Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/ocha4myanmar051208.html
UNITED NATIONS, May 12 -- In the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis, questions are growing about which companies have been doing business in Myanmar, and how they are responding to the mounting death toll. On Monday Inner City Press asked UN Humanitarian Coordinator John Holmes about a series of companies, several of them members of the UN's high-minded Global Compact, which are listed as doing business in Myanmar: Germany's Siemens, Denmark's Novo Nordisk, France's Total and BNP Paribas, Japan's Mizuho and South Korea's POSCO Steel.
This last company, POSCO, which has a joint venture in Myanmar, is not a member of the Global Compact; Inner City Press had wanted to ask Secretary-General BAN Ki-moon about it, but he could only take three questions before leaving the hour-long briefing. South Korea's Pusan port was visited earlier this year by Mynmar's shipping tycoon Tay Za, head of the Htoo Trading Company, for the purchase of a tanker and a freight ship. Whether these are being used for aid after the cyclone is not known.
In BAN's wake, Holmes said he would welcome help from corporations, that contributions by those "heavily involved in Myanmar would be particularly appropriate." He quickly mentioned that Total has offered to "donate fuel free of charge." Video here, from Minute 37.
But Total, like U.S-based Chevron, has been under fire from human rights groups for its involvement in oil and gas in Myanmar. Are Total and Chevron, and the other companies, giving back enough?
Inner City Press has sent request for comment by e-mail to Japan-based Suzuki, which makes cars and motorcycles in Myanmar, which yet receiving any response. Likewise responses have yet to be received from POSCO, Novo Nordisk, Siemens and Hong Kong-based Hutchison Whampoa, which along with owning in the UK Superdrug, 3 Mobile and luxury properties, operates a large port in Myanmar. We'll see.
Holmes was asked, by a major U.S.-based television network, whether he intends to resign. Appearing taken aback, Holmes said no, that the logic of the question escaped him. The questioner said that China has blocked Security Council action, that 100,000 people may be dead, and not enough is being done. Holmes said that China has sent aid, and that he is not considering resigning.
Inner City Press asked for his response as Humanitarian Coordinator to reports of Myanmar's general's putting their names on boxes of aid, as a form of propaganda. Holmes said he has seen the reports, that it is "to be condemned" as "totally hypocritical," but that it is undermined by the name of the actual donor remaining on the box (albeit smaller, Inner City Press pointed out). So should donors put their names more prominently on the boxes of aid? We'll see. Responses from corporations will be reported on this site.And see, www.innercitypress.com/ocha4myanmar051208.html
