BurmaNet News, May 22, 2007

[Editor]

May 22, 2007 Issue # 3209


INSIDE BURMA
Irrawaddy: SSA, Burmese army discuss ceasefire
AFP: Myanmar detains two Japanese TV journalists
DVB: Hakha residents report forced labour in Chin state

ON THE BORDER
SHAN: Shans call for state pact against junta

ASEAN
AP: Southeast Asian nations urge Myanmar not to renew Suu Kyi's detention

REGIONAL
The Jakarta Post: RI calls for the release of Suu Kyi
AFP: Cambodia, Myanmar move to strengthen tourism ties

INTERNATIONAL
AFP: US urges Myanmar to release Aung San Suu Kyi
The News-Sentinel (Indiana): Burmese refugees don’t give up hope

OPINION / OTHER
International Herald Tribune via Boston Globe: Suu Kyi's freedom struggle
Bangkok Post: First as tragedy, second as farce - Matthew Smith

____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

May 22, The Irrawaddy
SSA, Burmese army discuss ceasefire

Representatives from the Burmese military’s Triangle Region Command in
Shan State have met members of the Shan State Army at a secret location
near the Thai-Burmese border to negotiate a ceasefire agreement, according
to sources close to the Shan rebels.

Col Yawd Serk, leader of the Shan State Army (South)—the strongest of
Burma’s armed ethnic opposition groups—agreed to talk to Burmese military
officials by way of Thai military negotiators, the sources said.

The Shan rebels were represented by a 5-member delegation, led by Maj Sai
Lao Hseng, who also serves as the SSA’s spokesperson.

“I know that the position of the SSA is that surrender will be out of the
question,” Khun Sai, editor of the Shan Herald Agency for News, told The
Irrawaddy on Tuesday. “If there is an agreement for a ceasefire, two basic
conditions would have to be met: the agreement must also include Karen and
Karenni armed groups, and there must be a follow-up discussion of
political issues as soon as possible.”

The SSA-S controls areas of southern Shan State in northeastern Burma near
the border with Thailand. Burmese troops have conducted offensives against
their positions for several years.

Yawd Serk formed the SSA-S when Khun Sa's Mong Tai Army surrendered to the
Burma's junta in 1996. He also serves as the chairman of the Restoration
Council of Shan State, the political wing of the SSA-S.

____________________________________

May 22, Agence France Presse
Myanmar detains two Japanese TV journalists

Tokyo: Military-ruled Myanmar has detained two local journalists on
assignment for Japanese television, a network said Tuesday.

"We are aware that two local journalists were detained. We have been told
that they are in good condition," said a spokeswoman for Nippon
Television, one of Japan's major networks.

The reporters, who were not identified, worked under contract for the
Bangkok bureau of Nippon News Network, which is run jointly by Nippon
Television and other Japanese broadcasters.

She declined further details, saying the network was still trying to
gather information about the incident.

Some reporters in Yangon on Monday were covering the expected arrival of a
cargo ship from North Korea, which recently re-established relations with
Myanmar, a fellow pariah state for the West.

Myanmar has some of the world's strictest controls on media. In February,
police detained three local journalists, two of them working for Japanese
media, while they were covering a rare public protest.

Japan maintains cordial relations with Myanmar in a rare break with
Tokyo's main ally, the United States.

____________________________________

May 22, Democratic Voice of Burma
Hakha residents report forced labour in Chin state

Residents from Chin State’s Hakha and Mantaw townships said today that
local officials were continuing to force them to work for free on a road
being built between the areas.

Several residents said they had been ordered to contribute large amounts
of money to the fund for the construction, which has already taken three
years.

“They are collecting 10,000 kyats from every household. Those who cannot
contribute cash have to go and work and the construction site as their
contribution,” one man told DVB on condition of anonymity.

"It's difficult for us. We were already struggling hard for our daily
food. We are only contributing the money because we do not dare disobey
the order," he said.

