Efforts by Burmese authorities to persuade the first of about 15,000 affected Kachin villagers to move to new homes to make way for a hydro-electric dam project are meeting with resistance, according to sources in the area.
More than 100 residents of Tang Hpre village, one of 60 communities destined to be displaced by the proposed Myintsone dam, were urged by the authorities to relocate.
“We will oppose the pressure,” said one housewife. She said each affected family had been given 32 kg of rice and one 1.6 kg can of cooking oil, but had been offered no further compensation.
The authorities began their campaign to persuade villagers to move one week after an inauguration ceremony at the dam, which local people were forced to attend. The Tang Hpre housewife said church leaders were supporting resistance to the relocation order. “We encourage each other,” she said.
Around 500 houses have been built by the Asian World company to accommodate some of the relocated villagers, according to Kachin environmental groups.
Tsa Ji, secretary of the Thailand-based Kachin Development Networking Group, said about 40,000 construction workers will be employed at the dam site. Thousands of troops will guard it, he said.
Tsa Ji said that apart from environmental damage, human rights abuses could be expected because of the presence of so many troops in the area.
Sources say many communities have not yet been informed that they will have to move to make way for the dam.
The Myitsone dam, built by the China Power Investment Corporation, will produce 3,600 MW of power for export to China and is the first in a series of seven Chinese dams on the Irrawaddy River and its main tributaries, according to Kachin environmental groups.
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