U.S. lawmakers visit Burma gas pipe

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Subject: U.S. lawmakers visit Burma gas pipeline - media (fwd)



---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 13 Dec 1996 6:02:23 PST
Newsgroups: clari.world.asia.indochina.misc, clari.biz.industry.energy,
    clari.usa.gov.misc, clari.world.asia.indochina, clari.usa.gov.general
Subject: U.S. lawmakers visit Burma gas pipeline - media

  	  				 
	 RANGOON, Dec 13 (Reuter) - Burmese official media said on  
Friday that four U.S. congressmen visited the onshore site of 
the controversial Yadana gas pipeline in southeastern Burma 
earlier this week. 
	 The team, led by Congressman Dennis Hastert of Illinois,  
toured the Kanbauk Base Camp run by France's Total SA, the media 
reported. 
	 The visitors were accompanied by Energy Minister U Khin  
Maung Thein, it said. 
	 Total manages the project, in which American firm Unocal  
Corp and the Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise have stakes. 
	 On Thursday, protesters organised by the ``Free Burma  
coalition'' in Los Angeles demonstrated outside Unocal's oil 
terminal, claiming the $1.2 billion pipeline was damaging the 
environment and that forced labour was being used to build it. 
	 The onshore pipeline will connect gas from the giant Yadana  
field in the Andaman Sea to Thailand, which has bought most of 
the gas. 
	 U.S. embassy officials said the congressional delegation's  
visit to Burma was privately organised. It was not known how 
long the team would stay in the country. 
	 The state-run media also said the congressmen visited Burma  
at the invitation of General Maung Aye, vice chairman of the 
ruling military State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC). 
	 U.S. President Bill Clinton in early October slapped a visa  
ban on senior SLORC officials after Rangoon arrested hundreds of 
pro-democracy activists in late September. 
	 The U.S. Senate in July passed legislation allowing Clinton  
to impose economic sanctions if repression in Burma worsened or 
if opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, released from six years' 
house arrest last year, was rearrested.