News & Articles on Burma

Monday, 03 October, 2011
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Opinion: China must respect Burma’s dam decision
By Zin Linn Oct 03, 2011 1:05AM UTC
China has asked for talks on the suspension of a joint hydropower project in Burma, saying the legitimate rights and interests of its companies should be protected, according to Xinhua News Agency on Saturday.

In a statement posted on the agency’s website, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei called on Burma to hold consultations to handle any problems with the Myitsone dam project. The statement notes that both countries agreed to undertake the project after rigorous studies and reviews:

The Myitsone hydropower plant is a China-Myanmar jointly invested project, which has gone through scientific feasibility studies and strict examinations by both sides.

Relevant matters that have emerged during the implementation of the project should be properly settled through friendly consultations between the two sides.

Environmental analysts say the Myitsone hydropower plant, which will involve a reservoir the size of Singapore, will seriously damage the environment. It is being built and invested by Chinese companies and over 90 percent of its electricity will be sent to China.

Burma’s President Thein Sein sent a decisive letter to the current parliament regular session on Thursday postponing the dam project in Kachin State for the term of the existing government, at least.

Hong Lei said the Chinese government always supports its enterprises to cooperate with foreign companies on a basis of mutual respect, equality and mutual benefits, and orders Chinese enterprises to strictly perform their duties and commitments according to laws and regulations of the countries where they work, Xinhua News said.

The Myitsone hydropower project is jointly invested by the China Power Investment Group, and Myanmar’s Ministry of Electric Power-1 and the local private Asia World Company. The 500-foot dam has been under construction at the confluence (Myitsone) of the Mali Hka River and N’Mai Hka River, 27 miles north of the Kachin capital of Myitkyina. Construction began in December 2009, and it will cost 3.6 billion dollars. With an installed capacity of 6,000 megawatts (mw), it is estimated to yield 29,400 million kilowatt-hours a year on completion which was earlier scheduled by 2019.

On May 27, 2010, on behalf of the communities suffering from the Myitsone Dam project in Kachin State, Kachin Development Networking Group (KDNG) appealed to Chinese President Hu Jintao to immediately halt the forced relocation and destruction of the villages of those opposed to this project by China’s state-owned China Power Investment Corporation (CPI).

Kachin people in exile signed a petition protesting against the dam project and appealing to halt it on January 28, and sent it to Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao through Chinese embassies in Thailand, India, Singapore, Britain and New Zealand.

But, the Chinese government did not take into consideration the requests made by native Kachin people who were never consulted about the dam projects in their neighborhood.

The CPI made the dam contract with the previous junta’s Electric Power Ministry in May 2007, without respecting the voice of the people who live in the region.

According to analysts, protestation to the hydro-power dam on the Irrawaddy has been swelling as pro-democracy and environmental activists bid to stop the dam plant using their citizens’ rights under the new semi-civilian government, which is controlled by military officers from the previous junta.

If the government inflexibly continued with the Irrawaddy dam project, there might be a nationwide mass protest resembling the 1988 people’s uprising, most observers believe. http://asiancorrespondent.com/66338/china-must-respect-native-people%E2%80%99s-voice-concerning-the-myitsone-dam-in-burma/
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Second meeting between Wa and government officials reportedly results in compromise; possible third meeting
Monday, 03 October 2011 16:39 Stephen Perraud / Hseng Khio Fah

Meeting October 1st for the second time in a month, Burmese government officials and representatives for the United Wa State Army (UWSA), the largest and most powerful resistance group in the country’s highly contested Shan state, reportedly expressed possible conditions of compromise in ending their long standing conflict.

The UWSA held a ceasefire with the Burmese military led State Peace and Government Council starting in 1989, with tense relations and armed confrontation beginning in 2009 following Naypyitaw’s demand that all ceasefire movements become Burma Army run Border Guard Forces (BGFs). Saturday’s meeting reportedly ended with Wa officials hopeful for a third meeting in Panghsang, the location of UWSA’s headquarters. Most previous meetings had occurred in government controlled areas.

