**************************BurmaNet*************************** "Appropriate Information Technologies, Practical Strategies" ************************************************************* The BurmaNet News: 12 March 1995 Issue #123: SPECIAL ISSUE---DEATH ON THE PIPELINE ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Contents: ********************DEATH ON THE PIPELINE******************** BURMANET: KILLING OF FRENCH TEAM INTENSIFIES BURMA'S CIVIL WAR BURMANET: PIPELINE DEATHS BODE ILL FOR REFUGEES BF/DBSA: CALL FOR CALM AFTER PIPELINE DEATHS IN BURMA REUTERS: FIVE GAS PIPELINE WORKERS KILLED IN BURMA ATTACK KNU: ON THE BURMA-THAILAND NATURAL GAS PIPELINE BKK POST: TEXACO, OTHERS JOIN GAS RUSH IN BURMA AP: FOREIGN INVESTMENT RISES DRAMATICALLY IN BURMA ************************************************************** The BurmaNet News is an ********************************* electronic newspaper * Iti * covering Burma. 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Burma Issues is a Bangkok-based non-governmental organization that documents human rights conditions in Burma and maintains an archive of Burma-related documents. Views expressed in The BurmaNet News do not necessarily reflect those of either NCGUB or Burma Issues] ************************************************************** *************THE BURMANET NEWS--MARCH 12, 1995*************** ************************************************************** *********************DEATH ON THE PIPELINE******************** BURMANET: KILLING OF FRENCH TEAM INTENSIFIES BURMA'S CIVIL WAR 12 March 1995 By killing five members of a Total survey team last Thursday, KNU rebels have raised the stakes in Burma's long-running civil war. Among the five dead it appears that two were French nationals, who are the first non-combatant foreigners killed as part of the ethnic conflict in Burma. Total has stated that all the dead were Burmese nationals. According to a KNU spokesman, troops from their 4th Brigade fought a series of engagements with SLORC troops on the 7th and 8th of March. BurmaNet also has indications that someone, presumably the KNU, fired on two helicopters earlier in the week but did not inflict damage. A KNU spokesman confirmed that their forces attacked a SLORC camp at Kanbauk on 7 March at 10:45 AM, but had no information on casualties. The encampment was occupied by Battalions 409 and 410 of the Tatmadaw. A senior KNU official from the Mergui/Tavoy district confirmed that the KNU attacked a military car at 7:00 AM on Thursday, the 8th. The car was had military markings and there were SLORC troops in the vehicle according to the KNU official. The officials said that they were aware of at least one "farang" [Thai for Caucasian) who was among the dead. Kanbauk is 12 kilometers straight-line distance form from the Andaman Sea coast and another 35 kilometers on to the Thai border. It is fewer than five kilometers from the planned Total/Unocal natural gas pipeline. Significantly, the Karens who attacked Kanbauk were operating somewhat off their home fields. Just to the north of Kanbauk is a Mon stronghold but the KNU 4th Brigade base area is some distance off. According to another report, believed by BurmaNet to be reliable, the dead were taken to Rangoon and two bodies were quickly flown out of the country. These presumably were French nationals and the other three were presumably Burmese nationals. It is still not entirely clear whether they were Total officials or SLORC, although it is conceivable that they were both. The likely impact of the attack is far-reaching. First off, if the SLORC reacts true to form, they will by now have begun seeking vengeance on civilians living in the area. It is standard procedure for the SLORC to hold the villages near where an attack takes place responsible and the revenge they take is often vicious. Given the significance of this particular attack, the fate of local villagers is likely to be difficult. Whether this is the case should become evident within a number of weeks through an increase of refugees along the Thai/Burma border. The response of Total and Unocal is less predictable. The death of Frenchmen will raise the profile of Total's operations among the French people. To date, Total has escaped serious scrutiny in France for their operations in Burma. The attack may slow the development especially as it occurred in an area already under the "control" of the SLORC. Kanbauk is flat land, some 15 kilometers from the foothills of