SALWEEN WATCH UPDATE

 

JUNE – July 2000, Vol. 7.

 

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Contents:

Compiler’s Apology.

1.      From Scorched Earth to Flooded Earth: The Generals' Dam on Burma's Salween River; Salween Watch - Norwegian Burma Council Submission to the World Commission on Dams, March 31, 2000

2.        REFUGEES REVEAL FURTHER DETAILS OF KUNHING KILLINGS; Burma Courier No. 236, June 11- 17, 2000

3.        JAPAN MAY DEFY BANS TO RESUME MYANMAR AID; The Japan Times - Wednesday, June 28, 2000

4.      BIG QUAKE SHAKES NORTHERN MYANMAR; Reuters Wire:  8 June, 2000:

5.      PAK MUN DECLARATION;  East and SE Asia Activists Unite to Protect Rivers, Fight Dams; PRESS RELEASE, July 4, 2000

6.      . A JAPANESE DAM FOR BURMA’S GENERALS: THE TA SANG DAM, FORCED LABOR AND THE JAPAN CONNECTION. Press backgrounder #3 for a briefing at the Foreign Correspondent’s Club of Japan by Harn Yawnghwe, Euro-Burma Office and Dr. Thaung Htun, NCGUB representative to the United Nations, May 30, 2000.

 

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Compiler’s Apology.

Humble apologies for the unconscionably long delay in sending out the following 2-4 information items on the conditions surrounding the Salween dam plans. Due to the relatively large amount of information collected over the period between mailouts it is put into several separate issues divided roughly by date and subject linkage.

 

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1. FROM SCORCHED EARTH TO FLOODED EARTH: THE GENERALS' DAM ON BURMA'S SALWEEN RIVER

 

Salween Watch Submission to the World Commission on Dams.    March 31, 2000

 

[Paper prepared by Christian Moe of the Norwegian Burma Council in close collaboration with members of the Salween Watch coalition]

 

Experience with an individual dam:

Dam:              Salween (Tasang) dam,

River:              Salween (aka: Thanlwin) River

Country:       Burma (aka: Myanmar)

 

Submission relates to the following WCD thematic reviews:

no. 2   Dams and Indigenous People and Vulnerable Ethnic Minorities

no. 3   Displacement, Resettlement, Reparation, Rehabilitation and Development

no. 17 Consultation and Participatory Decision Making

 

Summary of main points of submission:

·        "Dictators' dams" are not yet history

·        A 188-meter dam is planned on the Salween River in Burma's war-torn Shan State

·        Massive use of forced labour can be expected

·        Forced relocations of tens of thousands of people would be made irreversible

·        Flooding, militarization and human rights abuses would displace many more

·        Any impact assessment a sham  -  true consultation with the affected peoples is impossible

·        Negative impacts may be counted as benefits by the military government

·        An independent committee should be appointed to investigate

·        No institution, private or public, should fund such projects before Burma is democratic

 

Introduction

 

A heavily indebted military dictatorship building a mega-dam in the same area it is carrying out 'ethnic cleansing' of the indigenous population: It sounds like Latin America in the 1960s, but it may soon become reality in 21st century Burma. The plans for a major dam on the Salween in Burma's Shan State are a throwback to the brutish past of dam construction. Forced relocation is already going on in the area, forced labour will likely be used, and there can be no meaningful consultation with the population terrorised by the military. The planned Salween Dam will be everything the World Commission on Dams was formed to ensure that dams are not. Unlike Guatemala's Chixoy dam and other tragic mistakes of the past, however, it is still avoidable.

 

Background

 

The Salween dam plans in brief:

 

There have been many plans to dam the Salween river at various locations. Currently, the most advanced project is for a dam near the Tasang crossing between Murng Pan and Murng Ton in southern Shan State (see Map: Annex II).The feasibility study has been completed and surveys are now underway for a Definite Plan. The prefeasibility study specifies that the planned dam would be a 188 m high concrete-faced rockfill dam, with a head of 142 m and a stated full supply level of 350 m above sea level. The reservoir would then stretch back over 230 km from the dam wall, flooding an area of at least 640 sq km, as well as inundating the lower parts of three significant tributaries. Three quarters of its 3,300 MW installed capacity would be used to export power to Thailand. Related projects include the construction of high-voltage transmission lines. Though the developers deny it,  water diversion from Burma to Thailand is also a possibility, and seems a more likely motive than energy exports, since Thailand is currently experiencing an energy glut. The dam would be built by GMS Power Public Co. Ltd. of Thailand, at a cost of at least 3 billion USD. Lahmeyer International (Germany) and Electric Power Development Corporation (Japan) are among the consultants.

