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· Earth
Summit 101 Corporate Impacts Issue Briefs: Water, Biodiversity Polluted
Profits |
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Unocal in Burma |
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The Unocal Corporation is an oil and gas company based in California,
with operations in 14 countries around the world. Unocal has come
under fire for human rights abuses associated with a gas pipeline
project in Burma, the details of which have taken years to come
to light. Unocal claims to be committed to the respect for human rights
and the environment in all of their activities and the promotion
of responsibility for these ideals everywhere. The company puts
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on their website, speaks
of multi-party stakeholder processes, and attempts to join the
international humanitarian community. But Unocal does not advertise
that it uses the Burmese military, with one of the worst human
rights records in the world, as a security force for its investment
in Burma. In 1993, Unocal joined the French oil giant Total (now TotalFinaElf)
in developing the Yadana gas pipeline, which would transport gas
from offshore Burmese reserves, across Burma, and into Thailand.
Another member of the Yadana consortium is the state oil company
of military-ruled Burma, such that Unocal is in a direct partnership
with the Burmese government. From the beginning, Unocal denied that there were any human rights
abuses associated with the Yadana project. A 1994 report to Unocal
shareholders touted "absolute respect for human rights"
on the project. What Unocal did not disclose, however, was that
the project used the Burmese military to provide security and
other services, a military that was notorious for torture, murder,
rape, and the pervasive use of forced labor. Unocal's relationship with the military became public only after
it was sued by victims of the pipeline project. Lawyers for the
plaintiffs obtained U.S. State Department cables under the Freedom
of Information Act, which told of how Unocal officials stated
that they had "hired the Burmese military to provide security
for the project," and that they pay the army through the
state oil company. Internal Unocal documents, including correspondence
with Total, revealed that Burmese troops had been "assigned
to provide security" on the pipeline project, and that "four
battalions of 600 men each" were used to protect the pipeline
corridor. Human rights groups have gathered copious evidence that these
Burmese military battalions have committed countless human rights
abuses. The soldiers relocated villages, tortured innocent villagers,
murdered people without reason, and raped women. The most pervasive
abuse is forced labor, in which ordinary villagers are regularly
conscripted to work for the military, work that includes carrying
heavy loads of food and ammunition for the soldiers on their patrols.
The evidence of these abuses has been confirmed by a federal judge,
who found that the plaintiffs suing Unocal had evidence that "Unocal
knew that the military had a record of committing human rights
abuses; that the [Yadana] Project hired the military to provide
security for the Project, a military that forced villagers to
work and entire villages to relocate for the benefit of the Project;
that the military, while forcing villagers to work and relocate,
committed numerous acts of violence; and that Unocal knew or should
have known that the military did commit, was committing and would
continue to commit" human rights abuses. The revelation that Unocal is using the Burmese military to provide security for its project means that Unocal is complicit in every human rights abuse committed by these soldiers. If Unocal had been required to disclose this relationship from the beginning, it might have considered other options rather than admit that it was hiring one of the most abusive militaries in the world. Written by Marco Simmons |