BurmaNet News, Jan 22, 2004

[editor at burmanet.org]

Jan 22, 2004 Issue # 2410

INSIDE BURMA
AFP: Karen rebels win provisional ceasefire, talks with Myanmar junta
continue Irrawaddy: Technology Fair Opens

REGIONAL
Mizzima: Burmese Action at World Social Forum

INTERNATIONAL
AFP: Final arguments begin in groundbreaking rights case against Unocal
AP: L.A. judge to issue oral ruling on Unocal's liability in human
rights case

OPINION / OTHER
New Statesman: Writers in prison - Daw Aung San Suu Kyi
Le Monde: Kouchner, Total, and Burma

PRESS RELEASE
CSW: Thousands more civilians attacked in Burma as ceasefire talks start



INSIDE BURMA
___________________________________

Jan 22, AFP
Karen rebels win provisional ceasefire, talks with Myanmar junta
continue

The Karen National Union won a provisional ceasefire with Myanmar's
junta in talks aimed at ending their long-running rebellion, and is set
to continue negotiations on a written agreement, a spokesman said
Thursday.

A 21-member delegation led by General Bo Mya, the commander of the rebel
group's military wing, returned to Thailand Thursday after six days of
talks in Myanmar's capital Yangon, said KNU foreign secretary David Taw.

"The military has already ordered their regional commander on January 17
to cease all military activities on the frontline," he told AFP. "We
didn't reach agreement on paper but we know it's a concrete deal.

"When we went there we wanted a signed agreement but we didn't get it.
But the key issues are the ceasefire and the internally displaced people
and on those I think we are okay."

Taw said that when the KNU leaders returned to their secret base along
the Thai-Myanmar border Friday they would verify whether the ceasefire
was holding before restarting contacts with the Myanmar regime in a
month's time.

The agreement is less formal than deals forged with 17 ethnic "ceasefire
groups" who were required to reveal troop strengths and weapons
capabilities as well as agree to operate only in specific regions.

"At present we have only made the first step, I think there will be more
practical follow-up to the ceasefire," Taw said, adding that the two
sides had established warmer relations during the talks.

Their discussions also focused on the issue of some 200,000 Karen who
are internally displaced in Myanmar as a result of the rebel campaign
which has raged for five decades.

"We will talk about where the troops should be, and how the villagers
can return to their homes," he said, adding that they also agreed the
controversial "relocation camps" created by the junta should be closed.

Hopes for an official agreement between the two sides were raised by
positive signs emanating from the secret discussions in Yangon, where
the ruling generals rolled out the red carpet for the Karen visitors.

Their negotiations extended well past Monday when they were expected to
have concluded, and featured two meetings with Myanmar's Prime Minister
General Khin Nyunt. However, Taw denied reports from Karen sources in
Yangon that they also saw Myanmar's leader Senior General Than Shwe.

The KNU is the largest of the handful of rebel groups still fighting
against Yangon's rule, with an estimated 7,000 fighters according to the
junta's count.

Myanmar's government is courting the insurgents as it works to have all
rebel ethnic groups attend a national convention for this year to draft
a new constitution planned.

The inclusion of the ethnic groups is key to the credibility of the
convention, the first step in a "road map" to democracy announced last
year which the junta hopes will mute international criticism over its
failure to embark on reforms.

Taw said the two sides discussed the road map but that the KNU was still
studying the issue and had given no assurance it would attend the
convention.

Contacts between the KNU and junta resumed after a long impasse when the
regime dispatched its representatives to meet KNU officials at the Thai
border town of Mae Sot last November.

At a final meeting held Wednesday involving the Karen delegation as well
as community elders, Buddhist and Christian leaders and senior Myanmar
military intelligence officials, Bo Mya set out his reasons for
attending the talks.

"Decades of fighting have not been beneficial to either side," the
76-year-old leader said according to sources at the meeting, adding that
all the conditions he had set down for the historic meeting had been
accepted.

He did not specify the concessions made but the junta is known to have
agreed to the KNU's demand that they negotiate a ceasefire first before
surrendering their weapons -- an issue which caused previous talks to
fail.

