MORE THAN 50 UK firms trading with Burma stand accused of propping up the nation's ruthless military junta. The companies' investments in Burma have outraged the Westminster government, British MPs and human rights campaigners.

Among the firms are two Scottish companies: Aquatic from Aberdeen, and Schlumberger from Westhill in Aberdeenshire. Aquatic is a privately owned company, with offices in Burma, that provides specialist services to the oil and gas industry. Gas exports are the military dictatorship's biggest source of income.

Schlumberger Oilfield Services, based in Westhill, runs offshore gas rigs in Burma, as well as in the North Sea. The firm claims it presence in Burma is "positive for the Burmese people".

Burma's pro-democracy movement, as well as British supporters of Aung San Suu Kyi, the nation's imprisoned democratic leader, say that trade with Burma funds some of the most brutal human rights abuses and repression in the world.

The Burmese army has been routinely accused of using rape (including that of children) as a weapon of war, as well as ethnic cleansing, extra-judicial executions and torture and imprisonment without trial. More than one million people have been displaced and 3000 villages destroyed by government troops.

Other British companies trading with the repressive regime include Rolls-Royce, which has a contract to supply and service aircraft engines for at least one Burmese airline.

Most other trade with Burma from Britain is in the travel sector or via the importation of teakwood. The military dictatorship owns all teak plantations, and sales of the wood earn the regime millions of pounds a year. Suu Kyi and the democracy movement have asked all travellers not to visit Burma, as tourism helps "fund and legitimise" the regime.

The UK government says it wants no UK firms to trade with Burma, and actively discourages companies from doing so.

Anne Clywd, chair of the UK parliament's all-party group on human rights, said: "Nobody with any kind of morality should trade with Burma. Continuing trade is totally unacceptable."