The Chairman of the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), Lanyaw Zawng Hra sent an official letter to Hu Jintao, the president of the People’s Republic of China on May 16 urging China to stop the controversial Myitsone dam construction in Irrawaddy River in Kachin State, Northern Burma.
In the open letter the KIO warned Myitsone and six other hydroelectric power plant projects could lead to civil war between the KIA, the armed wing of the KIO, and the Burmese military because Burmese troops will be deployed to the KIO control areas to provide security for the dam construction.
Irrawaddy Myitsone dam and KIO Chairman Lanyaw Zawng Hra.
“Except the Dam Project in Mali-N’mai Confluence (Myitsone dam), we have no objections against the other six Hydro Power Plant Projects. However, we have also informed the Asia World Co., Ltd. to make a decision only after assessing the consequences of the Dam Construction,” the letter said.
Construction at Myitsone began December 21, 2009, led by China’s state owned China Power Investment Corporation (CPI) along with Burma’s, Asia World Company (AWC), owned by former drug lord, Lo Hsing Han, and the Burmese government’s No. 1 Ministry of Electric Power.
The Myitsone dam will produce 6,000 MW of electricity, which the Burmese government will sell almost entirely to China.
The KIO warned CPI workers not to enter its territory in the dam construction sites north of the Mali-N’mai Rivers, because it stopped cooperating with the Burmese government on September 1, 2010, when the government ended the ceasefire agreement it signed in 1994.
The Kachin ethnic armed group also said it is not responsible if civil war breaks out with Burmese troops entering KIO controlled areas to provide security for dam construction.
“We have replied that the Burma (Myanmar) Military troops will not be allowed to invade the KIO area in this current situation,” the KIO said in the letter.
The letter said the KIO would not be responsible if war broke out because of the hydro power plant projects and the dam construction.
The Kachin Development and Networking Group (KDNG) has warned the Myitsone dam will displace about 15,000 local people and millions of people living downstream of the construction site could be in danger because of flooding.
The environmentalist group said thousands of people have been forced to relocate from their home villages at the dam construction site to a new village where they are struggling to find new livelihoods, adequate health care services and education for their children.
Several objection letters regarding construction of the Myitsone dam have been sent to the Burmese and Chinese governments by local people, the Kachin National Consultative Assembly (KNCA) and the KIO. However, no action has been taken to address the concerns expressed by the Kachin people.
