Although the heightened Army presence provided some reassurance
for the construction team as far as security was concerned,
it
was aware of the burden that the troops' presence might put
on the villages near the pipeline. The question here was
how
to reconcile the
contradiction between a generous socio-economic program in
the launch phase and the increased military presence. Like
many armies
in poor countries, Myanmar's has scant equipment or logistics
resources and tends to live off the land. It has been severely
criticized by leading international organizations for its
use of forced
labor,
for example making villagers build barracks or porter equipment
and food.
In late 1995, Village
Communication Committees informed Total that incidents involving
forced labor had occurred. The Group responded immediately and
unambiguously.
 |
 |
|
1. The operator made it known at all appropriate levels that recourse to
forced labor would not be tolerated* and that civilians working for the Army had
to consent and be paid. |
|
|
|
2. MGTC,
which was building the pipeline, provided victims of forced labor whose
cases were reported by the villages with support in kind or in cash,
calculated as if the people concerned had been employed, not conscripted.
The same process was applied when equipment such as boats or buffalo
carts were requisitioned. These humanitarian gestures were not compensation,
since neither Total nor MGTC was even indirectly the cause or beneficiary
of the forced labor, but were intended to send a strong message that
forced labor was unacceptable and to oblige the Army to change the way
it operated. |
|
|
|
3. Total asked the communication officers and physicians in its Socio-Economic
Program to closely monitor relations between the villagers and the Army
to prevent abuses, to intervene immediately if any occurred and to
ensure that the
aid provided was received by the intended beneficiaries. |
|
|
|
4. Finally, to prevent the heightened military presence from causing
food shortages or driving prices up, Total deployed a food aid
program that donated
large amounts of rice, fish and other staples purchased outside the area. |
Incidents, although inevitable in this fairly challenging political and
cultural environment, very quickly became increasingly rare. The credit for this
goes to the careful monitoring by the Socio-Economic Program teams and the
ongoing support given to Total by its partner MOGE, which fully adhered to the
co-venturers' determination to respect and promote human rights in the pipeline
region and worked effectively with the Army to achieve this. The steps taken
produced two results:
|
|
|
After March 1995, no further incidents representing a serious threat to the
site occurred, despite sporadic incursions into the region by small bands of
guerillas. |
|
|
|
Total's actions protected the villagers from the risks associated
with a temporarily heightened military presence, and the benefits
of the Socio-Economic
Program provided a sustainable foundation for the trust-based relationship
the Group enjoys with the villagers. No villages were relocated
because of Total; in
fact, in 1997, the Group arranged for the villagers of Michauglang (a
village that had been relocated around 1991, long before the project
began) to return to their former home. |
