Thursday, August 24, 2006
Jails and Genocide-Behind the Spin (Part 1)
Total’s presence in Burma is shrouded in corporate lingo; ‘socio economic programmes’, ‘ethical guidelines’ and ‘constructive engagement’.But take away the corporate spin and take a look at what Total are really funding. Every year Total give over £200 000 000 ($450 000 000) to the Burmese regime in return for Burma’s oil[1]. Where does this go? Generally not on health (on which the regime spend just 19p per person each year, or 0.3% of their GDP-the lowest in the world[2]), most likely not on primary education (which isn’t available to 60% of children[3]) and almost certainly not on universities (the regime have closed down the majority of these). In fact the money isn’t really going to the people of Burma at all; 43% of children suffer from malnutrition and one in ten children die before their 5th birthday.
So let us take a look at where the majority of the regimes spending (coming foremost from Total) goes; on their prisons and on their genocide.
Currently 1183 political prisoners languish in Burma’s jails[4] where they are routinely tortured by the regime, who use the following methods:
- Piercing of skin
- Electric shocks (including to breast and genitals)
- Solitary confinement (in pitch black)
- Rape of men and women (by guards and trained dogs)
- Beatings
- Whippings
- Forcing prisoners to sleep in their own excretion
- Forcing prisoners to crawl on nails or glass
- Burning skin and eyes
- Rubbing skin off with iron bars
- Kicking
- Tying up
- Strangling
- Shackling[5]
Since 1988 126 democracy activists have been tortured to death in Burma’s jails. These people are imprisoned purely for their beliefs or for speaking out against the regime; many are reporters, one is a 4 year old girl, the youngest political prisoner in the world imprisoned because her father is a democracy activist[6].
As the regime spends such a large proportion of it’s income on arresting, detaining, torturing and executing democracy activists (and their families) and Total is the largest supplier of funds to the regime it is indisputable that much of the money Total pays them (coming from those filling up and Total petrol stations around the world) is used in Burma’s barbaric prison and torture system.
Total knows the situation –they know that their money is likely spent on the torture, rape and murder of political prisoners (aged four to eighty) in Burma’s notorious jails; yet they have never once made any objections. We call on Total to:
- Request none of it’s money paid to the regime is spent on detention, jails or torture
- Use it’s influence and the largest foreign investor in Burma and largest supplier of funds to the regime and condemn the prison and torture situation, call on the regime to reform the system and ensure nobody is arrested or jailed for opposition to Total’s pipeline
What can we do?
So far Total has never condemned the torture it funds or even attempted to make a difference, but with public pressure we can change that:
- Please click ‘Add a Comment’ and sign your name in support of this request to Total
- Please also e-mail Total at holding.myanmar-contact-internet@total.com or Total’s PR man at Jean-Francois.LASSALLE@total.com with this request (please send us copies of your e-mail and any replies at studentsagainsttotal@hotmail.com)
Thank you
[Part 2 will focus on Total’s funds being used in the genocide of the Karen people and the persecution of other ethnic groups]
[1] Burma Campaign UK Report ‘Total Oil- Fuelling the Oppression in Burma’
[2] Burma Campaign UK Report ‘Total Oil- Fuelling the Oppression in Burma’
[3] Burma Campaign UK Report ‘Total Oil- Fuelling the Oppression in Burma’
[4] Human Rights Watch
[5] List from AAPP report ‘The Darkness we see’
[6] Indo-Burma News
Students Against Total
Totalitarian Oil http://totalitarian-oil.blogspot.com
studentsagainsttotal@hotmail.co.uk
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