Total has read the report* published by EarthRights International (ERI) on April 29, 2008 on the Yadana project in Myanmar. While we share ERI’s desire to see living conditions improve for the people of Myanmar, we strongly repudiate the allegations made against the gas consortium as a result of ERI’s wrongly linking the Yadana project and human rights abuses.
It is unfortunate that ERI did not feel it necessary to contact us to discuss the situation relating to human rights in the pipeline corridor. If it had done so, serious errors of fact, mix-ups and guilt-by-association allusions would have been avoided.
The report merely contents itself with reiterating criticisms concerning the supposed ineffectiveness of the socio-economic programs introduced by the gas project partners more than ten years ago. Moreover, the report includes testimony related to human rights abuses, most of which occurred outside the consortium’s host region. A number of the allegations made would be difficult to verify, because ERI does not specify places, dates and names in combination.
Because we are in daily contact with the villagers in the pipeline corridor, we hear of any human rights abuses immediately and ensure that they are corrected. Unacceptable practices are systematically reported and the perpetrators are prosecuted. This was the case of the soldiers found guilty of the rape committed near the village of Zinba in 2005, as mentioned in the report.
Similarly, Total is attentive to the local population and regularly expresses its deep concerns about forced labor. The pipeline corridor is by and large free of this intolerable practice, as confirmed by independent reports.
Lastly, we would like to point out that the people living in the pipeline corridor — whose numbers have increased significantly over the last ten years — want us to stay on and continue our socio-economic initiatives. There is also a contradiction in the ERI report, which calls for the joint venture to suspend operations, but also to step up its social and economic activities. This would seem to tacitly acknowledge that they benefit the villagers.
We suggest that you consult the report published on April 30, 2008 by the CDA Collaborative Learning Projects, Inc. (see http://www.cdainc.com), an independent organization whose main concern is improving the living conditions of the people of Myanmar. Such an improvement requires that responsible companies remain nearby, enabling villagers to benefit from the education, health and economic programs that they would be deprived of if EarthRights International’s recommendations were acted on.
The ERI report claims to be a reasoned argument in favor of Myanmar’s economic isolation, which has already had serious repercussions on ordinary citizens without altering the political situation one iota. The report is designed to force responsible companies to withdraw from the country, without taking into account the negative impact that withdrawal would have on the people of Myanmar. Total will continue its operations in Myanmar which help to improve living standards there.
* Earth Rights International, The Human Cost of Energy, April 2008
http://www.earthrights.org/files/Burma%20Project/Yadana/HCoE_pages.pdf
