Unocal plans to stay in Myanmar, CE

[dohrs@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Texaco said the same.  Arco said the same.  Pepsi said the same.  Heineken
said the same. Many others said the same.  Then they left.

On Fri, 21 Aug 1998, Myanmar no O Tomodashitashi wrote:

> Unocal plans to stay in Myanmar, CEO says 
> 05:52 p.m Aug 20, 1998 Eastern 
> 
> HOUSTON, Aug 20 (Reuters) - Unocal Corp. plans to stay in Myanmar,
> despite calls by human rights groups for its withdrawal, Chairman and
> Chief Executive Officer Roger Beach said on Thursday. 
> 
> Beach said Unocal also would gladly do business in Iran, if it weren't
> prohibited from doing so by U.S. sanctions, which he said were
> damaging to the U.S. economy and politically ineffectual. 

He's also gladly funneling millions of dollars to the Taliban, which is
busy de-educating and enslaving Afgan women.  And he's gladly handing
millions of dollars to Burma's generals who, according to the ILO report
issued this week, consider the people of Burma to be a vast pool of slave
labor to do with as they wish.  Perhaps not coincidentally, Burma and
Afganistan are the two major suppliers of the world's heroin.  In fact,
Unocal shareholders called for the company to investigate allegations of
drug money laundering through their Burmese partnership with the
narco-junta, but Beach blocked the effort.  Gladly, I guess.

> 
> ``Engagement is the answer, not isolation. I'm very proud that we're
> in Myanmar. We've done a lot of good work there and they've learned a
> lot from us,'' Beach told a meeting of Houston's Asia Society. 

Yes, in their five years of partnership with the Burmese junta, during
which tens of thousands of Burmese citizens have fled the area of the
junta/Unocal/Total pipeline project, Unocal has helped the junta learn the
art of big money lobbying.  They and Unocal have spent millions of dollars
in an ongoing attempt to buy their way out of US sanctions.  Thank
goodness grass-roots level activists have kept them from succeeding.  What
else have they learned, Mr. Beach?  

> 
> Unocal, with a 28.3 percent stake in the Yadana offshore gas field, is
> the last major U.S. oil group with interests in Myanmar after Atlantic
> Richfield Co.'s recent withdrawal from the nation. 
> 
> Human rights groups, angered by the military government's clampdown on
> pro-democracy activists, have been pressing foreign companies to pull
> out of Myanmar. 

No, it is the elected leaders of Burma, unhappy with Unocal's blatent
support of what the Wall Street Journal calls "Burma's ruling thugs," who
have been pressing for Unocal to withdraw.  But Unocal, so greedy that it
will sell others into slavery for a small profit, brazenly ignores the
Burmese.

> 
> But Beach said U.S. and other foreign companies could exert a positive
> influence on economic, social and political conditions through their
> investments in Asian countries. 
> 
> He pointed in particular to Unocal's long presence in Indonesia, which
> he said had contributed to the emergence of a middle class that had
> demanded greater democracy, culminating in the resignation earlier
> this year of President Suharto. 

Bah.  Unocal helped prop up the hated and corrupt Suharto long after he
had outlived his usefulness to Indonesia.  To take credit for Suharto's
overthrow is hypocrisy at its most laughable. 

> 
> In his address to Houston's Asia Society, Beach said if the United
> States lifted its unilateral sanctions, Unocal would move into Iran
> and other countries that were currently off limits. 
> 
> ``I would become engaged in Iran...I would be happy to look at all
> (countries) that aren't involved in known terrorist activities,'' he
> said, in response to questions. 

But places that are involved in known narcotics trafficking, that's a
different story... Unocal loves those places.  And of course he pretends
not to know about the Burmese junta's repeated incursions into Thailand,
to rape, to kidnap, to burn, to loot, to murder.  If that isn't terrorism,
what is?

> 
> Beach also said the United States should further help Japan stabilise
> its currency because he believes that economic recovery in Japan is
> crucial to ending the broader crisis in the region. 
> 
> And, in response to reporters' questions after his speech, Beach
> laughed off speculation that Unocal might be in the mood to merge,
> adding: ``My phone hasn't rung.'' But he didn't completely rule it out
> either, saying, ``if somebody is foolish enough to spend too much
> money, you have to consider that.'' The questions followed on the
> heels of last week's announcement by British Petroleum Co. 
> 
> Plc and U.S.-based Amoco Corp. of their intent to merge in a
> stock-swap deal valued at $49 billion. 
> 
> On Thursday, Unocal's stock rose 50 cents to $35.69 a share in
> composite New York Stock Exchange trading. 

This doesn't note that Thailand's PTT is now desperately working to free
itself of the contractual obligation to pay Unocal for Burmese natural gas
that is not even flowing through the notorious pipeline.  Unocal is not
likely to see any profit from the 300 million dollars they've put in, and
after the generals fall, Unocal is uniquely positioned to be shown the
door by Burma's legitimate, elected government.  The liar Beach will then
be a failure not only as a man, but as a vulture.  And there is not much
lower that one can go on this earth. 

> 
> ((Andrew Kelly, Houston bureau +1 713 210 8508)) 
> 
> 
> 
>