Press Release:
Statement on Arakan
Natural Gas
REF: ST/06/2004.
The Rohingya
Youth Development Forum (RYDF) strongly protests the SPDC’s
exporting of Arakan natural gas to
Bangladesh is
enthusiastic to discuss about the much-talked trans-Burma-Bangladesh-India gas
pipeline project with India during the early January 9-11 Summit of South
Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) in Dhaka.
But the Burmese military
SPDC has totally undermined the will of the Burmese people and have been
deprived of their right to country’s natural gas or resources. Instead, the
military regime is accelerating the militarization of the pipeline areas. As
suffered by the people of
The international oil
companies will soon begin producing natural gas from Block (A-1) of the
We at RYDF urge up the
Government of Bangladesh not to allow the transition of gas pipeline over the
country lest it will augment the sufferings of the people of Burma,
particularly that of Arakan.
We also call upon the international community to
put effective pressure on SPDC to preserve the
natural gas of Arakan for the people of the country
and to get informed consent from its stakeholders for exploration.
Meanwhile, we strongly
protest and raise our alarm that the international oil and gas companies,
including Indian and Korean companies, may be prudent enough to stop/withdraw
their activities or buying or contracting Arakan Gas,
one of the largest natural gas reserves in
Central Executive Committee
Rohingya Youth Development Forum (RYDF)
Arakan-Burma.
Date:
For further information, please contact at:
Mohammad Sadek
`
E-mail: rydf2003@yahoo.com
Source: Information desk, RYDF,