A demonstration will take place on Thursday outside the South Korea Embassy. South Korean companies, including Daewoo International, are major investors in the Shwe Gas Project.

A total of 130 organizations in over 20 countries will also hold local demonstrations to postpone the Chinese-backed trans-Burma oil and gas pipelines project.

An open letter to Burmese President Thein Sein expressed serious concerns over human rights abuses as well as social, economic and environmental impacts of the Burmese, Chinese, Korean, and Indian company-led project. The Shwe Gas Project and trans-Burma oil and gas pipelines are currently under construction, originating off Burma’s western coast and terminating in China’s Yunnan Province, and set to come online in 2013.

The project will become the country’s largest source of foreign revenue generating US$ 29 billion over 30 years. 

The open letter to Thein Sein strongly condemned the confiscation of the thousands of acres of farm lands for the project, and the military offensives against ethnic armies in the pipeline corridor in Northern Shan State. The letter references the previous suspension of the Myitsone Dam and Dawei coal-fired power plant and “call[s] for a consistent policy of social and environmental accountability, and an immediate postponement of the project.”

Revenues from oil and gas are not managed transparently in Burma.  “Under the current unaccountable structure, gas monies from the project will only feed corruption and not benefit the people” said Wong Aung of the Shwe Gas Movement.

The Shwe Gas Movement advocates for community members’ rights and an equitable benefit sharing system under a framework of sustainable development.

To read the Open Letter to President Thein Sein, click here.