regime $US5 billion, much of which stays out of the official government budget.

Like Washington’s policy to Burma, the EU sanctions currently in place against the junta that block European partnersips with the Burmese government but do not force the withdrawal of companies there before sanctions were implemented. Thus Total and Chevron have been able to stay, despite reports of widespread human rights abuses related to Yadana.

Moreover, the French government has steadfastly refused to order it to leave Burma. Its comment that Paris was “unprepared” to join the US sanctions programme was set amongst praise for other actions it has taken on Burma, notably in the UN Security Council.

But what lies behind the mixed bag of French policy to Burma goes beyond purely economic reasons, says Matthew Smith, head of ERI’s Burma programme.

“The main reason why Total has not pulled out is mostly to maintain a French presence in a geopolitically valuable part of the world,” he said, adding however that there are concerns that if Total pulled out, the space would be taken by a Burmese or regional company with a worse human rights record.

Vested interests in the French government at the time of the cable may also play a significant role. Five years before Stapleton’s message back to Washington, Total had paid Bernard Kouchner, who later became French foreign minister, €25,000 ($US33,000) to carry out an assessment of the company’s work in Burma.

After the publication of the report, Kouchner told Le Monde that “Nothing allows me to think that the group could have lent a hand to activities contrary to human rights”. Regarding allegations of forced labour, he added that “I am 95 percent sure that the Total people are incapable of that; they are not slaveholders”.

Smith thinks otherwise. “That project has generated multi-billion dollar profits for the regime and there have been thousands upon thousands of instances of human rights abuses directly connected to Total’s presence,” he said. As recently as February, ERI documented two targeted killings close to the Yadana site that were carried out by a Burmese army battalion providing security for Total projects.

“Kouchners’s relationship with Total would colour his assessment of the company’s human rights impact in Burma,” Smith said. He added that he was “deeply critical” of the report, which based “very definitive conclusions about Total’s presence in Burma” on a “very brief trip to the pipeline area”.

He claims that it is “these types of thin assessments that oil companies in Burma have relied upon to convince investors that they are a benefit to Burma rather than an obstacle to human rights protection”.

The cable continued that Sarkozy had “urged French companies to freeze future investments”, a policy that is more in line with the EU sanctions package and Stapleton’s demand that the US “appeal to Sarkozy to redouble French efforts within the EU to push for tough sanctions” on Burma.

http://www.dvb.no/news/%E2%80%98cablegate%E2%80%99-exposes-french-business-concerns/13183

‘Cablegate’ exposes French business concerns

Thursday, 2 December 2010
By FRANCIS WADE


French President Nicholas Sarkozy stands next to former foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner (Reuters)


France’s President Nicholas Sarkozy had considered withdrawing French companies from activity in Burma before he was reined in by advisors, leaked US diplomatic cables claim.

Washington’s ambassador to France, Craig R. Stapleton, described the French leader as “forward-leaning” in his policies on Burma in an October 2007 cable sent from Paris to the US. Classified as “confidential”, it forms part of the vast disclosure of diplomatic correspondence passed to news agencies earlier this week by whistleblowing website, Wikileaks.

“While Sarkozy seems forward-leaning (he reportedly considered French disinvestment before being dissuaded by advisors), thus far France remains unprepared to implement unilateral sanctions,” the cable said.

France’s business presence in Burma is substantial. It is led by oil giant, Total, which operates the controversial Yadana oil and gas project along with US company Chevron. According to EarthRights International, the project has netted the ruling regime $US5 billion, much of which stays out of the official government budget.

Like Washington’s policy to Burma, the EU sanctions currently in place against the junta that block European partnersips with the Burmese government but do not force the withdrawal of companies there before sanctions were implemented. Thus Total and Chevron have been able to stay, despite reports of widespread human rights abuses related to Yadana.

Moreover, the French government has steadfastly refused to order it to leave Burma. Its comment that Paris was “unprepared” to join the US sanctions programme was set amongst praise for other actions it has taken on Burma, notably in the UN Security Council.

