BurmaNet News, October 1, 2004

[Editor]

October 1, 2004, Issue # 2571

INSIDE BURMA
Irrawaddy: Rangoon to circulate new bank notes

ON THE BORDER
Bangladesh Daily via BBC: Bangladesh daily reports Rohingya refugees “Acts
of terrorism”
Burma Issues: Landmines: When repatriation becomes an act of murder

BUSINESS / MONEY
Xinhua: South Korea to enhance training for Myanmar farmers
The Statesman: Assam wants Stilwell road reopened

REGIONAL
Irrawaddy: Rangoon slammed at migration symposium

INTERNATIONAL
Xinhua: Chinese foreign minister discusses UN role with counterparts
The New York Times: Thai eager to succeed Kofi Annan in 2 years

OPINION / OTHER
The Independent: If shaking hands with tyrants seems bad, what about their
corporate friends?

______________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

October 1, Irrawaddy
Rangoon to circulate new bank notes - Aung Lwin Oo

Burma’s Central Bank will circulate new currency notes this month, the
government’s mouthpiece, the New Light of Myanmar, reported on Friday.

The new 1,000, 500 and 200 kyat notes are identical to those already in
circulation except that they are smaller in size. All three notes will be
reduced to a dimension of 15 x 7 cm, though the legal tender currently in
use will continue to be in circulation.

The explanations and images of the new notes covered a full page in
today’s edition of the New Light, although no reason was given for issuing
the new notes.

A Rangoon resident said it is too early to gauge the impact of the Bank’s
move, but added that “people are usually deeply suspicious of such news”.

Dr Zaw Oo, a Burmese economist who works with the US-based Burma Fund,
said, “The inflation rate will surely increase if new bank notes are
circulated.”

He also warned that the announcement could trigger a spree of panic
buying, as consumers rush to purchase basic goods and foods in fear of an
economic collapse.

 In 1987, Burma’s military government demonetized several denominations of
kyat, sparking an outrage among the public which some believe led to the
nationwide democracy uprising in 1988.

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER


September 30, Bangladesh Daily via BBC
Bangladesh daily reports Rohingya refugees “Acts of terrorism” - Dainik
Janakantha

The Kutupalong Rohingya refugee camp in the southeastern Ukhiya
sub-district along the Cox's Bazaar coastline by the Bay of Bengal is now
in the grip of dangerous acts of terrorism. The refugee camp, some few
hundred yards from the Bay, has now turned into a haunt of local
terrorists and Rohingya rebels. (passage omitted on background)

Kutupalong is one such Rohingya refugee camp that abounds with local
terrorists and Arakanese rebels. Sources said that the Rohingya rebels are
well armed and beyond the control of the administration. The refugee camp
has also been beyond its control for the last three months. Various
addictive drugs, including heroin, marijuana, and hashish, are freely
bought and sold in the camp. Hundreds of local terrorists have established
cordial relations with the rebel leaders and taken shelter in the camp.
They carry on their criminal attacks in collusion with each other. The
armed Rohingya leaders have been committing whatever crimes they wish.
(passage omitted)

According to official sources, the Kutupalong camp is meant to accommodate
8,000 listed refugees. However, several thousand additional outsiders stay
in the camp. Owing to corrupt practices of a section of dishonest officers
and employees, the condition in the camp has further deteriorated. These
officers and employees earn huge sums of money through corrupt practices
with rationed goods. Sources said that the fundamentalist groups among the
Rohingya refugees are usually iniquitous and ruthless; others are
innocuous and harmless. The fundamentalist groups are equipped with
sophisticated arms. On any minor issue, these fundamentalist militant
groups come out with arms in hand against their opponents. The situation
has deteriorated so much in the camp that the fundamentalist militants do
not hesitate to threaten the officers and employees managing the camp. On
a recent occasion, these fundamentalist Rohingya cadres roughed up a
female employee of the World Food Programme (WFP). After the incident, the
workers and employees of the international donor agencies abstained from
their work in the camp due to the lack of personal security.

