Rights groups and Western governments often slam the ruling military junta in Burma for atrocious human rights abuses and rampant corruption. However, its Asian neighbors and foreign energy firms are increasingly willing to ignore such records as focus shifts to the country's lucrative natural gas reserves.

    Natural gas exports are Burma's largest source of foreign exchange earnings. Energy experts believe it could house the largest gas deposits in Southeast Asia, with the discovery of major deposits off the coast of Arakan in western Burma. This has prompted several of Burma's neighboring states to engage in cross-border energy economics while turning their back on the junta's coercive and abusive handling of its internal economy.

    Shwe is one such gas field, jointly developed by a consortium of South Korean and Indian firms and the Burmese military government's State Peace and Development Council. South Korean conglomerate Daewoo International leads the Shwe project, with partners from several state-controlled companies, including a subsidiary of India's state Oil and Natural Gas Company, ONGC Videsh Ltd., and the South Korea Gas Corporation. Although the consortium has a production-sharing agreement with the Burmese government's Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise, China and India are competing to secure bids to buy much of the gas while Japanese and Korean companies have expressed interest if it is provided in liquefied form.

    While proposals to build a natural gas terminal to transport the gas to India, China, and regional markets are being considered, the idea of developing an overland route across Burmese territory is also under consideration. So are separate pipelines to deliver the gas to border towns in India and China, or possibly through Bangladesh.

    Russian and Singaporean energy firms, in collaboration with MOGE, have began drilling for oil and gas in Burma's northwest Sagaing division, while China's state-owned oil and petroleum companies have taken up stakes in both offshore and onshore exploration projects.

    However, as much as such deals boost the local economies of Asian nations while supplying much needed energy to fuel-hungry regions, to local Burmese they mean forced labor and illegal land confiscation. Arvind Ganesan, director of Human Rights Watch's business and human rights program, said in a press release that the Burmese army is notorious for using violence and coercive tactics to secure land.

    "The construction of more gas pipelines across Burma is likely to line the pockets of the country's leaders while causing suffering for thousands of people," he said.

    Burma's gas business is believed to constitute almost 30 percent of its exports. The revenues are pocketed by the State Peace and Development Council, and the development of new gas deposits is only expected to increase its coffers further. The Shwe deposits could yield revenues between US$37 to $52 billion, and top US$580 to $824 million per year in the next 20 years, based on 2006 revenues of US$2.18 billion. However, this is no cause for joy to the local Burmese, as the SPDC spends the bulk of its revenues on army and military hardware and little on social causes.

    Human Rights Watch has slammed the current development of Burma's gas fields as projects that support the SPDC's military agenda. In its report it mentioned China having sold over US$2 billion worth of weapons since 1989, and India having offered artillery, helicopters, and Special Forces training, to gain favors for new bids and projects.

    "The SPDC leverages its natural resources to secure political and military support. In effect, it trades its gas and other riches for guns and political backing. China, India and others should think twice about getting into bed with such an abusive government," says Ganesan.

    Though exploiting natural resources for fulfilling energy needs might be an acceptable course for survival, ambushing the social fabric of society in the bargain could threaten its long-term prospects. Burma's military rulers' lack of economic understanding and poor knowledge of infrastructure development, along with their hardliner political agenda, can only result in excessive human rights abuses, militarization of land, and degradation of the environment.

    The European Union and the United States have imposed economic sanctions on Burma for a decade, but oil-hungry Asian nations and energy firms have ignored these in their no-holds-barred dealings with the Burmese military regime. Bangladesh is gung ho about routing the proposed pipeline through its region to India, as that is expected to fetch it US$100 million annually in maintenance and transmission charges. So high is their enthusiasm that energy and power adviser Tapan Chowdhury told Energy Bangla, the energy and power board, that the government was ready for any negotiations on the issue, unconditionally.

    Burma may boast of having the world's ten largest natural gas reserves. However, pro-democracy leader and Nobel Laureate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi remains firm in her grassroots commitment to business and politics. Her words to leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations a decade ago still hold true; she said she is not against business or investment, but did not favor the kind of investment that simply encouraged Burma's military regime to increase its oppressiveness.