A Sept. 6th meeting between the two sides resulted in the delivery of 1,000 bags of rice previously withheld for two years to the UWSA controlled area. Delivery of other goods has also been discussed since the signing of a new ceasefire contract on the sameday, though they have yet to materialize.

According to a Wa official speaking under condition of anonymity, the Burmese government’s five proposed terms include return of important government personnel such as teachers and doctors to the UWSA controlled areas. They would also allow the return of the U.N. and I.N.G.O. Both had supported the area before 2005, when the area was declared a drug free zone.

Access for support of the area was taken away by a government order on March 22nd, 2010. Support from both organizations has come in the form of education, healthcare, and efforts to transition farmers involved in poppy production into the production of rubber and tea.

The Wa’s 14 proposed terms include return of state personnel to their areas except military personnel, and others such as providing all Wa people citizens’ identification cards and driver’s licenses as well as motor vehicle licenses. They would also like to see a continuance of rice supply in the form of 2,000 sacks a month, as well as monetary support of 10 million kyat each month (about $12,500 U.S.D.)

Also included in the provisions of the Wa’s points are a desire for greater access to their own business interests outside of the state; including lucrative ventures like Hong Pang group, which was founded by Southern Region Commander of the UWSA and known drug kingpin Wei Hsueh-kang and includes businesses in gems, agricultural production, construction, and more. Interest has also been expressed in acquiring permits for mining and production of teakwood outside of the state area.

An additional desire expressed in the UWSA’s terms is the Wa’s aforementioned hope for a third meeting in their own territory.

While negotiations continue with the UWSA, the Burmese government regime is currently engaged in active combat with separate resistance groups throughout the Kachin, Shan and Karen states, including areas close to the country’s borders with India, China, Thailand and Laos. “Our leaders proposed that military campaigns against them should be stopped and negotiations started immediately,” said the source, “and that all issues be settled by non-military means.”

The groups currently engaging the government forces- the Kachin Independence Army, the Shan State Army and the Karen National Union came together in a conference near the Thai Burma border over February 12-16 to form the United Nationalities Federation Council (UNFC). UNFC members expressed last month a desire to make peace with government forces, in response to President Thein Sein’s 18 August announcement inviting all armed groups to peace talks. http://shanland.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4081:second-meeting-between-wa-and-government-officials-reportedly-results-in-compromise-possible-third-meeting&catid=85:politics&Itemid=266
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China Will Not Give Up Easily over Myitsone Dam
By BA KAUNG Monday, October 3, 2011

China will not give up in its bid to construct a massive hydropower dam at Myitsone in Burma's northern Kachin State—that was the underlying message in Saturdays' statement by the country's foreign ministry in response to Burma's President Thein Sein announcing the suspension of this controversial project last week.

A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman called for “friendly” consultations with Naypyidaw over the US $3.6 billion project, while insisting that “the Myitsone hydropower plant is a China-Myanmar joint-investment project which has gone through scientific feasibility studies and strict examinations by both sides.”

To a large extent, Beijing's response was both controversial and brazen because it failed to mention the main concerns surrounding the megadam—its social and environmental impacts. Neither did the Chinese statement address or offer any sympathy toward the fear and anxiety that local Kachins might be feeling—the thousands of villagers who would inevitably have to be relocated and whose livelihoods would be lost if the hydropower project went ahead.

Instead, the Chinese government called for negotiations with Naypyidaw, signaling that it will not turn its back on the 6,000-megawatt hydro project—of which 90 percent of generated electricity is contracted for transfer to China over the next 50 years—and has instead offered to alter the geographical confluence that forms the Irrawaddy, Burma's largest river.

In further bilateral negotiations—which we can expect to be conducted in as secretive a manner as previous talks—there is every possibility that Beijing will exert pressure on its Burmese counterparts to re-conduct the environmental assessment work and resume the project once Thein Sein's presidential tenure expires in early 2015.