Sources said that 8,177 people from 1,180 families now live in the
Kutupalong Rohingya refugee camp in the southeastern Ukhiya sub-district
of the coastal resort district of Cox's Bazaar. They are listed refugees
from the western Burmese state of Arakan. Kutupalong is situated on the
fringe of Bangladesh across Burma, now Myanmar. Rohingya repatriation has
been stopped for the last four months. The inmates of the refugee camp are
divided into two groups. One section of the refugees wants to go back to
their homeland in Arakan. They are fewer in number. Those who refuse to
return home are known as puppets in the hands of the extremist Islamic
fundamentalists. Among them are the armed militants and terrorists. As a
matter of fact, these armed cadres belonging to the Islamic fundamentalist
group control the Kutupalong refugee camp.

There are 107 government officers and employees including one batch of
police and village guardsmen, which totals 54 police and village
guardsmen. But they idle away their time; they have no job to do. The
reason is that the fundamentalist militants do not obey their orders. One
invisible force has created division among refugees in order to check
their repatriation. This invisible force wants to derive some benefit out
of the camp. The Dainik Janakantha collected all of this information in a
day-long on-the-spot investigation conducted on 27 September. (passage
omitted on robberies, crimes)

Local Union Council Member Baktyr is aware of the militancy of some of the
fundamentalist Rohingya leaders. Baktyr told the Dainik Janakantha that
some of the Rohingya leaders have modern firearms at their disposal. The
local terrorists who have taken shelter in the camps also possess
firearms. For this reason, repatriation of the Rohingya refugees to their
homeland has been suspended for the last four months, he added. (passage
omitted)

_____________________________________

October 1, Burma Issues
Landmines: When repatriation becomes an act of murder - Santipap

As the cease-fire talks continue between the Karen National Union (KNU)
and the Burmese military junta, the issue of refugee repatriation keeps
emerging. Previously, once a ceasefire agreement has been reached between
two conflicting parties, Thailand has forced Burmese, Laos and Cambodian
refugees across the border back into their homelands. However, as Karen
state is one of the most heavily mined areas in Burma, once the process of
repatriation begins the refugees will constantly be wondering: is this
step going to be their last?

Presently there is a verbal ‘gentlemen’s’ ceasefire, however, talks to
make this tentative agreement permanent are continuing. The fourth round
of talks, which were due to occur in August have been rescheduled to take
place next month1. Karen rebels have been waging a revolution against the
Burmese government for more than half a century. Whilst the ongoing
dialogue is seen as a positive sign, it has come under some criticism from
Karen villagers because of the lack of involvement of external
organisations such as the United Nations2. Regardless of whether a
ceasefire is reached, it will take time before the people trust the
agreement. In recent interviews, some internally displaced people (IDPs)
living in Karen state admitted that they would return to their village,
only after the ceasefire had been sustained for at least four years3.

One reason for this mistrust is that the principles of a ‘gentleman’s’
ceasefire are very different from the realities. Ideally, the estimated
200,000 IDPs in Karen state would be able to return to their homes, rather
than continue precariously living in the jungle without food, shelter,
clean water and medicine. The battles between the Karen National
Liberation Army (the armed wing of the KNU) and the junta’s troops would
have ceased. There would be no more forced labour, including making people
act as a human mine sweepers, at least in the ceasefire area. And neither
side should be laying anti-personnel mines, especially in areas where
civilians live and travel.

Unfortunately the realities are some what different. Since January there
have been more than 200 armed skirmishes between the KNLA and the junta’s
troops4. IDPs continue to live in the jungle, with the idea of returning
to their villages being little more than a dream. The State Peace and
Development Council (SPDC) still regularly use villagers and prisoners as
forced labour. And sources have recently confirmed that the junta’s troops
continue to lay landmine on paths used by villagers and in IDP areas5.

These are the harsh realities of the SPDC/KNU ceasefire. And this is the
life the Karen refugees will return to, if they are repatriated back into
Burma. As Thailand is not a signatory to the 1951 Convention Relating to
the Status of Refugees, the main international treaty protecting refugees,
the Karen people who have been living in camps along the Thai-Burma border
have no legal status in this country. The Thai government is merely
obliged to allow these people to take temporary shelter while hostilities
occur in their own countries. Once the fighting has subsided Thailand is
legally allowed to force the refugees back across the border.

