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THE NATION: Clinton urged to stop
- Subject: THE NATION: Clinton urged to stop
- From: suriya@xxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 10 Mar 1998 17:59:00
Politics
Clinton urged to stop
Yadana pipeline work
HUMAN rights activists staged a protest
outside the American Embassy in Bangkok
Tuesday and delivered a letter urging the
US president to press against the
continuation of the disputed Thai-Burmese
gas pipeline project.
In an open letter, members of the Thai
Action Committee for Democracy in
Burma, a confederation of democracy and
environmental groups, urged President Bill
Clinton to air his opposition to the Yadana
gas pipeline project during his meeting with
Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai in
Washington.
The project is a joint venture between the
Petroleum Authority of Thailand (PTT) and
US petroleum giant Unocal.
The letter was delivered hours before
Chuan left for Washington on a six-day
working visit.
They urged Clinton to oppose construction
of the pipeline for human rights reasons,
and called for increased pressure on US
businesses to withdraw from Burma.
''This project has caused severe human
rights violations along the gas pipeline
route. Many minorities were killed, tortured,
raped, evicted and forced to work like
slaves,'' the letter said.
The pipeline, connecting Burma's Yadana
gas field in the Andaman Sea with a power
plant just outside Bangkok, has been
opposed by a range of interest groups both
in Thailand and Burma.
Chuan has expressed concern over human
rights abuses and environmental
degradation caused by the pipeline, but
said recently it was too late to stop the
project, which was approved by previous
governments years ago.
Meanwhile, the PTT, which is building the
Thai section of the building, held a press
conference Tuesday to defend its actions in
soliciting the arrest of anti-pipeline
campaigner Sulak Sivaraksa, who was
blocking the construction by staging a sit-in
in the affected forest.
''We had to take legal action against Sulak
because he refused to follow the
opponents' pledge to accept the
committee's resolution,'' PTT Governor
Pala Sukhavech said, referring to a
committee chaired by former prime
minister Anand Panyarachun which was
charged with reviewing the project. ''He is
the leader of two of the 88 organisations
that agreed to abide by the ruling.''
Pala claimed that his agency had followed
the law throughout the project, holding a
public hearing, suspending construction
when asked and talking to opponents. The
Anand committee, however, found that the
project was severely lacking in
transparency and environmental
management.
''Now we have to continue construction so
that it is finished as soon as possible,'' Pala
said. ''The contractor has to get into the
forest as quickly as possible otherwise it
will lose about US$100,000 [Bt4.4 million]
per day.''
He added that in the six-km stretch of
pristine forest through which the pipeline is
being laid, the contractor is charging an
additional Bt500 million because it will have
to narrow its working area from a width of
20 metres to a width of 12 metres.
The Nation, Agence France-Presse