 

Ethnic minorities at risk in the Shan State

 

Shan State is the largest of the seven ethnic states in Burma, with a population of about eight million, half of which are ethnic Shan. Other groups include Burmans, Pa'O, Akha, Lahu, Palaung and Wa. The Shan states have traditionally remained independent under their own rulers. When Burma achieved independence, Shan leaders agreed to join in the Union of Burma, in return for constitutional guarantees including the right to secession. Conflicts arose between the Shan and the central government, and in 1958 the first of several Shan rebel groups was formed. Some ethnic leaders sought a peaceful, political solution, but these were brutally suppressed by the military goverment that seized power in 1962, leading to decades of war. The Shan State Army – South (SSA) is still fighting Burma's military goverment.

 

Burma's governing SPDC junta, one of the most brutal dictatorships in the world, has especially targeted ethnic groups with its oppressive policies. Continued insurgency in the Chin, Kachin, Mon, Karen, Karenni and Shan states and the Tenasserim Division has been met with the repression of civilian villagers under the government's "four cuts" counter-insurgency strategy. In particular, the military government has used forced relocation of villagers, on a scale and in a way tantamount to crimes against humanity, to deny resources to the resistance forces. Since large-scale forced relocation began in 1996, 1,400 villages in the Shan State have been relocated, forcing 300,000 people to leave their homes, and driving at least 100,000 of them into Thailand as refugees.

 

IMPACTS ON INDIGENOUS ETHNIC GROUPS

 

Forced labour in construction phase

 

There is abundant evidence showing the pervasive use of forced labour imposed on the civilian population throughout Burma by the authorities and the military for a wide variety of purposes, including infrastructure work (ILO 1998:§528). Forced labour is imposed on men and women, children and the elderly; it is accompanied by gross human rights violations, work conditions are poor, and compensation rare. This violation of international law led the 1999 International Labor Conference to exclude Burma from almost all activities of the ILO. Recent reports (ILO 2000, DoL 2000) show that no improvement has taken place. In fact, the situation with regard to forced labour may be worsening, particularly in the ethnic minority areas.

 

Note, first, that forced labour has been widely used on large infrastructure projects in Burma in the 1990s, most notoriously on the Ye-Tavoy railroad, on the Loikaw railroad, and in connection with the Yadana pipeline (ERI/SAIN 1996). Second, forced labour involving hundreds or thousands of workers has been used at previous major dam and irrigation projects, including one in Shan State, the Nam Wok (Mong Kwan) dam project near Kengtung, completed in 1994 (ILO 1998: §447 and note). Third, there is already forced labour near the planned dam site: Army battalions forced villagers to work for periods of up to two weeks at Tasang throughout 1998, splitting rocks which were then sold by the army (DoL 2000).

 

In conclusion, construction of the Tasang dam and associated infrastructure is highly likely to involve the massive use of forced labour.

 

Militarization and abuse

 

Already, there are reports of a military build-up at the Tasang dam site, which has recently been fortified by units from four infantry batallions (nos. 330, 332, 518 and 520) and by eight motorboats patrolling the river (S.H.A.N. 1999b).

 

If built, the dam and power transmission lines would have to be guarded against possible sabotage by insurgent ethnic armies. The real and alleged security needs of the project will lead to further militarization of the area and serve as a pretext for increased counter-insurgency measures in the area. The military goverment may see this as an advantage, as it would be able to suppress resistance to its illegitimate rule for the 'legitimate' reason of protecting foreign investments.

 

In Burma, a stronger military presence is tied to a pattern of increased gross violations of human rights, and will exacerbate the hardships suffered by the population. As noted by the UN Special Rapporteur: "In the ethnic areas, the policy of establishing absolute political and administrative control brings out the worst in the military, and results in killings, brutality, rape and other human rights violations which do not spare the old, women, children or the weak" (UN 1999b: §54).

 

Displaced persons

 

Displacement of the population in the dam area is already underway due to militarization and the "four cuts" relocation campaign. Massive forced relocation in eight townships of the Shan State, affecting over 300,000 people to date, was started by the Burmese army in 1996 after a reorganization of the Shan armed resistance. Villagers are typically given a few days' warning to move to a relocation site, on pain of being shot. From 1997, the junta extended the relocation program to new areas, encompassing both sides of the Salween as well as its Nam Parng tributary upstream from the planned dam, and including Murng Pan township, which forms the western side of the Tasang dam site (cf. SHRF 1998).

Further displacement will occur as people flee the hopeless living conditions in relocation camps, the increasing abuses of the military, and the burden of forced labour, which is frequently cited by Burmese refugees in Thailand as a motive for leaving their home country. Three quarters of the Shan refugees interviewed by Amnesty in February 1999 had been forced to act as porters for troops (AI 1999).

 

Flooding the villages will make this situation irreversible. In Kun Hing and Murng Paeng townships alone, nearly 10,000 households, or at least 50,000 people, have been forcibly relocated. At least a third of the relocated villages in Kun Hing township are directly on the banks of the Salween's Nam Pang tributary, which will be flooded, and perhaps most of the relocated villages and one relocation site in Murng Paeng will be affected by the dam, as far as one can make out from a map study (see Annex III.) There is little data on the number of people who have not been relocated, but will be affected by flooding.

