The Chinese financiers of the suspended Myitsone Dam project, China Power Investment Cooperation (CPI), have told local Kachin residents that they will restart the mega-dam project in 2015, according to the Kachin Development Networking Group (KDNG) and relocated villagers from Aung Myin Thar, near the dam site.
“CPI invited us to a meeting, so we went there with our church committee members to hear what they had to say,” said villager Daw Lu Ra. “They said they will restart construction in 2015.”
KDNG said that the vice-chairman of CPI was among the delegation who met with the Aung Myin Thar villagers on June 14 alongside five engineers and Kachin Baptist church committee members.
According to KDNG, church committee member Marip Bawk San asked the CPI representatives about the contract the firm signed with the Myanmar government. A CPI representative responded that it was not possible to annul
the contract.
“CPI told the villagers that the contract had not been annulled; they said the Myanmar President had only suspended the project during his presidential term,” the Kachin NGO said.
“We think that CPI doesn’t care about the president’s orders,” said KDNG’s Daw Seng Mai. “However, we also believe the president is allowing CPI to plan ahead.”
She said that despite the dam’s suspension, relocated villagers still cannot return to their homes.
