London Indymedia

Totalitarian Oil get out of Burma protest in Chiswick

illuminations | 15.12.2007 18:21 | Globalisation | Repression | Social Struggles | London

On Thursday 13th December, eight protesters campaigned at the Total Oil
station at 137 Chiswick High Road against Total's funding of the repressive
regime in Burma.




Several motorists were turned away from the station. Pedestrians accepted
leaflets and helped sign a petition. Some pedestrians also joined protesters
in signing a "Christmas Card" to Total to tell them to get out of Burma.

Total is in a joint venture with the dictatorship in the Yadana gas project
in southern Burma. [1]

The gas project funds the junta with hundreds of millions of dollars a year
and represents a major source of foreign currency for the regime to buy
weapons and finance the army.

Total's close relationship with the repressive dictatorship was demonstrated
with the recent construction of a compression platform at the Yadana
project. All maritime traffic from part of the gulf area around Yadana was
excluded from December by the military. The maritime exclusion zone was
described as "precautionary" by a Total spokesman [2]

Over 40% of Burma's GDP is spent on the military in a war against its own
people.

Burma has the world's worst health care [3], the most corruption [4] and the
most child soldiers [5].


Notes:

For information on protests against Total see
 http://totaloutofburma.blogspot.com

[1] Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma’s democracy leader, has said that “Total is the
biggest supporter of the military regime in Burma.” For more information
about Total Oil's investment in Burma see the Burma Campaign UK website:
 http://www.burmacampaign.org.uk/total.php.

[2] Total to build compression platform to maintain Myanmar gas-production
levels  http://www.euro2day.gr/articlesfna/49656017/

[3] The World Health Organization's ranking
of the world's health systems:
 http://www.photius.com/rankings/healthranks.html

[4] Burma joins Somalia in 179th place as the most corrupt countries in the
world according to Transparency International 2007 index rankings:
 http://www.transparency.org/news_room/in_focus/2007/cpi2007/cpi_2007_table

[5] Human Rights Watch report on Child Soldiers in Burma:
 http://hrw.org/reports/2002/burma/Burma0902-08.htm#P1672_511418

illuminations
- Homepage: http://www.totaloutofburma.blogspot.com

Comments

Display the following comment

  1. The monks' and nuns' courage will not be in vain. — War is Over (if you want it)

Kollektives

Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World

Other UK IMCs
Bristol/South West
London
Northern Indymedia
Scotland

London Topics

Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista

London IMC

Desktop

About | Contact
Mission Statement
Editorial Guidelines
Publish | Help

Search :