Norway earns big bucks on Total Oil’s investments in Burma

While Norwegian Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik warns private investors against getting involved in Burma, the Norwegian Petroleum Fund, a state entity established and controlled by the Norwegian Parliament, has Total Oil, outed on this website last week as one of the worst blind-eye silent collaborators to the Burmese regime?s gross human rights violations, as its biggest investment. The two biggest opposition parties want Bondevik to stop all co-operation, direct or indirect, with one of the world?s worst regime?s in human rights terms. (3-MAR-05)

This article is a translated excerpt from Jostein Lovaas?s article in yesterday?s edition of the Norwegian newspaper Dagens Naeringsliv. It has been edited for republication here. 

-This is a shameful moral collapse, says Oistein Djupedal, deputy leader of Sosialistisk venstreparti (the Socialist Left), the second biggest opposition party. Djupedal is furious that the Petroleum fund owns shares worth 5,7 billion Norwegian kroner, the equivalent of more than 900 million USD, in Total. The other concerned voice comes from Arbeiderpartiet (Labour), not only the biggest opposition party, but by some margin the biggest party in Norway overall.

-Financial and political means must go hand in hand
Total operates a gas field off the coast of Burma, and was recently named by the Norwegian Burma Committee, a member of the Norwegian Human Rights House in Oslo, as one of the key international financial guarantors of the military regime. -For as long as we haven?t made an impact through political means, we shouldn?t let our money go there either. We have to make sure financial and political means go hand in hand, says Haakon Blankenborg, a seasoned Labour spokesperson, especially on foreign affairs and human rights. Both Djupedal and Blankenborg are members of Parliamentarians for democracy in Burma (PD Burma), an international network established in 1996 by Bondevik, the current Norwegian PM.

-The PM is a friend of a free and democratic Burma, but…
Former Minister of Oil and Energy, Marit Arnstad, now MP for Senterpartiet and she, too, a member of PD Burma, also dislikes the Norwegian Burma connection. -Burma is possibly the only country towards which the Norwegian PM has issued a clear and unconditional warning against any and all investments. In view of this, it is a dilemma that state funds are being used to invest right there, she says. MP Oivind Halleraker, representing Hoyre, the Right, and yet another PD Burma member, needs more time to familiarise himself with the case, but admits that the Total investment may seem paradoxical. PM Bondevik was not available for comment yesterday, but has voiced his commitment for a free and democratic Burma on several occasions. In an interview with NorWatch in May 2004, he also gave praise to “those who have stopped doing business with Burma”.

-France protects Total, at the expense of the Burmese
The French Oil giant Total operates the gas field Yadana off the coast of Burma. According to the British Burma Committee, Total pays close to 450 million USD in taxes to the military regime. This makes Total the biggest pax payer in Burma, a country where the authorities spend half the state budget on its army, compared to somewhere between two and four percent on health. According to the Burma Committee, it is Total?s interests in Burma that are the main reason why France objected to EU?s proposed sanctions against the country. While US introduced such sanctions in 1997, Norway has yet to do so. The international network of Burma committees, consisting of more than forty national sections, recently launched an international campaign against Total, accompanied by a 40-page accusational report.

-It will only get worse if we leave, Total spokesman says
“Unfortunately, the world’s oil and gas reserves are not necessarily located in democracies,” says Total’s own website, with clear reference to the company’s business in Burma. Furthermore, Total absolutely rejects the picture painted of the company now as someone out there to exploit a country’s resources without paying attention to the social and political situation within which it operates. -Pulling out now would do more harm than good, says Total?s spokesperson Philip Gateau. -The only victims would be the country?s own population. We believe BUrma needs more openness, more dialogue and more commitment. Beyond claiming it is marginal, he refuses, however, to declare how much his company pays in taxes to Burmese authorities. He also draws attention to the fact that his company has spent 12 million USD on various social initiatives. Finally, he rejects the claims that Total is guilty of making use of forced labour.

-Double standards
Mark Farmanir in the British Burma Committee is not impressed. Instead, he is confident that the Burma Committees? joint efforts will succeed in forcing Total out of Burma, just like they have already made Premier Oil and British American Tobacco leave. Aase Sand (right) in the Norwegian Burma Committee comments that the Norwegian double standards display an unprincipled weakness, and the fact that our PM describes himself as a friend of a free and democratic Burma only makes it worse. -When Bondevik urges Norwegians to keep out of Burma, the least one could expect was that the government set a positive example by keeping out itself, concludes Sand.