Activists are hoping that members of the public and investors will steer clear of these companies, putting pressure on them to break links with Burma.
“Foreign investment helps finance a regime that uses rape, torture and murder to suppress its own people,” Yvette Mahon, director of Burma Campaign UK, said.
Cordiant is listed because it owns the global advertising company Bates which handles contracts for foreign investors in Burma. Similarly Norton Rose is targeted for providing legal help to investors in Burma.
The bulk of the firms listed by the campaign are involved in the tourist trade where forced labour is said to have been used to build holiday infrastructure.
This month Aung San Suu Kyi, leader of the democratic opposition in Burma who was released from house arrest in May, repeated her call for foreign visitors to stay away. “We have not yet come to the point where we encourage people to come to Burma as tourists,” she said.
This has not stopped companies such as Abercrombie & Kent or Sea Containers’ subsidiary Orient Express offering holidays to the area and not mentioning the repressive regime operating in Burma in their promotional literature. The Lonely Planet company which produces a travel guide is already facing boycott action for encouraging tourists.
Sea Containers confirmed that its subsidiary offered river boat tours. “We leave it to the informed traveller to decide for themselves whether they want to visit Burma,” said a spokesman.
British American Tobacco, Pricewaterhouse Coopers and ABN Amro are also among the companies that appear on the “dirty list” along with Carnival Cruises. A “clean list” of companies including household names such as Bhs, Adidas and Carlsberg is also published today. The Burma Campaign is keen to publicise those firms which have taken a deliberate decision not to work in the area.