Bo Mya emphasised the need for unity between Buddhist and Christian
elements within the KNU who have been at odds in the past, and also to
"seek harmony" with the Myanmar military.
_____________________________

Jan 22, Irrawaddy
Technology Fair Opens

Thousands have turned out for the third Myanmar Information and
Communication Technology (ICT) Park Week computer fair in Rangoon.
Visitors can see the latest computers, use Internet and email at no
charge, and play games, said a staffer from the Myanmar ICT Park.

The Myanmar ICT Park is a collaboration between the military government
and fifty private companies and was founded in January 2002. It started
as an attempt to boost Burma’s software industry.

About 4,400 people visited the exhibition yesterday, said the staff
member.

Bagan Cybertech, which is partly owned by the government is selling one
year of dial-up Internet access at a promotional rate of 49,000 kyat (US
$49) during ICT Week, said an official from Bagan Cybertech. The usual
cost is 60,000 kyat.

Bagan Cybertech also launched its "Access Prepaid Dial-up Kit" in
October. The prepaid kits retail at between 8,000 and 28,000 kyat. Users
can opt for 15 hours of access to be used within three months, or pay
more for 60 hours to be used over six months. Bagan Cybertech is selling
the kits at Internet cafés and computer shops in Rangoon and Mandalay.

A second Information and Communication Technology Park opened in
Mandalay in August 2002. The US $2 million facility at the Yandanabon
Market has broadband Internet connections and space for up to 30 ICT
companies.

Burmese Prime Minister Gen Khin Nyunt inaugurated the Myanmar ICT Park
Week yesterday. The park is located on the campus of Hlaing University
in Hlaing Township. It opened in 2001. ICT week is open to the public
and runs until Jan 27.

Burma’s military government allowed limited email and Internet access in
2001, with the first Internet café opening in Rangoon in May last year.
Bagan Cybertech started in 2002 and is headed by Ye Naing Win, the son
of Prime Minister Gen Khin Nyunt.

All of Burma’s Internet traffic passes through government servers, which
restrict users from viewing sites banned by the regime’s censors.


REGIONAL
____________________________

Jan 19, Mizzima
The Burmese Action at World Social Forum

Burmese delegates attending the World Social Forum (WSF) in Mumbai have
exposed the ongoing and serious violations of human rights being
committed by the ruling Burmese military Junta in a series of seminars
and panel discussions.

Nearly 100,000 people from over 100 countries across the world have
descending on the Mumbai suburb of Ghatkopar in one of the largest ever
gatherings of non-governmental organisations, civil societies and
organisations working for the improvement of human society.  World
Social Forum 2004 began on the 16th January.

The goal of the WSF is to create a better world for all people to live
in. "Another world is possible" is the slogan of the festival.

The Burmese delegation have organised presentations on topics such as
the role of women in the democracy movement, the exploitation of natural
resources by the military, the lack of media freedom, the current
political situation, sanctions and the impact of tourism in Burma.

"The Women’s League of Burma are trying our best to influence political
change in Burma,” said Nang Hseng Noung, secretary of the WLB.   The
role of women in the democracy movement was highlighted at a seminar
conducted by the Women's League of Burma under the banner of  "Burma
under military rule".

Prominent speakers, included Soe Myint, Aung Naing Oo, Aung Thu Nyeing
and Naing Kasauh Mon, led an open discussion on the current political
situation in Burma.

At a panel discussion held on the impact of tourism in Burma, WLB member
Ms Charm Tong, highlighted the negative aspects of the tourism trade.
"Tourism has resulted in many people being displaced from their homes
and much of the hard work done [by the regime to promote tourism] had
been performed by forced labour", she said

The current political situation was described in a presentation by
Mizzima news editor-in-chief, Soe Myint, at a seminar entitled ‘Voices
on Democracy’.

Ms Sally Mawlay, representing Burma Relief Centre, spoke about the
exploitation of natural gas reserves in Burma by foreign oil companies
at a workshop called "Globalisation, human rights violations and gas
pipelines in Burma".

Ms Mawlay explained that the natural gas pipelines are the biggest
foreign investment projects in Burma, providing funds directly to the
military regime to support its military infrastructure and to buy
weapons to use against their own people.  She claimed that the pipeline
projects had resulted in the forced relocation of entire villages,
increased extrajudicial killings, torture, rape and extortion by
pipeline security forces and increased forced labour.

