Rebel group KNU claims responsibility for Myanmar gas pipeline explosions

By an OGJ correspondent

NICOSIA, Apr. 28 -- The Karen National Union (KNU), a rebel ethnic group opposed to government by Myanmar's State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), has claimed responsibility for blowing up sections of the natural gas pipeline linking the Yadana gas field to the Myainggale electrical power station in Karen State.

"The action taken to destroy the gas pipeline is to notify Total Oil Co. and the international community that the SPDC military government has been persecuting the people by using war weapons purchased with funds derived from the gas pipeline," KNU said in a statement.

It said, "The SPDC has been regularly buying fighter planes, tanks, and other military hardware, with revenue from the gas pipelines, to continue killing and oppressing the Karen people and the people in general."

Series of explosions
KNU attacks on the pipeline took place on Feb. 1, Mar. 29, and Apr. 15. Reports of the Apr. 15 explosion said a section of the pipeline was blown up in the early morning hours near a Karen Christian village, Ye Township in Mon State. No one was reported hurt in the explosion, but the blast was described as "very powerful since it unearthed four sections of the gas pipeline which was buried about 5 ft underground."

KNU said, "The action was undertaken to show that the KNU and the Karen people will never take such injustices and oppression lying down and that they will make appropriate response, as necessary."

Companies blamed
TotalFinaElf SA and Unocal Corp., both involved in gas exploration and production in Myanmar, have faced continued accusations of collusion with the SPDC, which is charged with a host of human rights violations by international organizations.

According to Earth Rights International (ERI), the companies "contracted with the (Myanmar) military regime to provide security for the Yadana project" and "the (Myanmar) army has engaged in a pattern of systematic human rights abuses and environmental degradation as it seeks to fulfill its contractual responsibilities to Unocal and Total(FinaElf)."

Unocal has denied the allegations, saying activist groups have "resorted to spreading false and hurtful allegations about Unocal and the Yadana natural gas project" aimed at forcing the company "to sell off its interest in the Yadana project and withdraw from that country."

Unocal has also cast doubt on claims that proceeds from the pipeline could be used by the SPDC for the purchase of military equipment, saying that "between 1992-2000, the government of Myanmar received little revenue from the Yadana project" and that "the government of Myanmar will not start to profit fully from the revenue stream generated by the Yadana project until 2005-06."

Court rulings
In late March, however, a ruling by a California appellate court appeared to open the way to a trial against Unocal over allegations that it shares responsibility for abuses allegedly conducted by troops guarding the pipeline.

Refugees from Myanmar accused Unocal of being complicit in slavery, murder, and rape related to the 1990s construction of the $1.2 billion pipeline, built by a consortium of TotalFinaElf (operator with 31.24%), Unocal 28.26%, Thailand's PTT E&P Co. Ltd. 25%, and Myanma Oil & Gas Enterprise 15%.

California Superior Court Judge Victoria Chaney last year ruled that Unocal should stand trial but lawyers for Unocal challenged her ruling by arguing that the case did not belong in a state court because it involved crimes allegedly perpetrated by foreign troops outside California.

In a ruling dated Mar. 29, however, the 2nd District Court of Appeal denied Unocal's request, stating only that the company failed to make a case for preventing a trial. "That was Unocal's last hope to avoid trial," said attorney Katie Redford, a cofounder of ERI. "It's the last obstacle between our clients and trial."

Charles Strathman, Unocal's chief legal officer, said the company would consider an appeal to the California Supreme Court.

The refugees first filed suit seven years ago in federal court, but US District Judge Ronald S.W. Lew found that Unocal was unaware of the military's abuses and could not stand trial for liability since it did not control the troops.

After Lew dismissed the case, the refugees filed a second suit in October 2000 under state law in Superior Court. A three-judge panel of the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated the federal lawsuit last September, after finding that Unocal was potentially liable due to evidence the company knowingly encouraged the alleged abuses.

Unocal challenged the judge's ruling and the San Francisco-based court in February announced it would hear the case in June with 11 judges to determine if Unocal should face a federal trial.

Ending forced labor
Meanwhile, plans by Myanmar's military government to end forced labor are not yet adequate or credible, a Rangoon-based International Labor Organization (ILO) officer said in early March.

Myanmar is the only country in the world where forced labor is imposed by authorities and is in talks with the ILO to draw up a plan to eliminate the practice, ILO liaison officer Hong-Trang Perret-Nguyen said on Mar. 11.

Perret-Nguyen said her impression after visits to various parts of the country was that "the situation is really very serious and people continue to suffer from practices of forced labor." She visited the Yadana gas pipeline operated by TotalFinaElf but said that she "did not see any evidence of forced labor for the benefit of TotalFinaElf."

TotalFinaElf last August faced accusations it used forced labor in Myanmar after a Paris lawyer filed a complaint brought on behalf of two Myanmar citizens who said they were forced to work on the pipeline. TotalFinaElf categorically denied the claims. "It is unimaginable that a company like ours could have used forced labor at any time," a spokesman said, adding that "Neither we nor our service suppliers have used forced labor."

The $1.2 billion, 416 mile Thai-Myanmar natural gas pipeline was begun in 1994 and completed in mid-1999.

Earlier this month, Myanmar's Ministry of Energy reported that the country's natural gas production rose in 2002 to nearly 9.2 billion cu m, an increase of 4.2% from 2001. It said the country holds 50.95 tcf of gas reserves.