Total, Unocal may have used forced

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Total, Unocal may have used forced labor in Myanmar: US report

Thu 08 Oct 98 - 23:11 GMT 

WASHINGTON, Oct 8 (AFP) - The French oil giant Total and the US-owned Unocal
appear to have used forced labor in building a petroleum pipeline in Myanmar,
according to a new US government report.

Unocal and Total -- involved in a joint venture with Myanmar's military regime
to pipe natural gas from the offshore Yadana field to neighboring Thailand --
have categorically denied using forced labor.

A Unocal spokesman rejected the report as "fraught with error" and charged
that the US Labor Department sacrificed objectivity by hiring a former Burma
human rights activist to assist in the investigation.

"This is nothing more than the same old stuff that we have heard from activist
groups before," said Unocal spokesman Barry Lane, who added that the reported
abuses are dated and the area of investigation vague.

The report concluded that by 1998, in the final stages of the pipeline project
that began in 1992, the oil companies had apparently stopped using manual
labor recruited by the army.

No one was available for comment about the report Thursday at the Department
of Labor, which conducted the probe in consultation with the State Department.
It also relied on worker accounts and Total documents.

Villagers were allegedly forcibly relocated and coerced into serving as
porters for soldiers protecting the pipeline, and to build support facilities
for the project.

"This report is the basis for stopping any attempt by the companies to roll
back existing sanctions on investment in Burma," said Carol Richards, of the
Burma Forum. New US investment is banned in Myanmar, formerly known as Burma.

"Even more important, this report provides the basis for Congress to enact new
sanctions against all investment in Burma," she said.

The United States, Canada and the European Union, as well as a slew of US
cities, counties and states, have already put in place economic sanctions and
boycotts to pressure the Yangon government on human rights.

The 95-page report will be presented in November to the governing body of the
International Labor Organization (ILO). In its 80 years of existence, the ILO
has only 10 times conducted an inquiry of this sort.

The report shies from definitively accusing Total and Unocal of using forced
labor, noting that Labor Department officials could not independently confirm
allegations because they could not get to the sites.

Lane vigorously denied that Labor Department officials were kept away from
visiting the pipeline, insisting that the The Labor Department document noted
that a Total official told a US Embassy official that "Total pays these
workers directly even though they are hired by the army."

"This does not prove that Total used forced labor on the pipeline, but it is
consistent with and lends substantial credibility to the refugees
allegations," the report said.

"The preponderance of available evidence warrants several conclusions about
the use of forced labor on the pipeline project: For the early phases of the
Yadana pipeline project, refugee accounts of forced labor appear to be
credible," the report said.

Total relied extensively on manual laborers recruited by the army during the
early phases of the project through at least January 1996, including the
infrastructure to support the pipeline construction, the report said.

"At the very least, Total's documented practice of using manual labor
recruited by the army and quartered in army battalions demands explanation,"
said the report.

©AFP 1998

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