Other Burmese participants at the World Social Forum worked together to
provide information and free literature at the Burma Information Centre.


It is the first time that Burma's democracy issue has been highlighted
at the WSF since the festival began in 2001.  There are approximately 30
participants representing Burmese organisations at WSF 2004.

*In other news, Mizzima has learned that Dr Tint Swe, Member of
Parliament and a minister of the exiled government, spoke at the
Association of the Peoples of Asia (APA) on January 17.  He warned India
not to trust the Burmese military's proposed ‘road map’ to democracy.


INTERNATIONAL
_____________________________________

Jan 22, AFP
Final arguments begin in groundbreaking rights case against Unocal

A US judge Wednesday heard closing arguments in a landmark trial in
which US oil giant Unocal stands accused of human rights abuses during
the building of a disputed gas pipeline in Myanmar.

The case, brought by 15 Myanmar villagers, marks the first time that an
American firm has been tried in the United States for alleged rights
abuses and is being closely watched by legal pundits.

If the complex suit is ultimately successful, damages of up to one
billion dollars could be awarded in the case.

The villagers claim in their seven-year-old lawsuit that Unocal turned a
blind eye as junta troops murdered, raped and enslaved villagers and
forced them to work on the 1.2-billion-dollar pipeline in the 1990s.

At issue in this first phase of the complex two-part trial, the phase
that drew to an end Wednesday, is whether Unocal can be held liable for
the conduct of its subsidiaries which invested in the pipeline.

A lawyer for the villagers claimed Wednesday that the California-based
oil titan set up "corporate shells" to avoid liability for the
enslavement of villagers by Myanmar's military junta when the pipeline
was built.

"Unocal made all the decisions," lawyer Terry Collingsworth said. "It
was a business choice. It's not illegal to have done that, but the
tradeoff is if you go the corporate-shell route, you don't get limited
liability."

"The subsidiaries had nothing to do with construction of the pipeline.
They were simply paper conduits," he said. "They are tax shelters, they
are cash pass-throughs, but they were not responsible for the pipeline."

But Unocal lawyer Daniel Petrocelli said the units -- Unocal Myanmar
Offshore Co., Unocal International Pipeline Co. and Unocal Global
Ventures -- had hundreds of millions of dollars in assets and their own
corporate structures.

"These are solvent companies with enormous resources," he said, adding
that if the villagers had sued the subsidiaries directly the issue might
already have been resolved.

He however made it clear he is not blaming the subsidiaries for any of
the alleged misconduct, calling it the fault of "rogue" Myanmar
soldiers.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Victoria Chaney is expected to decide
the first part of the case on Friday and if she finds Unocal liable, the
second phase on actual claims would begin and a jury would be chosen.

The trial stems from two lawsuits filed by the unidentified villagers
from the nation formerly known as Burma over the construction of the
62-kilometer (39-mile) Yadana natural gas pipeline.

The pipeline was built by Unocal and partners including France's Total,
to carry natural gas from Myanmar to neighbouring Thailand.

Unocal, which did not directly operate the field that was owned by the
Myanmar government, strongly denies any involvement in abuses.

It has acknowledged that troops in Myanmar, formerly Burma, forced
villagers to carry ammunition and supplies for the military in the area,
but denied that any of that labour involved the Yadana pipeline project.

If Unocal manages to convince Judge Chaney in the first phase of the
trial that its subsidiaries, rather than the parent company, should be
targeted by any suits, it could move to have the abuse charges thrown
out in the second phase.

Unocal owned the pipeline jointly with Total, formerly TotalFinaElf, and
the Thai and Myanmar governments. Total is being sued separately in
Europe.

The Yadana pipeline is now run by Thailand's PTT and Total. The
villagers claim that Unocal has a 28.26 percent stake in the rights to
proceeds from the pipeline.
_____________________________

Jan 22,  The Associated Press State & Local Wire
L.A. judge to issue oral ruling on Unocal's liability in human rights
case - By Paul Chavez

A Superior Court judge said she will issue an oral ruling Friday on
whether Unocal Corp. or its subsidiaries should be held accountable for
alleged human rights abuses carried out in the 1990s by the Myanmar
military during a pipeline project.

