Funding for Myanmar nukes
PARIS - MYANMAR'S military rulers are using gas revenue from US and French energy giants Chevron and Total to fund an illegal bid to build nuclear weapons, human rights monitors said in a report on Monday.
Myanmar's Yadan gas pipeline, run by the two companies along with Thai firm PTTEP, made billions of dollars for the military leaders, the Paris-based group EarthRights International said, citing data from the firms.
The NGO also branded the companies complicit in human rights abuses such as targeted killings and forced labour at the pipeline.
It said Chevron, Total and PTTEP have generated US$9 billion (S$12.5 billion) from Myanmar's Yadana gas pipeline since 1998, more than half of which has gone straight to the ruling junta.
'The companies are financing the world's newest nuclear threat with multi-billion dollar payments,' EarthRights said in a statement.
'The funds have enabled the country's autocratic junta to maintain power and pursue an expensive, illegal nuclear weapons programme.' The United States has voiced concerns about Myanmar's cooperation with alleged nuclear proliferator North Korea after the Norwegian-based news group Democratic Voice of Burma said Myanmar was trying to build an atomic bomb. -- AFP
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