But what lies behind the mixed bag of French policy to Burma goes beyond purely economic reasons, says Matthew Smith, head of ERI’s Burma programme.

“The main reason why Total has not pulled out is mostly to maintain a French presence in a geopolitically valuable part of the world,” he said, adding however that there are concerns that if Total pulled out, the space would be taken by a Burmese or regional company with a worse human rights record.

Vested interests in the French government at the time of the cable may also play a significant role. Five years before Stapleton’s message back to Washington, Total had paid Bernard Kouchner, who later became French foreign minister, €25,000 ($US33,000) to carry out an assessment of the company’s work in Burma.

After the publication of the report, Kouchner told Le Monde that “Nothing allows me to think that the group could have lent a hand to activities contrary to human rights”. Regarding allegations of forced labour, he added that “I am 95 percent sure that the Total people are incapable of that; they are not slaveholders”.

Smith thinks otherwise. “That project has generated multi-billion dollar profits for the regime and there have been thousands upon thousands of instances of human rights abuses directly connected to Total’s presence,” he said. As recently as February, ERI documented two targeted killings close to the Yadana site that were carried out by a Burmese army battalion providing security for Total projects.

“Kouchners’s relationship with Total would colour his assessment of the company’s human rights impact in Burma,” Smith said. He added that he was “deeply critical” of the report, which based “very definitive conclusions about Total’s presence in Burma” on a “very brief trip to the pipeline area”.

He claims that it is “these types of thin assessments that oil companies in Burma have relied upon to convince investors that they are a benefit to Burma rather than an obstacle to human rights protection”.

The cable continued that Sarkozy had “urged French companies to freeze future investments”, a policy that is more in line with the EU sanctions package and Stapleton’s demand that the US “appeal to Sarkozy to redouble French efforts within the EU to push for tough sanctions” on Burma.

http://www.dvb.no/news/%E2%80%98cablegate%E2%80%99-exposes-french-business-concerns/13183

Dam projects inked as cronies prosper

Thursday, 2 December 2010
By JOSEPH ALLCHIN

Three agreements on future dam construction in Burma were signed on Friday last week at a ceremony in Rangoon, with plans inked for a second dam in the Shweli region of Shan state.

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the Bilin Creek dam in the country’s eastern Mon state was also signed off, as well as the transfer of running the Thaukyegat dam in Karen state to the government. All three ventures were done through Build Operate Transfer (BOT) systems, a form of public-private financing.

China-based Huaneng Lancang River Hydropower Co. Ltd will construct the Shweli 2 dam in collaboration with Asia World, which is owned by junta crony Lo Hsing Han and his son Steven Law. The capacity of the dam is expected to be around 460 megawatts (MW).

It comes as further evidence of increased muscle power of junta cronies in the post-election economy, after Yangon Airways, the only private airline not close to the regime, was forced to suspend operations.

Rumours are also circulating that Max Myanmar, which is owned by junta crony Zaw Zaw, will be rewarded contracts for the Tavoy port project in southern Tennasserim division.

While Asia World will likely construct and run the Bilin Creek dam on their own, they look set to play second fiddle to Huaneng Lancang in the Shweli project. The Yunnan-based company is already operational in the region on the Salween basin hydropower project, and contractors there include the Htoo Group, which is owned by powerful tycoon, Tay Za, and has on its board Aung Thet Mann, son of senior government minister Shwe Mann.

Construction of the first Shweli dam began in 2007 near the village of Man Tat, and came under considerable condemnation at the time from activist groups and local Paulaung villagers displaced by the project.

According to Sai Sai, from the Burma Rivers Network organisation, “Shweli 1 is already complete and most of the electricity goes to China so none of the community have been benefitting from this project. Instead the community has been suffering from forced labour, [displacement], and has been restricted from walking on their own farmland”.

Whilst few details of the BOT agreement were made public, Ren Peng, from the Chinese environmental group, Global Environmental Institute, said they had urged Chinese developers to abide by Chinese standards.

