BURMA SUES UNOCAL
(Multinational Monitor - May 1996)
The democratically elected government-in-exile of Burma filed a lawsuit in September against Unocal, charging the multinational oil company with widescale human rights violations in connection with the construction of a natural gas pipeline in Burma.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Los Angeles, calls for an injunction against the company.
The lawsuit alleges that Unocal's joint venture with the Burmese military regime and with Total, a French oil company, has caused the forced labor of tens of thousands of villagers, the systematic destruction of villages in the pipeline region and other human rights violations.
Burma's military government, the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC), has been widely condemned by human rights groups as one of the most brutal regimes in the world.
The lawsuit claims that, as part of the joint venture agreement, Unocal relied on SLORC to provide and maintain all military operations in the pipeline region, thereby resulting in severe repression of citizens of Burma.
In a statement, Unocal called the allegations "false, irresponsible and frivolous." "We believe this lawsuit is motivated solely by political considerations," Unocal said.
Unocal said that the natural gas project "has caused none of the false and outrageous allegations" made in the lawsuit.
"AII people who work on the pipeline project are paid a better-than-average wage, people have been more-than fairly compensated for any land use, and villages are in the same place they always have been," Unocal said.
But John Bonifaz, an attorney representing the plaintiffs, said that while no forced labor is being used to build the pipeline itself, forced labor is being used to clear the area for the pipeline and to build a railroad line that will carry soldiers and equipment necessary to build the pipeline.
"All the other forced labor activity ... makes Unocal liable," Bonifaz said. "Unocal says that they whill pay their workers to build the pipeline. But that does not absolve them, whatsoever, for the liability they must face for the enormous human rights atrocities that are occurring in connection with this project. Our position is that when a company goes abroad and joins up with the SLORC military to engage in forced labor situations and other serious human rights abuses, all the co-venturers are liable for those actions. They cannot separate out what the SLORC military is doing from what Unocal is doing."
(by Russel Mokhiber)
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