Large numbers of villagers from the surrounding area have reportedly been
forced to work for free on the project since it started. But the Hakha
chairman today denied the allegations of forced labour.

“We didn’t ask anyone for the money,” he said.

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

May 22, Shan Herald Agency for News
Shans call for state pact against junta

Not for the first time in decades, different Shans groups came together
last weekend to set out on the creation of a state council that will speak
for the diverse racial groups inhabiting Burma's largest state.

The meeting, held at an unspecified venue along the Thai-Burma border,
18-19 May, and attended by 54 representatives and specially invited
individuals from both at home and abroad, did not stipulate how much power
the said council, expected to be formed within a year, should be delegated
to.

Some of the participants thought the new setup should be modeled after the
Shan State Technical Advisory Council, formed by Shan State politicians
and ceasefire groups inside in December 2004 and became defunct when its
founders and leaders were jailed two months later.

"I fear it will be a waste of our time and efforts if it can only operate
in the advisory role," voiced a representative from eastern Shan State.

Others meanwhile opted for an all-powerful configuration.

"For myself," said Col Yawdserk, Chairman of the Shan State Army's
political wing Restoration Council of Shan State (RCSS), who hosted the
get-together, "the council should be fully empowered. It must be supreme
above all political and military groups. If, for instance, the decision is
out to dissolve the RCSS, we will promptly do so."

Accordingly, a coordinator was named by the meeting to work with the Shan
Representative Committee (SRC) and Shan State Coordinating Committee
(SSCC) that have been formed under the aegis of the Ethnic Nationalities
Council (ENC), a state-based alliance founded three years ago.

Asked why there is a need for approaching Shan groups first, Yawdserk
replied with a rhetorical question: "Who will take the Shan proposal
seriously if they are not united?"

A united state council will be a first major step towards forming a union
with other anti-junta states against the Burma Army that has held power
since 1962, he added.

Other issues discussed by the meeting included Shan migrants in Thailand,
the need to build up human resources, state and federal constitutions,
Tripartite Dialogue and the drafting of a national strategy, among others.
The meeting also denounced the junta-organized National Convention and its
Six Objectives (one of which is for the military to continue to play a key
role in Burma's politics) and 104 constitutional principles, while
confirming full support for the proposals of 13 ceasefire groups in 2004
for a federal system.

____________________________________
ASEAN

May 22, Associated Press
Southeast Asian nations urge Myanmar not to renew Suu Kyi's detention -
Jim Gomez

Manila: Southeast Asian nations appealed to Myanmar on Tuesday not to
renew pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi's detention a demand that has
sparked discord in their regional bloc.

Suu Kyi has been held continuously by Myanmar's ruling junta since 2003. A
detention order for her expires Sunday, but the junta is expected to renew
it.

The Nobel Peace Prize laureate has given a face to the junta's years-long
political repression that has been condemned by Western nations, along
with Myanmar's fellow member countries in the Association of Southeast
Asian Nations, or ASEAN.

"It's a consensus that we want to see her early release," Philippine
Foreign Undersecretary Erlinda Basilio said. "We'd like to see the lifting
of the order."

Basilio led a meeting of senior ASEAN diplomats to prepare the agenda for
an annual meeting of the 10-country bloc's foreign ministers in Manila in
July. The Philippines will also host a meeting of the ASEAN Regional
Forum, Asia's largest security forum, in August.

Myanmar's delegate, Aung Bwa, said he was unaware if his government would
extend Suu Kyi's detention. "Let's wait and see," he said.

Imron Cotan, who led Indonesia's delegation, expressed impatience at
Myanmar's slow pace of democratization. "We have made these calls
repeatedly, and Myanmar has found it difficult to respond," he said.

In Bangkok, visiting U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill
urged the junta in Myanmar, also called Burma, to free Suu Kyi and other
political prisoners.

