Strong internal support for Myanmar-Thai pipeline

More than 30,000 people have rallied peacefully in support of the controversial Thai-Myanmar gas pipeline that had provoked months of protests by environmental groups.
The pro-pipeline demonstrators demanded that the government remove about 40 people who had been camping out in the jungle for more than three weeks in an attempt to stall the project's construction.
"Pro-environmental people are outsiders who know nothing about the benefits that this town and the nation will get from the project," according to rally leader Tanya Darapisaisuk.
Tanya said his group would submit a letter calling on the government to remove anti-pipeline protesters from its construction sites.
The pipeline is to move natural gas from Myanmar's offshore Yadana field to Thailand.
Myanmar has completed building the section of the 699-km (434-mile) pipeline in its territory.
The Petroleum Authority of Thailand has been building a 260-km section of the pipeline from the Thai-Myanmar border to a power station in central Rachaburi Province.
Construction of the Thai section of the project is scheduled to be completed by July 1998.