[Buddha-l] FW: Development in Arakan, Burma and by formerly Buddhist countries China and Korea

[jkirk]

Well, hey! Buddhists are only human, right?
Joanna
============== 
 
 ERI [Earth Rights International, an NGO]  and the Shwe Gas
Movement (SGM) - a local ethnic Arakan opposition to the Shwe
project - documented these and other current and potential
impacts of the Shwe Project in a 2008 OECD complaint to the
Korean Government
<http://www.earthrights.org/files/Burma%20Project/Shwe/OECDCompla
int10.29-ENGLISH.pdf> . The complaint focused on violations of
international law and breaches of the OECD Guidelines for
Multinational Enterprises by South Korea's Daewoo International
and the Korea Gas Corporation (KOGAS), through their involvement
in the Shwe project. Filed in Seoul at the office of the Korean
OECD National Contact Point (NCP) on October 28, 2008, the
complaint was rejected on Nov. 27, 2008,  with the Korean
government claiming that it "finds it hard to assume that the
involved corporations breached the OECD Guidelines for
Multinational Enterprises.[and] does not see a necessity to
initiate an additional investigation or an arbitration." 


The Korean government has the largest, controlling stake in KOGAS
and has provided Daewoo International with sizable loans to
proceed with the Shwe project. The Shwe gas is estimated to be
worth upwards of 40 billion US dollars, according to the Shwe Gas
Movement. Time Magazine quotes ERI co-founder and Executive
Director Ka Hsaw Wa, who commented, "Multinationals are getting
rich off Burma, and so is the military regime.It is the local
people who are suffering and dying."


ERI is working to stop the Shwe project until it can proceed
without adverse human rights and environmental impacts, and is
working to strengthen corporate accountability worldwide.
According to Time Magazine, "In the end, it may be the foreign
participants in this new Great Game, unschooled in how to
navigate ethnic complexities, who will get bitten."


Time Magazine Reports on Human Rights Impacts of Gas Development
in Burma
<http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1886304,00.html
>  
For more information on the Shwe Project, see also The Shwe Gas
Movement at www.shwe.org <http://www.shwe.org/>