The Norwegian shipping company Wilh. Wilhelmsen is establishing a service company in Burma, hidden behind the name of Makara Marine Contractors. The company’s activities will mainly target the oil and gas sector, which is one of the main sources of revenue for the Burmese military regime. (10-OCT-06)
Based on the Norwegian Burma Committee´s press release, this article has been prepared for publication here by HRH / Niels Jacob Harbitz.
The Norwegian Burma Committee (NBC), left, is shocked by Wilhelmsen’s choice to start business with the military dictatorship at odds with the call from the Burmese democracy movement, Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and the Norwegian Government to not invest in Burma.
-Wilhelmsen’s potential partners, such as Daewoo and Total, have blood on their hands. The military is responsible for the security at gas and oil projects, which has serious consequences for the population in the related area. This includes forced labour, forced relocation, and violence, says Åse Sand, information officer in NBC.
Daewoo Oil is the main investor in the planned Shwe gas pipeline project in the Bay of Bengal. NBC has already received reports of human rights violations in the Arakan state due to the increased militarization. And building pipeline has not yet even started.
Wilhelmsen claims the company has no problems defending their decision to invest in Burma. But the signals are contradictory: At the same time, the company chooses to keep a low profile and not use the Wilhelmsen company name.
-It is obvious that Wilhelmsen does not want to dirty its name. If the company thinks it is a problem to show that it operates in Burma it should be obvious also for Wilhelmsen that the company should pull out, says Sand, left.
9 October Aung San Suu Kyi, right, (Photo: IDEA) reached 4.000 days in house arrest. The junta that put her there is Wilhelmsen now going to cooperate with. It speaks for itself.
Makara Marine Contractors is owned by a company with the same name in Mauritius, which is owned by Barber Ship Management in Hong Kong. Barber Ship Management is part of the Wilhelmsen-group.
N24: http://n24.no/selskap/WWI/article1489705.ece
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Contact: Information Officer Åse Sand,
Tel: + 47 – 22 47 92 37 / Mobile: + 47 – 98 45 97 16
, hidden behind the name of Makara Marine Contractors. The company’s activities will mainly target the oil and gas sector, which is one of the main sources of revenue for the Burmese military regime. (10-OCT-06)
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