Judge Victoria Gerrard Chaney heard closing arguments Wednesday in which
lawyers for a group of Myanmar villagers said El Segundo-based Unocal
should be held liable for slavery, murder and rape allegedly committed
by the military to aid the $1.2 billion Yadana pipeline project.

Dan Stormer, an attorney for the plaintiffs, said that Unocal had
"complete and utter control" over the subsidiaries that were created to
build and operate the pipeline.

Unocal lawyer Daniel Petrocelli said in his closing arguments that the
subsidiaries - not Unocal - should be held accountable.

"This case is very simple, if the subs can pay, this case goes away," he
said.

California law holds that subsidiaries with vast financial resources can
not be bypassed in order to get to a parent company, Petrocelli said.

In court documents, Unocal lawyers said the subsidiaries have assets and
revenues worth hundreds of millions of dollars and could easily pay any
judgment.

The claims are being pushed by activists opposed to Unocal's investment
in Myanmar, Petrocelli told the packed courtroom.

"This is not about suing the right parties that can make payment,"
Petrocelli said. "It's about getting Unocal."

Terry Collingsworth, another lawyer for the plaintiffs, said Unocal
could have created a real corporation to participate in the pipeline
project, but instead created "simply empty vessels" that relied on
Unocal employees and officers to make decisions.

"There are legitimate business reasons for setting up a shell,"
Collingsworth said. "But the trade-off, if you go the corporate shell
option, is that you don't get the option of limited liability."

Chaney divided the civil trial into two phases. The first non-jury
phase, which started Dec. 9, has focused on whether Unocal or its
subsidiaries should be held accountable.

The second phase will center on the issue of "vicarious liability"
involving whether Unocal would pay any damages and would include the
villagers' allegations of human rights abuses.

Collingsworth told the judge that if Unocal prevails in the first phase
of the trial, the tactic of creating subsidiaries to escape liability
would become known as "doing a Unocal."

Petrocelli said that if the judge rules in favor of Unocal that it would
end the case and he would file motions asking that it be dismissed with
prejudice, which would prevent it from being refiled.

Villagers from the nation formerly known as Burma first filed their
lawsuit in 1996 alleging federal and state claims. A judge found Unocal
had no liability and dismissed the federal case, which prompted the
plaintiffs to pursue their claims under state law in Los Angeles County
Superior Court.

The federal case was reinstated last year by a three-judge panel of the
9th Circuit Court of Appeal.

Unocal argued in June before the full 11-judge panel that the case
wrongly relies on the obscure 1789 federal Alien Tort Claims Act, which
allows foreign nationals access to U.S. courts to sue for damages. The
appeals court has not yet issued a ruling.


OPINION / OTHER
_____________________________________

Jan 22, New Statesmen
Writers in prison - Daw Aung San Suu Kyi; By Melissa Benn

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is probably the most famous prisoner in the world.
A writer and leader of the National League for Democracy, she is once
again under house arrest at her home in Yangon, Myanmar (Burma).

Aung San Suu Kyi has spent most of the past 15 years in detention, much
of the time in solitary confinement. She has suffered greatly for her
principled stand against military repression. Separated from her husband
and two sons, who remained in England, she was even unable to see her
husband, the academic Michael Aris, on his deathbed. Aung San Suu Kyi
feared that if she travelled to Britain, she would not be allowed to
return to Burma.

Recent hopes for peaceful democratic change in Myanmar have waned over
the past year. In May 2003, large numbers of attackers were unleashed on
a peaceful pro-democracy meeting, and Aung San Suu Kyi, who had been
touring the country speaking to enormous crowds, was taken into
'protective custody'.

Please write to:

Lieutenant General Khin Nyunt Secretary 1
State Peace and Development Council
c/o Director of Defence Services Intelligence (DDSI)
Ministry of Defence
Signal Pagoda Road
Dagon Post Office
Yangon
Union of Myanmar

Fax: 00 95 1 229 50
____________________________

Jan 2, Le Monde
Kouchner, Total, and Burma - By Erich Inciyan and Jean-Claude Pomonti

[This is a English translation of the article published online by
Truthout issues.  Burmanet carried the original French article in its
Jan 9, 2004 issue.  The translation can be viewed online at
http://truthout.org/docs_04/010904H.shtml – Ed]

By agreeing to effect an "inquiry" for the oil group in Burma, the
former minister has brought down on himself the thunderbolts of human
rights’ defenders, who have been in conflict with Total for many years.

