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Reuters: KNU SOFTENS UNDER PRESSURE



Subject: Reuters: KNU SOFTENS UNDER PRESSURE FROM US

KNU SOFTENS UNDER PRESSURE FROM US

                            Thursday May 1 3:02 AM EDT
By Sutin Wannabovorn

BANGKOK, May 1 (Reuter) - Burma's Karen guerrillas have halted plans to 
destroy a controversial Thai-Burma gas pipeline and are willing to talk 
with Rangoon's military leaders, rebel and Thai security sources said on 
Thursday.

General Bo Mya, hardline leader of the Karen National Union (KNU), had 
softened his position towards Burma's military rulers and was willing to 
sit down to talks soon, the sources said.

A Thai security source who has been dealing with the rebels on the 
Thai-Burma border said Bo Mya had agreed to halt a plan to destroy the 
Thai-Burma pipeline, now under construction.

"He agreed to take his hands out of the pipeline project because of 
pressure from his own comrades and also from us," the Thai security 
source said.

A KNU source said the organisation would not damage the $1.2 billion 
pipeline, but said the rebels wanted assurances from Burma on the future 
of Karen people living nearby.

"Ner Dah (a son of Bo Mya) has already said that KNU will not disrupt the 
plan to build the pipeline," another KNU source said.

A 260-km (160-mile) section of the pipeline will move gas from offshore 
Burma into Thailand. Work began in early April near the northwestern 
border province of Kanchanaburi.

The project is run by a consortium including the U.S. firm Unocal Corp, 
France's Total SA TOTF.PA , Burma's state-run Myanmar Oil and Gas 
Enterprise, and the Petroleum Authority of Thailand's (PTT) investment 
arm, PTT Exploration and Production Plc PTTE.BK .

The Thai source said some moderate officials of the KNU had put strong 
pressure on Bo Mya to ease up and hold peace talks with Burma's State Law 
and Order Restoration Council (SLORC).

"Bo Mya has no choice now but to soften his stance and talk with SLORC, 
as far as I know the talks will take place in the near future," he said.

The SLORC and KNU officials have held several rounds of peace talks but 
failed to reach any agreement.

A KNU source said Bo Mya and other top rebel leaders met a SLORC 
representative at a Thai border town on April 27 to dicuss the resumption 
of peace negotiations.

The KNU is the last major rebel group still fighting against Rangoon. 
Fifteen other ethnic groups have signed ceasefire deals with the SLORC 
since it seized power in 1988.