 

To the refugees and internally displaced persons from the banks of the Salween, the planned dam would drown their hopes of ever going home. The military government may well count it as a benefit, rather than a cost, if the project involves massive displacement of the civilian population, and if sites that have already been forcibly relocated are made permanently uninhabitable.

 

Inadequate resettlement and reparations

 

Conditions in Burmese relocation centers have been described as "life-threatening" (DoL 2000), with no or inadequate housing, sanitation, safe drinking water, food, and medical care. Unemployment and diseases are major problems. In Shan State as elsewhere, the army has been systematically killing villagers caught outside the relocation sites (SHRF 1998).

 

Relocated people do not benefit from compensation. Instead, they are sitting targets for continued extortion by the authorities and military. They are both particularly exposed to demands for forced labour (AI 1999), and particularly vulnerable to this burden, since they have had to leave their fields and become wage laborers (UN 1999a: §42).

 

Impossibility of public participation and consultation

 

The likely impacts of such a large dam would be severe (including flooding of arable land, reduction of biodiversity, destruction of livelihoods, riverbank erosion, saltwater intrusion in the Salween delta around Moulmein city, increasing the serious earthquake risk, spreading of water-borne diseases, etc). A thorough impact assessment, based on frank and open consultations with all affected groups  -  those in Shan State as well as the variety of affected ethnic groups downstream from the dam  -  would certainly be needed.

 

However, the planned Salween Dam represents an extreme case with regard to public participation and consultation in dam projects: the case where no such exercise is possible or, if undertaken, can be meaningful, due to the pervasive climate of fear created by the authorities' gross oppression of the affected population. Hence, any environmental or social impact assessment would necessarily be incomplete.

 

It would also be a first. If any environmental impact assessments have been carried out in Burma, they have not been made public. Also, generally speaking, there is no framework within which an EIA could be useful: The rule of law does not function in Burma, the constitution has been suspended, the military junta rules by decrees which are executed arbitrarily and without transparency, and the whole field of environmental regulation is severely underdeveloped (cf. ERI/SAIN 1996).

 

In short, an impact assessment would lack the necessary input from affected groups, may never be made public, and the military government may ignore it  -  or, worse, may embrace negative social and environmental impacts as part and parcel of its own strategy to stamp out ethnic-based resistance.

 

Though opposition to the dam plans cannot be openly voiced inside Burma, it is known that some organizations representing the ethnic groups of the area are rejecting the dam plans. Representatives of the various political parties in the Shan State that contested the 1990 elections and representatives of the Shan ceasefire groups met in 1999 (specific date and location withheld), agreeing unanimously to oppose the building of the dam at Tasang and any other plans to build dams on the Salween River in Shan State (SSO 1999). In mid-October last, a visiting reporter found people in villages along the Salween living in fear of the dam plans (S.H.A.N. 1999a).

 

Conclusions and recommendations

 

We conclude that:

 

§         Current plans and studies for the dam are not transparent.

§         Any social or environmental impact assessment carried out for the developers will be a sham – true consultation with the affected peoples and independent evaluation of the environmental impact is simply impossible under the present military rule.

§         If built, the dam will make irreversible the forced relocations of tens of thousands of people, and both directly and indirectly cause the displacement of many more, aggravating the already critical situation with regard to refugees from and internally displaced persons within Shan State.

§         Like any other infrastructure works in Burma, construction of the Salween Dam is highly likely to entail the massive use of forced labour and an increased incidence of human rights violations.

§         The problem of "dictators' dams" is not yet history. It must be addressed by other measures than those deemed appropriate in democratic countries under the rule of law.

§         We therefore recommend that

§         All information surrounding the studies, funding, and building of the Salween Dam at Tasang should be made public immediately. All information should be made available in local languages, not only English.

§         The WCD should recommend that an independent committee be appointed to investigate the current plans for the dam. The committee should include representatives of affected people as well as NGOs.

§         No institution, whether private or public, should consider funding dams or other large infrastructure projects in Burma before a democratically elected, representative government is in power. This should also apply to export credits, investment guarantees  and other schemes for risk coverage. All ODA agencies, export credit agencies etc should follow the lead of the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank in not funding projects in Burma. Relevant organisations, such as the ILO, the UN, the OECD and ASEAN, should pass appropriate resolutions to this effect.

§         Foreign companies that engage in such projects should be liable to be denied access to projects funded by the World Bank. The Bank should institute a policy to this effect.

 

Further reading

 

ANNEX I lists the literature referred to in this document.

ANNEX II shows the location of the Tasang dam site on a map of Burma with the Shan State.

ANNEX III shows an estimate of the flood area, and gives details on forced relocation and extrajudicial killings in the adjacent townhips.

