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Working with junta best way to bri



Subject:	Working with junta  best way to bring about change,  says oil giant
chief
>From:	soba@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Soba)
Date:	Sat, 18 Jul 1998 09:23:52 GMT

Saturday  July 4  1998

 Working with junta  best way to bring about change, 
says oil giant chief 

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE in Bangkok Investing in long-isolated Burma and
working with its military Government is the best way to bring about
change in the country, says French oil giant Total.

On a stopover in Bangkok this week after inspecting a newly completed
Thai-Burma gas pipeline, Total's Paris-based president of exploration
and production said working with the Rangoon junta would benefit the
country as a whole.

"Everything that can be done to fight this insulation is going in the
right direction," Daniel Velot said.

"Can somebody really believe that if a company like Total decided to
pull out from Myanmar [Burma], human rights in the country would
progress the following morning?"

The 680km pipeline, connecting Burma's Yadana natural gas field in the
Gulf of Martaban to a power plant on the outskirts of Bangkok, was
completed late last month.

The work was carried out in the face of fierce criticism from
international human rights groups and Burma's political opposition
under Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. They have urged foreign
businesses to boycott the country.

Total signed on to build the Burma section of the pipeline in 1992,
and was joined by Unocal of the United States in 1993, despite calls
to boycott the military regime.

Other senior executives from Total explained the company's method of
assessing political risk.

"We want to be able to apply our own standards, or we won't go," said
senior Total spokeswoman Isabelle Gaildraud.

"The first consideration is that it doesn't break international law."

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