Bkk Post-Unocal, Total funding to s

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Subject: Bkk Post-Unocal, Total funding to suppress ethnic

BURMESE OFFENSIVE / REBELS ALONG YADANA PIPELINE TARGETED

Armour battalions join drive
Funding said coming from Unocal, Total

Preecha Srisatharn
Kanchanaburi

Rangoon has sent troops and armour to suppress ethnic groups along the
Yadana pipeline, which brings gas to a power plant in Ratchaburi.

The Burmese unit has been assigned to a 60km stretch of the pipeline from
the town of Kanbauk to the border at Thong Pha Phum district, Kanchanaburi,
a source from the Ninth Infantry Division's Surasee Task Force said
yesterday.

The unit, which comprises an artillery battalion and five rapid response
battalions, two of them armoured, has been backed financially by Unocal and
Total, which extract gas from the Yadana field, he said.

Col Aung Hsa Tin, deputy commander of the unit, quoted Burmese intelligence
as saying ethnic groups were seeking to sabotage the pipeline for political
and criminal purposes.

Four Karen men arrested as spies a month ago admitted they were planning to
bomb the pipeline, he said.

The Burmese officer also rejected a request to open to Thai traffic a road
running parallel to the pipeline. He said the contract between Rangoon and
Unocal and Total did not allow the road to be opened.

However, the road could be used occasionally with the consent of the Burmese
government and the gas developers, he said.

Rangoon forces based at Huay Ponglao have also sent a protest letter to the
Thai-Burmese border coordination panel in Mae Hong Son accusing Thai
authorities of supporting ethnic minorities in their struggle against the
junta.

On Jan 1, Karen rebels attacked a Burmese camp at Ban Tanakwai, opposite Mae
Hong Son. Eight other attacks against Burmese military camps were carried
out in Burma's Kayah state around the New Year holiday.

Rangoon claims armed minority groups, especially the Karens, are operating
from Thailand, an allegation the Thai military routinely denies.

In another development, Kanchanaburi locals are upset with the Petroleum
Authority of Thailand (PTT) which buys the Yadana gas.

Tunya Darapisaisuk, a leader of village headmen in Kanchanaburi, said locals
who had supported the PTT in building the section from the border to the
Ratchaburi plant were upset at the removal of the PTT's public relations
office in Kanchanaburi.

The PTT had promised to maintain the office until it completed a
reforestation project along the pipeline route in Kanchanaburi and a
five-year project to help locals affected by construction. However, the
office closed on Dec 30 and the PTT moved the operation to Ratchaburi, Mr
Tunya said.

It was now hard for local people to co-ordinate with the PTT on
reforestation and public welfare projects, he said.

Mr Tunya warned people living along the designated route for a new gas
pipeline from Ratchaburi to Ayutthaya not to believe the PTT's promises of
compensation for environmental impact.