[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index ][Thread Index ]

Bkk articles 11 Sept



PERSPECTIVE, THE SUNDAY POST
BANGKOK SEPTEMBER 11,1994
 
Gas contract with Rangoon overrides everyone's future best interests
 
HUMAN rights be damned. The Mon refugees must go and the gas 
must be allowed to flow through to fulfill Thailand's need for more 
energy and thereby continue to prop up an illegitimate government in 
Burma. 
 
This was achieved recently when the Mon were forced to return to 
Burma after Thai authorities cut off their food supply and after the 
Government and Burma's State Law and Order Restoration Council 
struck a deal to buy natural gas from Rangoon. 
 
This deal was made possible with the participation of Total SA of 
France and Unocal Corp of the United States, which together with the 
Petroleum Authority of Thailand, signed a memorandum on Friday with 
the Myarxmar Oil and Gas Enterprise for the sale of natural gas from a 
massive offshore field being developed in the Andaman Sea by the two 
giant oil companies. 
 
As for pushing the Mon refugees back to Burma, Thai-based analysts 
believe it is part of a campaign by some key Thai-decision makers to 
force the Mon guerrilla group into a ceasefire with Rangoon. This is 
necessary because the onshore gas pipeline from the Gulf of Martaban 
to the Thai border runs through Mon territory. 
 
The historic contract would earn the Burmese military regime $400 
million a year for 30 years after the gas is expected to be piped to 
Thailand starting in mid-1998. In return, Thailand would receive 130 
million cubic feet per day (cfd) of gas when it goes online, rising to 525 
million cfd in 15 months. Officials say it could eventually reach 650 
million cfd under the terms of the contract. 
 
Thai Industry Minister Sanan Kachornprasart, who signed the 
memorandum, insisted that the deal serves the best interests of energy-
hungry Thailand. A PM's Office minister said the deal would generate 
much-needed foreign exchange to support development leading to 
positive changes in Burma. 
 
This we have to see. Thirty years is a long time for a despotic regime to 
survive in a country where abuse of human rights is rife. Democracy 
forces inside and outside Burma are relentlessly working toward the 
"second independence" of their country from a government which has 
ignored the aspirations of its people by negating the result of the 1990 
election. 
 
Thailand must bear in mind, so must Total and Unocal, that contracts 
signed with an illegitimate government will hold no water when the 
regime is overthrown and a democratic government elected by the 
people is installed. When this happens a free Burma will either 
renegotiate or declare null and void contracts signed by the previous 
administration which it does not recognise. 
 
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, under house arrest since 1989, spoke on 
foreign investments in Burma when US Congressman Bill Richardson 
and a New York Times reporter met her in February this year. Suu Kyi 
suggested that too many nations were using economic carrots, and not 
sticks, to encourage improvement in Burma's human rights. 
 
Sending a clear message to foreign corporations, she said that foreign 
governments should consider whether their trade with Burma was 
"really helping the people or is it simply helping the government to dig 
in its heels. This is the question to be asked". 
 
With the pending issue of political settlement yet to be resolved in that 
country, Suu Kyi's concern for the people should be food for thought to 
any foreign company wanting to do business with Burma. It is a fact 
that Burma's market economy benefits only a few-the ruling military 
elite, its immediate families and close associates. 
 
One good example is the sale and availability of petrol to fuel Burma's 
estimated half-million vehicles. The commodity is limited to two-to-four 
gallons a week as of August when the official price was jacked up from 
16 kyat to 25 ks a gallon. However, an unlimited amount could be 
bought in the black market for 100 ks to the gallon . 
 
Sources inside the country claim this was possible because of the 
unlimited supply made available to military motor pools where lower 
ranking officials siphon off the commodity and resell it on the black 
market. These people have so much money that recently an army private 
involved in a motor accident with a civilian was said to have found 
50,000 kyat overnight to pay for the damage caused to the civilian 
vehicle and thereby avoid legal action . 
 
Meanwhile, Unocal, in a recent report to stock-holders, defended its 
business activities in Burma, saying its presence, not isolation, benefits 
people. It cited Thailand as an example, saying that its natural gas 
production in the Gulf of Thailand has fuelled Thailand's robust 
economy since 1981. 
 
It also pointed out that gas production helped launch Thailand's 
petrochemical industry and many other downstream businesses, 
creating thousands of jobs, and more than 93 per cent of Unocal's 1,150 
employees are Thais, including many in management and supervisory 
positions. 
 
No doubt Unocal will achieve the same results in Burma. But it must 
surely know the jobs will go to the people with Slorc connections and 
not to the ordinary Burmese. Unlike a democratic Thailand, where the 
wealth is shared with its people, Unocal's presence in Burma will benefit 
only the Slorc and its cohorts and fortify the grip it has over its already 
subdued populace. 
 
Unocal also said that its investigations into allegations of human rights 
abuses and environmental destruction connected with the gas export 
pipeline found the claims absolutely false. But human rights groups and 
environmentalists say otherwise. The slave labour being employed on 
the Ye-Tavoy railway under construction speaks for itself. Burma says it 
is voluntary labour. 
 
Dissidents and human rights workers claim it is one of the major 
infrastructure projects in southwestern Burma to pave the way for the 
416 kilometre pipeline from the gas field to Thailand. Can Unocal 
guarantee its shareholders the 66-km overland pipeline to the Thai 
border will not be constructed by forced labour? 
 
