In a surprise gesture, the Chinese Embassy in Singapore reverted to anti-Irrawaddy-Myitsone dam project activists yesterday and informed them by email that it had forwarded their appeal letter demanding a halt to the construction in Burma’s Northern Kachin State, to relevant authorities in China.
This was the first such letter to the Chinese government by Kachins in Singapore. Interestingly, the response came within a week, much to the surprise of many.
Cheng Hong Bo, the Second Secretary of the Political and Press Section of the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in Singapore, officially informed one of anti-dam activist leaders yesterday at 5:16 pm Singapore time that he had forwarded the appeal letter of the ethnic Kachin community in the city-state.
On being contacted by the KNG reporter Solomon in New Delhi, Cheng Hong Bo refused to comment on his response to the activists but agreed to field questions through email.
The Singapore-based Kachin Literature and Culture, also called Jinghpaw Laili Laika hte Htunghking Hpung (JLH) in Kachin, organized the signature campaign-cum-appeal letter. It was signed by 110 ethnic Kachins from northern Burma and submitted to the Chinese Embassy on January 28.
“We have forwarded your appeal letter concerning the issue of the construction of Irrawaddy/Myitsone Dam in Kachin state, Myanmar to the relevant authorities in China,” Cheng Hong Bo ([email protected] This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ) wrote to the activist leader’s email of Singapore-JLH.
Two JLH leaders met Cheng Hong Bo in his Embassy office on January 28 and explained at length about the negative impacts of the Irrawaddy Myitsone hydropower project, which is threatening local people and millions downstream of the dam. Their livelihood is at stake as is their lives should the dam collapse, following flooding because it is not very far from a Sagaing fault line.
“We are happy and encouraged with the response. We hope the Chinese government will take into account the wishes of the Kachin people,” said Awng Di, general secretary of the JLH in the city-state, who handed over the appeal letter to Cheng Hong Bo.
Awng Di told KNG, they will try to lobby in the Chinese media so as to garner support from the Chinese people against the dam construction in Kachin State.
“We will seek the help of our friends in China to publish this issue in well known newspapers in the country. We want more Chinese people to become aware and want them to be involved in the movement against the dam project,” he added.
