115
civil society organisations and political parties from 20 countries
today submitted an open letter to China's President Hu Jintao calling
for the suspension of oil and gas pipelines through Burma in order to
prevent rights abuses and regional instability, avoiding financial and
image risks to China.
(Source: Shwe Gas Movement, 28 October 2009)
115
civil society organisations and political parties from 20 countries
today submitted an open letter to China's President Hu Jintao calling
for the suspension of oil and gas pipelines through Burma in order to
prevent rights abuses and regional instability, avoiding financial and
image risks to China. Petitions were submitted by the Shwe Gas Movement
and its solidarity networks at Chinese Embassies in Thailand, India,
Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, Malaysia, Australia, Sweden,
Norway, the Netherlands and the UK.

State-owned China National Petroleum Corporation holds a
majority stake in the construction of dual oil and gas pipelines which
will transfer oil shipped from the Middle East and Africa as well as
natural gas from the Shwe Gas fields in western Burma to China's Yunnan
Province. The project will provide the military junta a minimum of 29
billion US dollars over 30 years.
 
Abuses are already starting to surface in the project
area, including beatings of fishermen and fishing prohibitions in the
offshore drilling area as well as confiscation of land at the start of
the pipeline in Arakan State.

Burma ranks tenth in the world in terms of natural gas reserves yet
its per capita electricity consumption is less than 5% of neighbouring
Thailand and China, as it exports most of its energy resources.
Increased fuel prices led to country-wide demonstrations in 2007, which
were cracked down upon by the Burma Army.

"Land confiscation and other human rights abuses in the pipeline
corridor and exporting the oil and gas while people across the country
is facing energy shortages is a dangerous mix that will cause social
unrest and conflicts between local people and foreign corporations,
says Wong Aung, International Coordinator of Shwe Gas Movement.

Unresolved conflicts between the Burma regime and ethnic
ceasefire armies along the planned pipeline route in northern Shan
State led to a military offensive by the Burma Army in August forcing
over thirty thousand ethnic Kokang to escape to China.  

Last month the Danish Pension Fund Danica Pension
blacklisted one of the main stakeholders in the Shwe project, Daewoo
International, citing a "breach of international guidelines in
connection with its activities in Burma." Other pension funds are
reported to be monitoring the corporations involved in the Shwe gas
pipelines project.

"China has the power to suspend this project, and rather
that being part of the problem, becoming part of a long-term solution
by promoting equitable development of the people of the two nations and
peace in the region," says Kim , Shwe Gas Movement ,India.