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NEWS - Total Chief Rejects Sharehol



Subject: NEWS - Total Chief Rejects Shareholder Concerns on Myanmar

Total Chief Rejects Shareholder Concerns on Myanmar

            Reuters
            14-JAN-99

            PARIS, Jan 14 (Reuters) - The French energy group Total
            SA brushed off shareholders' questions about its investment
            in military-run Myanmar on Thursday and questioned the
            usefulness of trade embargoes imposed by the United
            States. 

            "We are not participating in any money laundering, drug
            trafficking or any other illicit trade," Total chairman
Thierry
            Desmarest told a special shareholders meeting called to
            approve its planned share bid for Belgium's PetroFina. 

            "I don't think that slapping economic embargoes on countries
            is the way to make them change." 

            Total has a major stake-- 31.24 percent-- in the $1.2
            billion-plus Yadana offshore gas field project, which is due
to
            produce an average of 525 million cubic feet per day within
            15 months of its start. 

            Human rights groups have been pressuring Unocal, which
            has a 28.3 percent stake in Yadana, to quit Myanmar
            because they claim Yangon violated human rights while
            building the pipeline linking the gas field to its market in
            Thailand. 

            Aung San Suu Kyi, Nobel Peace Prize winner and head of
            the country's harrassed opposition movement, urged foreign
            companies last year not to invest in Myanmar-- formerly
            known as Burma-- until military rule ended. 

            In a show of support for her, the European Union tightened
            its sanctions on Myanmar last October to ban arms sales,
            non-humanitarian aid and high-level government visits. But
it
            did not rule out new investment or providing services to
            Yangon. Desmerest admitted Total worked "with a certain
            number of developing countries where one could say the
            political and social situations were not ideal." 

            His group respected international agreements restricting
            investment in certain countries, he said, adding: "When
there
            are no such restrictions, we think we can work in those
            countries." 

            Desmerest said he did not think Total, which will become the
            world's sixth-largest oil group when its merger with
PetroFina
            goes through, did not expect to be hit by consumer boycotts
            in the United States or Scandinavian countries because of
            its work in Myanmar.