As for the presumption that the latest business package with Slorc 
would improve Burma's economy and bring positive political change for 
its 43 million people, we know this will not happen as long as the 
military remains in the driving seat. How can a country develop when 
more than half of a nation's budget is allocated for military expenditure? 
Today almost 300,000 men are in the armed forces. 
 
The least Thailand and giant oil companies can hope for is that Slorc 
stays in power for another 30 years. If that does not happen, all parties 
involved can kiss the natural gas deal goodbye for then they will have 
to answer to an elected government which might declare the 
concessions illegal.
 
 
THE SUNDAY POST SEPTEMBER 11, 1994
Second talks set between Mya Han and Bo Mya
BURMESE CHURCH LEADER MAY GET COLD RECEPTION 
By U THANMANEE
 
RANGOON'S Anglican Archbishop Andrew Mya Han, who is slated for 
a second meeting with Karen National Union (KNU) leader Bo Mya to 
discuss ceasefire talks, is likely to find a polite, but cold reception upon 
his arrival . 
 
The Karens have been fighting Burma's central government since 1948 
and is the second largest insurgent group still in the field, ranking in 
size only behind the Shan rebel army led by drug lord Khun Sa. 
 
Privately, Karen leaders complain that Mya Han carries no new 
proposals from Burma's ruling State Law and Order Restoration Council 
(Slorc) and therefore there is nothing to talk to him about. 
 
As one lower-ranking officer deadpanned. "He can come -- and he can 
go." 
 
Mya Han met on August 11 with Gen E30 Mya and senior Karen leaders 
in Manerplaw, the KNU's headquarters on the Thai-Burma border. Mya 
Han later announced that he had assumed the role of mediator between 
the Karens and Rangoon because of the plight of lower ranking soldiers 
in the KNU. 
 
According to KNU Prime Minister Ba Thein: "We won't make any 
objections to anyone who comes." Ba Thein however stated that unless 
the Slorc is ready to talk about a political settlement to the war, a 
ceasefire would be pointless. 
 
The Karen leaders, who are Christian, appear to be giving Archbishop 
Mya Han somewhat more deference because of his rank, despite there 
being few Anglicans in what they call the "Karen Revolution."
 
"According to Ba Thein, we enquired about his intentions and whether 
he was sent purposedly by the Slorc or Khin Nyunt and he told us that 
nobody sent him.
 
He also said that Mya Han told them that he "had no idea how the 
announcement leaked." 
 
The Karens maintain that they want a peaceful settlement and the 45-
year old conflict should be settled by political means. 
 
They are however, averse to negotiating inside Burma in part because 
they do not trust Slorc to guarantee the security of the negotiating 
team. 
 
They point to an incident during a previous round of negotiations 
between the KNU and Ne Win's government in 1963. 
 
After the talks deadlocked then, the Burmese army attempted to 
apprehend the Karen negotiators despite a guarantee that they would 
he given safe passage. 
 
The KNU is also demanding a neutral international observer be present 
at any talks. 
 
According to Ba Thein, "the problem is that they [Slorc] are in control 
of news media and can say anything... and people will think we are the 
ones making trouble." 
 
The Slorc has insisted that talks take place inside Burma without 
observers. 
 
Slorc also refuses to discuss political issues, but is instead proposing to 
allow the Karens to keep their weapons and offering to let them attend 
the National Convention as observers if they give up their resistance. 
 
Originally, the KNU had insisted on negotiations only in concert with all 
Burma's other rebellious ethnic groups, a demand they have essentially 
backed off from. 
 
Ba Thein tried, and failed, to suppress a laugh when asked about Mya 
Han's estimation that at least half of KNU officers and an even larger 
percentage of his lower ranking fighters are Anglicans.
 
By most counts, Buddhists and animists make up 95 per cent of the 
KNU forces and even among the small number who are Christians, 
Anglicans are few and far between. 
 
The Karen Prime Minister said that he does not believe Thailand will 
allow the KNU to reopen its Foreign Affairs office in Bangkok, which 
was closed by Thai police earlier this year. 
 
The US government has since moved to cut off military aid to Thailand 
unless pro-democratic opposition groups are allowed to function 
without harassment and refugees from Burma are protected. 
 
Ba Thein went on to say that "according to my judgement, America is 
the only country right now, that to a certain extent, understands 
Burma's situation [and] politically stands on the side of democracy." 
 
He expressed moral support for the Mon refugees at Halockani who 
were forced to return to Burma this week after soldiers from the Ninth 
Army Division impounded their food stocks. 
 
Asked whether the 60,000 Karen refugees in Thailand were being urged 
to leave, Ba Thein responded that "even now the pressure is there. We 
feel that slowly, slowly the pressure will build." 
 
A Karen trader reported that he relayed a "friendly warning" from a Thai 
National Security Council officer to Gen Bo Mya that it would be better 
for the Karen leader to cut a deal with Slorc soon because as the NSC 
officer put it, "we would rather visit the President [Bo Mya] in his home 
than in a refugee camp in Thailand." 
 
 
Ba Thein went on to deny reports of an armed conflict at Manerplaw 
which surfaced in the Bangkok press in August. 
 
According to the report, 50 persons were killed and Bo Mya wounded in 
what amounted to an attempted coup.
 
According to Ba Thein, Gen Bo Mya was unhurt in the incident, which 
was unrelated to politics.