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Lobbyists push premier to shelve Ya (r)



Subject: Lobbyists push premier to shelve Yadana pipeline 



16 May 1997 
The Nation 
Lobbyists push premier to shelve Yadana pipeline d

OVER 200 politicians, academics, students and activists, including a Nobel 
Peace laureate, have signed a letter urging Prime Minister Chavalit 
Yongchaiyudh to call off the US$1.2 billion crossborder Yadana pipeline 
project until the ruling junta in Burma stops violating human rights. 

The letter was sent yesterday to both the prime minister and Parliament 
President Wan Mohammad Noor Matha for distribution among MPs. 

The letter asked Chavalit, who leaves today for an official two-day visit to 
Burma, to ''temporarily delay the completion of the pipeline pending 
substantial progress" in the Burmese junta's opening dialogues with 
pro-democracy leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and ethnic nationalities. 

It also called for progress on the guarantee of free press, freedom of speech 
and association in Burma as well as scientific studies of the environmental 
impact of all joint Thai-Burmese economic projects. 

The signatories, which included Irish Nobel laureate Mairead Maguire, who 
joined a team of fellow Nobel Peace winners visiting Thailand to campaign 
about the situation in Burma in early 1993, said the world community is aware 
that the Burmese junta has ''illegally and violently taken and maintained 
power despite the democratically-expressed wishes of its people". 

The ruling State Law and Order Restoration Council (Slorc), they said, has 
strengthened its military might to retain political control of the country 
since the coup in 1988. ''This emphasis on military power is a threat not only 
to Burma's people, but to Burma's neighbours as well," the letter said. 

It said once the Yadana pipeline project, which will transport offshore 
Burmese natural gas from the Gulf of Martaban to Thailand, is completed, 
Thailand will pay US$400 million to its western neighbour annually, most of 
which will be used to strengthen Slorc's military power. ''This is an 
extremely dangerous situation," it said. 

It urged the Chavalit and his government, which they said has stated loyalty 
to the defence of human rights and the protection of peace in the region, and 
members of Parliament to temporarily suspend the controversial Yadana project 
for the benefit of both the Burmese and Thai people. 

The letter was submitted one day after a meeting on Wednesday of a group of 
Thai and international human rights activists with Boonchong Weesommai, the 
prime minister's secretary-general. 

The activists urged Chavalit, who rose to his post through ''a legitimate 
electoral process" to dissociate himself from Slorc which ''is a brutal 
illegitimate regime". 

They called on Chavalit, also defence minister, to instead establish contact 
and engage with Burmese pro-democracy leader and Nobel Peace laureate Aung San 
Suu Kyi. 

Bangkok Democrat MP MR Sukhumbhand Paribatra yesterday voiced a similar 
opinion, saying that Slorc is ''an illegitimate government" that refuses to 
honour the result of the general elections it held in May 1990, in which Suu 
Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) won by a landslide. 

He urged Chavalit not to commit to any economic agreements between the two 
countries during his visit to Burma and warned that any long-term agreements 
signed with Slorc could be annulled if a democratically-elected Burmese 
government came to power. 

Thailand, he said, should consider the economic interest of the majority, not 
of some minor interest groups. 

Democrat MP and former foreign minister Bhichai Rattakul yesterday sent a 
letter to Foreign Minister Prachuab Chaiyasarn, asking him to review Asean 
policy to simultaneously admit Burma, Cambodia and Laos this year.