Burma's Shwe Gas Project: Another Nightmare?

By Jockai

Mizzima News (www.mizzima.com)

April 30, 2005

'Shwe' means gold to the Burmese people, who are great admirers of the yellow metal for a long time. They take pride in calling their nation 'Shwe Myanmar' as they describe oil and gas--'Shwe Mae'--meaning black gold, to signify their value to life. 'Shwe Mae' is a major source of foreign exchange earning for the country under the Burmese military regime.

But, with the discovery of a natural gas field in Arakan state, a controversy has snowballed into a major issue over the proposed tri-nation agreement for an oil and gas pipeline from Arakan to Kolkata (Calcutta), the eastern metropolis of India, across Bangladesh.

NGOs and local people are concerned that not only the pipeline and the exploration site will hardly benefit the local people, but they will also lead to human rights abuses.

Earth Rights International (ERI), a human rights group, has expressed such apprehension in its report over the project. ERI previously launched a campaign against the controversial Yadana gas pipeline project after it found communities living along the Yadana and Yetagun corridors being subjected to torture. There were numerous reports of judicial killing and rape of ethnic minority women by the Burmese military, out to evict the local inhabitants from the project site. Thousands of evicted people took shelter in refugee camps, while many others remained without shelter.

The anti-Shwe gas groups in exile are apprehensive that the current project has the same disastrous effect on the common people.

Carol Ransley, an assistance director of ERI, said going by the track record of the Military rulers, one cannot expect the project to come up without violation of human rights. Incidents of such violation have already poured in from Arakan with the army initiating clear-up action in the proposed pipeline areas.

"So far the army have already confiscated the plots of land and plantations from the local people and set up army stations in the Ponnagyun area to protect proposed pipeline. The Burmese soldiers have also forced the local people to clear the forests for army stations," said Kyaw Han, Chairman of All Arakan Students and Youths Congress. 

The 290-km proposed pipeline, starting at the oil field, will enter the northeastern Indian states of Mizoram and Tripura before running through Bangladesh and finally reaching Kolkata. It would be the first international pipeline for India.

The Shwe natural gas field was discovered by Daewoo International Corporation on the Western Arakan coast of the Bay of Bengal. It is the biggest find in the ASEAN region in a decade.

According to a report of 'New Light of Myanmar', a state-run newspaper, the profit coming from the proposed project, will be more than the combined earnings from the sale of gas to Thailand from Yadana and Raytagon fields.

As soon as the gas field was discovered, five additional forces of Burmese army were deployed in Arakan, Voice of Arakan reported in 2004. In November, last year, the Burma Light Infantry Battalion 34 forced more than 500 people, traditionally engaged in farming and fisheries in six surrounding villages of Kyaukpyu, to work for construction of the Yangon-Kyaukpyu, according to exiled Arakan League for Democracy (ALD).

Arakan, partly a coastal region, is one of the largest sea food producing states of Burma with most of the people depending on farming and fishing for their livelihood. 

After Daewoo started drilling natural gas fields in November 2003, authorities put a ban on fishing till early 2004 within the 27 - mile radius of the Shwe drill ship.

San Ray Kyaw, a spokesperson of the 'Shwe Gas Movement' from Thailand, said, "fishermen cannot access banned areas. If they even get close to the areas, they will be stopped, questioned and asked for money. If they refuse, they will be arrested." He stressed that it was very difficult for the local people to survive around the gas field and pipeline areas, and it would be no exception for those living in the Arakan project area.

Unocal, a US oil company and one of the biggest shareholders in Yadana, was sued by ERI in US courts over human rights abuses associated with the pipeline construction. Eight years later, on April 2, 2005, the case was settled out of court. The settlement, worth about 30 million dollars, according to a Wall Street Journal report, is being seen as a major victory for human rights and corporate accountability.

"We can be happy with the outcome," Ka Hsaw Wa, Executive Director of Earth Rights International, who lobbied against the US company on the Yadana project issue, said with a broad smile.

Ka Hsaw Wa said Unocal had no respect for human rights and the environment in Burma. Had it been so, the company would not have struck a business deal with the military dictators, the topmost human rights violators in the world. "By dealing with them you are marrying the most brutal dictatorship", he said.

By associating itself with the military regime, Daewoo is also equally responsible for direct and indirect human rights violation and destruction of environment, he observed.

ERI has made a commitment to work among the Arakan communities with a campaign on the Shwe Gas project and explore ways to prevent human rights abuses as well as obtaining justice for the suffering people in the project area.

(Jockai is a freelance journalist based in Thailand.)