Burma and Total Oil PLEASE READ

[liam88]

Ok a very breif bit of background first-Burma is between Thailand and India and used to be part of the British empire. After Burma became independent it was run by a demoractically elected parliament until the milaterry took over-murdering the President and anyone close to him. They began persecuting and murduring ethnic minorities and opponents, raping the woment and forcing the children to work on roads. (This is where my family link comes in-my dad and his family; not being pure Burmese but a mix of Asian nationalities had to escape to England to avoid being killed-the armyand police robebd their house and trailed my Grandad).
This still goes on-rape is a weapon, political opponents are murdered and Aung San Su Skyi-the democratically elected leader is currently in her 10th year of house arrest; she was last allowed out to meet her part in 2003 before the regime ambushed them and beat to death 70 of her comrades.
Western companies are finally leaving Burma- British American tobacco being the biggest company to do so.
But Total Oil refuse to leave. They do not care about the people of Burma and use Women, Children and political opponents as slave labour on their pipe lines. Even though they deny this they DO NOT deny annually giving $750 million to a regime which uses the money to systamtically rape and murder!
If you want more deatils e-mail me or visit http://www.burmacampaign.org.uk . Please join the Burma Campaign-it really does not cost that much; but even if you can't pleas plese sign this;

http://www.burmacampaign.org.uk/pm/weblog.php?id=P152 (it is free!)

and boycott Total and their petrol stations.
My Amnesty International group will be holding a peaceful protest outside the Guildford one.

Thanks very much

[Éanna]

Read Aung San Suu Kyi's book a few years ago. Great read. In all this talk of "regime change" and "axis of evil" Burma is one of the forgotten countries. The military dictatorship there is downright evil, but sure they still let the west have their oil so its ok

[liam88]

Just wanted to get this back to the top so anybody who wants to sign can. No chance of a temporary sticky is there Adam?

[pete]

No Total Oil pumps in Ireland.

But if no oil coming from Burma we'd all be paying extra at other pumps. Economies would shrink & be less jobs for folks...

If Burma voters were bad folks wouldn't they be part of axis of evil?

[liam88]

No Total Oil pumps in Ireland.

Glad to here it-the Total bit goes for the (many) exiles on this board and you guys in Ireland can still sign the campaign to show your dispelasure AND join the Irish Burma Campaign

But if no oil coming from Burma we'd all be paying extra at other pumps. Economies would shrink & be less jobs for folks...

That doesn't justify the mudrder of thousands of innocent people and the gang rapes by soldiers of thousands more. No to mention the torture, political prisoners, ethnic cleansing......
It would hardly have that big an affect on the Irish econemy-Total pump money into Burma but are only the 3rd largest Oil company and have sources elsewher.e They could afford to pull out of burma fund training programmes, hospices, hospitals and tsunami relief in Burma and still make billions in profit.

If Burma voters were bad folks wouldn't they be part of axis of evil?

89% of Burma voted the NLD in.....but the millatery junta imprisoned Aung San Suu Kyi and murdered her supporters-the junta in no way represents the Burmese people.
The Burmese junta is not part of the 'axis of evil' because they don't hurt Westeners (unless they protest in Burma in which case they get put in a 5ftx5ft bamboo cage with mouldy food for 3 years) and France has so much money tied up in Total they block every EU/UN move.......

[Poor Student]

Is it not called Myanmar these days?

[ken foree]

Is it not called Myanmar these days?

i believe it is. i think i read somewhere that boycotting a certain brand of petrol is near-futile since most petrol is a composite of many different sources. so, if you're buying shell, you *might* still be buying some Total

[liam88]

Is it not called Myanmar these days?

The millatery regime changed the name to Myanmar illegally-they are not the rightful fulers of Burma (the NLD having won the election by 89%) and therefore have no right to change the name of the country. No one has the right to change a name of a country unless democratically elected.
The British and (I think) Irish government recognise this and therefore always refer to the country by it's rightful name "Burma".

i believe it is. i think i read somewhere that boycotting a certain brand of petrol is near-futile since most petrol is a composite of many different sources. so, if you're buying shell, you *might* still be buying some Total

To be honest though buying Total funds total-and would moreso than buying shell-Aung San Suu Kyi ansd the Burma campaign want us to Boycott total so that's what i'll be doing

[Éanna]

Yeah, it was named Myanmar by the military alright. Horrible case of a country which has been pretty much ignored by the rest of the world. That's why I find it so hard to believe the likes of buLLshIT and bLIAR when they say they want to spread democracy etcc- when was the last time they spoke about helping Burma

[Pat O' Banton]

No Total Oil pumps in Ireland.

But if no oil coming from Burma we'd all be paying extra at other pumps. Economies would shrink & be less jobs for folks...

If Burma voters were bad folks wouldn't they be part of axis of evil?

Pete there are many nasty dictorships in this world that are soley there because they are set up and backed by the US and so won't make it onto the 'Axis evil'

[pete]

Pete there are many nasty dictorships in this world that are soley there because they are set up and backed by the US and so won't make it onto the 'Axis evil'

So they on 2nd rug of evil countries then?

[liam88]

So they on 2nd rug of evil countries then?

What?
See my post above-one of the most evil countries in the world but are not part of the "axis of evil" because they don't hurt the West. The Burmese regime is at least as bad (almost deffinnatly worse) that those who previously ran Afghanistanand Iraq and currently run Iran, N. Korea etc.

"axis of evil" does not dictate how evil a country is-it dictates how badly USA/UK hate them.....Burma isn't included because the oil is all in French hands (meaning the French also block any move on sanctions) and and it doesn't look like the regime is going to jump up and hurt the West everytime soon.
The French and their national veto (no QMV on issues such as sanctions/millatery actions) means that they have blocked EU/UN doing very much at all-another reason for total to pull out; if they do then France will have nothing to stop them backing sanctions/regime chagne to the country currently suffering under the most evil dictatorship today.