Ticket
Article reserved for subscribers
Increasingly accused of being one of the main financial supporters of the junta, the oil group announces that it will leave the country in six months. A decision also taken by its American partner Chevron.
The announcement is as unexpected as it is welcome. Better late than never. A few hours after surprisingly announcing its support for the implementation of targeted sanctions on gas revenues, TotalEnergies – the group’s new name since May 2021 – therefore began its withdrawal from Burma on Friday. It should be effective in six months. This decision comes almost a year after General Min Aung Hlaing’s coup which brought Burmese democracy to a standstill, starting with former State Councilor Aung San Suu Kyi. And rushed the country into a descent into hell each week more hopeless. Nearly 1,500 people – a largely underestimated toll – were killed, 11,700 arrested, tens of thousands displaced. And absolutely nothing allows today to glimpse a glimmer of hope, if not for the beginning of a resolution of the crisis, at least for a lull in the violence which is unleashed in all directions.
In this “context that continues to deteriorate in terms of human rights and more generally the rule of law”, the tanker does not consider itself capable “to make a sufficient positive contribution in this country”, as he indicated in a press release to argue his reversal. He admits that he is not “able to satisfy” expectations of many…