Hundreds of ethnic Kachin Roman Catholic Church followers gathered today at the construction site of the hydropower project on the Irrawaddy River, in Burma’s northern Kachin State, on the annual Feast of the historic Virgin Mary Grotto and prayed that the project would be stopped, local devotees said.

The prayer service was held in the Kachin Roman Catholic Church called, Our Lady Queen of Heaven Church, in Tang Hpre village, the construction site of hydropower project, 27 miles north of Kachin State’s capital Myitkyina.

Church members gathered at the Mary Grotto and prayed the rosary to Almighty God, through Mother Mary, for the stopping of the construction of two huge dams at the meeting of the Mali and N’Mai rivers at the confluence called Mali-N’Mai Zup in Kachin and Myitsone in Burmese, they told the Kachin News Group.

Participants from villages around the Myitkyina Township, Waingmaw (or Wai Maw) Township, Bhamo Township and Hukawng Valley joined in the feast of Tang Hpre Virgin Mary Grotto, according to local sources.

Tang Hpre village is one of historic places for spreading the Roman Catholic missions to convert Kachin people from traditional animism. The church and the Virgin Mary Grotto have been there since 1957 and are the earliest buildings used by the Kachin Roman Catholic Church in Kachin State.

Roman Catholics make up the second largest denomination in Kachin State, which is over 85 per cent Christian, according to the Kachin Independence Organization.

On January 18th, 24-hour prayer services aimed at halting the Myitsone dam project were organized by Kachin Baptist believers, in 58 local churches under the Myitkyina Zonal Kachin Baptist Church (MZKBC).

Villagers from Tang Hpre said they have recently been instructed by the Burmese junta’s Myitkyina Township Administrative Office they are being relocated in May.

The Myitsone hydropower project has been opposed by all Kachin people because they say it will be destroy the environment in this historically and culturally significant Kachin area, valued for its beauty and as a tourist destination.

The financial and technical support for the dam project is being provided by the state-owned China Power Investment Corporation (CPI), the Burmese junta’s Ministry of Electric Power No. 1 and Burma-Asia World Company.

The project will produce 6000 MW of electricity, to be sold to neighboring China, according to dam watchdog groups.