BURMANET: KNU ATTACK KILLS FIVE TOT

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Date: Fri, 10 Mar 1995 05:58:19 -0800
Subject: BURMANET: KNU ATTACK KILLS FIVE TOTAL EMPLOYEES ON PIPELINE


BurmaNet has preliminary reports that five total employees were killed 
on Wednesday inside Burma, near Kanbauk.  The reports are not yet 
confirmed but they look credible.  According to the information 
BurmaNet has, two bodies have already been flown out of Rangoon.  These 
were presumably French nationals.  The other three killed are thought 
to be Burmese nationals.

On the evidence thus far, it appears that the five died in an attack 
carried out by the Karen National Union's 4th Brigade.  The area has 
been a war zone for some 40 years but is now slated for development by 
Total and the American oil company, Unocal.  The two companies, along 
with Burma's ruling SLORC, are going to build a billion dollar natural 
gas pipeline through the area.  The five were killed while doing 
surveying work for the pipeline.  

Earlier this week, rebel forces fired on two helicopters in the area, 
which were thought to be carrying Total personnel.  The aircraft were 
out of range and no damage was reported.  The five who died at Kanbauk 
seem to have been on the ground

Both the KNU and the New Mon State Party have warned the oil companies 
not to get involved in the conflict.  Although the companies maintain 
they are simply interested in business and not politics, the junta has 
moved 17 battalions of troops into the area to secure the route.  They 
have also razed a number of villages and conscripted tens of thousands 
of laborers for work on a railroad which the military government plans 
to use to move troops and supplies into the area.

The Brigade that carried out the attack recently issued a statement 
recently condemning the proposed pipeline for associated human rights 
abuses. The statement was issued in the name of the KNU but according to inside 
sources, was drafted by 4th Brigade staff who were incensed over Unocal 
President John Imle's reported comments in the Bangkok Post, where he 
appeared to blame the Karens and Mon for the recent increase in forced 
labor because their resistance to the central government spurred the 
SLORC to take more repressive measures.

The text of that statement as well as a fuller analysis of the knock-on 
effects of this attack will be carried in the next issue of the 
BurmaNet News, due out shortly.  Assuming that the initial reports are 
verified, this attack will almost certainly have major repercussions, 
not least of which is the retribution the SLORC will, as a matter of 
standard practice, take out on civilians in the area.

 Strider