Bernard Kouchner grew pale. On December 23, 2003 he had just learned
that his report on Total and Burma had been used-unknown to him- in the
trial between the oil group and victims of the dictatorship. The founder
of Doctors Without Borders, the herald of the humanitarian "right of
interference" become international consultant, is visibly affected.
Total had ordered a study from his company, BK Conseil, but he didn’t
know that the oil company had filed his report as evidence in the trial
opened at the Nanterre court for the "crime of sequestration", a legal
term for "forced labor". The consequence: the affair, already old (the
facts go back to 1995) takes on a new dimension and revives questions
about Total’s role in Burma (Le Monde’s December 12, 2003 edition).

For Mr. Kouchner, this Burmese story begins in December 2002, when he
visited this Asian country for the first time. He was then accompanying
his wife, the journalist Christine Ockrent, who had come to do a
portrait for Elle magazine of the opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi,
then free to move around after periods of detention and house arrest
imposed by the junta. "We must reject any form of aid that could help
the ruling clique in power," the Nobel Prize winner declared to the
women’s magazine in Mr. Kouchner’s presence.

Upon his return, Mr. Jean Veil, son of Kouchner’s friend Simone Veil,
appealed to Mr. Kouchner. The company BK Conseil was set up and Mr.
Kouchner, its only employee, was charged with a "mission of inquiry" by
the oil group. "Jean Veil asked me to investigate the medical-social
facet of Total in Burma and I accepted," confirms the former Health
Minister.

From March 25th to 29th 2003, he therefore returned to Burma. He
visited the site of the Yadana gas pipeline, which has made Total the
largest investor in the country. Back in Paris, he is aware that
practically all western companies boycott the dictatorship. Two months
after the re-imprisonment of Aung San Suu Kyi at the end of May, the
United States strengthened that (boycott) movement by sanctions against
American companies that work with Burma. In November, British American
Tobacco also left.

Dated end of September 2003 and quickly published on Total’s internet
site, Kouchner’s report clears the oil company. He highlights the
company’s real social and hygienic investments in the service of
residents surrounding the pipeline. But the investigation stops there
and says nothing, for example, about the profits to the dictatorship.
Paid 25,000 Euros for two and a half months’ work, Mr. Kouchner asserts
afterward that he wouldn’t change a comma in his reports. "Nothing
allows me to think that the group could have lent a hand to activities
contrary to human rights," he declared to Le Monde. Regarding the
alleged "forced labor", he adds: "I am 95 % sure that the Total people
are incapable of that; they are not slaveholders." Mr. Kouchner,
moreover, assures that he certainly didn’t do the job for the money. ("I
make half of that for one speech!") The group’s sworn opponents are
surprised they weren’t contacted. A personage among Burmese democrats in
France, Htoo Chit is sorry that, "this biased report attempts to make us
believe Total’s presence in Burma is a good thing." This man has worked
for a long time with Burman refugees living along Thailand’s Burmese
border, including those who fled from the pipeline area. "Why didn’t Mr.
Kouchner visit them?" asks the indignant Htoo Chit. "Why did he refuse
to see the reality of forced labor, including child labor? Mr. Kouchner
has backhandedly swept aside the reality of this slavery for hundreds of
Burmese with an unbelievable argument: the pipeline pipes are too heavy
for children to carry
 But why didn’t he explain that forced labor was
used to clear the pipeline site, to cut trees, dig trenches, and carry
worker and soldier equipment?"

Htoo Chit is well known to Total, since he is spokesman for six
compatriots who in August 2002 filed a case against the oil company in
France, a trial that is closely followed because it threatens the
group’s CEO, Thierry Desmarest, who was Director of the Exploration and
Production Division of the company from 1989 to May 1995. The operations
head for the Burma project during the period of the alleged crimes,
Hervé Madéo, has already been heard as a "state’s witness" by the
investigating magistrate, Katherine Cornier.

