News conference to stop Burma's natural gas project

Narinjara News: 24July 2006

A news conference by activists ranged against the Burmese junta, aiming to stop the military government's largest natural gas project in Arakan State, was held in Dhaka yesterday.

The news conference marked the release of a report on the Shwe Gas project and its effects on ordinary people in Arakan. The report, "Supply and Command" was produced by the activist group, Shwe Gas Movement.

The conference was organized by the Shwe Gas Movement, and was attended by Bangladeshi social and student activists and journalists.

A Bangladeshi academic from Dhaka University, Dr. C.R. Abrar said at the conference that, "The junta's Shwe Gas project is like the projects in our country. Instead of providing the natural resources to local people, they are selling them overseas. The benefits are not going to enrich people's lives. As a good neighbour, we sympathize with the people of Burma. We shall cooperate with them."

SGM Bangladesh Coordinator, Soe Linn, said that the report will expose to the whole world how the Burmese junta is trying to fund itself through this major resource project, at the expense of the already impoverished ordinary people. Foreign companies investing in the Shwe Gas project in Arakan, as well as the people of neighboring countries will pay attention and be able to prevent the project from moving forward.

The Shwe gas deposit in Arakan Sea, was found in 2003, by a consortium of South Korean and Indian gas companies. The Korean company Daewoo International holds 60 percent of the Shwe Consortium, while 10 percent is held by Korean Oil and Gas, 20 percent is held by the Indian company ONGC, and the remaining 10 percent is held by the Indian company GAIL. Fuel starved India and China are interested in acquiring natural gas from the Shwe and other deposits off the Arakan coast.

The report, "Supply and Command", highlights that the exploration, extraction and distribution of the gas from the Shwe deposit through a pipeline to India will further entrench the junta, which continues to perpetrate some of the world's worst human rights abuses. The Shwe Gas Movement activists who wrote the report elaborated on the facts of the situation to journalists at the news conference.

Bangladeshi activists and students attending the conference also signed a petition against the junta's oppression of the people of Burma.