Case of Unocal Burma Essay

Work in progress at the Yadana origin project late equivalent of slavery? Unocal Corporation, the California-based giant gas-and-petroleum corporation, pass on fount trial in a United tells court on charges of compel labour of Burmese people to build the $1. 2 billion Yadana gaseous put up Pipeline Project in southern Burma. On September 18 last year(2012), a panel of the U. S. Ninth Circuit romance of Appeals in Pasadena r foreversed a previous Federal District courtroom closing and allowed the groundbreaking world rights lawsuit against Unocal to go forward.In the Doe v. Unocal instance, 11 Burmese villagers be suing Unocal for human rights abuses including rape, forced labour and murder during the create of the Yadana gas stock project in Burma. This is a landmark decisiveness, give tongue to Richard L. Herz, an attorney with the non-profit group EarthRights International (ERI), co-counsel in the lawsuit. In recognising that corporations that aid and promote egre gious human rights abuses can be held accountable, the Ninth Circuit has confirm that U. S. corporations cannot violate international human rights with impunity. The decision said that plaintiffs need but demonstrate that Unocal knowingly assisted the military in the perpetration of the abuses, and that they had make so. The court in every case found that forced labour such as that employed by the Burmese military on behalf of the Unocal pipeline is the modern equivalent of slavery. The feeling stated, The evidence supports the conclusion that Unocal gave practical assistance to the Myanmar Military in subjecting Plaintiffs to these acts of murder and rape.Thus, because Unocal knew that acts of violence would probably be committed, it became apt(p) as an aider and abettor when such acts of violence, specifically, murder and rape were in detail committed. The legal battle began six years ago when Burmese villagers filed a suit in U. S. federal court demanding that Unocal pa y millions of dollars in damages for abuses committed by soldiers along the Yadana pipeline.However, in 2000, despite the court conclusion evidence that Unocal knew that forced labour was being utilised and that the joint imaginers benefited from the reading, thefederal judge dismissed the case because the compeverys engineer did not rise to the level of active participation a obligation bandstandard borrowed from the Nuremberg war crimes trials involving the role of German industrialists in the Nazi forced-labour programme. Lawyers for the Burmese villagers responded by filing a new lawsuit under state law and making many of the kindred charges in the Superior Court in Los Angeles. In June 2002, the California Superior Court Judge smashing of Seychelles Chaneys decision held that plaintiffs claims might proceed to trial.The trial of the California State case is scheduled to start in early 2003. The lawyers for the Burmese villagers also appealed the federal judges dismiss al last year, which led to the reigning by the Ninth Circuit Court on September 18 last year. Although the Ninth Circuit Court has direct the case tail end to the lower federal court for trial, the villagers lawyers said they would ask Superior Court Judge Victoria Gerrard Chaney to apply the new liability standard in the California State trial.Unocal maintains that its actions are not on trial in the California case and that the company expects to be vindicated of vicarious liability charges. Responding to the federal decision, Unocals lawyer Daniel M. Petrocelli said What the case is about is whether a private American company can be held responsible for the actions of a foreign military regime when the company itself didnt do any of the offending conduct. No Unocal person participated in any acts of wrongdoing, Petrocelli said. Unocal does not have, nor ever had, any control over the actions of the Myanmar military.The company does not direct, countenance or condone the viol ation of any persons human rights, and it sure did not aid or abet the violation of anyones human rights. And if that is the standard that is applied in this case, we are confident we will put up that standard. During the early 1990s, ignoring widespread calls from the Burmese democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and pro-democracy groups worldwide for a moratorium on international investment funds, transnational oil companies Unocal (U. S. ) and fall (France) chose to invest in a regime with one of the worst human rights and environmental records in the world.In 1992, the Burmese military government entered into a joint venture with Unocal and Total to construct a gas pipeline from the Yadana gas palm in Burmas Gulf of Martaban to the Thai b parliamentary procedure. This represents the single largest foreign investment project in Burma. The Yadana gas revenue is one of the largest sources of foreign capital for the Burmese military government. The Burmese military regime was contr acted by the oil companies to provide security for the project. Ever since, the Burmese army has set-aside(p) in systematic human rights abuses and environmental degradation in order to fulfil its contractual responsibilities.The U. S. court accepted the case against Unocal based on extensive documentation including eyewitness accounts of human rights abuses in the pipeline field provided by ERI. Along the Burmese pipeline route, killings, torture, rape and extortion by pipeline security forces have profitd sharply since the Yadana Project was initiated. Many villagers along the pipeline range provided eye-witness descriptions of forced labour Battalion No.273 came in to our village and asked for two porters to go to two places, including one located straight off along the pipeline. These people had to go because it was their turn.The soldiers ordered a total of 18 porters from our village tract. The work lasted about 20 days, and they did not get any payment. I know they did n ot get payment because that was always the case, and it was the same again. The influx of soldiers in the previously isolated Tenasserim region also caused an increase in illegal hunting, logging, and wildlife trade.The region is one of the largest rainforest tracts left in mainland Southeast Asia, home to wild elephants, tigers, rhinos and great hornbills, to name just a few rare and important species. It is also home to numerous autochthonal peoples, including the Mon, Karen, and Tavoyans. An incriminating piece of evidence is a declassified cable sent from the U. S. Embassy in Rangoon to the U. S. State Department in 1995 that confirms Unocals relationship with the Burmese military and their collusion in forced labour. Known as the Robinson stemma, the cable chronicles a meeting between the U.S. embassy staff and Joel Robinson, Unocals passenger vehicle for special projects.According to the cable, Robinson accepts Unocals relationship with the Burmese military On the general issue of the close working relationship between Total/Unocal and the Burmese military, Robinson had no apologies to make. He stated forthrightly that the companies have employ the Burmese military to provide security for the project and pay for this done the Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE). He said three truckloads of soldiers collocate with project officials as they conduct survey work and visit villages.He said Totals security officials meet with military counterparts to claim them of the next days activities so that soldiers can ensure the area is secure and guard the work perimeter while the survey team up goes about its business. Tyler Giannini of ERI said that the evidence belies Unocals claims that it is not responsible for the acts of the Burmese military. When Unocal and Total hire the military, tell them where to go, what to do, and depend on them for the security of their project, they are morally and legally responsible for the abuses that their security forc es commit. Unocal was dealing with the devil.Now they will have to answer to a jury, he said. Doe v. Unocal is the first case in U. S. history in which a corporation will stand trial for human rights abuses committed abroad. Human rights lawyers have viewed the court decision on Unocal as a breakthrough for foreigners seeking to hold multinational corporations accountable for their alleged complicity with repressive regimes in human rights abuses. With at least(prenominal) 10 similar lawsuits pending around the U. S. against multinational corporations, including ChevronTexaco Corp. and Coca-Cola Co. , the Unocal court ruling will encourage human rights lawyers to proceed on these cases.