Daewoo Named in Human Rights Complaint

By WILLIAM BOOT

BANGKOK—An American-based human rights organization has filed a complaint against South Korean industrial conglomerate Daewoo International alleging human rights abuses in Burma.

The organization, EarthRights International (ERI), alleges that Daewoo’s activities in developing a major gas field in Burma contravene guidelines on corporate responsibility and investment laid down by the Organization for Cooperation and Economic Development (OECD), based in France.

South Korea is a member of the OECD, which is made up of the world’s leading industrialized countries and maintains a permanent delegation in Paris.

ERI has also cited the Korea Gas Corporation (KOGAS)—which is owned by the South Korean government—in its complaint.

Daewoo is the main developer in a consortium that is developing Burma’s biggest gas find to date, the Shwe field off the west coast of Arakan near to Bangladesh.

The field has recoverable reserves of at least 6 trillion cubic feet of gas—virtually all of which is being purchased by China.

In the complaint filed in the South Korean capital Seoul, ERI alleges that “human rights abuses have been perpetrated against local people opposing Daewoo’s Shwe Gas Project.”

It says Daewoo’s plan to construct a trans-Burma gas pipeline to China “poses an unreasonably high risk of more serious and widespread human rights and environmental impacts.”

ERI alleges that Daewoo and its partner KOGAS are in breach of at least six OECD guidelines “by failing to respect human rights, contributing to forced labor, failing to promote sustainable development, failing to disclose information about the project, failing to consult with local populations and by failing to conduct an environmental impact assessment according to international standards.”

The U.S. organization says that land in Arakan linked to the Shwe project has been confiscated, as well as boats used by fishermen, who have been told that a large area of sea in the vicinity of the gas field is now off limits and under military supervision.

People who have opposed land and boat confiscation have been forced into hiding to escape army retribution.

ERI says there has been a “marked increase in militarization in the resource-rich Arakan State, with local people forced to build barracks, work in quarries, build roads and act as army porters.”

“Given the Burmese military’s well-documented human rights record and pattern of grave violations associated with large-scale development projects, and given the proposed plans of Daewoo and KOGAS to construct a cross-country pipeline from their offshore operations, it is foreseeable that without intervention these abuses and others will continue to occur and increase in connection to the Shwe Project,” said the ERI submission to the OECD.

The ERI says its research indicates that the 1,100-mile gas pipeline through Burma will pass through at least 24 townships and close by several large population centers in Arakan State and four other regions including Shan State.

“We’re confident the Government of South Korea will recognize the urgency of this complaint and respond with their commitment to human rights, international law and to upholding the OECD guidelines,” said ERI project coordinator Matthew Smith. “This is an opportunity for the (South Korean) government to stop Korean complicity in abuses happening now and to prevent more widespread and severe abuses from happening in the future.”

Daewoo and KOGAS own almost 60 percent of the Shwe gas development.