The raging dispute over two hydropower projects in Burma's northern Kachin State between the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) and the Burmese ruling junta has been settled last month, said local sources.

The two sides locked horns after the army post of the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) the armed wing of the KIO near the Taping No. 1 and Taping No. 2 hydropower project sites in Taping River (also called Ta Hkaw Hka in Kachin and Dapain in China) in Bhamo District in Kachin State on February 27 was destroyed by the Burmese Army during their operation relating to timber, said KIO sources.

According to KIO/A officials, the destroyed KIA army post was the KIA's battalion 15 under the 3rd Brigade. The Burmese Army told the KIO/A that "the KIA post in the project site would seem inappropriate if seen by their senior officers."

The KIO/A rejected the Burmese Army's reasoning and are unhappy over the junta's action in the Taping River hydropower projects without any information or discussion with them, said KIO officials.

The KIO/A views the destruction of the KIA army post as the junta’s trying to remove them from the project site controlled by them, said KIO/A sources.

Regarding this dispute, the KIO representatives led by Vice-chairman Lt-Gen N'ban La Awng recently went to Myitkyina, the capital of Kachin State and met senior military officials from the Northern Command Headquarters (Ma Pa Kha), said the KIO sources.

At the meeting, the KIO discussed three points--- first, the KIA post will not shift from the project sites; second, the projects should not be continued with the KIO and third, the KIO will not take responsibility of future consequences, said KIO officers.

The KIO/A has not been able to procure any concrete promise from the Northern Command Headquarters. However, the KIA post has been reconstructed last week, said local villagers.

At the moment, all the entrance of two or more main branch lines heading towards the two project sites in the Taping River on Myitkyina-Bhamo road are guarded by Burmese Army soldiers and no one is allowed entry to the project sites except the company's workers, said local eyewitnesses.

The two Taping River hydropower projects are being jointly implemented by China Datang Corporation (CDT) and Burma's ruling junta since last year.  There is heavy digging on and there is a plethora of drilling, mining machines and trucks with hundreds of workers using them, said local people.

Local villagers near the projects and eyewitnesses told KNG, the CDT is also picking up unidentified minerals from underground mines and which is directly transported to Yingjiang city in China's southwestern Yunnan province.

On the other side of Kachin State, the Chinese government's China Power Investment Corporation (CPI) also has secretly picked unidentified minerals to be taken to Tengchong in Yunnan province from Chipwi (Chibwe) hydropower project in N'Mai River east of Kachin State all in the name of hydropower project activities since 2007, said local people.