The residents of Inbarpar village, Mansi Township, Bhamo District, Kachin State, have stated that they are determined to prevent the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO)from carrying out any preparations for rare-earth metal mining in the area.
A resident told Myitkyina News Journal that the village of Inbarpar, which is currently being prepared for mining, holds a significant place in Kachin history as the birthplace of the Kachin revolution and the location of the first church established by the Kachin Baptist Convention (KBC).
"We will protest until there is no more rare-earth metal mining in our area,"said the resident.
The local people are also determined to continue protesting until rare-earth metal mining activities are completely halted, as they have experienced the destructive impact of mining operations before, such as the coal mining in 2014. Furthermore, the resident added that the locals cannot bear the deception and the silence when their local timber was sold by the government.
"The KIO/KIA leaders who are leading us, the leaders we rely on, have done a lot of other things in the past in addition to metal mining that the local people don't want. But we didn't say anything. I was very upset when they did things worse than these kinds of things," he said.
On March 20, over 1,000 local residents visited and destroyed a mining site in Dingsingpar village that was about to begin operations, as a
demonstration of their opposition to mining in the area.
"It will be a situation where wild animals and people can't live together, so the locals are protesting in time," said another resident.
Following the actions of the local authorities and a statement from a KIO leader that 'If we don't do mining, the others will do it,' the trust of local residents has decreased, and the locals are demanding that local authorities should re-examine their current actions, and consider the whole nation, not just one person's self-esteem.
The rare-earth metal mining program is being carried out by the KIO's Eastern Command and began on September 21st, 2022.