Pleading the prescription of the facts and the "inadmissibility" of the
complaint, Total’s lawyers, Mssrs. Daniel Soulez Larivière and Jean
Veil, emphasize that this trial is "unusual": none of the complainants
has yet come to France and their complaints have been brought by Htoo
Chit, the only Burmese to have been heard (as a witness) by the judge.
According to them, it would be impossible in any case to verify the
facts as there is no judicial assistance agreement linking the two
countries.

The lawyer for Total’s accusers, Mr. William Bourdon, was also not
consulted by Mr. Kouchner. However, he did meet the Burmese who
initiated the complaints in Thailand. The first two are villagers who
were thirty and twenty-three years old at the time of the alleged
crimes, between October and December 1995. They assert that the Burmese
army requisitioned them by force to work on the pipeline.

The oldest said he had participated with 300 other local villagers who
were not paid in the leveling of the ground for the pipeline’s passage
and the construction of three heliports for Total; he specifies that he
acted under orders from the army’s 273rd Battalion. A deserter from
Battalion 402, who claims he was appointed to Total’s security
detachment in May 1996, also testified that his unit had requisitioned
about a hundred villagers as porters. On its side, Total has
acknowledged that, "at the end of 1995, we had to make a case against
certain of the Burmese military’s practices." At least, that’s what Jean
du Rusquec, who’s in charge of Total’s Burmese mission, told Le Monde
the beginning of December in Bangkok.

In fact, this affair goes back to the oil group in Burma in 1990. The
Rangoon junta experienced a stunning reversal then, when the National
League for Democracy, lead by Aung San Suu Kyi, took 85 % of the vote in
the elections. The National Assembly that was elected then has never
met. However, the generals needed to strengthen their hand more than
ever. For the first time in three decades, they opened the country to
foreign capital. Arrests and tortures didn’t stop, all the same. The
"forced labor" imposed on civilians and long condemned by the
International Labor Organization (ILO) remained general. In 1994, the
U.N. General Assembly exhorted the Burman regime to put a stop to it.

It was in this context in 1990 that Total began by responding to an
exploration offer. July 9, 1992, a contract was even signed with a
Burmese state company, the Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE). In
1993, exploration of the off-shore Yadana field proved fruitful. The
final agreement was concluded February 8, 1995 between MOGE, the
American Unocal and the Thai PTTEP for gas deliveries in Thailand. Total
was the principal operator. Its investment enjoyed a Coface (the
Compagnie française d'assurance pour le commerce extérieur, i.e. a
French government) guarantee, the terms of which a parliamentary mission
in 1999 would judge to be "opaque", and which the Friends of the Earth
evaluates at 2.4 billion 1995 French francs.

Meanwhile, the Burmese army reinforced its presence in the region and
intensified, clearly more to the north of the 63 kilometer ground
corridor foreseen for the pipeline, its operations against the Karen
guerillas, who today are exhausted. A clause in the contract planned
that the army would assure the protection of the region around the
pipeline. The only incident reported was an attack on a Total surveying
team in March 1995 (5 dead, all Burmese) and the development of the
pipeline’s route began the following October.

In the eyes of the plaintiffs, the "forced labor" not only accompanied
securing the sector, but also its development and even pipeline
construction. On its side, the oil company denies having benefited from
"forced labor". Its American partner Unocal, prosecuted since October
1996 by the complaint of Burmese citizens before a California court, is
less categorical. Already in January 1995, John Imle, Unocal President
had admitted: "If someone threatens the pipeline, there will be more
soldiers. And if forced labor goes along with the soldiers, well then
there will be more forced labor."

March 16, 1995, in a letter addressed to headquarters, the Unocal
manager in Burma, Joël Robinson, wrote: "Our assertion that Slorc-the
name by which the junta was known at the time- has not extended and
increased its methods around the pipeline to our benefit will not stand
up to much investigation." During the same period, the American
ambassador in Rangoon also noted: "On the general problem of the close
working relationship between Total/Unocal and the Burmese military, Mr.
Robinson has no excuses to make. He firmly asserts that the companies
have hired the Burmese military to assure the project’s security and
that they pay for that through Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE)."