"The continued incarceration or house arrest of Aung San Suu Kyi is one of
several issues that's posing a real blockage in terms of Burma being able
to rejoin the international community," Hill told reporters after his
meeting with Thai Foreign Minister Nitya Pibulsonggram.

Last week U.S. President George W. Bush told the American Congress that he
intended to continue U.S. economic and political sanctions against
Myanmar.

Calls for Myanmar to rapidly fulfill a pledge to democratize have become a
familiar refrain in ASEAN's annual meetings, and its spotty human rights
record is again expected to be a key issue at the Manila meetings.

Although bound by an ASEAN edict not to interfere in each other's affairs,
some members, like Malaysia, the Philippines and Indonesia, have become
more blunt in their criticism, urging Myanmar to show tangible progres
toward its promised democratization.

Authoritarian members, like Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos, have adopted a
friendlier attitude and have refused to engage in stinging criticism of
Myanmar.

Asked if Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, who is visiting Myanmar, would
take up Suu Kyi's detention with the junta, Cambodian diplomat Kao Kim
Hourn did not answer clearly.

"In such a high-level meeting, anything is possible," he said.

Myanmar has been under military rule since 1962, and the currently ruling
generals took power in 1988. They called elections in 1990, but refused to
recognize the results when Suu Kyi's party won a resounding victory.

Myanmar should have held ASEAN's rotating chairmanship and hosted the
regional summit this year, but it gave up the chance amid protests by
Western governments.

The prestigious chairmanship, rotated alphabetically among all members,
was abruptly passed on to the Philippines.

____________________________________
REGIONAL

May 22, The Jakarta Post
RI calls for the release of Suu Kyi

Jakarta: Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda said Tuesday that Myanmarese
pro-democratic leader Aung San Suu Kyi should be released from detention
in the upcoming review by the Myanmar government.

"Indonesia really wants to see the review should be deeply thought by the
Myanmar government," he said.

"The ongoing detention is a political blunder in the road map for
democracy initiated by the Myanmar government."

The detention of the Nobel Peace laureate Suu Kyi will be reviewed on Sunday.

____________________________________

May 22, Agence France Presse
Cambodia, Myanmar move to strengthen tourism ties

Yangon: Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen met with junta head Senior
General Than Shwe in military-ruled Myanmar on Tuesday, officials said, as
the two nations moved to improve tourism links.

Hun Sen arrived in Myanmar on Monday morning, his first visit to this
isolated state since 2000. During the three-day trip he will discuss the
possibility of introducing direct flights between the two nations.

The visit comes as Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's house
arrest is due to be reviewed and likely extended this weekend, but
Cambodian officials have been tight-lipped about whether Hun Sen will urge
the junta to free her.

Officials from both countries have said the focus would be trade and tourism.

Cambodian government spokesman Khieu Kanharith told AFP that Hun Sen would
discuss ways of making travel easier between Myanmar and nearby Thailand,
Cambodia and Laos, with possible direct flights and package tours.

"Buddhism will be the potential tourist link for these four countries --
like Cambodia, there are a lot of temples in Myanmar," Khieu Kanharith
said.

These talks are hoped to spur action on a tourism agreement already signed
between the two countries, but which has not been implemented yet.

Tourism is a key industry in impoverished Cambodia, and tourist arrivals
in Myanmar are also creeping up, despite calls by supporters of Aung San
Suu Kyi for tourists to boycott the country.

Information ministry sources said that Hun Sen met with Myanmar's Senior
General Than Shwe on Tuesday morning.

On Monday, Hun Sen met with acting premier Thein Sein and a number of
officials, including the transport and foreign ministers and the deputy
minister for tourism, the state-run New Light of Myanmar newspaper said.

The government mouthpiece said that Hun Sen, who will spend his whole
visit in the new administrative capital Naypyidaw before heading home on
Wednesday morning, discussed a "further strengthening of bilateral ties."

Cambodia has close diplomatic ties with Myanmar, which has been under
military rule since 1962 and is one of the most isolated nations in the
world.

