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Working with junta best way to brin



South China Morning Post
Saturday  July 4  1998

Burma 
Working with junta best way to bring about change, says oil giant chief 

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE in Bangkok 
Investing in long-isolated Burma and working with its military Government
is the best way to bring about change in the country, says French oil giant
Total.

On a stopover in Bangkok this week after inspecting a newly completed
Thai-Burma gas pipeline, Total's Paris-based president of exploration and
production said working with the Rangoon junta would benefit the country as
a whole.

"Everything that can be done to fight this insulation is going in the right
direction," Daniel Velot said.

"Can somebody really believe that if a company like Total decided to pull
out from Myanmar [Burma], human rights in the country would progress the
following morning?"

The 680km pipeline, connecting Burma's Yadana natural gas field in the Gulf
of Martaban to a power plant on the outskirts of Bangkok, was completed
late last month.

The work was carried out in the face of fierce criticism from international
human rights groups and Burma's political opposition under Nobel laureate
Aung San Suu Kyi. They have urged foreign businesses to boycott the
country.

Total signed on to build the Burma section of the pipeline in 1992, and was
joined by Unocal of the United States in 1993, despite calls to boycott the
military regime.

Ms Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy won 1990 national
elections by a landslide, but has been denied power by the military.

Other senior executives from Total explained the company's method of
assessing political risk.

"We want to be able to apply our own standards, or we won't go," said
senior Total spokeswoman Isabelle Gaildraud.

"The first consideration is that it doesn't break international law."