“In terms of environmental standards, it’s low [in Burma]. As a Chinese NGO we encourage them to adopt higher standards”, he said, adding that the BOT system in their experience gave developers greater scope to insist on environmental measures than if the project was undertaken by just a contractor. “To be a developer they have more space to adopt higher environmental standards.”

However, Sai Sai disagrees. “There are no bodies monitoring the standards. Under this [Burmese] government there are no institutions that make sure these companies make impact or environmental assessments, and none consult the local people.

“I think right now if you compare it to Thailand or China and what they do in their countries, the affected communities there are consulted, so that’s why they avoid these places and come to Burma and do whatever they want.”

Distribution of the benefits, namely the use of the electricity generated, will be one of the most controversial issues. Ren Peng said: “The fact is that the people, the local communities, do not benefit anything from these electricity projects.”

Burma has long been beset by severe power shortages, including in the major cities of Rangoon and Mandalay where lack of investment in electrification is woeful. As a result, the streets of Rangoon host private generators that run on imported diesel – a sight that is almost as ubiquitous as the beggars.

But not so in the new capital, Naypyidaw, which was built with the help of Asia World and Htoo Group. The latter is also set to act as a contractor in the first thermal hydropower project for turbines in the secretive city. The deal for this project was signed in August and will be built by Huaneng Lancang, making it the first such power plant developed with foreign capital.

http://www.dvb.no/news/dam-projects-inked-as-cronies-prosper/13172

Airtime scrapped for ‘political’ artists

2010-12-02



Kyaw Thu’s wife, Shwe Zeegwat, is also included in the ban, along with writer Than Myint Aung, who is in the FFSS. Joining them are singers Saung Oo Hlaing and Than Thar Win, rapper Anegga, punk-rock musician Kyar Pauk and film directors Maung Myo Myin, Min Htin Ko Ko Gyi and Cho Tu Zaw.

Around a dozen entertainment artists were yesterday blacklisted by Burma’s information ministry and will no longer be given airtime on television and radio stations.

The list of those banned includes singers, actors, directors and writers, as well as the former actor Kyaw Thu, who now runs the acclaimed Free Funeral Service Society, an official at Yangon [Rangoon] City FM radio station told DVB. The majority had visited the care home for HIV patients in Rangoon that was initially ordered to close following a visit by Aung San Suu Kyi last week.

Kyaw Thu’s wife, Shwe Zeegwat, is also included in the ban, along with writer Than Myint Aung, who is in the FFSS. Joining them are singers Saung Oo Hlaing and Than Thar Win, rapper Anegga, punk-rock musician Kyar Pauk and film directors Maung Myo Myin, Min Htin Ko Ko Gyi and Cho Tu Zaw.

http://www.dvb.no/news/%e2%80%98cablegate%e2%80%99-exposes-french-business-concerns/13183

Wikileaks Says Burma Passes Asean News to Beijing

Thursday, December 2, 2010
By BA KAUNG
















Burma, along with Laos and Cambodia, might be working for Beijing as spies within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), according to a US cable leak attributed to Singapore's Minister Mentor, Lee Kuan Yew.

“Within hours, everything that is discussed in Asean meetings is known in Beijing, given China's close ties with Laos, Cambodia, and Burma,” a secret cable stated, quoting Lee Kuan Yew in a conversation with US Deputy Secretary of State James B. Steinberg on May 30, 2009.

According to a leaked text posted on the Wikileaks website, the cable was sent from the US Charge d’Affaires in Singapore, Daniel L. Shields, to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in June. The conversation, which was aimed at “eliciting MM Lee’s views on China and North Korea,” took place in Singapore's Presidential Palace.

Lee Kuan Yew was also quoted as saying in the same conversation that “Beijing is worried about its dependence on the Strait of Malacca and is moving to ease the dependence by means like a pipeline through Burma,” referring to China's major oil pipeline construction from Burma's Arakan coast to China's Yunnan province.

As China's strategic ally, Burma often seeks China's support in the United Nations whenever its human rights record is raised. And China is widely assumed to wield influence on the Burmese regime.