UPDATES on the Salween Dam are available from [email protected]

[Salween Watch editorial note: Salween Watch postings are most easily accessible from www.orchestraburma.org UPDATES on the Salween Dam are available

 

 

Annex I: Selected references

 

AI (1998). Myanmar: Atrocities in the Shan State. Amnesty International Report, 15 April 1998 [ASA 16/05/98].

AI (1999). Myanmar: Update on the Shan State. Amnesty International Report, June 1999 [ASA 16/13/99].

DoL (2000). 2000 Update on Forced Labor and Forced Relocations. US Department of Labor.
(http://www.dol.gov/dol/ilab/public/media/reports/ofr/burma/forced.htm)

ERI/SAIN (1996). Total Denial: A Report on the Yadana Pipeline Project in Burma. EarthRights International and Southeast Asian Information Network, 10 July 1996.

HRDU 1999. Burma Human Rights Yearbook 1998-1999. National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma, Human Rights Documentation Unit.

ILO (1998). Forced Labour in Myanmar (Burma). Report of the Commission of Inquiry appointed under article 26 of the Constitution of the International Labour Organization to examine the observance by Myanmar of the Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No.29). International Labour Organization,Geneva, 2 July 1998.

ILO (2000). Second Report of the Director-General to the members of the Governing Body on measures taken by the Government of Myanmar following the recommendations of the Commission of Inquiry established to examine its observance of the Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29). International Labour Organization, Geneva 25 February 2000.

KHRG (1998). Killing the Shan: The Continuing Campaign of Forced Relocation in Shan State. An Independent Report by the Karen Human Rights Group, May 23, 1998 [KHRG #98-03].

S.H.A.N. (1999a). "Shan People Don't Want The Salween Dam." Shan Herald Agency for News, issue no. 11-17, 25 November 1999.

S.H.A.N. (1999b). "Junta Fortifying the Salween Dam Site." Shan Herald Agency for News, issue no. 10-6, October1999.

SHRF (1998). Dispossessed: Forced Relocation and Extrajudicial Killings in Shan State. Shan Human Rights Foundation, April 1998.

Smith, Martin (1994). Ethnic Groups in Burma: Development, Democracy and Human Rights. Anti-Slavery International, London [Human Rights Series; 8].

SSO (1999). "Meeting position on the plans by the Burmese military regime to build a dam on the Salween River in Shan State." Press release from the Shan State Organisation, Chiang Mai, 10 September 1999.

UN (1999a). Question of the Violation of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms in Any Part of the World. Situation of Human rights in Myanmar: Report of the Special Rapporteur, Mr. Rajsoomer Lallah, submitted in accordance with Commission on Human Rights resolution 1998/63.

UN (1999b). Interim report on the situation of human rights in Myanmar prepared by the Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights in accordance with Economic and Social Council decision 1999/231 of 27 July 1999. Transmitted to the UN General Assembly's 54th session, 4 October 1999 [A/54/440]. United Nations, Economic and Social Council, Commission on Human Rights: Geneva, 22 January 1999.

 

NOTE:  The original report contained map of the Shan State showing the location of the proposed Tasang dam site and the approximate flood area. An improved version of the map will soon be available on request as an attachment, or from the Burmanet / Orchestra Burma website.

 

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2.  SHAN STATE MASSACRE

 

REFUGEES REVEAL FURTHER DETAILS OF KUNHING KILLINGS

 

BURMA COURIER No. 236, June 11- 17, 2000

 

CHIANG MAI, June 16 (S.H.A.N.) -- More details are emerging about the horrifying slaughter of farming families in southern Shan state last month. The information was provided to correspondent Maihoong of the Shan Herald in the border district of Fang in northern Thailand by refugees who fled the area in Kunhing township where the killing occurred. The refugee statements corroborate and correct earlier reports from traders who heard about the massacre while traveling through the township en route to the border town of Tachilek.

 

According to the refugees, the farmers were working in rice and seseame fields near the deserted village of Huaypu in Hsaimong tract on May 23 when they were surprised and shot in cold blood by a column of 90 - 100 troops under the command of Captain Than Aung of Infantry Battalion 246 based in Kunhing town. Their bodies were only discovered when relatives later went in search of them.

 

Among those killed was one of the porters who was accompanying the column and who made an appeal on their behalf. The refugees said that the villagers were all from relocation sites near Kunhing town. Those interviewed put the number in the fields at 64, but there were reports that others in isolated areas were also killed.

 

Among the victims of the slaughter so far identified by the refugees are:

Loong Pu, 54, Zai Kam, 51, Zai Nyunt, 30, Zai Htun, 22, all men from Hsaimong village; Zai Mya, 21, Zai Ko, 19, Zarngla, 49, Kanna, 53, all men from Hueypu village; Loongmy, 57, and Loong Htawn, 41, both from Pahpa village and Nang Kya Oo, 47, and Nang Hseng, 30, both women from Pahpa village; Nang Oong, 25, Nang Pwang, 23,and Nang Pan, 21, all three women from Huay Markhpa village; Pa La, 50, a woman from Namaw village; Pa Pwang, 49, Pa Khurhwan, 52, and Nang Hsenghawng, all women from Nazook village.

