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BKK POST.February 11, 1998.Gas Pipe
- Subject: BKK POST.February 11, 1998.Gas Pipe
- From: suriya@xxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 11 Feb 1998 05:36:00
February 11, 1998.Gas Pipeline
Government
justification
demanded on gas
pipeline
Opponents to accept Anand panel
findings
Suebpong Unarat
Opponents of the Thai-Burmese gas pipeline project will be
satisfied if the government publicises the pros and cons of the
project, Prime Minister's Office Minister Supatra Masdit said
yesterday.
Conservationists recognise that the government has the power to
make a final decision on the future of the project, but they only
want the government to justify the decision after it is made, she
said.
The government will set up a committee to listen to the
Petroleum Authority of Thailand (PTT), the project's owner, and
to conservation groups which demand the 260km pipeline be
rerouted to spare the forests in Kanchanaburi province.
The panel, to be chaired by former premier Anand Panyarachun,
will take about ten days to gather information from both sides
and will then forward the pros and cons of the project to the
government for a final decision, she said.
Hearings are expected to begin today and to be concluded by
Feb 20.
But opponents insist that the protesters will remain at their camp
at Huay Khayeng forest until the committee reaches its
conclusion.
They have set up camp there for the past several weeks to block
the pipeline laying through the fertile forest.
While the committee is conducting the hearing, they will study the
wildlife situation in the forest, including a herd of some 40 wild
elephants, to try to come up with measures to protect them.
They said in a statement issued yesterday that the process which
brought about the project and gave rise to the current conflict
was a total failure which has denied the public any say in decision
making on major development projects.
Premier Chuan Leekpai said on Monday that the protest against
the gas pipe project emerged too late because the contract had
been signed and the government could not scrap it.
PTT sealed the pipeline contract - to feed natural gas from
Burma's gas fields in the Andaman Sea to a plant in Ratchaburi -
four years ago.
Burma has completed its pipeline section to the border and the
PTT is bound to finish its own system by July 1 or face a daily
fine of more than 40 million baht.
Meanwhile, a popular monk has condemned pipeline opponents
as unpatriotic and troublemakers.
Phra Dharma Khosacharn, popularly known as Luang Pho
Panya Nantha Bhikhu, used harsh words in scolding the
opponents during a sermon to pipeline supporters in Kanchaburi.
He said the small group of opponents had damaged national
development and caused hardship to the people, who want
cheap energy.
"I want to ask them if they don't have anything better to do and
who pays them to do what they are doing," he said.