Diplomatic relations between the two nations date back to 1955, but were
broken off in 1974 as the Khmer Rouge advanced on Phnom Penh.

Ties were restored in 1994 as Cambodia emerged from decades of civil war.
A Myanmar embassy opened in Phnom Penh in 1999, and one Western diplomat
in the Cambodian capital said Hun Sen was keen to cultivate regional
relations.

He said Hun Sen "has a long-term view of where he wants Cambodia to be,"
and could see engaging Myanmar as part of a larger plan to raise the
country's profile as a regional power.

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

May 22, Agence France Presse
US urges Myanmar to release Aung San Suu Kyi

Bangkok: The United States on Tuesday urged military-run Myanmar to
release democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi and other political prisoners
ahead of the junta's review of her detention this week.

Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, who was travelling in
neighboring Thailand, said the junta's detention of Aung San Suu Kyi and
other political prisoners was "very damaging" to Myanmar, formerly known
as Burma.

"The continued incarceration and house arrest of Aung San Suu Kyi is one
of several issues that are posing a real blockage in terms of Burma being
able to rejoin the international community until they lay out political
process and release political prisoners including Aung San Suu Kyi," he
said.

Myanmar has been ruled by the military since 1962. The United Nations has
estimated there are some 1,100 political prisoners, including 61-year-old
Aung San Suu Kyi, the world's only detained Nobel peace laureate.

The junta is to review the latest period of her detention on May 27.
Despite growing international calls demanding her freedom, the military
regime is likely to extend her house arrest.

Meanwhile, Southeast Asian lawmakers who oppose Myanmar called on regional
powers to slap sanctions on the junta after Russia agreed to build a
nuclear facility in the country.

Asian nations largely maintain trade with Myanmar in contrast with the
United States and European Union, which have imposed sanctions in hopes of
freeing Aung San Suu Kyi.

Russia said this month it would help design and equip a nuclear research
centre in Myanmar, which has also restored relations with North Korea, a
fellow nuclear pariah for the West.

"Japan and China can work together. They united against a nuclear North
Korea," Cambodian MP Son Chhay said in Tokyo at an Asian lawmakers' forum
on Myanmar.

"So if Burma develops a nuclear facility, they can work against Myanmar,"
he said.

Senator Aquilino Pimental Jr. of the Philippines said that if the
situation deteriorates, the United States, Japan and European Union should
impose sanctions by freezing Myanmar-linked bank accounts.

"In my mind, this is a very dangerous development, and it is against the
ASEAN declaration that ASEAN must never be involved in nuclear activity,"
he said, referring to the Russia-Myanmar deal.

"It is dangerous to have a nation with nuclear capability, especially a
nation that does not respect the rules of law," he added.

Lawmakers from Cambodia, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines,
Singapore and Thailand met in Tokyo for two days with Sein Win, the cousin
of Aung San Suu Kyi and the opposition's "prime minister-in-exile."

The United States last week renewed sanctions on Myanmar for another year,
citing the junta's detention of Aung San Suu Kyi and other political
prisoners.

Aung San Suu Kyi has spent most of the last 17 years under house arrest at
her lakeside Yangon home, with little contact with the outside world apart
from a live-in maid and visits by her doctor.

Her opposition party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), won a
landslide victory in 1990 elections, but the junta never allowed it to
take office.

____________________________________

May 22, The News-Sentinel (Indiana)
Burmese refugees don’t give up hope – Steve Linsenmayer

Government may end house arrest for Suu Kyi

The possibility of freedom for Aung San Suu Kyi – Burma’s most prominent
political prisoner – has many Burmese refugees in Fort Wayne cautiously
optimistic she will be released from house arrest.

Win Shwe fought for democracy in the jungles of Burma after the upheavals
of 1988. Saturday on the Courthouse Green in Fort Wayne, he and other
activists dressed in white to dramatize prisoners being held inside Burma.

“This is very important,” he said.