 

Interviews with the refugees clarified the location of the massacre in Hsaimong tract south of the Kunhing - Namzarng highway rather than in Kenglom tract, as reported by the traders who brought the first reports of the incident. The Shan Herald report said it had corroborated the locale of the slaughter with an independent source.

 

Sources told the Shan Herald correspondent that the killings were carried out in revenge for the deaths that occurred during a May 8-9 ambush of a Burmese army truck caravan along the Kunhing -Takaw stretch of the same highway by a Shan State Army strike force. Reports at the time indicated that at least seven of those traveling in the Burmese army convoy had been killed and five others wounded, including some high-ranking officers.

 

 

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3. JAPAN MAY DEFY BANS TO RESUME MYANMAR AID

 

The Japan Times - Wednesday, June 28, 2000

 

YANGON (Kyodo) Japan may resume official development assistance to Myanmar as part of aid to countries surrounding the Mekong River, according to a document obtained by Kyodo News on Tuesday.

 

The document was presented to the Myanmar government and served as the basis for discussions at a two-day workshop on Japanese support for Myanmar's economic reforms. The workshop ended Monday in Yangon.

 

Although assistance to Myanmar alone would be unlikely, it could be extended as part of efforts to help countries along the Mekong River to cope with deforestation, narcotics trafficking and social problems, it states.

 

The support -- planned for Myanmar, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Thailand -- is described as "region-wide basic humanitarian assistance" in the document.

 

The document was prepared by researchers at the Finance Ministry's Institute of Fiscal and Monetary Policy, in cooperation with experts in Japan.

 

But Japan's plan may attract criticism from the United States and European countries, which have imposed economic sanctions on Myanmar for delaying democratization and suppressing human rights. especially following the International Labor Organization's decision earlier this month to punish the country for using forced labor.

 

A Foreign Ministry source said Japan believes putting Myanmar's stagnant economy on the right path, rather than imposing sanctions, will help move democratization forward. The document states that Yangon should improve its deficit-ridden finances, integrate its official and market exchange rates into a single rate system, and promote industrial activities through infrastructure improvements and trade liberalization.

 

 

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4. BIG QUAKE SHAKES NORTHERN MYANMAR

 

Reuters Wire:  8 June, 2000:  00:48:00 Et

 

YANGON, June 8 - An earthquake measuring 6.6 on the Richter scale shook Myanmar's northern Kachin state bordering China and India early on Thursday and officials said there were no immediate reports of casualties from the remote area. An official at the Meteorology and Hydrology Department told Reuters the epicentre of the quake was in Kachin state about 1,440 km (900 miles) north of the capital Yangon.

 

Two hours later another quake measuring 6.2 on the Richter scale rocked the same area, he said. "We think the epicentre may be at a very sparsely populated area," he added.

 

The Yunnan earthquake bureau measured the tremor at 7.3 on the Richter scale, a provincial official told Reuters by telephone. The Hong Kong Observatory measured the first Myanmar quake at 6.5.

 

He said the epicentre was 140 km (85 miles) north of the Myanmar town of Myitkyina. The Hong Kong Observatory put the epicentre 170 km (105 miles) north of the town, which is around 1,000 km (600 miles) from Yangon, the Myanmar capital.

 

There were no immediate reports of casualties in China because the areas most affected were along the border between the two countries which were difficult to reach, the official said.

 

An earthquake bureau official in the Yunnan district of Liuku told Reuters many buildings in the area had been damaged, but there were no immediate reports of any collapsing. "We all ran out of our houses when we felt the earthquake. It shook things off tables," the official said.

 

The Indonesian island of Sumatra was hit on Sunday by a big 7.9 earthquake that killed at least 120 people and injured nearly 1,300.

 

[SW note: According to the Seismic Intensity Zoning Map of China, produced by China’s State Seimological Bureau, Yunnan’s border with Burma is one of the seismically active zones in the whole of China. Another major earthquake of 7.3 on the Richter scale was recorded on the Shan – Yunnan border in 1995. This gives a different impression than that given by the data available from the Burmese and Thai geological maps, which show much of Shan State as a geologically stable area of sedimentary rock with no major faults that might be activated by the weight of many millions of tons of water sitting on the land.]

 

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5.  PAK MUN DECLARATION

 

PRESS RELEASE, July 4, 2000

 

East and SE Asia Activists Unite to Protect Rivers, Fight Dams

 

Anti-dam and river protection organizations in East and SE Asia have united to form a regional network to fight dams and protect rivers in East and SE Asia. At the First East and SE Asia Regional Meeting on Dams, Rivers and People, held in Kong Jiam, Ubon Ratchathani Province from June 28-July 2, more than 60 participants from fourteen countries announced their intention to "unite our struggle at the local, national and international level so as to stop the funding of dam projects in East and SE Asia and to restore rivers to the communities who depend on them."

