BrianH
At the Start
British American Tobacco, whose Chairman and Chief Executive was until recently Martin Broughton, BHB Chairman and fellow owner at both Henrietta Knight's and Richard Phillips's, and who still pay Tory leadership hope (well, he thinks so) Kennrth Clarke £170,000 a year as Deputy Chairman, were forced to pull out of their manufacturing plant in Myanmar (formerly Burma) two years ago because of that country's appalling human rights record.
It has now come to light that BAT has been operating a factory for the last four years in, of all places, North Korea!
The British government says that it will not support investment in North Korea because of its nuclear ambitions. Oh, not because of its public executions of those who disagree with the Great Leader Kim Jong-Il, the starving dying in the streets and severe repression of the population, then?
Dubya has condemned North Korea as part of the "axis of evil" and human rights organisations have condemned the state as having the worst human rights record in the world.
Not surprising, you might think, that BAT has never mentioned the factory in its annual reports and accounts.
But a BAT spokeswoman denied the factory was "a secret", adding: "If we are asked about our investment there, we respond appropriately. The investor community know of it." Asked about North Korea's human rights record, she said: "It is not for us to interfere with the way governments run countries." She said BAT could "lead by example" and assist the country's development by meeting internationally accepted standards of businesses practice and corporate social responsibility. Yeah, right.
Even one of BAT's own public relations officers, in Japan, was astonished when questioned about the joint venture company. "Business with North Korea?" he asked. "Where there are no human rights?"
The depth of concern about the suffering of people in North Korea is expressed in a series of reports by the United Nations and human rights watchdogs.
Last August, in an excoriating report presented to the UN General Assembly, Vitit Muntabhorn, special rapporteur on North Korea for the UN's Commission on Human Rights, pointed to the "myriad publications" detailing violence against detainees. He expressed "deep concern" about reported torture, the killing of political prisoners, the large number of prison camps and use of forced labour. Finally, he protested at the "all pervasive and severe restrictions on the freedom of thought, conscience, religion, opinion and expression, peaceful assembly and association and on access of everyone to information".
In its latest report on the country, Amnesty International highlighted concerns about the torture and execution of detainees, and worries over the lack of basic political freedom. The charity said that millions of North Korean people were suffering hunger and malnutrition. It added that there had been reports of public executions of people convicted of economic crimes, and that Christians, whose churches have been driven underground, were reported to have been executed because of their faith.
According to human rights observers in South Korea, about 200,000 people are held in prison camps in the north.
Human Rights Watch, meanwhile, describes the Pyongyang regime as being "among the world's most repressive governments", adding that its leader, Kim Jong Il, "has ruled with an iron fist and a bizarre cult of personality" since the death of his father, Kim Il Sung, in 1994.
BAT carried on its business in Myanmar for four years, running a cigarette factory in a joint venture with that county's military dictatorship. It pulled out only after the UK government had asked it to withdraw and after Mr Clarke had been forced to admit, at a shareholders' meeting, that "Burma is not one of the world's most attractive regimes". And North Korea is, Ken?
For those who can stomach it, Channel4's Dispatches shows Undercover In The Secret State tonight at 8.00. The programme was filmed undercover in North Korea and shows public executions, scenes of brutality, dead bodies lying in the streets and the illegal sale of rice donated by the World Food Programme.
It has now come to light that BAT has been operating a factory for the last four years in, of all places, North Korea!
The British government says that it will not support investment in North Korea because of its nuclear ambitions. Oh, not because of its public executions of those who disagree with the Great Leader Kim Jong-Il, the starving dying in the streets and severe repression of the population, then?
Dubya has condemned North Korea as part of the "axis of evil" and human rights organisations have condemned the state as having the worst human rights record in the world.
Not surprising, you might think, that BAT has never mentioned the factory in its annual reports and accounts.
But a BAT spokeswoman denied the factory was "a secret", adding: "If we are asked about our investment there, we respond appropriately. The investor community know of it." Asked about North Korea's human rights record, she said: "It is not for us to interfere with the way governments run countries." She said BAT could "lead by example" and assist the country's development by meeting internationally accepted standards of businesses practice and corporate social responsibility. Yeah, right.
Even one of BAT's own public relations officers, in Japan, was astonished when questioned about the joint venture company. "Business with North Korea?" he asked. "Where there are no human rights?"
The depth of concern about the suffering of people in North Korea is expressed in a series of reports by the United Nations and human rights watchdogs.
Last August, in an excoriating report presented to the UN General Assembly, Vitit Muntabhorn, special rapporteur on North Korea for the UN's Commission on Human Rights, pointed to the "myriad publications" detailing violence against detainees. He expressed "deep concern" about reported torture, the killing of political prisoners, the large number of prison camps and use of forced labour. Finally, he protested at the "all pervasive and severe restrictions on the freedom of thought, conscience, religion, opinion and expression, peaceful assembly and association and on access of everyone to information".
In its latest report on the country, Amnesty International highlighted concerns about the torture and execution of detainees, and worries over the lack of basic political freedom. The charity said that millions of North Korean people were suffering hunger and malnutrition. It added that there had been reports of public executions of people convicted of economic crimes, and that Christians, whose churches have been driven underground, were reported to have been executed because of their faith.
According to human rights observers in South Korea, about 200,000 people are held in prison camps in the north.
Human Rights Watch, meanwhile, describes the Pyongyang regime as being "among the world's most repressive governments", adding that its leader, Kim Jong Il, "has ruled with an iron fist and a bizarre cult of personality" since the death of his father, Kim Il Sung, in 1994.
BAT carried on its business in Myanmar for four years, running a cigarette factory in a joint venture with that county's military dictatorship. It pulled out only after the UK government had asked it to withdraw and after Mr Clarke had been forced to admit, at a shareholders' meeting, that "Burma is not one of the world's most attractive regimes". And North Korea is, Ken?
For those who can stomach it, Channel4's Dispatches shows Undercover In The Secret State tonight at 8.00. The programme was filmed undercover in North Korea and shows public executions, scenes of brutality, dead bodies lying in the streets and the illegal sale of rice donated by the World Food Programme.
