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THE NATION: Suu Kyi lashes out at



Politics 

      Suu Kyi lashes out at oil
      company's investment in
      Burma

      LONDON -- Burma's pro-democracy leader
      Aung San Suu Kyi has strongly criticised
      the Premier Oil investment in Burma,
      saying its deal with the Burmese junta
      ''does a great disservice to the cause of
      democracy'' and ''contributes to repression
      in the country''. 

      She charged the British oil company with
      being ''very selfish'' and of sending the
      wrong signal to the Burmese regime, which
      could then argue that ''however repressive
      they may be, they still have the support of
      big companies''. 

      ''And if these [companies] are from
      Western democracies, it's even more
      serious, because it gives the military
      regime a chance to say: 'Look: even
      companies from Western democracies
      support us, so what we are doing can't be
      that wrong,' '' said Suu Kyi in a video
      statement recently smuggled out of Burma. 

      Meanwhile a London-based Burma
      human-rights group has launched a
      campaign to push the British government to
      impose unilateral financial sanctions on
      Burma in order to prevent investments such
      as Premier Oil's. 

      In press statements released ahead of the
      second Asia-Europe Meeting, the Burma
      Action Group said a new analysis by Essex
      University concluded that ''it is legally
      possible for a member state [of the
      European Union] to impose a ban on
      foreign investment in Burma''. 

      ''Significantly, the financial sanctions can be
      imposed for 'serious political reasons and
      on grounds of urgency','' said the summary
      of the legal analysis, done by Steve Peers,
      director of the university's Centre for
      European Commercial Law. It also said the
      ''criterion seems easy to meet in the case
      of Burma''. 

      Financial sanctions can run the gamut from
      very limited restrictions on direct investment
      to a complete ban on new direct investment
      with divestment orders and asset freezes, it
      added. 

      In her message, Suu Kyi questioned the
      British government's sincerity and
      expressed doubt about why the British
      government's tough stance against Burma
      was not translated into firm action to curb
      the economic activities of British
      companies such as Premier Oil. 

      She charged the British company with
      being ''very selfish'' and said the company's
      project was not only supporting the
      Burmese regime financially: ''It is also
      giving it moral support, and it is doing a
      great disservice to the cause of
      democracy.'' The Burmese Nobel Prize
      laureate added: ''It should be ashamed of
      itself.'' 

      In 1990, Premier Oil and its partners
      Petronas of Malaysia, Nippon of Japan and
      the Petroleum Authority of Thailand entered
      into a US$700-million deal with Burma's
      state-owned Myanmar Oil and Gas
      Enterprise for the development and sale of
      gas in the Gulf of Martaban. 

      In an interview last week Yvette Mahon,
      director of the Burma Action Group, said
      her organisation was trying to push
      individual members of the European Union
      to impose unilateral sanctions on Burma as
      earlier attempts for a collective EU
      measure had been blocked by major
      member countries, particularly France and
      Germany. 

      BY YINDEE LERTCHAROENCHOK 

      The Nation