Ethnic Kachin people are sorely disappointed with the Chinese government’s silence over the appeal to halt the construction of the dam project in Northern Burma, which threatens the livelihood of tens of thousands of local people and will lead to massive destruction.
“Affected people and Kachins from across the globe have made it clear they don’t want this dam. How can China remain silent?” asked Ms. Ah Nan the spokesperson of the Kachin Development Networking Group (KDNG) in a statement released on March 2.
With the help of the KDNG, Kachin ethnic people around the world have protested by sending an appeal letter with many signatures to the Chinese Embassy addressed to Premier Wen Jiabao. They made a fervent appeal to stop the Myitsone Hydropower project in Kachin State.
Overseas Kachins in five cities such as Bangkok, London, New Delhi, Singapore and Wellington have sent the letter to the embassies of the People’s Republic of China. But only the embassy in Singapore had responded, said an activist.
“We want China to respond to our appeal and to check out whether the project is following the construction norms of dams adopted by other countries and in their mainland,” Ah Nan told Kachin News Group.
The Myitsone dam project located at the mouth of the longest river the Irrawaddy in Burma is set to displace at least 15,000 people and millions of people living downstream of the construction site will have to face disastrous floods if the dam collapses.
Junta officials have been forcing and warning villagers living around the construction site to move to other places and have threatened to arrest and punish anyone who opposes the dam construction.
“I am sure they have received all the appeal letters but they do not wish to discuss it,” said Awng Di the general secretary of Kachin Literature and Culture-Singapore (Jinghpaw Laili laika hte Htunghking Hpung-Singapore), who submitted the letter to the embassy in Singapore on January 28.
The over 50-storey high dam is being constructed by the China Power Investment Corporation (CPI) together with Burma’s Asia World Company. It is expected to produce 6,000 MW of electricity to be sold to China.
Burma’s Prime Minister General Thein Sein, had visited Kachin State and surveyed the Myitsone dam construction site in late February to assure China about the project, local activists said.
“We expected China will be reacting as it did but we will continue to protest and try to stop it,” said Ah Nan.
The KDNG said the Asia World Company is now getting into the act of construction. It is to build new houses in other places for the villagers and a new road.
Over tens of thousands of Chinese workers have arrived on the Sino-Burma border in Kambaiti and Tengchong, said Ah Nan.
The Chairman of the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) had sent a letter to the junta supremo Senior General Than Shwe detailing the negative impact of the project on the local people saying “The reliability of the Irrawaddy’s natural fluvial flow allows the Delta to exist as one of the world’s biggest rice-producing areas,” the KDNG statement said.
“We plan to continue protesting, despite the lack of response,” said Awng Di who is trying to mobilize people including the Chinese to be involved in the protest.
