Mounting Global Opposition to the Shwe Gas Project in Burma

Tuesday, April 18th marked the second Global Day of Action against the Shwe gas project in western Burma. Activists in 14 major cities around the world gathered at South Korean embassies and Daewoo International offices to protest the human rights and environmental abuses associated with the Shwe gas development project in Burma. Daewoo International and Korea’s state gas corporation jointly own a 70% stake in the gas development. Actions were held in Thailand, Malaysia, India, Bangladesh, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, France, Australia, the Netherlands, Hong Kong, Japan, and the Philippines.


Protesters gather outside the London headquarters of Daewoo international.
Activists called for Daewoo International to discontinue their support for Burma’s military junta, their business partner in the development. Due to the severe human rights abuses that will accompany the Shwe project – including forced labor, forced relocation, land confiscation, and violence such as rape, torture, and murder activists – asked that the Shwe gas project in Burma be immediately halted.

The events received extensive media coverage in over thirty-three major newspapers across the globe, as well as extensive coverage over Burmese language radio outlets such as BBC, VOA, and Radio Free Asia.

Shouting slogans such as ‘Daewoo: Out of Burma’ and ‘No Way, No Shwe’, activists exercised rights denied to those living under military rule in Burma, the rights to assembly and expression in defense of human rights and the environment.

Representatives for EarthRights International attended one of the largest protests in Delhi, India, where Shwe gas activists, Indian academics and civil society groups met for a two-day seminar and protest rally. Organized by Delhi-based groups The Other Media and The Shwe Gas Campaign Committee, the seminar was an important opportunity for activists to clarify the Shwe gas situation in light of current geo-politics and past experiences with natural gas development in Burma. Protest actions in Malaysia and Thailand resulted in nearly 100 arrests of activists. A crowd of protesters gathered at the South Korean embassy in Bangkok, Thailand, where 30 Burmese activists were arrested. Most of the protesters were under the protection of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and after a short period of detention at the Immigration Bureau were sent to UNHCR camps in Mae Sot district, along the Thai-Burma border. About 10 of the protesters carried work permits issued to registered alien laborers and were released later after having their documents checked. One of the activists said she had joined the protest even though she knew she could be arrested stating “It's not a crime. If we do not fight for our country, who will?".


An activist being arrested in Malaysia. Photo: Malaysiakini.com


Delhi, India. Photo: Mizzima News


Dhaka, Bangladesh
Meanwhile over 120 Burmese activists attended a peacefully rally in Malaysia, which resulted in 83 arrests. The protestors remain in detention and their futures remain uncertain; deportation to Burma will result in a transfer of custody to the SPDC and certain imprisonment. EarthRights International and the international community encourage the Malaysian authorities to act in sound judgment and in the spirit of justice, as the protesters did.

Both situations demonstrate some of the difficulties faced by exiled Burmese communities in Southeast Asia, and the uncertainties faced when they exercise their civil and political human rights, the same rights that are systematically denied to the 52 million people living in Burma today.

Groups of protesters gathered in Dhaka, Bangladesh, where exiled Arakan activists turned out en masse despite similar security concerns. London, England; Paris, France; Toyko, Japan; Ottawa, Canada; Seattle, USA and The Hague, Netherlands were the sites of additional protests and actions, amplifying the defense of human rights and the environment to authorities in those countries.

The Shwe project is expected to include the construction of two overland natural gas pipelines from the gas deposits in Burma’s Bay of Bengal: one to India and the other to China. The pipeline to India will pass through Arakan and Chin states in Burma, landing in Northeastern India, while the pipeline to China’s Yunnan province will pass through Shan State and Burma’s “dry zone,” where approximately 25 per cent of Burma’s population resides, amid a deepening humanitarian crisis. Both routes traverse sensitive and important ecosystems that are home to endangered species and integral to the survival and subsistence of local people, such as the Kaladan River in Arakan State, access to which will be affected by the India pipeline, not to mention environmental threats to the river and its marine life.

Shwe, which means “gold” in Burmese, is the given name of the natural gas deposit which is owned by a consortium comprising private and state-owned companies from South Korea and India. The Korean based company Daewoo International is the largest investor of the international Shwe gas consortium, holding a 60 per cent share. The Korean government has provided Daewoo substantial supportive loans for Shwe gas exploration, and the Korean state-owned KOGAS holds a ten percent share in the project, while the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation of India (ONGC) and the Gas Authority of India Ltd (GAIL) hold 20 per cent and 10 per cent, respectively.

The prized A-1 gas block in the Bay of Bengal comprises three confirmed deposits – Shwe (Gold), Shwe Pyu (Platinum), Ngwe (Silver) – and a fourth unconfirmed well known as Nila (Sapphire). These deposits are collectively one of the world’s largest, holding an estimated 12 tcf of gas, worth over US$60 billion.


A former porter who escaped and who dares not to return home. Click here for a photo essay on the situation of porters in Buma. Photo: EarthRights International

Previous pipeline projects in Burma involved severe and gross human rights abuses, and enabled environmental degradation and the illegal trading of wildlife and logging. The Yadana gas pipeline, which was a project of the US-based company Unocal and the France-based company Total, involved the forced relocation of thousands of people to secure the pipeline corridor; locals were forced to porter heavy loads for the military; the increased militarization brought rape, torture, and murder to otherwise relatively peaceful villages; and in a country in which forced labor is endemic and has been used around every major development project since military rule began in 1962, villagers were forced to work on project infrastructure, including roads, bridges, and helipads.

In an unprecedented victory for human rights, in 2005 the United States-based oil and gas giant Unocal agreed to compensate Burmese villagers who had sued in US courts for complicity in forced labour, rape, and murder associated with the construction of the Yadana gas pipeline. The US courts found Unocal potentially liable for the severe abuses directly associated with the gas development project of which they were the largest stakeholders. (for more information about the Unocal case and settlement, please click here.)

Opposition to the Shwe gas project, to the investments from South Korea and India, to the end-users India and China, and of course to the military junta in Burma are growing, and International Days of Action will continue until appropriate attention is given to the basic earth rights of the struggling people of Burma.