In recent months, China, India, and now Thailand have been negotiating with Burma’s military to purchase natural gas located off Burma’s Arakan coast. In the past, natural gas development in Burma has directly resulted in severe human rights abuses, including forced labor, rape, murder, and torture, and pipeline construction has displaced thousands of local villagers. The recent negotiations have proceeded with no discussion of the severe social and environmental costs of natural gas development in Burma, representing a callous drive for energy security in Southeast Asia. ERI Project Coordinators Matthew Smith and Naing Htoo recently published an article, entitled Gas Politics, analyzing the callous negotiations for Burma’s natural gas in Watershed, a journal devoted to environmental and social issues (www.terraper.org.)
