Heats Up On Unocal for Helping the

[ktint@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Heats Up On Unocal for Helping the Brutal Regime

NEW YORK, Aug 17 (Reuters) - Human rights groups, who say their pressure 
was key in Atlantic Richfield Co.'s (ARCO) decision last week to pull out 
of Burma, said they will now turn the heat up on Unocal Corp.the only 
U.S. oil company still with interests in the country.

ARCO representatives insist that the withdrawal from Burma wasn't 
influenced by human rights and pro-democracy activists, but was a purely 
strategic economic decision, given its minor interests in the country, 
though rights groups disagree.

``All this cumulative pressure (on ARCO), with the shareholder 
resolutions, the growing consumer boycott, and the deteriorating 
situation within (Burma), certainly played a role in ARCO's decision,'' 
said Simon Billenness, a senior analyst at Franklin Research & 
Development Corp. in Boston, a ``socially responsible'' investment firm 
which played a leading role in pressuring ARCO.

Tensions in Burma, now renamed as Myanmar, have risen in recent weeks as 
opposition leader and Nobel Peace prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi hasn't 
been allowed to travel to visit her supporters outside the capital Yangon 
(formerly known as Rangoon). After a six-day stand-off that ended in late 
July, Suu Kyi and three supporters have been stuck in a minivan for six 
days on a bridge 30 kilometers (20 miles) southwest of Rangoon.

Last Friday, Myanmar reversed a court decision sentencing 18 
pro-democracy activists to five years in jail at hard labor, and instead, 
suspended the sentences and ordered the deportation of the individuals in 
the interest of ``good relations'' with their respective countries. The 
activists, who were detained by police in Yangon after handing out 
pro-democracy leaflets, included six Americans, three Thais, three 
Malaysians, three Indonesians, two Filipinos and an Australian. The 
leaflets had asked the people of Myanmar to remember an uprising against 
the military 10 years ago.

Also, on Friday, U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said that a 
``moment of truth'' was approaching for the military-led government in 
Myanmar and backed the efforts of Suu Kyi to travel outside Yangon.

``I think there have been a number of high-level statements from the 
Secretary of State that reflect the high level of concern,'' said a State 
Department official. However, the official added, ``there is not, at the 
moment, a decision to impose additional sanctions beyond what we have.''

In May 1997, the U.S. imposed unilateral sanctions on Myanmar, barring 
any new investment in the country but allowing existing projects to go 
ahead.

Unocal spokesman Barry Lane said the company's interest in Myanmar, the 
$1.2 billion-plus Yadana offshore gas field targeted at Thailand's 
market, is much more significant than ARCO's, which had invested about 
$50 million in two projects.

``Our project is completed (and) we expect to begin production by the end 
of the year,'' Lane said.

The project, in which Unocal has a 28.3 percent stake, is expected to 
produce an average of 525 million cubic feet per day within 15 months of 
start-up.

Other shareholders include France's Total SA, the operator with 31.24 
percent of the field; the state-owned Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise, or 
MOGE, with 15 percent, and Thailand's PTT Exploration and Production Plc 
with 25.5 percent.

The Free Burma Coalition, which has sponsored several consumer boycotts 
of U.S. companies involved in Burma or Myanmar, maintains that ARCO 
pulled out because of commercial threats to its U.S. retail operation.

``They were certainly beginning to feel increased pressure,'' said Kevin 
Rudiger, a spokesman for the Burma Forum, a member of the umbrella group, 
the Free Burma Coalition. ``Within the Free Burma Coalition, this was 
called the 'ARCO summer,' but really the big target now is Unocal, in 
terms of our work in the United States.''

But Unocal should prove less vulnerable than ARCO and others to threats 
of boycott after it sold its retail outlets and refineries in the U.S. 
last year.

``Since Texaco's withdrawal from Burma, ARCO has been the only U.S. 
company that did business in Burma and had retail outlets. So that made 
them very vulnerable,'' Billenness said.

Texaco Inc. withdrew from Burma in December 1997.

Nevertheless, Billenness said Unocal will be pressured by shareholder 
resolutions, while activists also will press for tougher legislation at 
the federal level.

Unocal is also vulnerable because of a pending court case being fought in 
a California district court, which alleges it'sconnected to human rights 
violations in the construction of a pipeline linking the Yadana field to 
Thailand, activists said.