 

Mr. Chainarong Srettachau, Director of Thai NGO Southeast Asia Rivers Network, the local organizer for the meeting, said, "the joining together of groups from all over East and SE Asia will provide a powerful force to protect the rights of communities who depend on rivers for their survival. We have recognized that we share common problems caused by dams  the appropriation of local communities' rights to their rivers and water resources by governments and private developers. By joining forces we will drive a stake through the heart of the dam-building industry in this region."

 

Participants at the meeting, which included dam-affected people from Malaysia, Korea, Thailand, the Philippines, Taiwan and Cambodia, together with allies from across the region, produced the Pak Mun Declaration, which calls for:

 

* A moratorium on large dam construction until the problems created by existing dams have been rectified and reparations made to affected communities.

* The decommissioning of dams which have created irreversible social, environmental and cultural destruction, and an immediate stop to the financing of dam projects by bilateral and multilateral organizations, particularly the World Bank, Asian Development Bank and Japan Bank for International Cooperation.

 

Participants visited Pak Mun and Rasi Salai dams in Thailand, where villagers have occupied the dams and are demanding the permanent opening of the gates. Participants told the villagers that they would work to support their struggle to restore the Mun River.

 

Ms. Joan Carling, Secretary-General of the Cordillera Peoples' Alliance, an indigenous peoples' organization in the Philippines which is fighting the Japanese-funded San Roque dam, told the villagers at Pak Mun and Rasi Salai

 

"You are not alone. People from 12 countries in the East and SE Asia region, and from the United States, Norway and Australia, have come here today to express our support for your struggle. We can see that the Pak Mun and Rasi Salai dams serve no useful purpose, and that the gates should be permanently opened to restore the Mun river. We call on the Thai government to stop hesitating and comply with your demands, for the sake of the people and the river."

 

<<<ends>>>

 

For further information, please contact Mr. Chainarong Srettachau, Director

of South-East Asia Rivers Network, + 66 53 221157, [email protected].

 

The full text of the declaration is as follows:

 

 

PAK MUN DECLARATION

 

Demanding a moratorium on dam construction, decommissioning of existing dams, reparations for dam-affected people

 

Approved at the First East and SE Asia Meeting on Dams, Rivers and People

Mae Mun and Mekong Rivers, Kong Jiam, Thailand. July 1, 2000

 

We, the people from 12 countries of East and Southeast Asia namely Korea, China, Japan, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, Burma, Taiwan, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia and Hong Kong, representing organizations of dam-affected people and their allies, have gathered here at the mouth of the Mun River (Pak Mun) in order to express our unity in strengthening the people’s power and supporting our struggle against the injustices that we are now encountering.

 

We have exchanged our experiences both at the local and regional level and recognize that all of us are facing similar kinds of problems caused by dams. Dams have brought about the destruction of rivers and the lives and livelihoods of villagers.  Dams undermine the rights of people, their community and culture as well as destroying the environment, all of which are basic needs for their survival.

 

In order to protect the rights and livelihood of people and rivers, our demands are as follows;

 

1. A moratorium on large dam construction in East and SE Asia until the problems created by existing dams have been rectified and reparation made to affected communities. Further, dams which have created irreversible social, environmental, and cultural destruction must be decommissioned and the rivers restored.

 

2. The bilateral and multilateral organizations must stop financing dam projects. Development assistance should not be spent on destroying the lives of the people. The transnational corporations, private companies and private banks must also abolish their investment in dam-building projects that do not do justice to people.

 

3. Governments, dam-building companies, dam industry consultants, the World Bank, private  banks and the Asian Development Bank, who are all responsible for the havoc wreaked upon our communities by large dams, must pay proper reparations to all dam-affected communities.

 

4. Critical and independent inquiries on the rationale and justification of proposed dam projects should be carried out. Integrated Resource Planning, demand side management and conservation of natural resources should be prioritized. Cheaper, cleaner and better alternatives to dams should be undertaken to meet actual needs of people for energy and water.

 

5. No development projects should be built without the voluntary, prior and informed consent of all affected people. Information regarding proposed projects must be disclosed, in a timely and transparent manner, to the general public and, especially, to people directly impacted from such projects. Further, we demand democratic reforms throughout the region to increase freedom of speech, press and assembly so that people can participate without fear in the decision-making process regarding the use and management of their resources.

 

6. The oppression of indigenous peoples by dams and other projects should be stopped. We demand that the cultural, social, economic and land rights of indigenous peoples be fully recognized and respected.

 

7. We oppose the privatization of rivers and water resources. We also oppose the control of rivers and water resources by illegitimate and repressive governments, as in Burma. Access to water is a basic human right. Rivers must be in the hands of the people, not the private sector or military regimes.

