Ka Hsaw Wa speaks about Total's connection to human rights abuses in Burma at the Desmarais Building

On Wednesday December 5th acclaimed human rights and environmental activist Ka Hsaw Wa gave a rousing lecture to 70 plus people at Ottawa U’s new Desmarias Building. He told the crowd the story of how his life as a vacant fashion-obsessed teenager in Rangoon was shattered and he was thrust into political activism after being tortured by Burmese military intelligence officers trying to get information about his friend. He then became involved in the 1988 uprisings in Burma and eventually fled to the jungle with the intent to support the Burmese student army and other ethnic armies in their fight against the military dictatorship. It was in the jungle that Ka Hsaw Wa realized his own way to contribute to the struggle was by documenting the oppression of local people by the dictatorship and using this information to raise awareness outside of Burma. He began writing down the stories of military abuses that he heard from people he met in the jungle, and using any means to get those stories out of Burma to human rights groups and international media. In 1995 Ka Hsaw Wa and two American lawyers started EarthRights International to continue documenting human rights abuses and environmental destruction in Burma.

His work with Earth Rights International was crucial to the landmark case brought against UNOCAL in US courts using the Alien Tort Claims Act. At present, EarthRights International runs public awareness and legal campaigns focusing on the Amazon region and Southeast Asia. The organization operates a number of human rights and environmental activist schools which empower youth from Burma and other areas in South East Asia to become forces for positive change in their communities.

He spoke about terrible human rights abuses and environmental destruction that were a direct consequence of a joint venture between French multinational Total (now called Total/Fina), US multinational UNOCAL (now a subsidiary of Chevron) and the Burmese military junta The State Peace and Development Council (SPDC). In the early 1990’s Total/UNOCAL entered into a joint venture with the SPDC to construct the Yandana oil pipeline from Burma to Thailand. The SPDC was in charge of “security” for this project and in this capacity committed wide-scale human rights abuses against the people living in the area of the pipeline. Ka Hsaw Wa and the other Earth Rights International co-founders – Katie Redford and Tyler Giannini – documented many of these crimes and won the right to sue UNOCAL for damages on behalf of plaintiffs living in the Burma/Thai border region. The plaintiffs decided to accept a settlement offer from UNOCAL rather than continue the case in court.

The venue of Ka Hsaw Wa’s lecture was fitting as Paul Desmarais Sr. is a major individual investor in Total and was a member of its Board of Directors from 1999 to 2002 (his son Paul Desmarais Jr. is presently on Total’s Board). Ka Hsaw Wa urged students at Ottawa U to contact Paul Desmarais Sr. directly and pressure him to use his influence to ensure that Total’s foreign investments do not support human rights abuses and environmental destruction.