the Bilauktaung range where the KNU is at home in their familiar mountains. In a confidential letter to senior staff, Unocal recently justified its involvement in Burma on the basis that the natural gas discovered there was the largest find they had made in recent years. No mention was made of ethical difficulties or dangers of the involvement. This incident is likely to cause some discontent within the company and among shareholders, some of whom are already opposed to it. Nowhere is the impact likely to be felt more than in Thailand, which is the primary beneficiary of the pipeline. Thai policy is taking place on two levels. In public, there is a good deal of posturing. PM Chuan Leekpai is offering to mediate and the Foreign Minister is also making soothing noises. In practice, things stand rather differently. SLORC troops and their DKBA proxies are making repeated incursions in Thailand, attacking refugee camps and making clear that being in "the other country" is not the same as being out of reach. For their part, Thai authorities have posted a few guards but have made no serious effort to protect the refugees. [An exact bodycount of those killed and kidnapped by DKBA/SLORC troops will be posted as soon as it is available but the numbers are impressive and growing.] If you lay out a map of the refugee camps and mark the locations of DKBA attacks and kidnappings, a simple pattern emerges. The SLORC, with tacit Thai consent, is attacking the camps housing the families of the northern and central brigades of the KNU. Thus far the southern brigades (4 and 6) have escaped serious pressure. According to the Thai businessman/fixer/NSC representative Xuwicha Hiranyaprueck, the SLORC intends to destroy "Bo Mya's KNU" and then negotiate a separate cease-fire with the more tractable 4th and 6th Brigades. This strategy would also fit with what Total executives have been promised by Thai authorities. At meetings with Total executives where pipeline security was discussed, Thai officials promised that the KNU and NMSP would soon sign cease-fires and would not attack the pipeline because they are too dependant on the good-will of Thailand. There may well be dissension between the southern brigades and Bo Mya, but the SLORC and Thai strategy of coming down on "Bo Mya's KNU" while leaving the 4th and 6th Brigades alone is unlikely to survive the revenge SLORC will exact on villagers on Karen villagers there. The KNU has over recent years, lost most of its funding sources. In the offensive that began last December, they have also lost their most prominent bases along the Thai/Burma border. Prior to this attack, most observers have written off the KNU as a fighting force. The pipeline however, may prove a lifeline to the beleaguered organization. KNU president Gen. Bo Mya has stated that he will ask the oil companies to pay a "tax" to ensure the safety of their pipeline. Until now, Thai authorities have assumed the KNU to be hostages to their continued toleration. But it appears that the enormous profits some Thai officials hope to make and the even greater fragility of the pipeline have turned the Thais, the SLORC and the oil companies into the hostages of the ethnic groups. There are at least two problems the Karens will have to overcome before they can think about "taxing" the pipeline however. First, there is almost certainly a clause in the contract Total and Unocal signed with the SLORC which prohibits them from even talking to the opposition groups, much less paying them to continue their revolution. The clause is one likely reason the companies have refused to even talk with the ethnic groups whose land is being taken for the pipeline. Unocal denies the clause exists but it is in at least one other oil exploration contract BurmaNet has obtained and is likely to be in this contact as well. The second reason is probably more telling. Initial reports of the killings were confused simply because of the number of groups with both the opportunity and motive to attack the pipeline workers made determining who did it akin to a mystery novel. There are Karens, Mons, ABSDF, Tavoyans and even a detachment of Arakanese who operate in the area, any of which should be able to sabatoge the pipeline. Keeping all of them either paid off or at bay is likely to be a far more difficult task than Unocal and Total first supposed. *********************DEATH ON THE PIPELINE******************** BURMANET: PIPELINE DEATHS BODE ILL FOR REFUGEES 12 March 1995 