IHC Caland compromised again becaus

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Subject: IHC Caland compromised again because of new Burma-order

In the Dutch Financial newspaper Het Financieele Dagblad
Circulation 50120. Wednesday, December 1st.

IHC Caland compromised again because of new Burma-order

Amsterdam -  Schipbuilder and offshorecompany IHC Caland has caused a
scandal again. The Partij van de Arbeid (Dutch Labour, largest
parl. party, leading the gov. BCN) raised questions in the
Parliament about the sale of a cutter suction dredger to Burma. Last
year a storm of protest was raised over the company's delivering of a
storagedevice for naturalgas to Burma (Yetagun gas field, BCN).

According to president Sjef van Dooremaalen of shipbuilder and
daughtercompany IHC Holland, the order was carefully considered. "We
have not found any reasons not to sell", says he. Deliverancies to
Burma are allowed by law. Trade links with the military regime are
disputed because of the country's bad human rights record.
IHC Holland is selling to the Burmese ministry of Transport a cutter
suction dredger worth about 4 million guilders (two million
dollars, BCN). The Burmese government will pay this price cash, without any 
use of subsidies.
The cutter suction dredger will according to IHC be used to remove
several sandbanks and improve interior shipping/navigation. The Burma
Centre Netherlands rejects this reasoning. "The ship will operate (in
the delta, BCN), one of the most militarized area's ."
Pensionfund ABP made it known on tuesday it will not react in
public. The investor, that has about 3 percent of the IHC-shares, says
remarks about the policy will always be made directly
to the company. Earlier (at the annual shareholder meeting this year,
BCN) ABP forced IHC to speed up its making a code of conduct. The
share prize of IHC fell Tuesday with about 2 percent to 38.40 Euro's.



- the infamous translation department of the BCN -