February 2010 Visit to Maesot and Chiang Mai
- 2025년 5월 27일
- 3분 분량
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A film Total Denial was shown in Seoul in 2006, revealing the injustices committed against people in Myanmar by the military dictatorship and the multinational oil company Unocal in building the gas pipelines from the Yadana gas field, and also recounting the successful litigation addressing them on behalf of the victims in an American court of law Doe v. Unocal. Significantly, the legal clinics of Harvard Law School and University of Virginia Law School were instrumental in that litigation.
In December 2009, the Clinic learned in greater detail about the history of Myanmar (then officially called Burma), the new Shwe Gas field being developed by a Korean company DAEWOO International and the Doe v. Unocal case from LEE Sanghee, a Korean attorney who had volunteered with Earth Rights International (ERI), the NGO founded by the graduates of the clinics, which later conducted the lawsuit.
The Clinic made a fact-finding trip in February 2010 on the Shwe gas development by going to Maesot, the Thai-Myanmar border city, and Chiang Mai, the location of ERI's office. The Myanmar military restricted travel to the country, and the development site was on Kyaukphyu Island, the Arakan region of Burma, a 12 hour drive from the country's capital and only international airport in Yangon.
The Clinic decided to interview refugees from Myanmar who are living in the refugee camps in Maesot. As the Thai police were watchful of any political activity in and around the refugee camps, the Clinic provided a series of lectures at Peace Law Academy, the local school for Myanmar expats offering legal education in English. The Clinic's professor KS Park and 6 students Kelly Khayuen KIM, Inhong KIM, Doowon KANG, Ikchang SON, Miro KANG, Jong Yeon CHOI, Hyowon KIM gave lectures on Korean history, rule of law, and democracy.
When the students finished their lectures, they went into the refugee camp to interview people from various parts of Myanmar, collecting stories about the country's political situation and hoping to meet anyone from Kyaukphyu Island or anyone who has information about the Shew gas field.
The "Korean democracy" lectures were set up on Peace Law Academy's request as a masquerade to divert the scrutiny of the Thai police from the fact-finding mission. The lecture series turned out to be rewarding on both sides of the podium on its own merits. The Clinic later repeats the series not only in Thailand but later in Myanmar and Nepal as well.
The Clinic then moved to Chiang Mai to visit ERI's office in Chiang Mai to learn more about the Shwe gas field and discuss other strategies to find out about the human rights situation surrounding the Shwe gas project. The discussion covered POSCO's possible investment/acquisition of DAEWOO International, KOGAS the Korean government minority investor in the Shwegas field the as a possible source of information through FOIA, and DAEWOO's illegal arms dealings with the Myanmar military, which later became the foundation for the Clinic's natural resources transparency activities for the next 3 years until the Clinic could set foot on Kyaukphyu Island.
Doowon KANG later published an op-ed in a Korean major daily newspaper making a plea that DAEWOO International not repeat the "resource-cursed" history of Doe v UNOCAL.