And for decades this has been the principle that has influenced the Thai
government’s attitude towards refugees. During the Khmer Rouge days,
Cambodian’s fleeing fighting were allowed to enter Thailand until the
hostilities ceased, and then, regardless of landmines or whether they were
entering a free-fire zone, they were forced back across the border, to
wait for the next lot of fighting to begin. Similarly, in 1994, the Thai
government forcibly repatriated Mon refugees into Burma once a verbal
ceasefire agreement had been reached between the SPDC and the New Mon
State Party, an armed Mon ethnic insurgent group. Following the Mon
repatriation many people, however, were used as forced labour and suffered
from the militarization of their homeland6.

And the Mon people did not return to their homes. The SPDC military troops
are known to burn and loot villages that people have had to flee. Instead
of returning to their villages, the Mon refugees are still today forced to
live in relocation sites, which are under constant military surveillance.
For those who did return to their villages, they discovered that the SDPC
had laid landmines around villages, on paths used by villagers and in rice
paddies and fields. If Thailand repatriates the Karen refugees, they will
return to a similar fate.

After 50 years of civil war in burma, Karen state and other ethnic border
areas are littered with landmines. The use of anti-personnel mines has
been an effective strategy for all parties troops, their subsidiaries and
at least 15 ethnic insurgent groups, such as the KNLA. Despite claims on
both sides of the conflict that they mark mine fields, there is no
systematic recording system of landmines in Burma. Partially because there
are so many different groups using them, but also because the Burmese
Ministry of Defense denies that their troops use landmines or even the
existence of them within the country. There are allegedly some indicators
to let villagers know that the path has been mined, such as crosses on
trees and branches being broken across a paths, but there is no sign or
symbol which that solely represents minefield. Combatants allege that they
give verbal warnings to villagers of where landmines have been planted.
But victims interviewed by Nonviolence International, a Bangkok based
non-government organisation and representative for the LandMine Monitor
Burma, have never mentioned receiving such warnings.

While the true extent to landmine incidents in Burma will always remain
hidden, what is known is shoking. Half of the people injured by landmines
die, one-third are civilians and more than half are under 26 when they are
wounded. More than 90 per cent of landmine survivors loss at least one
limb, 40 per cent receive eye injuries, such as blindness and impaired
vision, and 21 per cent suffer from complete or diminished hearing loss7.
It is estimated that in Karen State there is one civilian landmine amputee
every day.

Following injury it takes, on average, a 12 hour journey through jungle
and militarized areas to receive medical treatment. One man traveled 21
days after stepping on a landmine before he reached a jungle hospital8.
Medical facilities in Burma are very limited, especially in ethnic areas.
That is why 46 per cent of landmine victims travel to Thailand where they
receive treatment. However, for the people who remain in Burma, receiving
medical attention can be a matter of luck, because permanent, well stocked
clinics with trained medics are rare.

Even if Burma had the world’s best medical facilities, prevention is
without a doubt better than any cure. However, there is no humanitarian
landmine removal occurring in Burma, and what is being conducted by the
military is undertaken for the benefit of the military only, not the
civilian population. The worst method of mine clearance used by the SDPC
troop’s is forcing villagers to act as human mine sweeps. They make the
villagers walk across minefields with the aim that they will detonate any
mines. If the human mine sweeps are made to clear the mines, it is done
with their hands, without any landmine clearing training.

Landmines do not discriminate between their victims – they kill and harm
all people equally. With one amputee in Karen state every day, it is
obviously not a safe environment to repatriate refugees back. If the Karen
refugees could return home, and remain in one piece, they would. They do
not want to return to death, or amputations. Their homeland has become a
battle ground for a civil war that has been raging for over half a
century. The very least they deserve is to be able to return home without
constantly playing a game of Russian roulette with their feet, and their
lives.

