Are multinational corporations helping to prop up the Myanmar junta even as it violently puts down democracy demonstrations by killing perhaps thousands of ordinary citizens and Buddhist monks?

That grim scenario is becoming a subtext in some reports on the civil unrest in Myanmar, which was formerly known as Burma. Myanmar's regional neighbors, including China, Thailand and South Korea, are also coming in for criticism for continuing to do business with the dictatorship despite worldwide condemnation of its actions.

A growing number of reports say that by continuing to trade with Myanmar, multinational companies and neighboring countries are wittingly or unwittingly giving the government economic support.

"For a country that's used to a hand-to-mouth existence there is suddenly a bonanza of foreign exchange," Sean Turnell, a specialist on the Myanmar economy at Macquarie University in Australia, told the New York Times. "Burma is now getting the wherewithal to tell the world to bug off. It strengthens their position immeasurably."

Ten days ago, as Buddhist monks led thousands of protesters against the government, Indian Oil Minister Murli Deora was in Yangon—the city formerly known as Rangoon—signing oil and gas exploration contracts between state-controlled ONGC Videsh Ltd. and the junta, the Associated Press reported.

Cash generated through energy sales has allowed the junta to buy weapons from China and helicopters from India, to order a nuclear test reactor from Russia, and to build a new capital in the jungle some 250 miles north of Yangon, the Times's Thomas Fuller reports from Bankok today.

France's Total SA and Malaysia's Petronas currently pump natural gas from fields off the coast of Myanmar and transport it through a Thai pipeline, according to the A.P. Ninety percent of Myanmar's gas output flows through Thailand, according to Thailand's PTT Exploration & Production PLC.

While Myanmar's energy output is small by global standards—generating over $2 billion in annual revenues, for a desperately poor country ruled by military dictators with lavish tastes, that amounts to an economic subsidy for oppression.

"The oil and gas companies have been one of the major industries keeping the regime in power," Marco Simons, U.S. legal director at EarthRights International, told the A.P. "They are funding the dictatorship."

Total operates Myanmar's Yadana gas field, of which Chevron Corp.—thanks to its takeover of Unocal—continues to have a 28 percent stake, because of rules that protect existing investments from U.S. and EU economic sanctions on the country, according the the A.P.

Foreign energy companies defended their investments in statements obtained by the A.P.

"Far from solving Myanmar's problems, a forced withdrawal would only lead to our replacement by other operators probably less committed to the ethical principles guiding all our initiatives," Jean-Francois Lassalle, vice president of public affairs for Total, said this week in a statement.

Chevron's interest in the Yadana project is "a long-term commitment that helps meet the critical energy needs of millions in people in the region," said Nicole Hodgson, corporate media adviser for Asia

The White House has been considering forcing Chevron to divest itself of the Yadan stake, according to today's Wall Street Journal.

But an "industry official working with Chevron" told the Journal that such a move might backfire, suggesting that a sale of the company's stake "likely will bring profits to Myanmar's junta."

Thailand's PTTEP, a partner in Total's Yadana and Petronas' Yetagun gas projects, said in a statement that production of natural gas is at the normal rate, and should not be affected by the unrest.

"It is business as usual," said Sidhichai Jayamt, the company's manager for external relations. "When we have a contract with the government, it doesn't really matter who the government is."

Nor, apparently, what the government does. Not even when the government is killing hundreds, or even thousands of monks and other protesters.

An A.P. report stressed that reliable death toll figures have been impossible to confirm—despite scattered anecdotal reports like those—because of the tight security of the well-funded, well-armed regime.

by Sam Gustin