How to Shut Down Kaesong
Those who believe in schemes to turn North Korea’s slave labor into the next gold mine for global capital’s deviant moral fringe should take note of this TimeAsia report:
Doing business in Burma has often cost American companies p.r. points: Pepsi, Apple Computer and Levi Strauss are just a few of the U.S. firms that pulled out of the military-ruled state after being pressured by human-rights groups. Now, however, doing business with regimes like the one in Rangoon may cost American companies cash as well as goodwill. Last week, California-based oil giant Unocal chose to settle a landmark lawsuit launched by 14 Burmese refugees who alleged that the company was responsible for human-rights abuses by Burmese soldiers working on the $1.2 billion Yadana gas pipeline–a project developed by Unocal, the Burmese government and French oil company Total SA. The terms of the settlement are confidential, but in a joint statement released by the parties to the lawsuit, Unocal stated that “in principle, [it] will compensate plaintiffs and provide funds … to improve living conditions, health care and education” and “provide substantial assistance to people who may have suffered hardships in the region.”
Employing a little-known 1789 law called the Alien Tort Claims Act, the suit argued that by virtue of its partnership with the junta, Unocal “aided and abetted” the Burmese army as its soldiers allegedly burned a baby to death, raped women and girls and forced villagers into slave labor to clear a path for the pipeline. Unocal has declined to comment beyond the statement outlining the settlement, which says that the company “respects human rights in all of its activities.”