If the killings ultimately lead to another round of refugee outflows, they will be arriving at a spectacularly bad time. According to a well-informed source in the opposition, the National Security Council chief's personal representative, Xuwicha Hiranyaprueck, is saying that the Thai government will shortly begin a rapid repatriation of Karen refugees. Xuwicha returned from Rangoon two weeks ago and immediately began flogging his latest plan. Xuwicha is promising that the Ministry of the Interior will soon begin a headcount in the refugee camps, counting Buddhists, Christians and "KNU hardcores." Those willing to go back will be promised a year's rice rations and the remaining "hardcores" will be treated as bandits. The repatriation is supposed to begin before the current dry season ends. Whether all this will come to pass is not yet clear. As the opposition source put it, "Given that Mr. X. [Xuwicha] is rather a psychotic kind of person, it is hard to tell whether he is telling you something because he wants you to think he is powerful, or if he is really in a position to do it." Although he was hopeful that Xuwicha would be proven wrong, the spokesman noted that "he [Xuwicha] come up with a story and twelve months later it comes true." *********************DEATH ON THE PIPELINE******************** REUTERS: FIVE GAS PIPELINE WORKERS KILLED IN BURMA ATTACK 11 March 1995 [Reuters/BKK Post] Five members of a natural gas survey team were killed and 11 wounded by heavily armed attackers on Wednesday near the village of Kanbauk in Burma, the French oil company Total said yesterday. The victims were Burmese nationals, Total spokesman Joseph Daniel said in Paris. The wounded have been taken to Rangoon. The attack was carried out by a "solidly armed force" and occurred as the Burmese workers were carrying out preparatory work on the project, Daniel said. The pipeline is being built by Total and California-based Unocal. When completed, it will carry gas from the coast of Burma to Thailand, going through areas of southeastern Burma in which Karen and Mon ethnic-minority guerrillas operate. "We have no idea who is responsible for the attack, and no one has claimed responsibility," Daniel said. A spokesman for the Foreign Affairs Department of the Karen National Union (KNU) said the Karen attacked two battalions of Burma's ruling State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) on Tuesday, but did not know if that attack was related to the pipeline incident. "We can confirm that the KNU troops attacked two armed SLORC battalions of the 7th and 10:45 am," the spokesman told Reuters in Bangkok. "But we do not know the results of that attack." He said the KNU attack was in a village called Kon Bauk, which could be the same as Kanbauk (Burmese words transliterated into foreign languages are often spelled differently.] Daniel said the attack occurred near the western end of the planned pipeline and away from Burma's border with Thailand. The Karen guerrillas, who are seeking autonomy for the Karen people, object to the pipeline, saying the revenue will reinforce the position of the military rulers now in power in Rangoon. Under a 30-year agreement signed last month between Thailand and Burma, Thailand will buy 525 million cubic feet per day of natural gas worth 10 billion baht ($400 million) from Yadana, Burma's largest known offshore gas field. Burmese opposition groups have threatened to disrupt construction of the pipeline or attack it after it has been completed, but KNU leader Bo Mya played down those threats earlier this week in an interview with Reuters. "The Karens never said we would destroy the gas pipeline." We only said it is not right to build such a huge project while the civil war is still going on," he said. In a statement last month the KNU said it would welcome construction of the pipeline when the war was over. Human rights workers on the Thai-Burmese border say thousands of Mon and Karen villagers have been relocated to clear the way for the pipeline. Meanwhile, nine Karen refugees, including a community leader and his family, were seized in a camp in Thailand by members of a Karen guerrilla splinter group and forced back to Burma, refugee leaders said in Mae Sot yesterday. The kidnappings were the latest in recent weeks involving members of the DKBA, who joined forces with Burmese government troops after mutinying against leaders of the Christian-led KNU in December. In a separate incident two refugees were