Cluster weapons, like landmines,
litter post-war environments in which they have been used. They
leave behind large numbers of unexploded, but potentially lethal,
sub-munitions which act like de facto landmines. The Cluster
Munition Coalition, which boasts some 350 member organizations in
90 countries, has launched an international campaign to divest
financial involvement in cluster weapons manufacture.
The Coalition is targeting STE
because it is a manufacturer of cluster weapons. About US$1.4
billion are invested in STE by major financial firms from 7
countries, including the US, UK and Japan. The Coalition states
that these are only the investments they can find to date, and that
they will be adding more as investment information is discovered.
The campaign uses the information on investors who have ownership
or management of shares in STE, ownership or management of bonds in
STE or have underwritten bond issues of STE.
Singapore has stated that it will
remain outside the new international treaty banning the weapon,
just as it remains outside the 1997 international convention
banning anti-personnel landmines. Both landmines and cluster
weapons are produced by the government-linked Singapore
Technologies group. The landmines are based on a design Singapore
pirated from Italy and which are now illegal to produce there.
Singapore has stated that it will not export either weapon, but no
binding legislation to that effect exists within the country.
27 major financial groups have been
targeted for the divestment campaign by the Coalition, including:
Aberdeen Asset Management (UK); Allianz (Germany); Capital Group;
Commonwealth Bank of Australia; Credit Suisse; BlackRock (United
States); Daiwa Asset Management (Japan); Deutsche Bank; Fidelity
Group; Franklin Templeton; Grantham, Mayo, Van Otterloo & Co.;
Henderson Global Investors (UK); Invesco; Kuntien Eläkevakuutus
(Finland); Martin Currie Investment Management; Matthews
International Capital Management; Mondrian Investment Partners
(UK); Newton Investment Management; Schroder Investment Management
(UK); State Street; UBS; Universal Investment (Germany); Vanguard
Group; Veritas Asset Management; Vontobel Group (Switzerland) ;
Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation which jointly hold or manage
about 1.4 billion in STE, or about a quarter of its shares.
STE has already been banned for
investment by the following funds, banks and insurance companies:
The New Zealand Superannuation Fund (New Zealand), ABP (the
Netherlands); Ethias (Belgium); KLP (Norway); PGGM (the
Netherlands); PNO Media (the Netherlands); Danske Bank (Denmark);
KBC (Belgium); Nordea (Sweden). More will soon be joining this
list.
Who will be left holding the bag?
The Singapore Ministry of Finance, which owns Temasek Holdings.
Temasek owns or manages just over 50 per cent of STE. Temasek has
very high connections. Its Chief Executive Officer is Ho Ching,
wife of current Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. She was
formerly the President and Chief Executive Officer of Singapore
Technologies at the time it acquired Chartered Industries of
Singapore, now Singapore Technology Kinetics, the division of STE
which produces both landmines and cluster weapons.
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The author, Yeshua
Moser-Puangsuwan, is an independent scholar, author
and academic residing in Bangkok, Thailand