 

In order for our demands to be implemented, we declare that we will unite our struggle at the local, national and international level so as to stop the funding of dam projects in East and SE Asia and to restore rivers to the communities who depend on them.

 

Water for Life, not for Death!

 

Ao Khuan kuen bpai, ao Dhammachat kuen ma!  Take your dams back, give us nature!

 

Endorsed by

 

· Asian Regional Exchange for New Alternatives, Hong Kong

· Assembly of the Poor, Thailand

· Cultural and Environmental Preservation Association, Cambodia

· Church World Services, Cambodia

· Coalition of Concerned NGOs Against Bakun Dam, Malaysia

· Committee Against the Yongwong Dam Project, Tong River, Korea

· Cordillera Peoples’ Alliance, Philippines

· Earth Rights International, Thailand

· Friends of the Earth, Japan

· Friends of the People, Thailand

· Group of Villagers Affected by Hua Na Dam, Thailand

· Group of Villagers to Protect the Yom River (Kaeng Sua Ten), Thailand

· Indigenous Peoples Development Centre, Malaysia

· Korean Federation for Environmental Movement, Korea

· Legal Rights and Natural Resources Center (LRC-KSK/Friends of the Earth-Phils), Philippines

· LRA, Indonesia

· Meinung People’s Association, Taiwan

· Mekong Watch, Japan

· National Dam Opposition Network, Japan

· Sagami River Campaign-Symposium, Japan

· Sahabat Alam Malaysia

· SOS Selangor, Malaysia

· South-East Asia Rivers Network, Thailand

· Taiwan Environmental Action Network, Taiwan

· TUNOD KSM  Alliance of Indigenous Organizations in Sierra Madre Mountain, Philippines

· Villager Committee to Restore the Mun River, Thailand

· Villager Committee to Protect the Lam Dom Yai River, Thailand

· Villager Committee to Protect the Rub Ror River Basin, Thailand

· WALHI, Indonesia

· WALHI Papua, Indonesia

· Wildlife Fund Thailand

· Yayasan Tanah Merdeka, Indonesia

 

 

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6.  A JAPANESE DAM FOR BURMA’S GENERALS: THE TA SANG DAM, FORCED LABOR AND THE JAPAN CONNECTION.

 

Press backgrounder #3 for a briefing at the Foreign Correspondent’s Club of Japan by Harn Yawnghwe, Euro-Burma Office and Dr. Thaung Htun, NCGUB representative to the United Nations, May 30, 2000.

 

Now, with financing from Japan, Burma is planning to dam the Salween to export electricity to Thailand.  Although only in the planning stage, the project is already causing massive human rights abuses in Burma’s Shan State.

 

The dam, to be located at Ta Sang in southern Burma’s Shan State is 80 kilometers from  the Thai border. At 188 meters high, the dam will be the tallest in Southeast Asia, creating a reservoir 230 kilometers long, flooding an area of at least 640 sq. km, storing approximately one-third of the Salween's average annual flow. The cost of building the dam will be at least US $3 billion.

 

In the last four years, Burmese troops have intensified their military operations in the Shan State, resulting in the forced relocation  of more than 300,000 people.  In 1999, troops from four Burmese army battalions took up positions to guard workers from the Japan’s Electric Power Development Corporation (EPDC), a quasi-governmental company.  Human rights reports from the area indicate those battalions are using forced labor and committing other abuses.

 

TASANG DAM FACTS

 

§         Location of dam: Burma’s southern Shan State 80 km north of Thai-Burma border

§         Height of dam: 188 m (tallest in Southeast Asia)

§         Installed capacity: 3,300 MW (3/4 to be sold to Thailand)

§         Flood area: Reservoir will flood 230 km back up along the Salween  River

§         Cost of dam: At least US$3 billion

§         Developer: GMS Power Public Co. Ltd.(Thailand)

§         Japanese connection: Electric Power Development Corporation (Japan), a quasi-governmental corporation is conducting the feasibility study.  The only plausible funder is the Japanese treasury, probably by way of the Asian Development Bank.

 

Status of dam plans: Feasibility Study has been

or is about to be completed (= Step 4 in the 5-

step dam planning process).

 

Abuses already occurring: Forced labor and forced relocations.  A number of Burmese army battalions have moved into the area to provide protection for Japanese workers for EPDC.

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Forced Labor

 

According to the 1998 International Labor Organization (ILO) finding on forced labor in Burma, rendered by a quasi-judicial proceeding, there is abundant evidence that the SPDC  military pervasively uses forced civilian labor for the construction and maintenance of military camps and other infrastructure. A 1998 Human Rights Watch Burma Report states that the use of forced labor has not abated but appears to have increased with the collapse of the economy.