shot and killed when DKBA members entered another camp and tried to rob some of the inhabitants, the officials said. *********************DEATH ON THE PIPELINE******************** BF/DBSA: CALL FOR CALM AFTER PIPELINE DEATHS IN BURMA FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Contact: Dr. Carol Richards 310-451-4493 March 10, 1995 News Editors, Business Editors Los Angeles--March 10, 1995-- The Burma Forum and the Democratic Burmese Students Association, Los Angeles based activist groups working for democracy and human rights in Burma, have appealed for calm after five employees of Frenc oil giant Total were reportedly killed in Burma. The five were surveyors on a project to build a natural gas pipeline from southern Burma into Thailand. Los Angeles based Unocal and the military rulers of Burma are also partners in the project. Unocal has come under heavy criticism for its business dealings with the Burmese military, which is accused by the United Nations and the U.S. State Department of "flagrant and systematic abuses of basic human rights, including killings, rape and forced labor. "The level of violence in the project area was already shocking, and we hope that this sad incident will not lead to more suffering for the people living there, at the hands of a vengeful Burmese Army" says Carol Richards, coodinator for the Burma Forum. "For months we have been been urging the companies to have some dialogue with the local people (members of the Mon and Karen ethnic groups), who are having this project rammed through their homeland at bayonet-point. The people are so desperate." In January, Unocal president John Imle warned that there would be violent retaliation against anyone who tried to stop the project. "If you threaten the pipeline there's gonna be more military. If forced labor goes hand and glove with the military, yes, there will be more forced labor. For every threat to the pipeline there will be a reaction" said Imle, quoted in the February 13 Bangkok Post. "The ethnic groups and pro-democracy activists have been searching for a peaceful path to national reconciliation, but to date the SLORC's response has been to use force to bring the pipeline project to fruition" said Khin Maung Shwe of the DBSA. "We remain committed to the principles of non-violence put forth by Aung San Suu Kyi." Awarded the 1991 Nobel Prize for Peace, Aung San Suu Kyi and her party, the National League for Democracy, won 1990 elections overwhelmingly, but the results were never recognized by the military. Aung San Suu Kyi is in her sixth year of house arrest, while other NLD leaders have been jailed or driven into exile. In related news, Reuter reports the U.S. State Department, in an official statement on March 8, threatened to downgrade relations with Burma due to a lack of progress on democratization, human rights, and narcotics suppression. "The ethnic groups and pro-democracy activists have been searching for a peaceful path to national reconciliation, but to date the SLORC's response has been to use force to bring the pipeline project to fruition" said Khin Maung Shwe of the DBSA. "We remain committed to the principles of non-violence put forth by Aung San Suu Kyi." Awarded the 1991 Nobel Prize for Peace, Aung San Suu Kyi and her party, the National League for Democracy, won 1990 elections overwhelmingly, but the results were never recognized by the military. Aung San Suu Kyi is in her sixth year of house arrest, while other NLD leaders have been jailed or driven into exile. In related news, Reuter reports the U.S. State Department, in an official statement on March 8, threatened to downgrade relations with Burma due to a lack of progress on democratization, human rights, and narcotics suppression. Contact: Dr. Kyaw Win 714-831-2000 Dr. Carol Richards 310-451-4493 *********************DEATH ON THE PIPELINE******************** KNU: ON THE BURMA-THAILAND NATURAL GAS PIPELINE February 24, 1995 Statement by KNU Foreign Affairs Department on Burma-Thailand natural gas pipeline For immediate release, 24-2-95 Burma's ruling junta, the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) recently signed an agreement with the Government of Thailand for the sale of gas from Burma's off-shore Yadana field to Thailand. The project involves the construction of a 400km pipeline by two foreign companies, Unocal of the US. Total of France. Because of misleading statements made by representatives of Unocal and the SLORC concerning the military