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Bkk Post-Unocal, Total funding to s (r)



Subject: Re: Bkk Post-Unocal, Total funding to suppress ethnic

as you may know, Total's french lawyers in their statement to the LA
judge last year said (dossier Amicus Curiae)"TOTAL's investment in Burma
does not contradict French foreign policy". Question, does anyone know
if the French government has the legal right to use french citizens, re
french army officers, to train SPDC troops? Or would this be now 
strictly and formally against current European Parlimentary legislative
policy?



TIN KYI wrote:
> 
> BURMESE OFFENSIVE / REBELS ALONG YADANA PIPELINE TARGETED
> 
> Armour battalions join drive
> Funding said coming from Unocal, Total
> 
> Preecha Srisatharn
> Kanchanaburi
> 
> Rangoon has sent troops and armour to suppress ethnic groups along the
> Yadana pipeline, which brings gas to a power plant in Ratchaburi.
> 
> The Burmese unit has been assigned to a 60km stretch of the pipeline from
> the town of Kanbauk to the border at Thong Pha Phum district, Kanchanaburi,
> a source from the Ninth Infantry Division's Surasee Task Force said
> yesterday.
> 
> The unit, which comprises an artillery battalion and five rapid response
> battalions, two of them armoured, has been backed financially by Unocal and
> Total, which extract gas from the Yadana field, he said.
> 
> Col Aung Hsa Tin, deputy commander of the unit, quoted Burmese intelligence
> as saying ethnic groups were seeking to sabotage the pipeline for political
> and criminal purposes.
> 
> Four Karen men arrested as spies a month ago admitted they were planning to
> bomb the pipeline, he said.
> 
> The Burmese officer also rejected a request to open to Thai traffic a road
> running parallel to the pipeline. He said the contract between Rangoon and
> Unocal and Total did not allow the road to be opened.
> 
> However, the road could be used occasionally with the consent of the Burmese
> government and the gas developers, he said.
> 
> Rangoon forces based at Huay Ponglao have also sent a protest letter to the
> Thai-Burmese border coordination panel in Mae Hong Son accusing Thai
> authorities of supporting ethnic minorities in their struggle against the
> junta.
> 
> On Jan 1, Karen rebels attacked a Burmese camp at Ban Tanakwai, opposite Mae
> Hong Son. Eight other attacks against Burmese military camps were carried
> out in Burma's Kayah state around the New Year holiday.
> 
> Rangoon claims armed minority groups, especially the Karens, are operating
> from Thailand, an allegation the Thai military routinely denies.
> 
> In another development, Kanchanaburi locals are upset with the Petroleum
> Authority of Thailand (PTT) which buys the Yadana gas.
> 
> Tunya Darapisaisuk, a leader of village headmen in Kanchanaburi, said locals
> who had supported the PTT in building the section from the border to the
> Ratchaburi plant were upset at the removal of the PTT's public relations
> office in Kanchanaburi.
> 
> The PTT had promised to maintain the office until it completed a
> reforestation project along the pipeline route in Kanchanaburi and a
> five-year project to help locals affected by construction. However, the
> office closed on Dec 30 and the PTT moved the operation to Ratchaburi, Mr
> Tunya said.
> 
> It was now hard for local people to co-ordinate with the PTT on
> reforestation and public welfare projects, he said.
> 
> Mr Tunya warned people living along the designated route for a new gas
> pipeline from Ratchaburi to Ayutthaya not to believe the PTT's promises of
> compensation for environmental impact.