Foreign Oil Companies Turn Blind Ey

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Subject: Foreign Oil Companies Turn Blind Eye to Burma Abuses - Robert Horn

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Burma - Pipeline Horror
Foreign Oil Companies Turn Blind Eye to Burma Abuses
By Robert Horn  - Associated Press Writer

Rangoon, Burma (AP) -- The Burmese military has burned
down villages and uses forced labor to build infrastructure
needed for a gas pipeline partly owned by U.S. and French oil
companies, human rights groups said in a report released
Friday.

The 60 - page report titled "Total Denial," compiled by the
Southeast Asian Information Network and Earth Rights
International, was released in Rangoon.

The ruling junta is currently engaged in a crackdown on the pro
- democracy movement led by 1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner
Aung San Suu Kyi.  The arrest of hundreds of her supporters
has focused attention on the regime's business dealings with
foreign companies.

The 409 - kilometer (254 - mile) Burmese end of the pipeline,
to be completed in 1998, will carry gas from the Gulf of
Martaban to Thailand.  Burma's military government, which
owns half of the 1.4 billion dollar project, is expected to earn
400 million dollars a year in badly needed foreign exchange
from it.

The report accuses the government of forcing local residents to
build a railway, roads, helicopter pads and other infrastructure
needed to bring in pipeline equipment, and of ejecting villagers
who stood in the way.

It says the foreign oil companies -- Total of France and Unocal
of the United States -- were complicit in the forced labor and
knew of arbitrary killings, rape and torture committed by
Burma's military.

Total and Unocal have already denied many of the accusations
in the report, which have filtered in bits and pieces to the
outside world via media reports and Burmese ethnic minorities.

"As a rule, human rights groups do not have direct access to on
- scene information in Myanmar," a recent Unocal report to the
shareholders said, using the military government's name for the
country.  "We do."

The remote region is off limits to foreigners without permission.

Since the companies signed a contract with the Burmese
government in 1992, the report says, Burmese troop strength in
the area has increased from five to 14 battalions.

"In October, 1993, up to 2,000 people every day were
reportedly being forced to labor on the construction of (the)
railway." the report said, citing eyewitness testimony of
villagers living in the area.

The report cites three attacks on pipeline workers, one by a
rebel army and two by villagers.

Oil companies have denied two of the attacks took place, but
villagers say they did and the Burmese army executed villagers
and burned homes in response.  Oil company workers are now
sleeping in bunkers, they said.

Unocal officials have said that there have been no forced
relocations since the 1992 contract was signed.  The company
says that it is welcome in the area by local people, and that
charges of forced labor are false.

Burma's state - owned New Light of Myanmar newspaper
addressed the issue Friday, claiming Burmese have traditions of
working on such projects "with self - reliance and with the spirit
of contributing equal share."

The newspaper chastised foreign critics of the pipeline, noting
the poor conditions under which Chinese immigrants built
railroads in 19th century America.

Burma's ancient temples could never have been built in the
presence of "organizations such as Human Rights Watch and
Amnesty International, broadcasting stations such as BBC and
VOA and U.S. congressmen who like to interfere in other
people's affairs without knowing the situation."

Unocal's San Francisco headquarters was not open at the time
the report was released.  Burma's government generally refuses
to answer press queries.

The Southeast Asian Information Network campaigns on
human rights and environmental issues in Burma.  Earth Rights
International, also Thailand - based, studies legal aspects of
environmental issues.

The report also cites an April 17, 1995, promotional
advertisement in Thailand's Bangkok Post by the Electricity
Generating Authority of Thailand -- the sole purchase of gas
from the pipeline -- that confirms recent population
displacement.

"Myanmar has recently cleared the way by relocating a total of
11 Karen villages that would otherwise obstruct the passage of
the gas resources development project," the advertisement said.


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