Endnotes
1 Interview with BI Field Staff, September 2004, Mae Sot
2 “Cease-Fire in Karen State: Phoney Truce or Fragile Peace”, Burma Issues
Newsletter, April 2004
3 Information from Kwe Ka Lu Staff (Karen Newspaper), September 2004,
Kanchanburi
4 “KNU to resume ceasefire talks with Junta”, The Irrawaddy, July 29, 2004
5 Information provided by Kwe Ka Lu Staff (Karen Newspaper), August 2004,
Kanchanburi
6 “Negotiating Cease-fire: The Art of Disillusion in Mon State”, Burma
Issues Newsletter, December 2003
7 “Analysis of the Impact of Landmines in Burma”, Nonviolence
International, 2002, Thailand
8 Ibid
_____________________________________
HEALTH/AIDS



_____________________________________
BUSINESS / MONEY

October 1, Xinhua
South Korea to enhance training for Myanmar farmers

South Korea has planned to enhance training for farmers in Myanmar by
opening more related courses for them as part of the two countries'
cooperation program in the sector of agriculture.

The current visit of President of Canaan farmers' School of South Korea
Kim Bum-il has discussed plan for the move with Prime Minister General
Khin Nyunt, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation
Friday.

Aimed at improving agricultural development and progress of agricultural
technology in Myanmar through educating leading farmers, the Myanmar
ministry and the South Korean Canaan Farmers' School jointly built and
opened the Myanmar-Canaan Farmers' School in 2002 in Pyin Oo Lwin in
northern Mandalay division under a memorandum of understanding on mutual
cooperation.

The training center has conducted short-term, long-term and graduate
studies level training programs in the fields of agronomy, including
agricultural economy, research and engineering.

Technical cooperation between the two countries is also being carried out
for the development and production of mushroom, apple, orange, tea,
coffee, grape and ginseng in Myanmar. The cooperation also covers transfer
of technology and supply of planting materials, related equipment and
agro-chemicals.

Agriculture represents the mainstay of Myanmar's economy with more than 70
percent of its population engaged in farming. It accounts for about 42
percent of the gross domestic product and 33 percent of the total export.

_____________________________________

October 1, The Statesman
Assam wants Stilwell road reopened -Bijay Sankar Bora

Encouraged by the Prime Minister's proposed presence during the
inauguration of the Asean car rally here in November, the Assam government
is planning to raise its long-standing demand for the reopening of the
historic Stilwell Road, which would go a long way in reviving its
centuries-old trade link with Myanmar and China. This was stated by chief
minister Mr Tarun Gogoi during an interaction with the media on the state
government's preparation for the inaugural ceremony. "We are taking
advantage of an occasion as big as this to raise our demand for the
re-opening of Stilwell Road", he said. He said the state government is
likely to raise the demand during the inauguration, to be held here on 22
November, which will be attended by Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh. The
inaugural bash will also be graced by the foreign ministers of all Asean
countries and their Ambassadors to India besides the CEOs of industries
sponsoring the event and participants. The 1,000 km Stilwell Road, built
by British engineers during World War II, links the coal town of Ledo in
Upper Assam to Kunming in Yunan province of China. But 300 km of this road
passes through extremist-dominated Kachin area in Burma, a fact that has
made the government apprehensive about re-opening it despite demands from
Assam and a few other Northeastern states. Mr Gogoi also said the rally
will actually hit the road from the historic Judges' Field here on 23
November when it will be flagged off by him. Mini car rallies from
Kanyakumari, Panjim, Shimla and Gandhi Nagar will reach here on 21 via
Kolkata to merge with this rally, which will cover an 8,000 km long
journey through member countries such as Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam,
Cambodia, Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia. It will end in Batam, in
Indonesia on 11 December. About 100 participants from India and other
Asean countries will participate in it. Special dinners and cultural
functions providing a flavour of the North-east are being planned.
_____________________________________
REGIONAL

October 1, Irrawaddy
Rangoon slammed at migration symposium - Yeni

Burmese migrants are placing a burden on Thailand and there is a
conspicuous lack of cooperation from Burmese authorities, said an official
speaking at a Mekong regional migration symposium in Chiang Mai on Friday.

The official from the Department of Immigration in Chiang Mai, who was
introduced only as Witaya, claimed that the arrest, detention and
deportation of Burmese migrants is “an endless cycle.”

“We send them [back to the border], then they come in again. So it’s
repetitive work,” said Witaya. He also added that when Thai authorities
send Burmese migrants to the border,  “Burmese soldiers in certain area
don’t accept them.”