and human rights situation in the vicinity of the pipeline, the KNU would like to clarify its position concerning the pipeline, which will be built through its Mergui-Tavoy District. The SLORC has been planning to extract natural gas from the huge reserves in the Andaman Sea and sell it to Thailand since early 1990. The project has resulted in massive human rights abuses, forced labour on the related Ye-Tavoy railway construction and forced relocation of many villages. There are countless Mon and Karen refugee testimonies to this. Both the Mon and Karen ethnic groups have produced reports documenting this appalling situation in the area marked out for the pipeline construction. Mr. John Imle, President of Unocal was quoted (Bangkok Post 11-2- 95) as saying that human rights abuses and SLORC military action in the Mergui-Tavoy area and the consequent movement of refugees fleeing to Thailand were a result of threats to the pipeline project by Mon and Karen rebels. He said, "If you threaten the pipeline there's gonna be more military. If forced labour goes hand and glove with the military, yes, there will be more forced labour. For every threat to the pipeline there will be a reaction". The KNU would like to make it clear that human rights abuses by the SLORC military and forced re-location of the civilian population date back to early 1991 when the original plan for the pipeline was changed from a route through 3-Pagodas Pass to a more southerly route emerging to Thailand at Nat Ein Taung (Ban Ei Tong) near Thom Pha Phum, Kanchanaburi Province. .../2 Beginning at this time in 1991 SLORC troops stepped up military activities along the pipeline route. Karen village leaders were summoned and ordered to relocate their villages to non-Karen areas. Nine (9) Karen villages were deserted, the population either leaving their land to go to the new place or fleeing to Thailand to become refugees. At the same time SLORC troop activities were stepped up and in late 1991 (19-12-91) they occupied one of the KNU Mergui-Tavoy District Township offices at Nat Ein Taung. Following this the migration of refugees to the border has increased steadily as villagers felt insecure and dispossessed of their land and gardens. The SLORC troop build-up has been continuous since 1991, and in early 1994 had 21 infantry and light infantry battalions, 4 artillery units and an airforce squad in the district, compared with only 5 battalions in 1990. The time leading up to the final signing of the gas contract between SLORC, Unocal, Total and PTT (Thailand), has seen the offensive assume new proportions with the unfolding of "Operation Nat Min" (Spirit King), the objective of which is the total destruction of rebel forces in the area and the securing of the pipeline against attack. The operation is scheduled to run from December 1994 until July 1995. Since December 1994 several thousand civilians have been rounded up for porter duty with the military (most recently at Mergui), paddy seized from villages in the Po Klo River area of Tavoy and villagers forced to flee to the jungle for safety. 40 houses were looted and destroyed and 300 people left homeless and hungry. By late 1995 SLORC troops of the 25th Battalion had advanced close to the Tenasserim River resulting in 1,400 people fleeing across the border to Thailand at Bongti, near Kanchanaburi. At present there are 1,600 people evacuated from 4 villages along the Tenasserim River camped in make-shift shelters near the Thai border at Bongti, while the civilian population has started to leave the Po Klo River villages to seek safety closer to the border. These people have not simply been displaced by threats against the pipeline by rebel forces but because of a consistent policy of the illegal SLORC regime to clear the entire area of Karen and Mon people and to establish a wide security zone parallel to the pipeline. That is why, with regard to rebel threats to the security of the pipeline, SLORC's Ambassador to Thailand, U Tin Winn, was able to state recently that, "there are no such rebels. They are just 'ungrouped people', who cannot pose such a threat." The KNU and the KNU's Mergui-Tavoy District wish to state clearly that they are not opposed to the pipeline per se but oppose any business venture that strengthens the illegal SLORC's hold on power and hence fuels the civil war. With the establishment of conditions for peaceful resolution of the country's problems the KNU will welcome and cooperate fully with