Various groups in Burma are asking neighbours - especially China, India and Thailand - to stop business as usual with the military regime in Burma.

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As violent crackdowns on peaceful protestors continue in Burma, the Shwe Gas Movement (SGM) condemns the Government of India's oil and gas partnerships with the military regime in Burma and urgently calls on the Government of India to suspend all oil and gas investments in the country.

According to Wong Aung, Global Coordinator of the SGM, "India's financial support for the junta through lucrative gas deals and trade cooperation is integral for the regime to maintain its stability, and a stable junta is a violent junta."

The SGM's demand comes on the birthday of India's most revered spiritual and political leader, Mohatma Gandhi. The pioneer of satyagraha, a concept of mass civil disobedience against tyranny, and rooted in ahimsa, or nonviolence, Gandhi led India to Independence and inspired the world to speak out against injustice.

"India's current support for the regime in Burma and insignificant response to the ongoing violence and killings in Burma is a total affront to everything Gandhi taught us," added Kim, Coordinator of the SGM in India. "India should stand up for freedom, human rights, and democracy in Burma."

Nationwide protests in Burma began over one month ago when the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) raised the price of fuels, including a 500 percent increase in the price of natural gas. Led by Buddhist monks, protests climaxed last week with hundreds of thousand of protestors taking to the streets in Rangoon and other cities, peacefully protesting the military regime. It was the biggest challenge to military rule in 20 years. The military responded with brutal force, beating and killing protestors with automatic weapons and live ammunition. In the midst of this, India's Petroleum Minister Murli Deora traveled to Burma with executives of the national oil company ONGC Videsh to sign three new deals to extract and export natural gas.

The regime in Burma has confirmed an estimated 15.85 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of natural gas in offshore reserves, with another 768 tcf onshore. ONGC Videsh and the GAIL both have investments in the lucrative Shwe gas fields in Burma's Bay of Bengal. The Shwe Gas Project, led by Korea's Daewoo International, stands to earn the regime between US$12-17 billion. Last year, the regime earned approximately US$2.2 billion in gas sales to Thailand through the Thai company PTTEP.

Increasing solidarity for the resistance to military junta led by monks has come from The Burma Rivers Network. This group has come out in support of the Buddhist Sangha and citizens of Burma who seek solutions to Burma’s economic problems, release of political prisoners, genuine national reconciliation and the end of brutal military rule. It condemns the use of violence against unarmed, peaceful protestors and calls on neighbouring countries to pressure the junta to forego further violence against monks and civilian protestors.

Energy development deals with the military junta are by far the largest source of financial and political support to the regime. We call on Thailand, China, Bangladesh and India to withdraw from planned joint ventures. The multibillion-dollar energy projects push the military junta into ongoing environmental destruction and human rights. The military junta ordered their forces to open fire on peaceful protestors. Monastery doors were smashed in and hundreds of monks were seized, beaten and dragged away. Thousands of civilians and monks are imprisoned, facing torture or secret execution . Hundreds have been killed or disappeared.

This violence is consistent with other aspects of Burma’s misrule. Along the Salween River where large dams are planned, a 60-year war continues with the help of neighboring countries. Burning, looting, landmines, forced relocation, forced labor, systematic rape, and extrajudicial killings are everyday occurrences. Ongoing partnerships with the Myanmar dictatorship will directly support arms acquisitions and military offensives against Burmese citizens.

Dams on the Salween River alone could cost at least US $20 billion – a king’s ransom for the junta. In the second-most corrupt country in the world, this money will benefit the military, not nation or its people. Burmese citizens must endure enormous hardships under the brutal and economically incompetent regime. Fuel price increases and attendant inflation devastate families’ lives throughout the impoverished nation. Despite Burma’s lack of electricity, hydropower and natural gas will be exported to fund further military expansion. Dams in Burma built for neighbors, and the associated environmental catastrophe, will continue social and human health crises. Big dams like China’s Three Gorges Dam, are now recognized as creating more trouble than they solve. Dams in war-zones will bring even more problems, as the people of Thailand, India and China have already come to know.

Fisheries, floods and loss of farmland will disrupt the livelihoods of millions of people in many countries. The Salween Dams will displace 73,000 villagers in addition to the hundreds of thousands of people already forced to relocate. Thailand and other neighbors, in their quest for cheap energy, will face ever more refugees. Engaging the military rulers of Burma brings responsibility for heinous crimes against Burma’s people, monks and morality. China has recently been strongly promoting the “8 Honors and Disgraces,” India its Gandhian heritage, and Thailand’s military government also promotes higher morality. Supporting the murderous Myanmar dictatorship is irreconcilable with a peace-centered ethical position.

Given recent attacks against unarmed, peaceful monks and demonstrators, we call on Thailand, China, India, Malaysia, Bangladesh and other countries to recognize these grave abuses. Burma’s partners should withdraw from business deals with the Burmese regime to stop further militarization and oppression of the people of Burma. The international community and civil society can and must actively encourage China, India, and ASEAN to establish targeted sanctions in the form of disinvestment from Burma’s destructive hydropower projects. Finally, all must unite to pressure to the military regime to refrain from using force against peaceful protestors, and to respect the basic rights and needs of the nation’s people, especially the rights to life and livelihood.

Burma Rivers Network is made up of ethnic community organizations that represent people potentially affected by dams throughout Burma. The group believes that use of resources must be based on ecological sustainability and social justice.