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| A Chinese truck loaded pipelines is crossing Burma border at Jeigao. Photo: Kachin News Group |
A senior official from Burma's Ministry of Energy admitted to Reuters last week that the continued conflict in northern Burma between government forces and ethnic armed groups has delayed the Shwe pipeline project from going online.
“Technically the gas pipeline is ready, but I'm not just sure when the situation along its route will allow it to operate," said a senior Energy Ministry official in the Reuters article published May 11.
A long section of territory controlled by the Kachin Independence Organization, or KIO's armed-wing in Shan state lies along the route of the Shwe gas project's twin oil and natural gas pipelines which are supposed to be finished very soon. When completed, the pipelines will send gas and oil from Burma's Arakan (Rakhine) coast to China's Yunnan region, a distance of nearly 800 KM. Although the Shwe gas project may not be the primary reason behind the army's offensive against the KIO, many observers believe it has certainly fueled the conflict.
Fighting has also repeatedly taken place over the past year along the pipeline route between government forces and the Shan State Army-North (SSA-N), this despite the fact that both sides are supposed to be in a ceasefire.
Last week clashes broke out between government forces and another group, the Shan State Army-South (SSA-S) in Nam Hkam, also spelled Nam Kham township (see here http://www.irrawaddy.org/archives/34151]http://www.irrawaddy.org/archives/34151), in an area located along the pipeline route in north western Shan state. More than 1,000 civilians are reported to have fled to the Chinese town of Ruili since the latest clashes took place.
Government forces deployed in northern Shan state have also regularly clashed with troops from the Ta-ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) in areas located on or in the vicinity of the pipeline route. The TNLA is an ally of the KIO and the smallest of the four armed groups that have fought with the government along the pipeline route since construction began.
In March, an international security expert warned about the potential dangers of operating twin gas and oil pipelines in Shan state while fighting continues between army and armed rebel groups.
Speaking to Russia's Interfax news agency, Michael Oxlade a consultant with a firm that provides security for oil and gas projects raised concerns about the risks involved with operating the Shwe pipelines while armed conflict continues along its route, “We would strongly advise our clients against doing this,” said Oxlade who works for the UK based Westminster International.
"Running an over-ground gas pipeline in a location where an armed conflict taking place is absolutely unadvisable; an explosion could easily be caused by a stray bullet. If the pipeline is penetrated it will explode, causing it - and the surrounding area - significant damage" said Oxlade in a March 29 Interfax article.
Since the Kachin conflict began in June 2011 fighting has broken out repeatedly along a stretch of territory slated to be used for the pipeline which has been long under the control of the Kachin Independence Army's 4th Brigade.
Prior to the outbreak of the conflict, a senior KIO commander Lt-Gen Gunhtang Gam Shawng warned that the pipeline would be used by Burma's military for its own strategic purposes to crush groups like the KIO. “The pipeline will be a tool and an opportunity for the S.P.D.C. to eliminate the armed groups” Lt-Gen Gam Shawng told the New York Times in May 2009, referring to the acronym for Than Shwe's now officially defunct military regime.
Wall Street Journal article ignores conflict along pipeline route
A May 12 article by Wall Street Journal reporter Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen suggests that CNPC the Chinese state-owned firm behind the pipeline project is spending “millions of dollars on schools and health clinics in Myanmar in an attempt to soothe rising resentment against two pipelines it is building through the country.”
Gronholt-Pedersen cites CNPC's repeated claim that the firm donated $12.5 million last year for the building of “45 new schools, 24 health clinics and other projects” as proof that CNPC wants to avoid the controversy generated by another Chinese state-owned firm involved in the now officially suspended Myitsone dam project in Kachin state.
Gronholt-Pedersen's who says he visited one such school during a recent trip to central Burma neglected to mention that activists have disputed many of CNPC's claims about the schools built along the pipeline route which according to the activists have been built without local community involvement or consultation. Many of the schools have only been partially completed and lay empty because a lack of teachers, according to CNPC's many Burmese critics, none of whom Gronholt-Pedersen bothered to interview.
Gronholt-Pedersen's failure to even mention in passing that heavy fighting continues along the pipeline route in Shan state is a glaring omission. The fact that four different armed rebel groups continue to engage in regular clashes with Burma's military along the pipeline route is a strong indication that CNPC and its partners are not concerned about the social and political implications of the massive project.
The article also cites Burma's energy minister Than Htay as praising CNPC's controversial compensation scheme for farmers whose land was seized for the pipeline. “Most of the people along the pipeline are quite satisfied with the land compensation system,” Than Htay told the Wall Street Journal, a claim that has been challenged by Shan land rights activists who Gronholt-Pedersen also failed to interview. (see here http://www.dvb.no/news/shan-farmers-demand-halt-to-shwe-pipeline/27469]http://www.dvb.no/news/shan-farmers-demand-halt-to-shwe-pipeline/27469)
One would hope that the next time that a reporter from the Wall Street Journal has a chance to interview Than Htay (whose name Gronholt-Pedersen spelled incorrectly), he or she could at least inquire about the bloody fighting that has accompanied the largest energy project in Burmese history.
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