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Bangkok. South Korea is failing to hold its corporations to account for abuses linked to natural gas development in military-ruled Burma, a report released by rights groups said on Monday.

The report, by EarthRights International and the Shwe Gas Movement, documents “conflicts of interest” within the South Korean government and says that Seoul is not upholding international guidelines.

The report urged the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development to investigate a complaint on the issue that it said the South Korean government had dismissed.

“The Korean government is failing to hold Korean corporations accountable for abuses connected to natural gas development in military ruled Burma,” the groups said in a statement.

The groups said the project “has already been linked to forced relocations and other human rights violations. Local people who criticized the project faced arbitrary arrest and detention.”

The Burmese junta signed a deal in December with Daewoo, the Korean Gas Corporation and Indian companies to pipe gas to China from the Shwe gas project, which is developing a natural gas field in the country.

Burma’s huge gas reserves and other natural resources are a major target for Asian countries that eschew the sanctions imposed by the United States and other Western nations.

The two rights groups helped file a complaint in October to South Korea about alleged abuses linked to the project, saying that it violated OECD guidelines including by failing to respect international human rights law.

But Seoul rejected the complaint, the report said, adding that the Korean ministry dealing with OECD complaints has the job of promoting overseas energy development projects.

The ministry gave Daewoo a sizable loan to proceed with the Shwe project, while the South Korean government is the largest stakeholder in Korean Gas Corporation, it added.

“The Shwe project should stop until the people of Burma can genuinely participate in development decisions and realize their human rights,” said Wong Aung, of Shwe.

He said that the Korean government had “conveniently dismissed” the complaint “and now the OECD must fill the gap.”


Agence France-Presse