Representatives from labor rights groups, NGOs and officials from
Thailand, Laos and Cambodia attended the symposium organized by the Mekong
Migration Network, the Action Network for Migrants, the MAP Foundation,
the Asian Migrant Center and the International Organization for Migration.
The meeting runs September 30 to October 2.

According to the organizers, Rangoon declined to send a delegate, despite
being invited.

“I think it’s not enough time to present the whole situation about migrant
issues in Burma,” said an NGO worker from Rangoon who asked for anonymity.
He also said that he was scared to go back home because some activists
from the border are at the meeting. “I didn’t know they were here.”

At the forum, activists from Burmese migrant workers’ rights groups
including the Thai Action Committee for Democracy in Burma, or TACDB, the
Shan Women’s Action Network and the Yaung Chi Oo Workers Association (a
labor rights group based in Mae Sot) also attended.

“I hope that even though it is absent [from the symposium], the Burmese
regime could review their policy on migrant workers through
representatives here,” said Myint Wai from the TACDB. He added that the
meeting offers hope for better and safer conditions for Burmese migrant
workers in Thailand.

Moe Swe of the Yaung Chi Oo Workers Association said his view was one of
“cautious optimism.” “The daily life of Burmese migrant workers in
Thailand has never changed. But I believe we can achieve what we aim [for]
through cooperation.”

_____________________________________

INTERNATIONAL

September 30, Xinhua
Chinese foreign minister discusses UN role with counterparts

PRC (People's Republic of China) Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing, in New York
to attend the 59th UN General Assembly, on 29 September met separately
with 59th UN General Assembly President and Gabonese Foreign Minister Jean
Ping, Belarusian Foreign Minister Syarhey Martynow, Sudanese Foreign
Minister Mustafa Uthman Isma'il, Comoros Foreign Minister Souef Mohamed el
Amine, Vanuatu Foreign Minister Barak Sope Maautamate, Pakistani Foreign
Minister Khurshid Kasuri, Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan, South
African Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, Burmese Prime Minister's
Office (Labour) Minister Tin Win, and Jamaican Foreign Minister Keith D.
Knight. They exchanged views on bilateral relations as well as
international and regional issues of mutual concern.

Li Zhaoxing said that only by adhering to multilateralism and adopting
collective action can global threats and challenges be met effectively,
can there be advances in the democratization of and the rule of law in
international relations, and can general security and common development
be realized. Li Zhaoxing stressed that the United Nations is the most
universal, authoritative, and representative international organization,
and that it is an important venue for the realization of multilateralism.
All nations have the responsibility and duty to continually strengthen the
core role that the United Nations plays in international affairs, he
added.

All sides praised China for actively promoting the development of
multilateralism and strengthening the role of the United Nations. They
expressed willingness to make joint efforts with China, to adhere to the
path of multilateralism, to strengthen the role of the United Nations, and
to collectively respond to threats and challenges.

Li Zhaoxing also expounded on China's stance on the Taiwan issue. Jean
Ping and other foreign ministers all reiterated that they will adhere to
the one-China stance and oppose having Taiwan participate in the United
Nations and other intergovernmental international organizations.

While meeting with South African Foreign Minister Zuma and Pakistani
Foreign Minister Kasuri, Li Zhaoxing said he hoped that the two countries
would earnestly protect the safety of local Chinese citizens. The two
nations stated they will adopt corresponding measures.

Li Zhaoxing thanked Jamaica for volunteering to serve as the host country
for a "China-Jamaica economic and trade cooperation forum" proposed by
China. The Jamaican foreign minister said that the forum will be
beneficial to the promotion of friendly cooperative relations between the
Caribbean countries and China.

_____________________________________

September 30, The New York Times
Thai eager to succeed Kofi Annan in 2 years – Warren Hoge

Thailand's foreign minister, Surakiart Sathirathai, a Harvard-educated
lawyer with a background in politics, finance and international economics,
has emerged as an early favorite to succeed Kofi Annan as secretary
general when his term ends in 2006.

Mr. Surakiart, 46, became the front-runner after the 10-nation Association
of Southeast Asian Nations, known as Asean, endorsed his candidacy on
Wednesday in a meeting on the fringes of the opening of this year's
General Assembly session.