Sunday marks the anniversary of Suu Kyi’s election victory in Burma in
1990, although she was never allowed to serve. It also marks the renewal
date of her house arrest in May 2003. One year ago, her term of house
arrest was extended for another year.

Fifty-nine former world leaders, including three former U.S. presidents,
have signed a letter demanding her release. In Burma, there has been a
modest, but notable, upsurge in political activity.

Demonstrator Nanda Kyaw of Fort Wayne says there may be some momentum, and
some hope.

“They can rebuild this time,” he said, believing that the government may
have an opportunity to move toward democracy, especially in the face of
internal and world pressure. This, he said, is an opportune time to make a
change, while adding ... “If they don’t, then, too late.”

“Burma needs her help to rebuild the country,” said Kyaw Soe, who heads a
literacy program at Indiana University for Burmese and other non-English
speakers. “The Burmese military government cannot do it themselves.”

Even if Suu Kyi is released, her travel and speech could be heavily
restricted.

“Maybe they will release her from house arrest, but they will restrict her
political activities one way or another,” said Kyaw Oo, a physician’s
assistant in Fort Wayne. A former medical officer with the All Burma
Students’ Democratic Front, he spent most of the 1990s organizing and
offering medical care for resistance fighters stationed near the
Thai-Burma border.

Over tea last week at the True Friend tea shop on Calhoun Street, he said
he thinks it is possible the government will end Suu Kyi’s current
sentence, but he also doubts her freedom would last.

“If they cannot control her political activities after she’s released from
house arrest, they’re going to put her back in house arrest again. That
has happened before and it will happen again,” he said.

The last time Suu Kyi was free to travel, she made a tour through the
country that nearly ended in her death. On May 30, 2003, she and her group
were ambushed in north-central Burma by stick- and stone-wielding thugs.
The government has never released casualty figures from the attack, but as
many as 70 people were thought to have been killed that night. Numerous
reports say the attackers were supported, encouraged and transported to
the scene by government vehicles.

The government of Myanmar denies any involvement in the attacks. She was
charged with inciting unrest.

While the government has kept Suu Kyi under tight reign for most of the
past 17 years, few Burmese can imagine another leader who can unite the
numerous fractious ethnic minorities that comprise the country.

“There are not a lot of leaders who are trusted, not only by the Burmese
but also by the ethnic minorities,” said Kyaw Oo.

Suu Kyi’s father, General Aung San, tried to unite the country in 1949,
but came up short when he and six of his multi-ethnic cabinet members
(including his brother) were all slain on the same day — now known as
Martyrs Day. The government that emerged from that chaos is the one that
rules today.

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

May 21, International Herald Tribune via Boston Globe
Suu Kyi's freedom struggle

There are some historical figures who define an epoch because they embody
its highest values. Nelson Mandela is one such figure. Vaclav Havel is
another. Their sister in resoluteness is Myanmar's Nobel Peace Prize
laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been incarcerated for most of the past
17 years by the brutal military dictatorship that rules her country.

Her National League for Democracy won more than 80 percent of
parliamentary seats in a 1990 election that the junta has refused to
honor. Because of her commitment to a dialogue with the generals that
could lead to a democratic transition, she has become a living symbol of
the democratic principle. Being devoted to nonviolence, she belongs to the
same small band of peaceful liberators as Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther
King Jr.

The junta will decide later this month whether to prolong Suu Kyi's house
arrest for another year. In response, there have been stirring calls for
her release: 59 former heads of state, among them former presidents Jimmy
Carter, George H. W. Bush, and Bill Clinton, signed a letter to junta
leader Than Shwe, asking him "to release all political prisoners
immediately and unconditionally, including National League for Democracy
leaders Aung San Suu Kyi and U Tin Oo."

Tellingly, the letter was signed by former prime ministers and presidents
in Asia, where there has long been a reluctance to meddle in neighbors'
affairs.