Total denies any suspicion of forced labor with regard to its work site.
However, in a February 1, 1996 letter to Unocal (this also revealed
through the American trial), an employee of the French group, Hervé
Chagnoux, related: "As for the forced labor used by the troops charged
with assuring the security of our pipeline project, let’s admit between
ourselves, Total and Unocal, that we probably find ourselves in a gray
zone."

Summer 2001, Total publicly acknowledged during a debate organized in a
Paris Fnac (t.n: a French chain bookstore outlet) that it had
compensated the Burmese. "When a case of forced labor has been brought
to our attention, we try hard to offer compensation," the president of
the ethics committee the group has equipped itself with admitted. Its
system of defense continues to evolve, even when it asserts in unison
with the Kouchner report, that such cases, fortuitously discovered,
could have existed at the start-up of the work.

"Forced labor on the work sites? No way," Jean du Rusquec (Total Group)
declared to Le Monde. End November at the Yadana site, he specified to
AFP: "There were start-up problems with the work site, strictly speaking
forced labor, around December 1995, for the construction of huts and
portage. We compensated the villagers, about 400 of them." The
plaintiffs in the French trial claim that they have never been
compensated. Shortly after the publication of the Kouchner report, on
December 18, Le Figaro and Le Nouvel Observateur published an interview
with a man presented as the "head of Total security in Burma from 1995
to 2002." The person in question-"former Foreign Legion captain", whose
initials only were used- claimed that "the Burmese army forced villagers
to walk along a pipeline route that was stuffed with landmines." "I
myself saw five peasants blown up by the mines," he asserted. According
to Mr. Jean Veil, the profile corresponds to that of a former employee
of a security company that was indeed on the site. But the group
"formally contests the reality of the facts presented" and declares it
will sue.

Ten years after Total’s arrival, the situation remains unchanged in
Burma. The army refuses to share power, in spite of gestures- most
recently, a "roadmap" toward democracy missing a timetable or any
mention of Mrs. Suu Kyi – designed to calm international opprobrium. On
this score, the Kouchner report recommended that Total declare itself
"clearly on the necessity of democracy" in Burma and demand the famous
prisoner’s "restoration of freedom" which would, on its side, soften its
position with regard to foreign oil companies.

According to Mr. du Rusquec, Christian de Margerie, the present head of
Total’s Exploration and Production Division, received by the Burmese
Prime Minister, General Khin Nyunt, November 21 in Rangoon, would have
made the following speech: "We have learned about the 'roadmap' with
great interest and we hope its application occurs as soon as possible,"
with "the inclusion of Mrs. Suu Kyi in the process." The general’s
response is unknown.

On its return from an inquiry in Burma, December 22, Amnesty
International judged that the year 2003 had been marked by "a very
problematic decline" in human rights. For its part, the International
Human Rights Federation "is sorry that Bernard Kouchner should have lent
his name to a Total Group public relations operation just at the moment
when the group is finally being called to account in court."

Translation: Truthout French language correspondent Leslie Thatcher.
____________________________

PRESS RELEASE

Jan 21, Christian Solidarity Worldwide
Thousands more civilians attacked in Burma as ceasefire talks start

While Burma's largest armed ethnic resistance group, the Karen National
Union (KNU), arrived in Rangoon last week to negotiate a ceasefire
agreement with the ruling military junta, CSW received reports that an
estimated 3,500 Karen and Karenni people have been newly displaced by
the Burma Army.

Troops of the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) have burned
rice barns and laid landmines around the villages they have overrun, in
a campaign to clear all Karenni people from southern Karenni state. This
is in addition to the estimated one million people already displaced in
the jungles of eastern Burma.

In Karen State near the Karenni border, villagers from at least four
villages have been forced to flee by the SPDC troops. Karenni National
Progressive Party (KNPP) Deputy Commander, Major-General Aung Mya, told
news agency, Agence France-Presse that SPDC forces have "burned down six
villages and 40 rice barns, and seized several hundred cattle".Evidence
of forced labour continues to emerge, and several of the new Internally
Displaced People (IDPs) have already died of starvation. A 17-year-old
boy stepped on a landmine outside of Ka Lae Lo village and lost his leg
from the knee down.

