Newswire: Total

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Burma Opposition Says Forced Labor Supports Construction
 
   BANGKOK (AP-Dow Jones)--A Burmese opposition group charged 
Wednesday that villagers are working without pay to build a 
supply road for a gas pipeline being constructed by a French 
oil company. 
   A statement received by fax from the All Burma Students' 
Democratic Front also said residents near a field office for 
the French oil company Total were forced to move after the office 
was allegedly attacked. 
   The report couldn't be independently confirmed. 
   The 254-mile pipeline project is controversial because it will 
bring income to Burma's military dictatorship and because of 
allegations over the last two years that forced labor has been 
involved and villagers along the route have been evicted. 
   The $1 billion project is a joint venture by Total, the U.S. 
oil company Unocal, a Thai state-owned oil company and the Burmese 
government. The pipeline will carry natural gas from the offshore 
Yadana field in the Gulf of Martaban to power plants in Thailand. 
   Earlier this month, the opposition group said a French citizen 
and four local employees were killed Feb. 8 when an unknown armed 
group using a rocket launcher attacked Total's field office. 
   A Total spokeswoman denied the claim. 
   The opposition's report also claimed five other employees were 
wounded in the attack near the town of Kanbauk, about 190 miles 
south of Rangoon. 
   The oil companies have said repeatedly that forced labor wasn't 
being used in construction. 
   But the frequent use of forced labor by Burma's military has 
been documented by human rights and political organizations, and 
was noted in a U.S. State Department annual report on human rights 
issued last month. 
   Wednesday's statement from the student front said 20 people 
from each village in the Kanbauk village group had been conscripted 
by the Burmese army to work without pay on construction of a 
three-mile road between the Total office and a seaport. 
   It said villagers in Einayaza, seven miles from the Total 
office, had been ordered to move by the end of March to an area 
three miles away. 
   (END) AP-DOW JONES NEWS 03-04-96
   1811GMT