British American Tobacco today sold its investment in Burma, as it became the latest western company to turn its back on one of the world's last military dictatorships.
Bowing to pressure from government and activists, the world's second largest company said it had agreed to sell its 60% stake in a factory in Burma to a Singapore investment firm.
"The sale agreement follows the exceptional formal request by the British government in July for us to reconsider our investment in the joint venture," said BAT's director of corporate and regulatory affairs, Michael Prideaux.
The government welcomed BAT's decision.
"I am delighted that BAT, the largest remaining UK investment in Burma, has responded to the British government's request that they leave the country. I appreciate that this was a difficult process, but I am in no doubt that the decision was the right one," said Foreign Office minister Mike O'Brien.
BAT, whose deputy chairman is former Tory chancellor Kenneth Clarke, joins the growing corporate exodus from Burma, which has been a target for pro-democracy activists for years. Last month, the Burma Campaign, the British-based pressure group, scored a notable victory after JJB Sports, the country's largest sports retailer agreed to withdraw stock manufactured in Burma.
Earlier this year Kuoni, the travel group, announced it was ending tourist trips to Burma. The Burma Campaign has also succeeded in getting Premier Oil, Triumph International, and almost every major high street retailer out of Burma. Advertising group WPP closed its office in Burma this year.
"This is a huge victory," said John Jackson, the director of the Burma Campaign UK. "BAT had to be dragged out kicking and screaming but at least they are out. If a company like BAT can be forced out of Burma, any company can be."
The military has ruled Burma in various guises since 1962, and ignored a 1990 election victory by the National League for Democracy (NLD), led by Nobel peace prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi.
Ms Suu Kyi, is under house arrest - for her own protection, the regime says - after a bloody clash in May between her followers and pro-government supporters while she was travelling near the city of Mandalay, about 600 miles north of the capital, Rangoon.
BAT's announcement coincided with the visit to Burma of the UN human rights envoy, Paulo Sergio Pinheiro. He met Ms Suu Kyi today, but would not say what was discussed during the two-hour meeting at her Rangoon home.
The Brazilian academic is the second top UN official to visit the Nobel laureate since she was put under house arrest in September after major surgery and nearly three months in detention at a secret location.
Ms Suu Kyi's last contact with the outside world was in early October when Razali Ismail, the UN special envoy to Burma, failed to persuade the ruling generals to release the 1991 Nobel prize winner. The Burmese authorities dropped various hints that she would be released at the time of the Asean (Association of Southeast Nations) summit in Bali, Indonesia. But the meeting in early October came and went without her release.
Mr Pinheiro plans to report on the situation in Burma to a committee of the UN general assembly next week. The military's crackdown on the opposition this year has led to Burma's growing international isolation.
In July George Bush, the American president, signed a law banning the import of products from Burma and issued an executive order freezing the US assets of senior Burmese officials and prohibiting virtually all remittances to the country.
The EU also has sanctions against Burma that have been in place since 1996. The EU has imposed an arms embargo on Burma and allows only humanitarian aid for the country. Like the US, the EU also has a visa ban and a freeze on assets of senior officials of the military regime. The scope of the visa ban and assets freeze was extended in April.