In a sign that the SPDC is not approaching the ceasefire negotiations
with the Karen in good faith, the Karenni have reported that 1,000 new
SPDC soldiers have been brought into Karenni State from Karen areas. The
Karenni claim the SPDC is taking advantage of the unofficial ceasefire
with the Karen, which was agreed verbally in early December, to
concentrate their forces against the Karenni.

In a report, a CSW source concluded: "This is a humanitarian crisis.
These people urgently need food, shelter and protection. They would also
like to be able to return home and not face the oppression of the Burma
Army."

CSW remains extremely concerned about the critical situation in Burma.
CSW urges the SPDC to ensure that any ceasefire agreement reached
results in the complete withdrawal of SPDC forces from Karen, Karenni
and other ethnic areas and for the Burma Army to end its widespread
human rights abuses including rape, forced labour and using people as
human minesweepers. CSW also urges the SPDC to demonstrate it is serious
about reform by releasing Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi from house
arrest, and all prisoners of conscience from prison, and by lifting all
restrictions on the activities of the  National League for Democracy
(NLD) and other political parties. CSW has urged its supporters to
contact their MP and MEPs to raise urgent concern about the ongoing
situation in Burma.

Stuart Windsor, National Director of CSW, said: "While we cautiously
welcome ceasefire discussions between the SPDC and the KNU, the test of
that ceasefire will be in the daily reality for the Karen and others. If
there is simply an end to armed conflict, but SPDC troops remain on the
ground terrorising civilians, a ceasefire is meaningless.

"The international community should respond to the current humanitarian
crisis of the internally displaced people and make a concerted effort to
put pressure on the SPDC to stop its current offensives in Karen,
Karenni and other ethnic nationality areas."

NOTES TO EDITORS:

The past year has seen a deterioration in the human rights situation in
Burma.

On May 30 2003, mobs orchestrated by the SPDC launched an assassination
attempt against Nobel Laureate, democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi. While
she survived, hundreds of her supporters were beaten, arrested,
imprisoned and scores were killed. She was detained, initially in an
undisclosed location and now under house arrest in her home in Rangoon.
Amnesty International recently made their second ever visit to Burma,
and reported that the situation has deteriorated significantly since
their visit in early 2003.  Over 1,000 political prisoners remain behind
bars, and systematic rape, forced labour, extrajudicial killings, use of
human minesweepers, burning of villagers, looting, pillaging, extortion,
destruction of crops and food supplies, and the use of child soldiers
continues to be perpetrated by SPDC forces, particularly in Karen,
Karenni and Shan areas of eastern Burma.

The Karenni have reported that the Burma Army is constructing a new road
from Mawchi south east to Htee Lay Kee, to serve the new Wolfram mine.
Villagers from township 2 and township 3 in District 2 of Karenni State
were forcibly relocated along the Mawchi-Toungoo road on December 10,
and are being used as porters for the SPDC soldiers. At least 80 Karenni
women and 40 Karenni men have been forced to carry supplies for the SPDC
to the Karen-Karenni border.

On December 26 2003, SPDC forces ordered all Karenni villagers north and
south of the Mawchi-Toungoo road to relocate to Mahntahlayn near
Pasaung, on the west bank of the Salween river, or be shot on sight.
Three days later, SPDC soldiers forced the villagers out of their homes.

In Muthraw district, 995 Karenni IDPs and 678 Karen IDPs are hiding
together. A CSW source reported on January 11 2004 that: "rice is
running out and although there is a relief team providing emergency
medical assistance, medicine will run out in two weeks if there is no
resupply."

On January 17 and 18, according to the CSW source, three SPDC battalions
attacked Karen villagers with mortars, RPG-7s, M-79 grenade launchers
and light (5.56) machine guns. There were also new clashes between SPDC
and KNU forces. Over 500 villagers from Kolay and two other nearby
villages are now in hiding.

While the SPDC has announced it would reconvene the National Convention
to draft a new constitution and transition to democracy, and would
conduct the transition in an "all-inclusive manner" involving all
groups, rhetoric has so far not been matched by reality.

The release of Aung San Suu Kyi and all political prisoners is an
essential precursor to a meaningful National Convention and transition
to democracy.

For more information please contact Richard Chilvers, communications
manager, CSW on 020 8329 0045 or email richard.chilvers at csw.org.uk or
visit www.csw.org.uk