''It's only a beginning with a long road ahead, but it is a very important
beginning,'' Mr. Surakiart said in an interview on Thursday before
addressing a lunch meeting at the Asia Society.

He said that his candidacy had received ''positive'' responses from other
powers in the region, including China, India, Japan and Pakistan, and that
he would welcome the job as a way to ''encourage a higher level of
tolerance and moderation and to cultivate a culture of peace.''

Richard C. Holbrooke, former United States ambassador to the United
Nations, said he thought Asia's rallying behind Mr. Surakiart made him the
odds-on choice.

Nancy Soderberg, vice president of the International Crisis Group and a
former senior American diplomat at the United Nations, said, ''As long as
Asia can unite around one person and he can be seen as fully qualified,
that could be the end of the debate.''

But Edward Luck, professor of international and public affairs at
Columbia, said: ''I don't think this has as much momentum as it might
appear. Historically the early candidates don't get the prize at the end,
and very often commitments made early on don't hold up.''

Past contests for the position have been bruising affairs, with various
regions advancing and withdrawing many candidates and intense deal-making
going on in the Security Council before a choice emerges to be sent to the
General Assembly for its secret vote endorsement.

Mr. Annan's second five-year term ends on Dec. 31, 2006, and he is not
expected to try for an unprecedented third. By then, Africa will have
occupied the position for 15 years. Mr. Annan, who is from Ghana, followed
Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt, a country which is part of the African
regional bloc at the United Nations.

There is widespread agreement at the United Nations that Asia deserves the
choice this time. The continent's only secretary general, U Thant of
Burma, stepped down in 1971. Other United Nations chiefs have come from
Europe -- Trygve Lie of Norway, Dag Hammarskjold of Sweden and Kurt
Waldheim of Austria -- and the Americas -- Javier Perez de Cuellar of
Peru.

There had been talk in United Nations corridors of plans by Eastern
Europe, which has never had the post, to come together around the
candidacy of Poland's president, Aleksander Kwasniewski.

But Ambassador Stefan Tafrov of Bulgaria denied there was any such plan in
the works. ''As far as the Eastern European group is concerned, it has
never taken a position in this regard,'' he said.

The Thai prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, announced in June that Mr.
Surakiart would be his country's candidate, and the Thais have lobbied
hard since then to gain wider recognition for the relatively unknown
foreign minister.

Asked for American reaction to Mr. Surakiart, Noel Clay, a State
Department spokesman, said, ''It's premature for the United States to
comment on any particular candidate.''

Mr. Surakiart has law degrees from both Harvard and the Fletcher School of
Law and Diplomacy at Tufts and a doctorate in law from Harvard.


_____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

October 1, The Independent
If shaking hands with tyrants seems bad, what about their corporate
friends? – Johann Hari

This week, there has been a fuss about Jack Straw accidentally shaking the
hand of the Zimbabwean tyrant Robert Mugabe. Yet BAE Systems - the people
who sold him the tools for his tyranny - have been handing out glossy
brochures at the Labour Party conference all week without a single angry
glance or a single protesting article. And that's only one of many long,
lingering trails of blood to run through the Brighton conference centre.

Every year, the friends and accomplices of some of the worst human rights
abusers in the world mill around our party conferences, smiling at
delegates and trying sweetly to coerce ministers into serving their
interests.

We do not usually notice these people because they are treated as private
companies like any other. They pay for lavish conference exhibitions and
exude respectability. But BAE Systems are a gang of arms dealers who have
equipped - among others - the House of Saud and the staggeringly vicious
Indonesian government. It is a matter of record that these weapons have
been used to murder innocent people.

And BAE Systems look like Amnesty International compared to some of the
corporations that are embraced by our most senior politicians. The centres
of British power are crawling with paid representatives of corporations
that directly profit from slave labour.

The oil company Unocal has a history of collaborating with murderers, from
the Taliban to the horde of butchers who have hijacked state power in
Burma (death toll: half a million and rising). The corporation is raking
in cash from a pipeline built and maintained by Burmese slaves. The
workers have no ability to leave and no rights whatsoever. The wages are
23 pence a day. If they protest about this, they face rape, torture and
death.

