Oil lures West to troubled Myanmar

BANGKOK, Thailand – Governments both East and West are often critical of Myanmar’s human rights abuses, but the country’s energy production is rising, and nations are quietly doing lucrative business with its junta leaders.

Although the U.S. leads the chorus of criticism and has slapped economic sanctions on the country, giant oil company Chevron Corp. and an upscale tourist operator are among American enterprises doing business in the Southeast Asian nation.

“Clearly what many governments and corporations say and what they practice are completely different things,” says Ka Hsaw Wa of EarthRights International, a nonprofit group that documents human rights and environmental abuses.

While the ruling military junta has brutally repressed political dissent and keeps pro-democracy leader and Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi in detention, the country is the 16th largest natural gas exporter in the world and new discoveries suggest it may harbor one of the largest gas yields in Southeast Asia.

AP