The very day Australia was first attacked by Japanese, the Army News, produced in Darwin to inform all the troops in the Territory, carried the banner headline BATTLE FOR BURMA BEGINS . In modern Darwin, the local media and government are strangely silent over the Inpex partner Total’s involvement with the current murderous Burmese regime and the plight of that country's people. Total,the world's fourth biggest oil company,and a major investor in Burma , has recently been described in the NT News as the Inpex "junior partner. "
After the Chief Minister’s recent trip to Aberdeen and Singapore ,where in the latter Lion City he was hosted by Total, the expectation was that the issue of the company’s involvement with the Burmese military regime would get an in- depth airing by the local media representatives who went along for the ride . But no. Rien. The New Guinea cargo cult attitude towards Inpex and le grande silence over Total continued. Rather than wait to be informed by the Fourth Estate about Total , Little Darwin suggests reasonable minded Territorians wanting to be informed about the issue look at the oil company’s own website http://burma.total.com/.
In it Total shows it is not afraid to face criticism of its involvement in Burma ( called Myanmar by the military thugs ), so local journos should be brave and ask meaningful questions of our politicians and company representatives about this very important matter. Total responds to what is identified at the top of its home page as THE CONTROVERSY under the heading The Allegations and Total’s response which covers court cases that include claims that forced labour was used to construct a gas pipeline in Burma , and an interview with the head of Total international PR .
As expected , their case is well crafted, but nevertheless it addresses some of the issues and reveals why Territory politicians , the media and others , if we respect the universal rule of law, democracy , support human rights and know that Burmese refugees are locked up in the Darwin detention centre, many more in Malaysia , where they are hounded by a government backed vigilante group , should be concerned and DOING SOMETHING , apart from being sucked into the well orchestrated and oiled PR machine.
Territory institutions should be airing the plight of the Burmese and using our deep involvement in the proposed INPEX-TOTAL project to try and influence the better treatment of the populace in that beleaguered country . Little Darwin is not for or against the proposed Inpex project at this stage , but does feel the public should be better informed by the media . There are numerous aspects of great importance which have not been touched by what seems to be an obsequious local media.
On the Total website is a now out of date 19 -page REPORT ON A TRIP TO MYANMAR AND DISCOVERY OF A SILENT INDUSTRY (Following the arrest of Aung San Suu Kyi ), compiled by Bernard Kouchner of the French business advice firm , BK Conseil, in September 2003.It makes many surprising and powerful statements relevant to the NT today.
On the Total website is a now out of date 19 -page REPORT ON A TRIP TO MYANMAR AND DISCOVERY OF A SILENT INDUSTRY (Following the arrest of Aung San Suu Kyi ), compiled by Bernard Kouchner of the French business advice firm , BK Conseil, in September 2003.It makes many surprising and powerful statements relevant to the NT today.
At first glance , the tendency is to suspect that it is going to be a PR whitewash. Then you read that Kouchner , a French politician, diplomat,doctor,co-founder of Medecins Sans Frontieres and a Minister of Foreign and European Affairs, wrote the foreword to the French edition of Burma :The Next Killing Fields?, by Alan Clements, which included text by Archbishop Desmond Tutu and a contribution by the Dalai Lama. ( After the US President, Darwin's Channel 9 has suggested the Dalai Lama could be the next VIP to visit Darwin-would any local reporter ask him about Burma, Tibet -where nuns have been self- immolating of late ?) The situation in Burma was obvious and damning, Kouchner wrote.
From the time in 1990 when the military junta overthrew the democratically elected government , changing the name of the country to Myanmar, the notorious State Law and Order Restitution Council (SLORC)was responsible for repeated massacres , frequent torture ,disappearances and executions . Some 1200 political prisoners were still “rotting” in Myanmar prisons and some of them had been there for years. The generals were accused by specialists of all stripes of trafficking in opium from the Golden Triangle.Collaboration with this type of regime, Kouchner stated, required a political vision that oil companies generally refused to talk about ; this was a mistake. His conclusions included-
• Oil and gas are closely tied to politics - beyond the fact that they are energy resources. Oil companies are constantly in the political pot and there’s no point pretending otherwise.
• Total should clearly state the need for democracy ,without provocation,without calling a press conference , without making a lot of noise.
• Total should clearly state the need for democracy ,without provocation,without calling a press conference , without making a lot of noise.
Kouchner said that Total had acted reasonably during the apartheid regime in South Africa . He also gave details of Total supported schemes in Burma designed to benefit sections of the community. Despite the somewhat rosy claim that the political situation was “ evolving favourably,” with Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, again moving “almost freely around the country” statement in the introduction , it is an informative document.
A small item (six paragraphs) in the NT News on July 5, headed Call to help local Burmese, quoted Darwin’s Refugee Action Coalition as saying Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd, who recently urged the corrupt Burmese regime to release its many political prisoners , should help free refugees languishing in Australian detention centres, including Darwin, some with refugee status waiting up to 20 months for security clearance.
The latest Human Rights Watch report from Bangkok said nothing much had changed in Burma,where the recent election was an obvious sham , designed to perpetuate the iron fisted control of the brutal generals. Large numbers of people, branded “criminals” by the illegal military regime, were being used as pack animals and human shields in minefields.
In the first of her BBC Reith Lectures , the tape smuggled out and played on the ABC, Aung San Suu Kyi, recently called for continued international pressure to help her people obtain democracy. The military had ignored her National League for Democracy (NLD) landslide victory in 1990.It was clear that many countries and people in high places respected power, even if that power was based on corruption and denial of democracy.
In answer to a question about the advantage of tourism to the people of Burma,she said most of the businesses involved were “cronies “ of the junta. (This is the same situation in respect of the Angkor Wat tourist trade in Cambodia , known as Scambodia due to the government corruption). The international community was dragging its feet. She said one of those active in the NLD office today was the elderly, veteran journalist, U Win Tim, who had spent 20 years in gaol. He had written IS THIS A HUMAN HELL ? and still wore the blue prison suit he had when incarcerated by the illegal regime. It was most important that the world be kept aware of what was happening in Burma , she added.
China, with a long track record of little respect for human rights, is extending its involvement in Burma. Incidently,China has a growing involvement in Northern Territory mining ventures. This is an opportunity for the Territory to use suasion not only on a French oil company but China as well, to try and help the long suffering Burmese . So when Health/ Fisheries/Mines Minister Kon Vatskalis makes yet another trip to Beijing flogging off the Territory, it would be nice if he raised the Burmese tragedy with his hosts over the banquet table and , more importantly, stand up in the Legislative Assembly and raise the issue of the oppressed Burmese.
It is not so long ago that Australia became a willing partner with Indonesia in the proposed plunder of East Timor’s oil reserves. Once more, the Territory seems to be turning a blind eye and a deaf ear to the cries of a terribly oppressed people in the expectation of a quick buck. FOOTNOTE :Commodore Collins on the above front cover of the wartime paper was the skipper of HMAS Sydney, later sunk off WA by a German raider , the wreck only recently discovered .
It is not so long ago that Australia became a willing partner with Indonesia in the proposed plunder of East Timor’s oil reserves. Once more, the Territory seems to be turning a blind eye and a deaf ear to the cries of a terribly oppressed people in the expectation of a quick buck. FOOTNOTE :Commodore Collins on the above front cover of the wartime paper was the skipper of HMAS Sydney, later sunk off WA by a German raider , the wreck only recently discovered .