The leaked cable also referred to an earlier discussion between MM Lee and China's Deputy Chief of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) General Staff, Ma Xiaotian. Lee was quoted as recalling that when he asked Ma Xiaotian what China could do about North Korea, the Chinese official replied: “they [North Korea] can survive on their own.”

“MM Lee said he interpreted this as meaning that even if China cut off aid, the DPRK (North Korea) leadership would survive. This is a leadership that has already taken actions like killing ROK (South Korean) Cabinet Members in Burma,” the cable stated, referring to an incident in which North Korean commandos attempted to assassinate South Korean President Chun Doo-hwan during an official visit he made to Rangoon in October 1983.

The attempt to kill the South Korean president with a bomb was widely believed to have been masterminded by North Korean leader Kim Jong II before he succeeded his father Kim II Sung.

Among the hundreds of thousands of US diplomatic cables leaked by the Wikileaks website, there is little mention of Burmese issues. But in its website, it stated that there are over 3,000 records related to Burma. The documents remain inaccessible to the public but are expected to be released soon.

While the Wikileaks website lists US embassies around the world as sources for much of leaked information, the US Embassy in Rangoon is not included.

In another leaked memo released on Nov. 28 but dated July 31 2009 with its original source being US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Burma was mentioned as one of the priority issues in US foreign policy.

The memo mentioned a request for reporting of biographic information relating to the United Nations, including information about “credit card account numbers; frequent flyer account numbers; and work schedules.”

Regarding Burma, the memo asked for information on “Views of UNSC (United Nations Security Council) and member states on Burma” and also plans and intentions of the UN Secretary General on Burma and level of trust in his Special Adviser, who was then Nigerian national Ibraham Gambari. Also, views were sought from Burmese officials on the UN Chief and his special adviser; the development and democratization activities of UNDP in Burma; and details of the UNDP Resident Coordinator's relationship with Burmese officials.

http://www.irrawaddy.org/

Myanmar restricts speech of new parliament members

AP
YANGON, Myanmar -Freedom of speech for members of parliament in military-controlled Myanmar will be restricted under laws that dictate the functioning of the newly elected government.
The curbs announced Friday in an official gazette also set a two-year prison term for any protest staged within the parliament compound.
They come after elections this month that were swept by the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party. Final results have yet to be announced, but a tabulation based on state media reports shows the party garnered nearly 80 percent of the seats in the two-house Union Parliament.
The laws, signed by junta chief Gen. Than Shwe, stipulate that parliamentarians will be allowed freedom of expression unless their speeches endanger national security, the unity of the country or violate the constitution. They also provide a two-year prison term for those who stage protests in the parliament compound or physically assault a lawmaker on its premises.
Also, anyone other than lawmakers who enters the parliament hall when the body is in session faces a one-year prison term and a fine.
The military has ruled Myanmar since 1962 and the Nov. 7 vote was widely criticized as unfairly designed and fraudulently executed.
The Union Election Commission has repeatedly corrected announced results that showed turnout exceeding 100 percent in some constituencies and when two pro-junta candidates were declared winners in constituencies in Kachin State where elections had been canceled.
The results ensure the military retains power behind the scenes as well as overtly in parliament, which will become a powerful body. The president, who will come from the ranks of the victorious party, will appoint Cabinet ministers and can call the military to step in case of a national emergency.
The previously elections in 1990 were overwhelmingly won by the National League for Democracy, led by Aung San Suu Kyi, but the military did not recognize the results.
Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, was recently released from her latest period of house arrest. She has been in detention for more than 15 of the last 21 years.

AN OPEN LETTER TO THE PARTIES AND THE MEMBERS WHO CONTESTED THE 2010 “SHAM ELECTIONS BY PRO-DEMOCRACY ACTIVISTS OVERSEAS

AN OPEN LETTER TO THE PARTIES AND THE MEMBERS WHO CONTESTED THE 2010 “SHAM ELECTIONS BY PRO-DEMOCRACY ACTIV...