http://www.bangkokpost.com/breaking_news/breakingnews.php?id=117124
(dpa) - Thai and Burmese villagers, backed by activists around the
world, on Wednesday appealed to the Thai government to end its
collaboration with the Burmese military junta on five hydro-electic
dams on the Salween River.
"We want the authorities involved to halt the projects until proper
studies have been done on the impact on the people and environment in
the vicinity of the dams," said April Moe, a villager from the Karreni
State in Burma, one of a score of activists who presented their appeal
to Thailand's Ministry of Energy on Wednesday.
In May 2005 the Thai Energy Ministry and the Burmese Ministry of
Electric Power signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to build
five hydroelectric dams on the 2,800 kilometre Salween River that runs
from Tibet through eastern Burma and at one point defines the Thai-
Burmese border.
In December 2005 another MOU was signed between the Electricity
Generating Authority of Thailand (Egat) and Myanmar Department of
Hydropower to build the one billion dollar Hutgyi dam, on which
construction is due to commence in December.
Egat and China's Sinohydro Corporation will jointly invest in the
construction of the dam.
All the MOUs were signed under the government of Thailand's former
prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
"The entire decision making process for the planning and
implementation of the Salween hydropower development projects has been
shrouded in secrecy," said a protest letter delivered to the Thai
Energy Ministry on Wednesday by NGOs and villagers from northern
Thailand.
While the planned dams will undoubtedly displace tens-of-thousands of
Burmese villagers living in the Karen, Karrenni and Shan territories,
they will also have an unknown impact on Thai villagers living near
the Salween River in Mae Hong Son province.
"I have been living on the banks of the Salween all my life and I
still have no idea what the impact of these dams will be," said Nu
Chamnankiripai, a village headman from Mae Sariang district.
"The authorities told us we could get jobs in the tourism industry
after the dams are built but maybe we will just become refugees," said
Nu.
The five Salween dam projects will be built in areas that are now
claimed by Burmese minority groups, some of whom are waging guerrilla
wars against the junta.
Fighting in the area has already displaced more than 500,000 ethnic
Karen, many of whom are now living in refugee camps inside Thailand.
With the dams likely to displace up to 100,000 people in Burma's
eastern provinces, Thailand is likely to be burdened with an influx of
even more refugees in the future, Karrenni villager Moe warned.
Activists in various cities around the world were planning on
Wednesday to submit similar protests letters against the Salween dams
to Thai embassies and consulates in Washington DC, Sydney, New Delhi,
Essen, Vancouver, Paris and New York.
Salween Dams Would Displace Thousands, Activist Warns
By Ron Corben/Bangkok, Thailand
The Irrawaddy Online. February 28, 2007
http://www.irrawaddy.org/aviewer.asp?a=6752&z=163
Thailand will be faced with a new influx of Burmese refugees if it
proceeds with plans to take part in the construction of a series of
dams on Burma's Salween River, a leading campaigner warned on
Wednesday.
Communities in northern Thailand would also be uprooted, said Pianporn
Deetes, of the non-government organization Living River Siam-Southeast
Asia Rivers Network, in a commentary in the English-language daily The
Nation.
"No one knows exactly how many people would be affected [by the
construction of the proposed dams]," she said. "However, Salween Watch
says the conservative estimate is that at least 83,000 people will be
uprooted from their homeland in the Shan, Karenni, and Karen states in
Burma, and Mae Hong Son province in Thailand.
"If the dams are built, Thailand will not be able to avoid the
inevitable influx of new ethnic Burmese refugees from the dam-affected
areas," she warned.
Thailand already is host to at least 140,000 refugees registered in
temporary shelters along the border as well as more than one million
migrant workers from Burma.
The warnings by Pianporn Deetes came as petitions against the dams
were handed in on Wednesday at Thailand's Energy Ministry and the
National Human Rights Commission.
Thailand's state-owned Electricity Generating Authority and China's
Sinohydro Corporation signed a memorandum of understanding to
construct five Salween dams in December 2005. Construction of the
first, the Hutgyi Dam, is due to start in December this year at a site
30km from Burma's border with northern Thailand.
.
The Coordinating Committee on Development and the Salween Watch, which
includes environmental and human rights organizations from Thailand,
Burma and the international community, said in their petitions that
they were "strongly opposed to the cooperation between EGAT and China
as well as Burma's military government."
The planned Salween dams would generate 10,000 megawatts of power, but
Asian Development Bank officials say that while there is a growing
demand in Thailand for electricity there is a need to take into
account environmental and social issues.
The ADB is not involved in the financing of the Salween projects, but
has experience as a lender in other dam developments across the
region.
The Karenni Development Research Group has estimated that one of the
dam projects in Karenni state would inundate 28 towns and villages,
including the historical Karenni capital of Bawlake, displacing 30,000
people.
Non-government and human rights groups have accused the authorities
involved in planning the projects of a lack of transparency. Other
groups maintain that the Burmese military campaigns in Karen State are
a pretext to push local communities out of the region and take over
the land for future economic development.
Activists in the Philippines joined the campaign and staged a protest
outside the Thai embassy in Manila.
Protest against Salween projects
Mizzima News (www.mizzima.com )
http://www.mizzima.com/MizzimaNews/News/2007/Feb/47-Feb-2007.html
February 28, 2007 - Environmental activists in different countries
staged protests on Wednesday against the construction of hydro-
electric projects on the Salween River in Burma in collaboration with
Thailand and China . Salween is still a free flowing river in
Southeast Asia. .
In Thailand, residents in the project area have appealed to the Thai
government not to go ahead with its plans to construct five dams at a
cost of several billions dollars on the Salween River in eastern
Burma.
''Thai authorities should undertake a proper assessment of the social
impact on people and carry out an environmental assessment first.
Otherwise, we have asked that they halt the project,'' said Sai Sai,
one of the campaigners to Mizzima.
The Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT) and China's
Sinohydro Corporation will jointly invest in the construction in the
one billion dollar Hatgyi dam, one of the five hydro-electric power
projects on the 2,800 kilometers long river.
In 2005, under former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's government,
the Thai Energy Ministry and Burma's Ministry of Electric Power signed
a memorandum to build the dams.
The projects cover territories in Karen, Karenni and Shan states in
Burma and campaigners claimed up to 100,000 people will be displaced
and forced to take shelter in refugee camps along the Thai-Burma
border.
Activists in 19 countries including India staged demonstrations or
submitted protest letters against the Salween dams to Thai embassies
and consulates.
About 50 Burmese demonstrated in New Delhi this morning.
''There are more government troops in the project areas and more human
rights violation in the localities. So more refugees have come to the
camps and more will be coming if the projects are carried on,'' said
campaigner Lum Lum.
Rimond Htoo from Karenni National Progressive Party said '' We believe
the projects would bring more disadvantages then advantages. That's
why we can't agree to it.''
''People have been relocated to the opposite side of the river. They
have lost paddy fields. Moreover, there are more government troops
which they claim are for security reasons, '' he added.
A group of people protested against the Salween dams at Maesot, the
Thai border town with Burma this evening.
