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Fueling the military junta that has ruled for decades are Burma's natural gas reserves, controlled by the Burmese regime in partnership with the U.S. multinational oil giant Chevron, the French oil company Total and a Thai oil firm. Offshore natural gas facilities deliver their extracted gas to Thailand through Burma's Yadana pipeline. The pipeline was built with slave labor, forced into servitude by the Burmese military.

The original pipeline partner, Unocal, was sued by EarthRights International for the use of slave labor. As soon as the suit was settled out of court, Chevron bought Unocal.

Chevron's role in propping up the brutal regime in Burma is clear. According to Marco Simons, U.S. legal director at EarthRights International: "Sanctions haven't worked because gas is the lifeline of the regime. Before Yadana went online, Burma's regime was facing severe shortages of currency. It's really Yadana and gas projects that kept the military regime afloat to buy arms and ammunition and pay its soldiers."

The U.S. government has had sanctions in place against Burma since 1997. A loophole exists, though, for companies grandfathered in. Unocal's exemption from the Burma sanctions has been passed on to its new owner, Chevron.

Rice served on the Chevron board of directors for a decade. She even had a Chevron oil tanker named after her. While she served on the board, Chevron was sued for involvement in the killing of non-violent protesters in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria.

Like the Burmese, Nigerians suffer political repression and pollution where oil and gas are extracted and they live in dire poverty. The protests in Burma were actually triggered by a government-imposed increase in fuel prices.

Chevron’s Pipeline Is The Burmese Regime’s Lifeline

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When shareholders of the multinational company Chevron gather for their annual meeting in the U.S. city of Houston in late May, they will come face to face with Naing Htoo, whose community has suffered due to the exploits of the energy giant in military-ruled Burma.

 

"I want to expose what has gone on as a result of Chevron's investments in Burma," says the 30-year-old from the Karen ethnic minority. "The shareholders need to know where their money is going and the suffering it is causing."

 

Naing Htoo is hardly daunted by the challenge that lies ahead - his first opportunity to address Chevron's shareholders about the controversial Yadana natural gas pipeline in southern Burma. "It is an opportunity to use for change," he tells IPS of the window opened to him to address Chevron's shareholders between May 27 and 28.

 

The Karen activist's foray into U.S. corporate culture is timed to add pressure on Chevron shareholders. They are due to vote at the annual meeting on a proposal that would "require the company to disclose payments to foreign governments, including the junta in Burma," states EarthRights International (ERI), a Washington D.C.-based environment and rights lobby group.

 

But pressure on Chevron to be more transparent about its financial dealings in Burma is expected to mount from other quarters, too.

 

A groundbreaking bill before the U.S. Congress that has bi-partisan support could, if passed, compel companies profiting from oil, gas and mining to reveal details of payments to governments of countries they have invested in around the world.

 

Pressure Mounts on Energy Giant Chevron to Disclose Revenue

There were about 200

There were about 200 employers for 4,256 youths a year ago. "Starting this week we are running appeals on KRCC (91.5 FM) and putting ads in local business papers to encourage businesses to hire young people," PPWC spokeswoman Jeanne Cotter said. The Governor's Summer Job Hunt program has been in place in Colorado since 1981 and each Workforce Center in the system hires a part-time coordinator who matches teens up with at least three job referrals. The program placed at least 619 students with jobs last summer; the exact number is never known because the students don't always notify the workforce center when they find work. Over the past three years, employment numbers fell below economists' predictions. If this summer follows that pattern, it could be the worst teen summer jobs for 15 year olds market on record. "Normally, 20 months into the jobs recovery, teenagers would not only gain jobs, but they would begin to gain disproportionately," Andrew Sum, economist and author of the study told the Seattle Times. "This time around they've got zero."