Why does the US remain nearly silent in condemning Myanmar? Take a guess, and if it doesn’t include a dollar sign, it’s wrong.
In
2012 the Obama administration “authorized U.S. companies to invest in Myanmar
for the first time since 1997.” In late
2014 President Obama visited our pal, opposition leader Aung San “What
Rohingya? I don’t see any Rohingya here”
Suu Kyi, at her home and “warned” her (over tea, I’m sure) that “Myanmar’s steps toward democracy are far
from complete.”
But in the meantime,
let’s do business!
To be
fair, there is still a prohibition on “ventures with businesses connected to
the country’s former junta.” But let’s
face it, where there are billion-dollar contracts, there’s a way, and in
November 2014 Bloomberg reported that “U.S. companies registering in Singapore to
skirt sanctions on Myanmar helped the city state trump China as the country’s
number one investor this year, Myanmar’s deputy finance minister said.” Meaning
that while US investors may not be dabbling in Myanmar on paper (and staying
away from those nasty former junta members, also on paper), they are certainly
there taking advantage of what Amnesty International calls “the perfect storm of a rich natural resource
base, a weak legal system and an economy dominated by military and special
interests. The government has forcibly evicted people, crushed all attempts at
peaceful protest and displayed a complete unwillingness to hold companies to
account.” (Meghna Abraham, Amnesty International’s Corporate Crimes Researcher.)
Businessmen
from other powerful nations, it seems, are not as sneaky when it comes to
hiding their slime trail, and so get exposed:
Myanmar: Foreign mining companies colluding in serious
abuses and illegality
In
a report released Tuesday, “Canadian and Chinese mining interests have profited
from, and in some cases colluded with the Myanmar authorities in serious human
rights abuses and illegal activity around the Monywa copper mine complex, which
includes the notorious Letpadaung mine.”
Amnesty International’s
report describes how Canadian and Chinese mining companies have benefited
financially from large-scale, forced evictions and serious pollution linked to
the Monywa mining complex, which have destroyed local people’s livelihoods and
exposed thousands of people to health risks.
“The Monywa project is a cautionary tale for
the government of Myanmar and investors,” it said in the report titled “Open for Business? Corporate Crime and
Abuses at Myanmar Copper Mine.”
“Foreign investment cannot benefit Myanmar
when such contexts prevail.”
So,
um, now we might know why we in North America are keeping the lowest of
profiles when it comes to holding Myanmar responsible for the genocide of
thousands of its rightful citizens.
It’s
just not profitable.
No comments :
Post a Comment