In referring to the fact that the Myitsone project has gone through “strict examinations” by both sides, the Chinese government are attempting to consolidate the findings of an environmental impact assessment report published last month by state-owned China Power Investment (CPI), the main investor in the scheme.

The report says that a majority of the Burmese population support the project, and goes on to claim that the social and environmental impact from the dam—which will submerge at least 40 villages and displace 10,000 local people—is limited and containable.
“According to the surveys, 80.4% of interviewees were [of] the opinion that the hydropower development could bring more job opportunities and higher incomes to local people, 62.8% of the interviewees were [of] the opinion that the hydropower implementation could significantly promote development of local economy, and most of the interviewees were supportive of the country’s development and the project construction,” the report said.

The CPI report indicated that although the original confluence of the the two rivers, the N'mai and the Mali, would be the site of the projected megadam, the company would divert the rivers to form a new confluence further upstream.

“After Myitsone dam is completed, the Myitsone confluence will be moved upward and a new confluence will be formed. The natural landscape combined with a human landscape and supported by the improved structure will boost the growth of tourism sector in the basin,” it said.

The report's conclusions appear to be in diametrical opposition to the findings of Burmese and international environmentalists who have publicly decried the project, saying it will destroy the cultural sites of Kachin State and the livelihood of locals living downstream.

Grace Mang from International Rivers Network, an independent environmental group based in Thailand, said that there is an inconsistency in the report itself, and that it downplays the dam's impact on local biodiversity.

“The report's assumptions have been that if the animal or plants can be moved from the reservoir area, then there will be no impact,” she said. “But biodiversity cannot be protected by simply transplanting different ecological systems into another area.”

She added that the latest pictures of the dam indicated that Stage 2 of the five stages of construction had been completed ahead of the announcement of the project's suspension.

On Monday, Dr. Nay Zin Latt, a political advisor for the Burmese president, suggested in an interview with BBC Burmese Radio that there had been a round of talks between Chinese and Burmese government officials before Thein Sein's announcement was made in parliament, and that a future government will have the responsibility of deciding whether to resume the project or not in early 2015 when Thein Sein's presidential term expires.

The Burmese president's decision has clearly wrought Beijing's anger, especially after both governments embraced their “strategic relationship” during Thein Sein's trip to China a few month ago.

At a meeting on the same visit, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao urged Thein Sein to oversee “the smooth implementation of infrastructure projects, including oil and gas pipelines, hydroelectric power and transportation.”

In light of its other investments across this poor but resource-rich Southeast Asian nation, including a major strategic oil pipeline from the Bay of Bengal to Yunnan through central Burma, observers expect China to maintain its close relationship with the Burmese government.

However, if Beijing chooses to pursue this controversial project in Burma, it will further inflame the already fervent anti-Chinese sentiment among the Burmese public.

“The Chinese government's position is a threat to the culture and traditions of our country,” said U Ohn, a veteran Burmese environmentalist in Rangoon. “We would never give up Myitsone—not even in exchange for the whole of China.” http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=22183
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EU Welcomes Burmese Decision on Myitsone Dam
Posted Monday, October 3rd, 2011 at 5:45 am

The European Union has added its voice to those welcoming the Burmese government's decision to suspend work on a controversial hydro-electric dam.

A spokesman for EU High Representative Catherine Ashton said the EU is encouraged to see the Burmese leadership beginning to act on its promise to be a government of the people.

Pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and the United States have also welcomed the decision, saying it shows a willingness to respond to the wishes of ordinary citizens. But China has urged Burma to protect the interests of Chinese companies involved in the project.

The EU statement said Europe welcomes the Burmese government's readiness to address ecological and economic concerns associated with the Myitsone dam in northern Kachin state. It also noted that the government had permitted a “strikingly open” national debate on the issue.

