New Database Lists Over 325 Corporations with Burmese Business Links
BRUSSELS (October 28 2002) -- On 28 October, on behalf of the Global Unions Group, the ICFTU is releasing a new database of over 325 foreign companies with business links to Burma -- links that help to sustain the brutal and repressive dictatorship in that country. While some prominent companies have withdrawn since the initial release of the database one year ago, Global Unions have added a further 92 companies which continue to do business with Burma or have been pursuing business links with the junta.
With UN human rights envoy Paulo Sergio Pinheiro currently in the country, the ICFTU is re-iterating its call for governments around the world to impose a ban on investment in the country, as well as for companies to stop doing business there.
Latest additions to the database, which lists major investments as well as other forms of trade and business links such as tourism, include British American Tobacco (BAT) subsidiary Rothmans Pall Mall Myanmar Private Ltd which, in a joint venture with Burmese company UMEH, owns a cigarette factory in a military-owned industrial estate in Mingaladon township; Suzuki (in which General Motors has a 20% stake) which has a
sizeable investment in Burma making cars and motorcycles; Pinault-Printemps-Redoute, which imports clothes made in Burma; Shin Corporation, a telecoms group linked to the family of Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Chinnawat; and Austrian Airlines which is planning to operate flights to Rangoon from November 2002. Other major companies with links include Hyundai; Korean Gas Company with Daewoo; and LG Electronics.
The ICFTU underlines that the very fact of doing business with Burma provides support to the Burmese military dictatorship. The military junta approves each foreign direct investment through its foreign investment body and a number of companies are in joint ventures with junta-controlled front companies. The Burmese regime is directly responsible for the extensive and increasing use of forced labour and a wide range of other grave human rights abuses, and is heavily implicated in money-laundering and the production of opium and other illicit drugs.
Further evidence alleging connections between foreign companies, the junta and the use of forced labour was included in a 350-page dossier submitted by the ICFTU to the International Labour Organisation (ILO) last week. The dossier contains testimony from Burmese trade unionists and villagers, given at great risk to their personal safety, detailing the continued and growing use of forced labour by the military, including on infrastructure projects linked to foreign company operations. The dossier also includes allegations from Burmese villagers that forced labour has been used in connection with road building and other infrastructure work connected to the Yadana pipeline operation, a joint venture of TOTALFINA-ELF, UNOCAL, Thailand's PTT-EP
and the junta-controlled MOGE.
The ICFTU and the Burmese trade unions support the view of Aung San Suu Kyi, leader of the pro-democracy movement, who has recently re-stated her call for stronger international sanctions aimed at restoring
democracy in the country. "Despite striking evidence to the contrary, some multinationals continue to maintain that business links with Burma are beneficial to the Burmese people," explained Guy Ryder, "yet
evidence of continued use of forced labour and other human rights violations continues to pour in. It is appalling that one of the world's most savage dictatorships continues to be propped up by foreign
companies. We are calling for all these companies to sever links with Burma and for governments to take stronger action to stop investment in the country and ensure a return to democracy", Ryder concluded.
The database can be found at:
http://www.global-unions.org/burma/default3.asp
Each of the companies in the database have business links with Burma, have been in direct contact with the officials of the regime or promote tourism in the country. The database lists the information available on each individual company (starting from 15 November 2000), and copies of correspondence from those companies which have replied to correspondence from the Global Unions Group.
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The ICFTU represents 157 million workers in 225 affiliated organisations in 148 countries and territories. ICFTU is also a member of Global Unions: http://www.global-unions.org
For more information, please contact Louis Belanger ICFTU Press Officer on +32 2 224 0232 or Mobile +32 476 62 10 18.
- 116 Human Rights