The Yadana gas pipeline, one of the 20th century's last great corporate crimes, now slices through southern Burma's rainforest, heading for neighboring Thailand. Dozens of Thai environmentalists camped out on the pipeline route from December until March, in the indigenous version of "Redwood Summer." They aimed to block continuation of the multinational joint-venture the Associated Press called "one of the most politically controversial infrastructure projects in the world."

The scheme to build a pipeline from the Yadana natural gas field beneath Burma's Andaman Sea to an electricity generating plant in Thailand was hatched by the arrogance of French, American and Thai corporate executives, and the blood lust of Burma's military regime. The Burmese army crushed a massive "people power" uprising in 1988 and maintains a stranglehold on the country. The military regime, which calls itself the State Peace and Development Council, has waged war in ethnic minority regions, attempting to stamp out any threat of insurgency from indigenous peoples such as the Karens and Mons. In order to do so, the Burmese armed forces were increased to nearly half a million and re-armed with Chinese rifles, tanks and bombers, requiring the junta to seek hard currency from foreign investors.

Logging, mining and fishing companies were invited to loot Burma's natural resources without restraint (Burmafollows no environmental laws), and their payoffs fill the generals' coffers. The biggest investors by far have been petroleum companies. Several explored for oil on land in Burma, but they came up dry and left. By drilling underseas, however, Unocal and France's Total found reserves of natural gas in a jointly held concession. Arco and England's Premier, which bought Texaco's concession last year, continue undersea exploration.

In a profit-sharing contract with the Burmese junta and Thailand's Petroleum Authority (PTT), Unocal and Total launched a plan to build a pipeline to transport the gas across the region of southern Burma called the Tenasserim. To many this seemed extraordinarily unrealistic. The pipeline had to cross rough, mountainous terrain where earthquakes are common. And the region has been a war zone for decades, with Karen, Mon and other ethnic guerrillas fighting for autonomy. Further, the route cuts through rich monsoon rainforest, the habitat of many rare species.

These drawbacks did not dissuade the companies. Battalions of Burmese troops were shifted to the pipeline area and commenced a scorched-earth campaign that relocated and destroyed entire villages. Suspected opponents were hunted down, tortured, raped and massacred. Hundreds of thousands of Karens and Mons were taken captive as forced laborers, to build a "death railway," roads and new army bases in the vicinity of the pipeline route. When reports of these massive human rights violations reached the outside world, Unocal and Total officials insisted that the security campaign was justified. In 1995, Unocal president John Imle, one of the principle instigators of the Yadana project, warned, "If you threaten the pipeline there's gonna be more military. If forced labor goes hand and glove with the military, yes, there will be more forced labor. For every threat to the pipeline there will be a reaction."

By late 1997, the Burmese portion of the pipeline had been laid, with a wide swath of forest cut for its path and thousands of troops guarding the route. International efforts to stop it had gained more and more support, but to no avail. Demonstrations at Unocal/Union 76 gas stations in the US persisted until Unocal sold off all its US operations, including the gas stations. The Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers labor union joined in protests against the Yadana pipeline, as Unocal "downsized" more and more US workers to concentrate on its Asian schemes (which also include a pipeline in cooperation with Afghanistan's Taliban). Twenty locations, including the state of Massachusetts, New York City and San Francisco, enacted laws banning state/city business with companies that do business in Burma. Lawsuits were filed against Unocal executives on behalf of the victims of the brutal pipeline security campaign. The corporations were held accountable by the public, the press and even the courts, but the pipeline still crossed the degraded land up to Burma's border with Thailand.

Thailand's energy moguls have promoted the "need" for more and more electricity to provide a prosperous population with air-conditioned townhouses, mega-malls, ice-rinks, multiplexes, chip factories and so on. With a bad case of disregard for the environment with symptoms that include outrageous urban air pollution, filthy seacoast and rivers, a passion for plastic throw-aways, trade in endangered species and a point-of-no-return deforestation rate, Thailand has fueled a construction boom with non-renewable energy expansion. "Cheap" Burmese gas seemed perfect (even though it's not so cheap when kickbacks to the Burmese junta are factored in). It was decided that a new electrical plant would be needed to use the Yadana gas. And, not coincidentally, the forests of the Tenasserim were secured so that rapacious Thai timber firms could enter and clearcut them once Karen and Mon villagers and rebels were eradicated.

