EBO
News Summary:
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1. Reform call heard from
2. Japan
envoy to ask
3. TotalFinaElf group to develop Sein, Badamyar
fields off
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Reform call heard from USA to
Myanmar
UGA alum on hunger strike
By Kate Carter
From his prison cell in the southeast Asian country of
as
protest human rights violations.
Salai Tun Than, a 75-year-old citizen of
degree in agronomy from UGA in 1955, is
protesting the continued
imprisonment of 1,400 political prisoners,
interrogations of prisoners
following visits by United Nations and
International Red Cross workers,
unsanitary conditions, and restrictions on religious
freedoms, according
to Jeremy Woodrum
of the Free Burma Coalition, a Washington, D.C.-based
non-profit organization.
Tun Than was
sentenced last March to seven years in prison, after donning
an academic gown and distributing copies of
a petition demanding political
reforms in the country, which is currently run by
a military regime.
Since then, members of UGA's
chapter of Amnesty International have lobbied
representatives in the U.S. Senate and House, and three
weeks ago
successfully urged U.S. Rep. Max Burns, R-Sylvania, who
represents the
''Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak on a
matter of great importance to my
constituents in
Tun Than,'' said
Burns on April 8, on the floor of the U.S. House of
Representatives. ''... I call on the Burmese government
for the immediate
release of Dr. Tun
Than.''
Kate Vyborny, a
UGA sophomore and a member of the campus Amnesty
International chapter, said she is
optimistic about the chances for Tun
Than's release as other politicians have joined
Burns in denouncing
''When that kind of international
attention is applied, especially from
the
be pressured into letting Mr. Tun Than go,'' she said. ''I think we have a
really good chance at this.''
Woodrum said that
and he hopes that given Tun
Than's health, the hunger strike does not last
long.
''As an older man, we're definitely
worried about him,'' said Woodrum.
''It's a testimony to his courage that
he's willing to do this.''
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Japan envoy to ask Burma for economic reforms, democracy
Kyodo News Service
three-day
visit to Myanmar Burma from Tuesday 29 April to call on junta
leaders
to promote economic structural reforms and democracy, Japanese
diplomatic
sources said Saturday.
Mori, carrying a letter from current Prime Minister Junichiro
Koizumi
stating
the requests, plans to meet with officials including Sr
Gen Than
Shwe,
chief of the junta or State Peace and Development Council, they
said.
"
making
the demands to the top junta leader. It will not dangle any
prospects
for economic assistance," one of the sources said.
Mori will ask the junta to carry out reforms based on proposals a group
of
Japanese experts worked out after studying
for
two years jointly with the
A task force of the group formulated the final report late last year,
calling
for modernizing the agrarian system and establishing a single
exchange
rate.
Mori was prime minister for about a year before being replaced by Koizumi
in
April 2001.
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TotalFinaElf group to develop Sein, Badamyar fields off
Oil and Gas Journal
By an OGJ correspondent
the development of Sein and Badamyar fields in the
augment natural gas deliveries from adjacent Yadana field, all on Blocks
M-5 and M-6 about 320
km south of
Yadana has certified reserves of 5.7 tcf of gas, and the initial estimate of
gas reserves at Sein is 200 bcf and at Badamyar, 500 bcf.
The consortium expects to drill two wells
at Sein and four at Badamyar over
the next 4-5 years. The $40 million cost of
developing Sein field also includes
a platform and an interfield
pipeline.
In addition, the consortium has moved up
installation of a medium compression
platform at Yadana to
this year from 2005, ramping up its maximum gas delivery
to 850 MMcfd from
650 MMcfd to
power generation.
Most production is delivered via a
pipeline extending 346-km offshore and 65-km
onshore. Political extremists have bombed the gas
line three times this year,
charging
purchase weapons for oppressing the country's
people and charging the oil
companies with complicity and supporting the
military government in that pursuit.
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