The allegations are put forward by the Washington DC and Thailand-based organization EarthRights International which launched the 40-page report entitled “Broken Ethics: The Norwegian Government’s Investments in Oil and Gas Companies Operating in Burma (Myanmar)”.
Fund invests in Burma
The Pension Fund has invested 4.7 billion dollars (26.8 milliards of Norwegian Krons) in 15 oil and gas companies from eight countries operating in Burma, mainly in the Yadana and Shwe (map below) projects.
The Norwegian Burma Committee says it has been waiting a long time for the Fund’s Council on Ethics to recommend exclusion or observation for companies involved in these projects. This report demonstrates that some action from the Council is overdue.
In 2004, Norway established the Ethical Guidelines to evaluate the ethics of the Fund’s investments, later establishing the Council on Ethics to interpret the Guidelines and screen companies to ensure the Fund avoids complicity in negative impacts of the companies in which it is invested.
Council inactive?
– The report is important because it gives an overall picture of the Fund’s investment in the military junta’s most lucrative sector. At the same time it is disappointing that the report is necessary. The Council on Ethics knows what is going on and could have acted on the basis of information it already has about these companies, 
says Ase Sand, Head of Information.
The Norwegian Burma Committee has worked on both the Yadana and Shwe projects for several years, especially focussing on the French oil company Total.
After a campaign in 2005 the Council on Ethics concluded that there were no longer ongoing systematic human rights violations linked to Total and limited risk of future violations. Therefore, the Council did not recommend exclusion, which the Ministry of Finance followed in its decision. The Norwegian Burma Committee thinks this was a wrong decision.
Third report
Since 2005 EarthRights International has provided further documentation that counter the Council’s conclusions and recommendation. In September 2009 EarthRights International launched two thorough reports about the Yadana project, which the Norwegian Burma Committee actively used in contact with the Council. But there seems to be no evolvement.
– It is frustrating. The Council on Ethics does not give any feedback, except that they follow Burma closely. Considering the documentation available on human rights abuses in these projects it is difficult to understand that there seems to be no development. I hope this report will make the Cou
ncil act, says Sand.
Details
According to EarthRights International, report “Broken Ethics” relies heavily on clandestine investigations by EarthRights International in Burma over the last three years. It presents new firsthand testimonies and evidence of human rights abuses connected to the controversial Shwe gas and oil transport pipelines currently under construction, and the notorious Yadana and Yetagun pipelines.
“Land confiscation, forced labor, and other abuses are happening now in connection to several large gas and oil pipeline projects in Burma,” said ERI Program Coordinator Naing Htoo, an author of the report. “There’s every indication abuses connected to these projects will continue, and in some cases worsen,” he added.
Contact
For more details please contact Ase Sand, Head of Information, Norwegian Burma Committee, mobile: + 47 915 76 251.
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