To its credit, the White House issued a strong statement along with
notification that President George W. Bush intends to renew sanctions on
the junta that were first applied in the Clinton administration. While
urging the release of Suu Kyi and all political prisoners, the White House
noted that "the junta is becoming only more brutal, more repressive, and
more indifferent to the concerns of its neighbors and the international
community."

An equally strong denunciation was contained in a Senate resolution for
another year's extension of import sanctions on the regime.

The senators decried the 1,300 political prisoners, the 70,000 forcibly
recruited child soldiers and the junta's use of forced labor, "human
trafficking and rape used as an instrument of war."

Sanctions are not effective everywhere, but lifting Myanmar sanctions
would only strengthen the junta without helping the population. People of
good will must hold fast in support of Suu Kyi and the democrats of
Myanmar, as they once did in the struggles against apartheid, colonialism,
and totalitarianism.

____________________________________

May 22, Bangkok Post
First as tragedy, second as farce - Matthew Smith

PTT is again poised to be complicit in human rights abuses as Burma starts
its new gas project

When Karl Marx prophesied 150 years ago that ''history repeats itself,''
he wasn't talking about human rights abuses in Asia. But today his words
resonate as we face a nearly identical repeat of Southeast Asia's most
unconscionable ''development'' project, right next door in Burma. And the
Petroleum Authority of Thailand (PTT) is again poised to be complicit in
human rights abuses.

Fortunately, there is still time to change course.

In the 1990s, the Yadana natural gas pipeline was constructed from the
Andaman Sea across Tenasserim Division in southeast Burma, landing on the
Thai side in Kanchanaburi Province. It involved multinational oil and gas
corporations Total of France and the US-based Unocal Corporation, the
state-owned oil and gas enterprise in Burma (MOGE), and the now partially
state-owned PTT Exploration and Production Company Ltd (PTTEP), which at
that point was wholly owned by the Thai government.

In 1995, PTTEP signed a 30-year sales agreement with Burma to purchase the
Yadana gas, setting off construction of the 260km gas pipeline.

Then the pipeline abuses began.

In Burma, the pipeline area was heavily militarised. Forced labour was
used on project infrastructure, there were reports of rape, extrajudicial
killings, land confiscation, displacement, and other actions that violated
the basic human rights of thousands of people. Thousands of villagers fled
into Thailand as refugees. The corporations involved in this project were
aware the abuses were happening in connection with their investments and
did nothing to stop them, making them complicit.

With no access to justice in Burma, villagers sued Unocal and Total in US
and French courts, respectively. The corporations paid out large financial
settlements. A door had opened to hold non-state actors legally
accountable for human rights abuses committed abroad, and the world took
notice. PTTEP, however, was spared legal scrutiny due to a lack of
international accountability mechanisms and the lack of political will in
Thailand to hold the company accountable. The world took notice of this,
too.

A particularly tragic element was that Thailand didn't actually need the
energy produced by the Yadana gas. The National Economic and Social
Advisory Council (Nesac) found that the Electricity Governing Authority of
Thailand (Egat) overestimated 10 of 11 yearly forecasts of Thailand's
electricity demand, in some cases by as much as 40 percent.

Fast forwarding to today, PTT is actively pursuing at least two large
natural gas deposits in Burma, as both a purchaser and developer. In 2004,
Daewoo International of South Korea discovered part of what is now
considered Southeast Asia's largest natural gas deposit in Burma's Bay of
Bengal. This gas project is dubbed Shwe _ meaning gold in Burmese _ and is
being developed by Korean and Indian companies in partnership with the
military regime in Burma.

Like Yadana, PTT has put in a bid to buy the gas and pipe it across Burma
for consumption in Thailand. Meanwhile, PTT has also been busy exploring
for commercially viable natural gas deposits in Burma's Gulf of Martaban,
which last month resulted in the discovery of a ''high amount of natural
gas,'' according to a company spokesman. A pipeline from that area is also
likely.

