Irrawaddy Hydropower Project To Displace Many Kachin Villagers

The Burmese military junta plans to shift ethnic Kachin villages around the hydropower project area in the upper reaches of the Irrawaddy River (also called Mali Hka River in Kachin) in Burma's northern Kachin State, said local sources. Over 60 Kachin villages, around the hydropower project site near the confluence of Mali Hka River and N'mai Hka River also called Mali-N'mai Zup in Kachin and Myitsone in Burmese, 27 miles north of Myitkyina, the capital of Kachin State, are on the list of villages to be moved by the junta, said a local watchdog group. The huge dam is proposed to construct at the place 3 miles down from the confluence of Mali Hka River (left) and N'Mai Hka River (right), 27 milese northern of Myitkyina, the capital of Kachin State. On August 5, officials of Myitkyina Town Administrative Office (Ma-Ya-Ka) including officials of multi-government departments in the town held a meeting with villagers of Chyinghkrang in the zone to be cleared, 17 miles north of Myitkyina. The villagers were officially told to shift by the Ma-Ya-Ka officials, said villagers. Simultaneously, commander Maj-Gen Soe Win, of the Myitkyina-based Northern Regional command (Ma-Pa-Kha) met the same villagers next day. The villagers were told by the commander that they would have to move, added villagers. The commander told the villagers by demonstrating with a bulldozer on the hill near the village that "You Kachins have lived on the mountain forever but you don't know about terrace cultivation. You don't need to dwell in the valley," villagers of Chyinghkrang quoted him as saying. During the two-day meeting, some villagers attended without wearing clothes on the upper part of the body to show their displeasure regarding the plans of moving the villages, said participants. Salang Tsa Ji, general secretary of Kachin Development Networking Group (KDNG), based on the Sino-Burma border told KNG today, the junta has sanctioned 35 miles of land around the hydropower project site to the Burma-Asia World Company which has started inspection with the Chinese government's China Power Investment Corporation (CPI) since 2006. The land includes about 2,000 acres of rubber plantation of Salang Wadu Sin Wa and over 300 acres of rubber plantation of Salang Yup Zau Hkawng, the owner of the Jadeland Myanmar Company, added KDNG general secretary Tsa Ji. Local eyewitnesses said, the Asia World Company has been mining gold in Loiyang Bum Mountain, which is situated between Mali Hka River and N'Mai Hka River, near the confluence since last year. On June 16 at Hebei Hall of the Great Hall of the People in China's capital Beijing, Burmese Ambassador to China U Thein Lwin and CPI president Mr. Lu Qizhou signed an agreement to implement hydropower projects in Mali Hka River, N'Mai Hka River and the Irrawaddy River confluence in Kachin State, according to the junta-run newspaper the New Light of Myanmar dated on June 21, 2009. Following the agreement, the junta's No. 2 in the military hierarchy Vice Snr-Gen Maung Aye visited the Irrawaddy River confluence on July 19, said local residents. Soon after Snr-Gen Maung Aye’s visit to the hydropower project site, each family in the villages around the project site were forcibly made to sign on a special form regarding displacement. The form was provided by the Asia World Company by the firm’s personnel accompanied with policemen and government land-survey officers, said villagers of Tang Hpre at the confluence. A villager of Tang Hpre said they had to fill up the form and give the family members' list along with their occupations, house status, number of fruit trees in the house compounds and the size of family-owned land and plantation. The Kachin villagers around the hydropower project site are yet to be instructed to move to new areas. They have not been offered any compensation for their loss by either Asia World Company or the junta, said villagers in the zone.