[Greens-Media] Trade with Burma yields blood money - Greens

[Torre, Giovanni (Sen S. Ludlam)]

Trade with Burma yields blood money - Greens
Media Release: Senator Scott Ludlam, Wednesday October 12th, 2011


 

Australian companies must abandon trade deals with Burma's military
dictatorship, the Australian Greens said this week.

 

Greens spokesperson on Burma, Senator for Western Australia Scott
Ludlam, criticised Perth-based Twinza Oil in the Senate last night for
the assistance it has given to the Rangoon regime's war on the Burmese
people.

 

"It is absolutely unacceptable that a company in my home town of Perth
has been profiting from oil and gas deals with the regime," he told the
chamber. "Twinza Oil... has done deals with the Burmese regime for oil
and gas extraction. That is how the regime funds the war that it is
conducting against its own people."

 

Senator Ludlam called on the Australian Government to put an end to
two-way trade between Australia and Burma, "whether it be in gemstones,
forestry or, indeed, oil and gas".

 

Senator Ludlam said the evidence collected by the Kachin Women's
Association of human rights violations carried out in Northern Burma
between June and September this year showed Australia "should not be
fooled" by the promises of reform from the junta.

 

"(This report documents) the systematic use of rape as a weapon of war
against women and girls, with the youngest victim documented in this
study being nine years old and 15 of those victims being killed.

 

"We should not ease trade sanctions and we should not let up on our
campaign to establish a United Nations commission of inquiry to
investigate crimes against humanity and war crimes that have taken place
in Burma," he told the Senate.

 

"There is less than $50million in two-way trade between Australia and
Burma. That would not be a great loss to the Australian economy, but it
makes a huge difference to the Burmese dictatorship," Senator Ludlam
added today.

 

 

Media Contact: Giovanni Torre - 0417 174 302