A crucial test case in Los Angeles at the moment is exposing Unocal's
behaviour in Burma during the 1990s. Refugees who managed to flee to
America testify that thousands of residents of their villages were forced
at gunpoint to work on Unocal's pipeline. This is the reality of corporate
"investment" in tyrannies.

How do our politicians and press respond to this? We do not condemn; we
welcome these companies into the Palace of Westminster. Their lobbyists
breakfast, lunch and dine our elected representatives every day.

And they get results: they get handed huge sums of your tax money, too.
Look at BP. They are key players in building a massive pipeline through
the Caucasus. You might think that, as a firm that constantly boasts about
being "good corporate citizens", they would take care to respect the local
environmental and labour laws.

In fact, they have demanded an exemption from all of Turkey's
environmental and human rights protections formulated by the country's
sophisticated democratic process. In the event of oil spills and deaths
caused by their project, they have ensured they will not have to pay
compensation. And the British government is contributing pounds 85m
towards the project - just in case BP's profits dip.

Well, you might ask, what did you expect? Big business will pursue profit
at the expense of human rights and the environment - and snatch as much
from the public purse as they can. What revelations will come in my next
column - Santa Claus isn't real?

But our government's policy towards corporations is based on precisely the
naive assumption that these corporations can be coaxed into behaving
decently just by asking nicely. Ministers have claimed for seven years
that they are trying to civilise corporations by encouraging them to
voluntarily adopt something called "Corporate Social Responsibility"
(CSR). Put simply, this means they are trying to get massive corporations
to agree to change their behaviour substantially without any legal
requirement to do so.

Corporate Social Responsibility is a dud. This week, Friends of the Earth
presented their annual Xpose Awards at Labour Party conference. These
gongs are awarded to the most blatant hypocrisies and deceptions to lie
behind corporations' glossy CSR brochures - and there are so many that the
CSR enterprise is exposed as a farce.

The most significant Xpose award went to the United Nations' Global
Compact for Multinationals. The UN tried last year - with noble intent -
to get the world's leading multinationals to sign up to 10 basic
principles, including respect for human rights and the environment. The
companies - including Nike and Starbucks - eagerly agreed, on the
condition that the compact promises not to "police, enforce or measure the
behaviour of companies". No need for any of that malarkey. Oh no - we can
all trust, instead, the "enlightened self-interest" of profit-driven
companies.

This exposes the hole at the core of CSR. Corporations are structured to
seek profit, full stop. Because they operate at the level of the globe,
they need to be bound by global laws. Everything else is waffle. This is
why supranational institutions such as the European Union are so
important. Pretending that companies will magically change and adopt real
CSR is a Blairite delusion that only staves off the day when proper,
effective international regulation is introduced.

We find it quite easy to recognise state tyrannies like Mugabe's or North
Korea's. It is much harder for us to recognise the capacity of
corporations to act as - to borrow a phrase from Noam Chomsky - private
tyrannies. It might sound strange at first to say that a company could
ever be tyrannical. But a tyranny is any group that has seized power
without having a legitimate claim on it. Sometimes they seize state power,
a la Saddam. But sometimes they co-operate with state power - like Unocal
- and sometimes they simply seize power in a vacuum, as employees of the
multinational Coke has been accused of doing in Colombia by employing
paramilitary "security forces".

What right does Unocal have to profit from the slavery of Burmese people?
What right does Coke have to wield such power over Colombian people? They
are not accountable to the people of Burma or Colombia in any way.

Don't get me wrong - this is not an anti-capitalist view, and I don't buy
the entire Chomskyite package. We need companies. Markets are an essential
part of any economy. But they are only part of it - they need to be
counterbalanced by strong regulations, democratic and environmental
protections, and trade unions.

In much of the world, this has been forgotten. Corporations have become
the dominant cultural institution and, as a result, some - like Unocal -
have become human rights-abusing monsters. Even in advanced democracies,
they are having an increasingly corrosive effect - just look at the
corporate buy-out of American democracy. Corporations need to be put back
into a social democratic cage, and fast. Shaking Mugabe's hand was bad -
but inviting private tyrannies into the heart of the Labour Party
conference is worse.



Ed, BurmaNet News