Burma Update

While the ruling government in party continues to pay lip service to international demands by meeting with opposition leaders like Aung San Suu Kyi (and simultaneously rounding others up and keeping them under house arrest), Congress is trying to do something tangible that may put an end to the suffering of the Burmese people.

Lawmakers are advancing efforts to curtail energy giant Chevron's activities in Myanmar, which are said to provide significant financial support for the ruling military junta. The regime is responsible for recent violence against democracy activists.

Chevron is part of a multi-billion-dollar consortium that extracts and transports natural gas from the country, which has suffered weeks of violence by government troops against Buddhist monks, students and other pro-democracy activists, according to experts and human rights groups.

Much of the ruling junta's financial support comes from the royalties and other revenue paid by Chevron and the other members of the gas operation. The group paid more than $2 billion to the Myanmar government last year, according to the group Human Rights Watch.

U.S. sanctions largely prohibit investment in Myanmar by U.S. companies. Chevron's investment pre-dated the U.S. sanctions, and was grandfathered in by the ban. It is the only major U.S. company remaining in Myanmar.

That is absolutely shameful, and there should be activists in front of every Chevron station in America demanding that they get out of Burma and stop propping up a cruel dictatorship. I've been critical of Chevron for a long time, and their donation to my state party continues to rankle me. At the very least, organizations that have any affiliation from Chevron should be denouncing them on a daily basis.

The Congress is doing their part.

On Tuesday, the House Foreign Relations Committee unanimously approved a bill by its chairman, Rep. Tom Lantos, D-Calif., that would bar the firm from paying taxes to the government of Myanmar, or write off expenses relating to the project from its U.S. tax bill.

The legislation now moves to two other committees for approval, before it is voted on by the full House.

A similar Senate bill, sponsored by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., is awaiting action in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. That bill would make the earlier ban apply to Chevron's operation, and force the company to divest.

When the President made that big dog-and-pony announcement last week about new sanctions against Burma, none of them included sanctioning Chevron for doing business in the country. In case you weren't aware where his loyalties lay.

But he's out on an island when it comes to a Congressional bill. He can't have talked up democracy promotion and condemned Burma for this long only to veto a bill aimed at furthering precisely those goals. Or can he? It'd be the "freedom agenda" vs. the Supertanker Condoleezza Rice.

Burma Update

The military junta ruling Burma with an iron fist has found the last few activists not already in custody. Meanwhile, the junta claims that they found weapons in monasteries, which gives new meaning to the word "planted evidence." They're now trying to curry favor by offering food aid to the monks (the ones that are still alive, that is). And while peace talks have been scheduled with Aung Sun Suu Kyi, all kinds of preconditions have been placed on top of them, which Suu Kyi has rejected.

This is a desperate situation, with a country that is clearly violating international law and human rights conventions. China allowed a Security Council resolution condemning Burma to pass through, but is still actively trading with them. Real economic isolation is the first step to ending this madness.

The World Must Speak On Burma

There were small protests around the world today to call attention to the massacres and human rights atrocities in Burma that followed a government crackdown on pro-democracy reformers, including Buddhist monks. While the leader of the military junta has tentatively agreed to meet with reform leader Aung San Suu Kyi, he has only done so on the condition that she stop calling for popular resistance of his regime. This is a dodge, and an attempt to stave off additional sanctions in the world community. It should not be seriously considered.

What ought to be done is full economic isolation and a denial of all Burmese natural resources at market, and in particular, those multinational corporations still doing business with the military junta, like Chevron (they of the supertanker named after Condoleezza Rice), must cease immediately propping up the government with their payments of taxes in exchange for access to their resources.

Human rights activists urge the oil companies to take a principled stand.

"They need to strongly condemn what the government is doing and make their voices heard," said Arvind Ganesan, director of Business and Human Rights Program at Human Rights Watch. "Being silent isn't constructive engagement."

Chevron, Total and other oil companies have poured billions in Myanmar's booming natural gas industry in recent years. Natural gas projects generated $2.16 billion in revenue for Myanmar's military regime in 2006, according to Human Rights Watch. Human rights groups say the revenue from taxes and fees on the gas pipelines have become the largest source of cash for Myanmar's generals and have helped to prop them up.

"Whenever you have billions of dollars in revenue that flow directly to a government that does not express any interest in looking out for the benefit for its people, it certainly helps them stay in power," said Ganesan.

No excuses. And activists in this country can put pressure on companies like Chevron to do the right thing. Longtime readers know that I called on the California Democratic Party to return corporate donations from Chevron. This would be one reason why. They should be isolated as Burma is isolated, until they change their behavior.