Aides to Aung San Suu Kyi said the dam was discussed when she met last week with a senior government official.

China and Burma agreed in 2009 to build the $ 3.6 billion dam on the Irrawaddy River, slated for completion in 2019.

The joint project has sparked protests by environmentalists and residents who say the dam would flood a huge area and have devastating consequences for the people and the environment. http://blogs.voanews.com/breaking-news/2011/10/03/eu-welcomes-burmese-decision-on-myitsone-dam/
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China must respect Burma’s dam decision
By Zin Linn Oct 03, 2011 1:05AM UTC

China has asked for talks on the suspension of a joint hydropower project in Burma, saying the legitimate rights and interests of its companies should be protected, according to Xinhua News Agency on Saturday.

In a statement posted on the agency’s website, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei called on Burma to hold consultations to handle any problems with the Myitsone dam project. The statement notes that both countries agreed to undertake the project after rigorous studies and reviews:

The Myitsone hydropower plant is a China-Myanmar jointly invested project, which has gone through scientific feasibility studies and strict examinations by both sides.

Relevant matters that have emerged during the implementation of the project should be properly settled through friendly consultations between the two sides.

Environmental analysts say the Myitsone hydropower plant, which will involve a reservoir the size of Singapore, will seriously damage the environment. It is being built and invested by Chinese companies and over 90 percent of its electricity will be sent to China.

Burma’s President Thein Sein sent a decisive letter to the current parliament regular session on Thursday postponing the dam project in Kachin State for the term of the existing government, at least.

Hong Lei said the Chinese government always supports its enterprises to cooperate with foreign companies on a basis of mutual respect, equality and mutual benefits, and orders Chinese enterprises to strictly perform their duties and commitments according to laws and regulations of the countries where they work, Xinhua News said.

The Myitsone hydropower project is jointly invested by the China Power Investment Group, and Myanmar’s Ministry of Electric Power-1 and the local private Asia World Company. The 500-foot dam has been under construction at the confluence (Myitsone) of the Mali Hka River and N’Mai Hka River, 27 miles north of the Kachin capital of Myitkyina. Construction began in December 2009, and it will cost 3.6 billion dollars. With an installed capacity of 6,000 megawatts (mw), it is estimated to yield 29,400 million kilowatt-hours a year on completion which was earlier scheduled by 2019.

On May 27, 2010, on behalf of the communities suffering from the Myitsone Dam project in Kachin State, Kachin Development Networking Group (KDNG) appealed to Chinese President Hu Jintao to immediately halt the forced relocation and destruction of the villages of those opposed to this project by China’s state-owned China Power Investment Corporation (CPI).

Kachin people in exile signed a petition protesting against the dam project and appealing to halt it on January 28, and sent it to Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao through Chinese embassies in Thailand, India, Singapore, Britain and New Zealand.

But, the Chinese government did not take into consideration the requests made by native Kachin people who were never consulted about the dam projects in their neighborhood.

The CPI made the dam contract with the previous junta’s Electric Power Ministry in May 2007, without respecting the voice of the people who live in the region.

According to analysts, protestation to the hydro-power dam on the Irrawaddy has been swelling as pro-democracy and environmental activists bid to stop the dam plant using their citizens’ rights under the new semi-civilian government, which is controlled by military officers from the previous junta.

If the government inflexibly continued with the Irrawaddy dam project, there might be a nationwide mass protest resembling the 1988 people’s uprising, most observers believe. http://asiancorrespondent.com/66338/china-must-respect-native-people%E2%80%99s-voice-concerning-the-myitsone-dam-in-burma/
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Thai PM eyes maiden trip to Burma
By FRANCIS WADE
Published: 3 October 2011

Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra will visit Burma in the “near future”, according to Burmese state media, as she pushes ahead with a tour of regional nations.

Few details have been released on the Burma trip. Dr Pavin Chachavalpongpun, from the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore, said Yingluck may use the visit to “introduce herself” to the government in Burma in a bid to spur bilateral investment and ease tensions over the closure of a key border trade route near Mae Sot.

