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French oil giant accused of Myanmar
abuses
By Julio Godoy
PARIS
- The French oil company TotalFinaElf and its
predecessors are once again under fire for allegedly
unethical behavior in other lands, including
human-rights abuses in Myanmar.
TotalFinaElf is
undergoing its third judicial inquiry in less than two
years. Prosecutors have presented a sad litany of
charges of bribery and abuse ranging from Southeast Asia
to Africa, not to mention France itself.
TotalFina, the enterprise that took over
state-owned Elf Aquitaine in 1999 to become
TotalFinaElf, faces charges over operations in Myanmar.
It stands accused of ordering the kidnapping of local
workers to force them to build a gas pipeline.
Prosecutors say that TotalFina made payments to
the Myanmese army in 1995 to secure labor for
construction of the pipeline. Their case is based on
allegations of two former workers at the pipeline who
fled Myanmar and now live in an unspecified Southeast
Asian country. The prosecution's case also includes
testimonies of deserting soldiers who confirm the
workers' allegations.
The prosecution has
pointed out that the International Labor Organization
and the United Nations Human Rights Commission have
repeatedly condemned working conditions in Myanmar, and
the abuses committed by the military government.
The pipeline, which is now in operation, is
considered the most important investment made by foreign
enterprises in Myanmar. TotalFinaElf operates the
pipeline with the US oil company Unocal and two other
Southeast Asian enterprises.
The pipeline, some
700 kilometers long, links gas fields in the Andaman Sea
with a Thai power station. TotalFina had charge of
construction of 400km of the pipeline in Myanmese
territory.
William Bordon, legal counselor for
the two former workers, says the French company paid off
the army to guarantee a supply of labor for the
construction. Bordon is backing his case with recent
litigation in a US court in which Unocal managers
admitted that kidnappings and forced labor were used
systematically in gas fields and construction camps in
Myanmar. Last week a US federal court of appeals ruled
that the workers from Myanmar had "amply proved Unocal's
complicity in the violations of human rights" and that
the company could now be sued.
TotalFinaElf
rejects the accusations. Director of communication
Michel Hourcard says the company "respects a code of
behavior and has always acted transparently".
But Hourcard also condemned economic boycotts of
dictatorial regimes. He said such measures "leave the
local populations alone [in face of the dictatorships]
and block all opening derived from economic
development".
TotalFina had been accused in 1998
of working with the Myanmese junta in construction of
the pipeline. The chief executive officer then, Thierry
Desmarest, admitted before a parliamentary commission in
Paris that TotalFina had engaged the Myanmese army to
"protect the construction" of the pipeline. But
Desmarest denied that the company was involved in
forcing people to work on the project.
The new
allegations against the company recall that the military
units working on the construction were called
"battalions Total". The prosecution says local villagers
were rounded up in night raids and forced to work on the
pipeline.
The judicial inquiry in Paris has also
heard that Elf Aquitaine channeled some US$190 million
in 1995 to General Sani Abacha, who was then dictator of
Nigeria. The money was paid to secure drilling rights,
according to evidence produced by French prosecutors.
Philippe Jaffre, who was then chief executive
officer of Elf Aquitaine, confirmed the payments during
questioning by prosecutor Renaud Van Ruymbeke this week.
Jaffre also admitted during questioning that Elf
Aquitaine paid illegal commissions to the president of
Gabon, Omar Bongo, and the president of Togo, Gnassingbe
Eyadema, that year for pleading Elf's case before
Abacha. The Nigerian dictator died in 1999.
Jaffre accepted responsibility for the payments.
"The Nigerian oilfields were extraordinarily
profitable," he said. "The payment of illegal
commissions seemed obvious, because there was no other
way to reach a friendly agreement."
Jaffre
argued that "there are countries where people make no
difference between private and public money". He went on
to name great French personalities of the past who had
"amassed fortunes for themselves and for their families
and friends, and at the same time served France".
Jaffre said, however, that "some intermediaries
apparently received more money than foreseen". These
have been named by prosecutors as Gilbert Chagoury and
Ely Calil, two Nigerian businessmen close to Abacha, and
a Lebanese intermediary, Samir Traboulsi. The middlemen
are said to have taken $70 million between them.
All three have been charged with abuse of public
property and influence-peddling. No charges have been
brought against Bongo and Eyadema. Bongo has visited
Paris often this year.
Jaffre and Elf Aquitaine
also stand accused of paying for weapons used in the
civil war in Congo-Brazzaville (also known as the Congo
Republic) in 1997 in which more than 10,000 people were
killed and more than a million forced to leave the
country.
Officials from the Congo Republic have
testified that Elf Aquitaine paid for weapons for the
troops of former president Pascal Lissouba. The new
leader, General Denis Sassou Nguesso, and arms dealer
Jacques Monsieur revealed the deals after Lissouba lost
the war and was forced to seek exile in London. Elf
Aquitaine has denied any involvement in the war.
"Whatever the French foreign policy towards
Africa was, Elf Aquitaine was only concerned with oil,"
said Jacques de Naurois, director for institutional
relations for TotalFinaElf. "For the rest, we leave
historians to explain and resolve the mysteries of
ancient history." When asked whether Elf had been
involved in arms deals, he said "No".
The
judicial inquiry into payments made by Elf Aquitaine
began in 1994, and is scheduled to be completed next
spring. Forty-two former officials of the enterprise
have faced investigation. Some have already been
convicted and given prison sentences.
Elf
Aquitaine stands accused of paying illegal commissions
to middlemen and to foreign and French officials in
several other countries from Venezuela to Germany.
TotalFinaElf is also being held responsible by
prosecutors for an explosion at an industrial site near
the southern French city of Toulouse a year ago. The
explosion on September 21 last year killed 31 people and
wounded more than 3,000. The explosion destroyed
neighborhoods around the site, and left tens of
thousands homeless. TotalFinaElf is accused of
negligence in storing dangerous chemicals at the site.
The company was also sued over the sinking of
the tanker Erika near the French Atlantic coast in
December 1999. The ship, carrying 120,000 tonnes of
dangerous chemicals belonging to TotalFinaElf, broke in
two. The chemicals that leaked from the ship polluted
more than 500km of the French coast.
A report on
the accident presented by the inquiry commission this
week accuses TotalFinaElf of negligence in the so-called
"vetting", a system of internal control in ships
transporting chemical substances.
Lucien
Bekourian, an expert with the commission said the
quality of TotalFinaElf's vetting was "clearly behind
similar control processes in other companies". Bekourian
said TotalFinaElf used the Erika despite warnings about
the quality of the ship.
TotalFinaElf argued
that there are no international standards on vetting.
(Inter Press Service)
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