30.07.2006
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Join Democracy for Burma Alliance
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Shwe Gas Protests
ALL
ARAKAN STUDENTS' AND YOUTH CONGRESS
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| Protest in front of Indian Embassy in Netherlands (Click on photos to enlarge) | ||
The statement said _
"Our Arakanese people don't like the sale of our blood gas to India
Government and your people because India Government killed our leaders.
Also any profits from the Shwe Gas project will benefit the brutal
military regime, who will use the money to further suppress the people
of Burma. Currently the Shwe Gas project is still in the exploration
state, but already there are reports of people being forced out of their
homes and off their land and a general militarization of the region.
So we, ALL ARAKAN STUDENTS AND YOUTHS CONGRESS, urge Indian Government the
following: _
1. WE ALL ARAKAN STDDENTS AND YOUTH CONGRESS REQUEST FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
OF (36 ) ARAKANESE AND KAREN FREEDOM FIGHTERS FRIENDLY ARRESTED BY INDIA
NAVY SINCE 12 FEBRUARY 1998.
2. INDIA GOVERNMENT AND OILCORPORATION, MUST STOP ALL CURRENT BUSINESS
WITH THE MILITARY REGIME IF YOU RESPECT OUR PEOPLE.
3. INDIA GOVERNMENT SHOULD STOP TO SALE ARMS TO SPDC ILLEGEL REGIME.
To contact: _ All Arakan Students’ and Youths’ Congress (AASYC)
Likewise, the SHWE GAS MOVEMENT also issued a statement to Korean Government.
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| Protest on South Korean Daewoo Company's investment in Shwe Gas Project | ||
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The statement said _
"We, the Shwe Gas
Movement and individuals,
urge you to
join our campaign to postpone the extraction of Natural Gas from Arakan
State until there is democracy in Burma.
The lives and well being
of the people
of
Arakan are at stake.
As documented in
our fact-sheet "Wasted Resource," an Indo-South Korean consortium, led by
Daewoo International, is together with Burma's military government
planning to extract natural gas from the Shwe(A-1 block) in Western Burma.
In late December 2003, the consortium struck what it calls, "a world-class
commercial-scale gas deposit," measuring between 4.2-5.8 trillion cubic
feet (tcf) of gas. The well, called Shwe-1, is the first discovery out of
several expected pockets in the block,
and earlier estimates state that between 13-47 tcf is buried in the
field.
The gas block is
projected to become the Burma's largest ever gas reserve and source of
foreign income which would further entrench Burma's military regime that
has ruled Burma since 1962. The junta spends over 40% of its national
budget on defense, maintaining the largest per capita military force in
the world, despite being one
of the
world's
poorest countries. In comparison, Burma's health and education spending is
0.4% and 0.5% respectively according to the UNDP.
Despite the fact
that Arakan State remains a neglected and underdeveloped frontier area
lacking even the most basic energy supplies, the proposed pipeline will be
exported to West Bengal in India. The people of Arakan and other parts of
Burma have no say in the development of the natural resources and are
jailed for expressing even the most basic desire and rights of their life.
The current military government rules not for life, liberty and the
well-being of the people of Burma, but rather the perpetuation of its own
power. The regime has not transferred control of the state to the duly
elected parliamentarians, and does not show any sign of willingness to do
so.
The junta, despite
the international and opposition’s demands, continues to break almost
every articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Injustice
upon the ordinary Arakanese and Burmese are carried out through inhumaned
ways causing injuries from every perspectives: individually, culturally,
and economuically. This trend is not going to change with the money they
gained from the gas sale.
Based on the
experience of the Yadana and Yetagun natural gas projects in southeastern
Burma, and other infrastructure development projects, the project will
have a devastating effect on western Burma.
The Yadana/Yetagun
project involved increased militarization and human rights abuses. Slave
labour was used to clear the path of the pipeline and its access roads.
Communities were forcibly relocated, their lands confiscated, and they
suffered rape, torture and extra-judicial killlings at the hands of the
regime’s soldiers.
Although the gas
exploration is only in its early stages, the military has started
conscripting forced labour in building new military camps and access roads
near the proposed pipeline routes. Moreover, we are concerned that the
project will displace and divide centuries-old
communities. It will destroy the livelihood of many farmers and fishermen
of the area as well as the environment.
The sale of the
valuable resources that are collectively own the Burmese people is not
only the right thing, it is immoral thing. It is duty of all those people
with morality to stop these illegal use of resources; to stop the “Wasted
Resources.”
We, the SGM and
individuals, urge the following:
1. The extraction
of the Arakan natural gas must be postponed until a time when the affected
people can participate in decisions about the use of their local resources
without fearing persecution.
2. The
international community, including democratic governments and oil
corporations, must stop all current business with the military regime, and
refrain from further investment until there is a democratically elected
government in Burma.
3. The people of
India, Bangladesh and the international community to join hands with the
people of Burma to oppose this Arakan Gas project, by signing this
petition and partaking in this campaign with us.
We would like to urge all
the people of South Korea to join us in our fights against injustice,
inhumanity and injury that people of Burma suffered under the brutal
military regime.
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Comments
JTA said _
Ko Ranin Soe, I highly appreciate your efforts.
Your Comments here_
Request: If you can kindly volunteer to translate BURMA DIGEST English articles into Burmese, please let us know BDeditors@tayzathuria.org.uk .
Please download from http://www.tayzathuria.org.uk/BD.pdf a simple, portable and printable version of BURMA DIGEST and send it to all your Burmese friends.
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