“The relationship between the two new governments is likely to be better than in recent years,” he said, particularly if Yingluck follows in the footsteps of her brother, former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, and places an emphasis on business over political matters.

Moreover, with Burma’s shift to a nominally civilian government and recent signs that it is releasing its vice-like grip on the country’s economic and political arena, there would be “no inclination to implement a different agenda” from previous years.

Whether Yingluck will meet with opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi remains up to the government. Despite an apparent shift towards more dialogue with the opposition, Naypyidaw remains wary of her influence on neighbouring states gaining in ground.

Nyo Ohn Myint, from the exiled National League for Democracy – Liberated Areas, told DVB that a meeting with Suu Kyi would most likely get permission from the Burmese government.

“Both Yingluck and the government need it to boost their own images,” he said. There would be little substance to the meeting, he believes, other than for both governments to project a sense that they are dealing with either side of Burma’s political spectrum.

As for Thailand pushing Naypyidaw on the vast array of areas it still needs to improve on, Nyo Ohn Myint was sceptical. “Human rights and environmental voices have always been very weak in Thailand’s foreign policy. I don’t think that will change with the new prime minister.”

But with strong support for Suu Kyi among Thailand’s ‘Red Shirt’ faction, who broadly supported Yingluck’s Puea Thai Party in the elections this year, a meeting between the two would be a PR coup for the prime minister, particularly if a relationship develops prior to Thailand’s next elections.

Following Yingluck’s ascendance to office in July, Suu Kyi said: “I like that she’s a woman but the most important thing is the relationship between the two nations and our people.

“We also have to welcome the government democratically elected by the people.”

During the mass Red Shirt protesters in Bangkok last year, Suu Kyi lamented that Thailand would remain unstable until its military constitution was redrawn. http://www.dvb.no/news/thai-pm-eyes-maiden-trip-to-burma/17928
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October 2, 2011 4:32 pm
Reformists begin to make mark in Burma
By Tim Johnston in Bangkok

Reform might be a relative term when applied to Burma, but the architects of attempts to remodel the country after nearly 20 years of international isolation are very much in the ascendant.

Burma is on the verge of releasing some of the more than 2,000 political prisoners held in its jails, a move that is one of the main criteria for the lifting of sanctions against the country. On Friday, meanwhile, the government suspended construction of a $3.6bn China-backed hydroelectric dam following pressure over the potential environmental and social impact.

Those are the most prominent of a number of measures set in train by the new government and would seem to confirm that reformists led by President Thein Sein are calling the shots.

Since Mr Thein Sein’s administration took power in April, he has proposed a labour law that would allow trade unions to take industrial action and give them freedom of assembly; he has held face-to-face negotiations with Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel laureate and de facto opposition leader; and the authorities in Rangoon last week allowed an opposition demonstration to commemorate the uprisings of three years ago.

Outside Burma such steps would be unremarkable. But in the context of a country emerging from nearly 50 years of repression and political stagnation, they represent a vast shift. Even the army, the architects of that stagnation, seems to be in favour of change: 25 per cent of parliament consists of military appointees and they supported the prisoner release proposal when it was put to a vote.

Although last November’s elections are widely believed to have been rigged, the new political architecture, with its competing centres of power – the presidency, parliament, the army and political parties – mimics democracy in its checks and balances and could, some analysts believe, provide a foundation for a more representative system.

The signs are encouraging, but they do not yet add up to a measurable shift on the ground. Amnesty International estimates there are still more than 2,100 political prisoners, and a report by the Committee to Protect Journalists published last week concluded that “the government has made virtually no progress on press freedom”.

When Derek Mitchell, President Barack Obama’s special envoy to Burma, met Wunna Maung Lwin, foreign minister, last Tuesday, he set out a shopping list of what the US would like to see.

