We are pleased to be writing to you with good news. A British company, Portia, has informed Burma Campaign UK that it will stop managing a Burmese military-owned port in Rangoon/Yangon when its contract expires next year.
The port, which is used by container ships bringing goods to and from Burma, earns the Burmese military millions of dollars a year.
We placed Portia on our ‘Dirty List’ of international companies linked to the Burmese military, and had written to them to let them know that we were planning more campaigning against them.
Companies doing business with the military are helping to fund human rights violations the military commit. They are funding genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The Burmese military rapes children and throws babies into burning homes. Doing any form of business with the Burmese military is completely unacceptable. Human rights activists in Burma have told us stopping international companies funding the military is vital.
Since we launched our ‘Dirty List’ we have persuaded many international companies to cut their ties to the Burmese military, including an arms company, a global advertising company, two shipping companies, Visa and Western Union.
But we still have 130 companies on our ‘Dirty List’, and we believe there are many more we haven’t yet exposed.
We need your help to do the research to expose these companies, and to campaign to get them to stop funding a military which uses rape, torture, child soldiers, landmines and is committing genocide.
Portia ending its contract to manage a military port is more evidence that our campaigning is working.
But our work takes time to research and we need your help to do that.