Burma's underground environmental group, Green November, and Thailand-based organizations like Earth Rights International, Images Asia and Southeast Asia Information Network have documented the pipeline horrors, and the Thai press provided good coverage. As construction was about to commence in Thailand, some local groups woke up and smelled the eco-cide coming across the border. Thai academics raised objections to PTT's hasty, superficial Environmental Impact Assessment. They questioned the pipeline's effect on Thai forests, including the habitat of the endangered royal crab and Kitti's hog-nosed bat, the smallest mammal in the world. Studies by independent ecologists indicated that the pipeline's construction would damage the watershed's limestone caves, the only place the tiny bats are found.

In the summer of 1997, Thailand's high-speed economy crashed. The currency's value plunged, unemployment grew and construction projects ground to a halt for lack of funds. A corrupt administration was replaced. But the new government was as beholden to big business as the previous one. In a last ditch attempt to stop the pipeline, Mon refugee Buddhist monks living in Thailand called for protesters to camp out on the pipeline route. In December, members of Thai environmental groups and some local villagers set up the blockade camp in the Huay Kaeng nature reserve. Construction ceased, and soon Thai army troops were brought to the area.

In response to the protest, PTT launched a major ad campaign and paid village headmen to pledge support for the pipeline. The opposition to the pipeline was bolstered by a huge rally/concert in Bangkok featuring Karabao, Thailand's indigo batik clad answer to the Grateful Dead. As the camp-out continued, reports appeared of herds of wild elephants in the area, which the protesters located and videotaped. Not only is the world's smallest mammal threatened, the habitat of the largest land mammal faces destruction as well. PTT's assessment failed to mention the presence of elephants. Activists and reporters began to reveal a pattern of deception by PTT about the project as a whole. They questioned the need for the new electricity generating plant, given the downturn in the economy; they questioned the price of the gas and the secrecy of PTT's contract with the Burmese energy ministry.

In late February, ten days of hearings were called by the government. After testimony by PTT and by pipeline opponents, a report was issued calling to merely safeguard the forests and villages along the route during construction. The pipeline was to go ahead, even though the generating plant would not be ready in time to receive it. In fact there are doubts that it can be built at all given the financial climate. Worse yet, it was recommend that construction be speeded up.

For three months, the protests succeeded in preventing construction of the pipeline. But on March 1, PTT started cutting in the area, despite the protesters. On March 2, the heavy machinery was moved in. Five days later, 50 students and activists who had been camping in the forest were arrested. Police used water cannons to break up the protest.

The fate of the Yadana pipeline, built at such terrible cost to indigenous peoples and forests, may lie in less pacifist actions. Several pipeline workers have already been killed by Karen rebels in Burma, who at one point vowed to turn the pipeline into "a snake of fire" if it was ever completed. Worried oil-company managers reportedly tested the effect of landmines on a pipe section recently. A small army of fervent Karen guerrillas, led by visionary twin nine-year-old boys, has risen up in the area. And a veteran Mon rebel leader has suggested that the forces of nature will destroy the pipeline with one of the severe earthquakes which periodically shake the Tenasserim.

In the United States, protests continue against Unocal for inflicting its pipeline scheme on Burma and Thailand. "Unocal's strategy to expand in Asia is tainted with the blood of human rights abuses in Burma," Pam Wellner of Free Burma&emdash;No Petro$ commented recently. "First they helped destroy the environment in Burma, and now they are moving on to Thailand." Bhinand Jotiroseranee, a leader of the Thai camp-out protesters, also condemns the Los-Angeles-based multinational: "Unocal is accountable for this environmental destruction and are showing disrespect to local people who have cherished elephants for centuries," he stated.

For more information on the campaign to get oil companies out of Burma (including an upcoming demonstration at Unocal's annual shareholders' meeting), contact Free Burma&emdash;No Petro$, International Rivers Network, 1847 Berkeley Way, Berkeley CA 94703; freeburma@igc.org. Letters of protest about the Burma/Thailand pipeline can be sent to Mr. Roger Beach, CEO Unocal Corp., 2141 Rosecrans, Suite 4000 El Segundo, CA 90245.

Edith T. Mirante is director of Project Maje, an information project on Burma's human rights and environment, and author of Burmese Looking Glass: A Human Rights Adventure (Atlantic Monthly Press).