Yet Thailand's energy needs are again thought to be overestimated, this
time in the 2007 Power Development Plan (PDP) recently released by the
Ministry of Energy (MOE), which is a 15-year forecast. The report is not
widely available but has already come under fire. Analysts point to
inaccurate estimations of energy demand, a lack of Thai public
participation in the process, and a concerning lack of attention to global
warming and the serious need to plan for alternative energy sources.

By Egat's own admission, Thailand's energy reserve margin in 2006 was at
least seven percent higher than the international standard, which in
economic terms is enormous.

While this scenario is costing the Thai and Burmese people and the
environment hugely, certain stakeholders benefit just fine. Egat, for one,
has a vested interest in maintaining the status quo in terms of energy
sources (i.e. fossil fuels), and in terms of keeping a ''high demand.''

Currently, Thailand's energy producers are the same people estimating
energy demand. This is a blatant conflict of interest.

Thailand relies heavily on natural gas for energy production; too heavily.
A recent study by the consulting firm ERM-Siam, commissioned by the Thai
government, shows natural gas may not even be the cheapest fuel for power
generation in Thailand as its price correlates with unstable global oil
prices. Never mind that, though.

The largest gas project currently being developed in Burma is the Shwe
project (pronounced Shh-way) mentioned above. It has elicited an
international opposition, especially from the Shwe Gas Movement _ led by
people from Arakan State in western Burma. The movement is demanding the
gas project stop until local people can be included in development
decisions, decisions that will seriously _ and in some cases fatally _
affect their lives. These demands are not pulled from thin air, but
reflect international standards and a basic affirmation of human dignity
and freedom. In other words, the movement is demanding corporate
responsibility and accountability and the recognition and protection of
their human rights. So far, no corporations have been willing to engage
them, despite repeated efforts, and the regime in Burma continues to
violate their human rights.

If PTT constructed a Shwe pipeline from western Burma to Thailand it would
be at least four times the length of the previous Yadana pipeline, with
the potential for a correspondingly gross number of attendant human rights
abuses. Likewise, a PTT pipeline from the Gulf of Martaban would mirror
Yadana in the most uncomfortable of ways.

With or without Thailand, the abuses in Burma are widespread and
systematic, meaning that they are part of the state's larger plan to keep
its diverse 54 million people in check. The military regime in Burma is
holding over 1,200 political prisoners under unspeakable prison
conditions. Further, the military's policies openly target the ethnic
nationalities comprising 40 percent of the population. Thousands of ethnic
women have been selective victims of brutal rape by the Burma army. Over
30,000 Karen villagers have in the last year fled the violent attacks of
the Burmese army in the eastern part of the country (and continue to do
so) to Thailand.

What is Thailand's answer to all of this? Investment. Thailand's gas
imports from Burma exceed US$1.5 billion per annum, providing the military
regime in Burma with approximately 30 percent of its hard currency. But
that currency is not spent improving lives in Burma. As just one example,
in 2006, Burma ranked last in the world in public health expenditures,
according to the 2006 UN Human Development Report, and the country
consistently ranks among the world's least developed.

Marx's quote from 1852 actually suggests that history repeats itself ''the
first time as tragedy, the second time as farce.'' The Yadana gas pipeline
was a tragedy. Thailand's involvement was a tragedy. The human rights
abuses were a tragedy.

PTT is at a crossroads, and if it continues investing in Burma's oil and
gas industry, it will do so in spite of the many victims of human rights
abuses and in spite of Thailand's own development. It will be a mockery, a
foolish show, a ridiculous sham. In other words, a farce.

The good news for Thailand is that it doesn't have to be this way. The
government and PTT can actually act to help change things for the better,
influencing the regime in Burma to end its brutal ''war'' rather than
lining its pockets with hard currency.

Matthew Smith is a Project Coordinator of the Burma Project with
EarthRights International (ERI), an NGO based in Washington D.C. ERI
represented plaintiffs in Doe versus Unocal Corporation.