 

Forced labor involving thousands of workers has been used on previous major dam projects, including the Nam Wok dam in Shan state completed in 1994. There are compelling reasons to believe that the Ta Sang dam development will also involve the SPDC's use of forced labor, such as:

 

In the January 1999 report submitted to the UN Commission on Human  Rights, Special Rapporteur, Mr. Rajsoomer Lallah, received reports of villagers from Murng Pan, Larng Khur, Murng Ton and Nam Zarng being forced to work by the SPDC army for periods of up to two weeks splitting rocks near the Salween River crossing of Ta Sang.

 

SPDC's widespread practice of using forced labor for construction of infrastructure projects is well documented and publicized. The Yadana gas pipeline project brought worldwide attention to such inhumane practices.

 

Forced relocation

 

Human Rights Watch reports an intensification of civilian forced relocation and the subsequent human rights abuses inflicted by the SPDC military from 1996 to 1999, especially in the Shan State.   Forced labor, forced portering, forced relocation and extrajudicial killings have in the last four years dramatically increased throughout the Shan State of northern Burma.

 

Forced displacement is occurring in precisely the same areas that  dam site surveyors began feasibility studies on the proposed dam  site. From 1997, the SPDC military extended its relocation program in Shan state to include both sides on the Salween river, as well as the Nam Parng tributary upstream from the planned dam, and including Murng Pan township, which forms the western side of the Ta Sang dam site.

 

Already, there are more refugees from Burma than there are people in Kosovo.  Aid groups estimate that more than 500,000 are internally displaced within Burma.  Upwards of 100,000 more are in camps along the Thai Burma border and Thailand estimates that at least another 500,000 are in Thailand outside the camps. The largest group of refugees are Shan.  If the dam is to proceed, the number of Shan seeking refuge in Thailand in order to escape SPDC's forced relocation program and its subsequent human rights abuses will increase substantially.

 

The Japanese Connection:--Japan’s Electric Power Development Co.’s Work on the Ta Sang Dam

 

Japan’s Electric Power Development Co., Ltd. (EPDC) has been hired to conduct feasibility studies on the Ta Sang project for the Government of Burma.  EPDC is a quasi-governmental company, controlled by the Japanese government. On international projects EPDC typically provides feasibility studies and arranges project financing.

 

The Salween River area of the Shan State is a war zone.  Since mid-1999, the Burma Army has been fortifying positions along the Salween River near the dam to protect the companies–-including EPDC--have been carrying out feasibility and survey work. Units from 4 Infantry Battalions, 330, 332, 518 and 520, numbering 400-500 troops took up positions on both sides of the river at Tasang. (Source, SHAN HERALD AGENCY FOR NEWS: JUNTA FORTIFYING THE SALWEEN DAM SITE 4 October, 1999).  Refugees arriving in Thailand are reporting abuses by the troops from these battalions.

 

EPDC’s ten shareholders are the Ministry of Finance, with 66% and nine electric power utilities, collectively owing 33.3%.  Japan’s Cabinet has slated EDPC to be privatized by 2002.  See http://www.epdc.co.jp/english/index.htm

 

The use of a Japanese quasi-governmental company to carry out the feasibility studies hints at what will likely be the most significant Japanese connection–funding.  At US $3 billion, the project dwarfs Burma’s ability to pay.  Thailand, still recovering from the Asian financial crisis, is also in no position to pay for such a risky project.  Western governments are intensely opposed to funding any projects that benefit the military regime until it begins a transition to democracy.  The World Bank’s own regulations prohibit it from involvement.  Nor is the private sector likely to pick up the tab.  The Thai developer, GMS Inc., is by any reasonable accounting standard bankrupt and was delisted from the Thai stock exchange.  Which leaves the Japanese treasury, probably by way of the Asian Development Bank.

 

The Japanese government has been secretive about its involvement in Tasang but it has recently announced a resumption of aid to Burma for small and medium sized companies.  Japan also recently funded, under the guise of humanitarian aid, an extension of the runway at Rangoon’s airport to boost the tourism industry by allowing larger jets to land.

 

For more information on the massive forced relocation, forced portering, forced labor and other abuses in the Salween area, see:

 

Electric Power Development Co., Ltd. (EPDC), 6-15-1 Ginza, Chuo-ku, Tokyo 104-0061, Japan

Phone: 03-3546-9385;  Fax: 03-3544-1819; Website: http://www.epdc.co.jp

 

A Dam for Burma’s Generals, a report by Terra, a Thai environmental NGO

http://www.mhoneshweyee.com/mar00/032500a.html

 

The Burma Army’s Salween River offensive

http://metalab.unc.edu/freeburma/humanrights/khrg/archive/khrg95/khrg9512.html

 

“Killing the Shan”, a report by the Karen Human Rights Group

http ://metalab.unc.edu/freeburma/humanrights/khrg/archive/khrg98/khrg9803.html

 

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Backdated Salween Watch Hotmailouts are available online at the following address: 

http://www.orchestraburma.org/environment/

Salween Watch periodically checks its “hotmail” address at:

s[email protected]

 

 

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