“They emphasised that the US seeks concrete steps from the government of Burma to signify a genuine commitment to reform, including release of all political prisoners, further meaningful dialogue with Aung San Suu Kyi, a cessation of hostilities in and violence against ethnic areas, and transparency in its relationship with North Korea,” a state department spokesman said.

If, as Mr Wunna Maung Lwin has promised, a substantial number of prisoners are released, many analysts say the west needs to respond positively, most obviously with a relaxation of sanctions.

The charge is likely to be led by the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the Asian Development Bank, all quietly exploring the limits of the legal restrictions on their operations in the country.

If there are clear signs of reform, the unresolved conflicts with heavily armed ethnically based militias along Burma’s eastern borders with China and Thailand present the most formidable challenge for the government.

Beijing is investing billions of dollars in oil and natural gas pipelines, hydroelectric dams and railways that run through territory controlled by ethnic militias, increasing the pressure on both the government and the ethnic groups to find a more stable and sustainable answer to the current ad hoc ceasefire agreements.

Burma has a long history of false dawns. Its decision on Friday to halt work on one of the infrastructure projects – and the terse response from China – will no doubt test further the country’s newfound desire to reform. http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/f3b031ce-e9b7-11e0-bb3e-00144feab49a.html?ftcamp=rss#axzz1ZWtdeH3j
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October 2, 2011 3:02 pm
Burma dam disruption concerns China
By Kathrin Hille in Beijing

Beijing has called on Burma to protect the rights of Chinese companies after construction was halted on the $3.6bn Myitsone dam, in a rare example of public disagreement between the two neighbours and close allies.

“[China] demands its companies to strictly follow the law of the countries they operate in but also calls on the respective governments to protect Chinese companies’ legal rights and interests,” said Hong Lei, a spokesman for China’s foreign ministry.

“[The] China-Burma joint investment project ... has undergone scientific evaluation and strict examination by both sides,” Mr Hong added. “Issues during its implementation should be handled properly through friendly negotiations.”

On Friday Thein Sein, Burma’s president, ordered a halt to work on the project. The Burmese government had previously insisted that construction would proceed despite protests.

The Myitsone project’s main contractors are China Power Investment Corporation, one of the country’s big power producers, and Asia World Company, a Burmese group.

Sinohydro, a China Power subsidiary and one of the world’s largest dam contractors, and another Chinese state-owned dam construction company, Gezhouba, are the primary subcontractors.

The dam, the largest of seven planned along the Irrawaddy river, is located in Kachin state, an area which was long under the control of guerillas fighting for independence in the region. The planned relocation of thousands of people and controversy over the environmental impact assessment commissioned by China Power have sparked frequent protests.

The disruption could add momentum to a re-examination of Chinese state-owned groups’ push into infrastructure and power projects in often high-risk developing countries.

About $8,000bn in infrastructure investments are expected to be committed between 2011 and 2020, according to the Asian Development Bank and consultancy group McKinsey. China has made prioritised foreign infrastructure participation in its 12th five-year plan, allocating about $15bn for infrastructure projects in Burma and other member countries in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean).

As it becomes more difficult to obtain export finance from Japan and South Korea, construction and power companies are asking Chinese firms to join their invesment consortiums in order to qualify for financing from Chinese state banks, which typically apply less scrutiny than other lenders. But Beijing has started taking a closer look at potential political risk following wars in Sudan and Libya – two countries in which Chinese companies had been very active.

“When Chinese undertake a large project domestically, the developers, contractors, manufacturers, suppliers, lenders and off-takers are often state-owned and are pursuing a project that has been identified as part of a wider domestic priority,” said Christopher Stephens, a partner at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, the law firm.

“They have to deal with unfamiliar labour, environmental, tax, and other laws, local subcontractors and suppliers, and less friendly courts and regulators. It’s quite a different set of risk analyses.” http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/bccaef18-ece7-11e0-be97-00144feab49a.html#axzz1ZWtdeH3j