20 companies from 15 countries have been added to the ‘Dirty List’. The total number of companies on the ‘Dirty List’ is now 102.
Total, Chevron, Keurig/Dr Pepper, Lloyds Register, Hilton, GAIL and Kogas are among 20 companies added to the Burma Campaign UK ‘Dirty List’ today.
The ‘Dirty List’ names and shames companies which are in business with or engage in activities which help fund the Burmese military, supply equipment or services to the military, or are linked to projects resulting in human rights violations or environmental destruction. Now that revenue from state-owned enterprises is received by the military, business relationships with state-owned enterprises has been added as criteria for appearing on the list.
American companies added to the list are Chevron, Hilton and Dr Pepper. Chevron provides gas revenue to the military, Hilton operates a hotel on military land, and Keurig/Dr Pepper has used military-owned Shwe Gandamar as a distributer.
European companies include Lloyds Register (UK), which has worked for military companies and the gas industry, Conbulk, (Greece) which uses military-owned Hteedan port, Total Energies (France), which provides gas revenue to the military and Hetzer (Germany) which hosts military websites.
Asian companies added to the list include energy companies GAIL (India), Kogas (Korea) and companies using the military-owned Shwe Gandamar company as a distributor.
State-owned Australian company Scope Global uses Australian aid money to rent an office from the Burmese military for a scholarship programme it operates.
All the companies being added to the ‘Dirty List’ have been written to in advance to give them the opportunity to respond and correct any incorrect or out of date information. Only two have done so, Total Energies, and a Singaporean company which wrote to tell us they would immediately end their business relationship with the military. This company has therefore not been added to the list.
“It is astonishing that even after genocide and a military coup, so many international companies are still engaged in activities which provide funding or equipment to the Burmese military,” said Mark Farmaner, Director of Burma Campaign UK. “The presence of so many American and European companies on the list demonstrates that there is a lot more the EU, USA and UK need to do to stop their companies assisting the military.”
Rather than annual updates to the ‘Dirty List’ as in previous years, Burma Campaign UK will now update the ‘Dirty List’ with new companies added every 2-3 months.
“People in Burma are doing everything they can to stop revenue going to the military, boycotting military companies, not paying electricity bills, but the same cannot be said for companies like Total, Chevron and Hilton,” said Mark Farmaner. “Companies providing services, equipment and revenue to the military are complicit in the human rights violations committed by the military.”
The ‘Dirty List’ is available here.
Correction 2 November 2021
Scope Global have informed us that they no longer rent an office in Myanmar and that the lease was terminated on 14 July 2021. They have also clarified that they sub-letted the office from an individual owner, meaning the rent did not go directly to the military.
Keurig/Dr Pepper did not respond to correspondence from Burma Campaign UK, but following publication of the ‘Dirty List’, Keurig Dr Pepper informed us that they do not own the Sun Drop brand in Burma.