any business activity that serves to improve the living conditions of the Karen people and that does not abuse internationally accepted standards of human rights nor have detrimental effects on the environment. The KNU strongly urges the concerned companies associated with the pipeline project to note the true facts of the case. The KNU's Mergui-Tavoy District Chairman, Saw Kwe Htoo, is ready to welcome representatives of the companies involved at any time and arrange interviews with people who have fled the area. ********************DEATH ON THE PIPELINE******************** BKK POST: TEXACO, OTHERS JOIN GAS RUSH IN BURMA 8 March 1995 THE Rangoon junta has contracted three foreign oil firms, including US giant Texaco, to expand gas exploration off the coast of Tenasserim, state-run media report yesterday. The agreement, signed Monday, awarded Texaco, Britain's Premier and Japan's Nippon Oil the rights to "block m-10" adjacent to offshore territory which the consortium has already acquired, the New Light of Myanmar said. The foreign petroleum group, represented Monday by Texaco regional director Patrick Mc Guire, has already struck commercially feasible gas reserve in burma's Yedagun field, in the gulf of Mattaban. The report quoted Burmese energy Minister Khin Maung as saying Monday that negotiations were under way to sell gas from Yedagun to Thailand, which agreed last year to buy gas from the yadana field, also in the Martaban gulf. The Yadana field is current being developed by US petroleum company Unocal and Total of France. The New Light of Myanmar Oil and Enterprise (MOGE) for an offshore exploration licence. Myanmar is the official name of***********************INSIDE BURMA*************************** AP: FOREIGN INVESTMENT RISES DRAMATICALLY IN BURMA 10 March 1995 Associated Press Rangoon: Foreign investment has risen dramatically in Burma, with oil companies accounting for the bulk of the US$2.4 billion committed last month, the government said yesterday. The Foreign Investment Commission said France was the largest investor with US$1.05 billion, or 44 per cent of last month's total. It was followed by Singapore, Thailand and the United States. The big jump in February was largely accounted for by the more than US$1 billion invested by Total Oil of France in the development of a natural gas pipline with the state-owned Oil and gas Enterprise, it said. In addition to oil and gas, hotels, tourism and mining were the most attractive areas for foreign investors. The commission said Singapore has invested a total of US$265 million and the United States US$203 million. Mounting foreign business interest in Burma has come despite attempts by human rights activists to block economic ties with the souteast Asiasn nation because of its human rights record. In its report, the commission said other significant investments came from Australia, Austria, Bangla- desh, Britain, Canada, China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Macau, Malaysia, the Philippines, and the Netherlands. Burma. (BP) ************************************************************ NEWS SOURCES REGULARLY COVERED/ABBREVIATIONS USED BY BURMANET: ABSDF: ALL BURMA STUDENT'S DEMOCRATIC FRONT AP: ASSOCIATED PRESS AFP: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE AW: ASIAWEEK Bt.: THAI BAHT; 25 Bt. EQUALS US$1 (APPROX), BBC: BRITISH BROADCASTING CORPORATION BKK POST: BANGKOK POST (DAILY NEWSPAPER, BANGKOK) BRC-CM: BURMESE RELIEF CENTER-CHIANG MAI BRC-J: BURMESE RELIEF CENTER-JAPAN CPPSM:C'TEE FOR PUBLICITY OF THE PEOPLE'S STRUGGLE IN MONLAND FEER: FAR EAST ECONOMIC REVIEW IRRAWADDY: NEWSLETTER PUBLISHED BY BURMA INFORMATION GROUP KHRG: KAREN HUMAN RIGHTS GROUP KNU: KAREN NATIONAL UNION Kt. BURMESE KYAT; UP TO 150 KYAT-US$1 BLACK MARKET 106 KYAT US$1-SEMI-OFFICIAL 6 KYAT-US$1 OFFICIAL MOA: MIRROR OF ARAKAN MNA: MYANMAR NEWS AGENCY (SLORC) NATION: THE NATION (DAILY NEWSPAPER, BANGKOK) NCGUB: NATIONAL COALITION GOVERNMENT OF THE UNION OF BURMA NLM: NEW LIGHT OF MYANMAR (DAILY STATE-RUN NEWSPAPER,RANGOON) NMSP: NEW MON STATE PARTY RTA:REC.TRAVEL.ASIA NEWSGROUP SCB:SOC.CULTURE.BURMA NEWSGROUP SCT:SOC.CULTURE.THAI NEWSGROUP SEASIA-L: S.E.ASIA BITNET MAILING LIST SLORC: STATE LAW AND ORDER RESTORATION COUNCIL TAWSJ: THE ASIAN WALL STREET JOURNAL UPI: UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL USG: UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT XNA: XINHUA NEWS AGENCY **************************************************************