'We’re Simply Hopeless and Helpless Here'

MYITSONE, Kachin State — The path to Myitsone Village is thickly covered with weeds. Most of the houses in the village are abandoned. No children, no noise, no music in this village, which used to be home to 62 families.

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The regime and China's state-owned China Power Investment Corporation are jointly constructing the country's largest dam just 1.6 km below the confluence the of the Mali and N' Mai rivers. Sixty villages in the flood zone have been ordered by the government to relocate to a new location.
Farmers in this area are frustrated about how to begin their new life. They paid little attention to the recently completed election, and have little hope for help.
Lum Dau, in his forties, scratched his head, thought hard, and said simply, “I don't know what to expect. Like the present [military] government, the new government will also do whatever it likes. It's no use hoping.”
People in Myitsone Village, about 27 miles to the north of Myitkyina, the capital of Kachin State, want the government to halt dam construction and return their families to their villages. But they know that's just a dream. But many plan to keep fighting, to keep hope alive.
In this northern state bordering with China, the Burmese government and its cronies have been exploiting forests and natural resources such as teak, jade and gold for many years, and there has been very little help for the people.
Now in partnership with the China state-owned company, the government has set about to build seven hydroelectric power plants on the Mali, N’ Mai and Irrawaddy rivers. Myitsone Dam is one of them and the first on the Irrawaddy River.
Because of Myitsone Dam, 15,000 people from 60 villages will lose their means of livelihood, including farming, fishing and non-timber forest product collection, according to the Chiang Mai-based Kachin Development Networking Group (KDNG).


The dam's flood zone will be 766 square kilometers—as large as New York City—in an area that is renowned for its biodiversity.
The Kachin people see the dam also as a threat to their cultural heritage, since the confluence area is integral to Kachin traditions. The confluence marks the beginning of the Irrawaddy River, one of the longest rivers in Southeast Asia.
In addition, the dam, which will be 152 meters high, is the first dam to be built on the Irrawaddy River—a major waterway in the country which will be severely impacted, say environmentalists.
Experts also warn that the Myitsone Dam, which would be the world’s 15th largest dam, could also bring disaster to the people living down river, because it will be located just 100 km from a major fault line in an earthquake-prone area.
Kachin groups have called for a halt, but their efforts have proven unsuccessful. Observers say that the junta will not stop the dam, and it will earn US $500 million annually from selling electricity to China.
“We’re determined to fight until the government agrees to halt [building this dam],” said Awng Wa, the chairman of KDNG. "We strongly believe we will win."
Awng Wa said that it’s important to raise awareness about the dam's impact so that people not only from Kachin State, but from all along the Irrawaddy River will join their calls.
“We’ll protest in many ways inside [the country],” the KDNG chairman said. “If the next government is a real democratic government, they have to allow our protests against this dam.”
However, the Kachin people don't hold out much hope. During the election campaign, the Union Solidarity and Development Party and Unity and Democracy Party of Kachin State did not even discuss the dam issue during their campaign speeches in the election period.
“That means that they won’t bother to call for a halt to building the dam [when they become a government],” said a man in Tanphre Village, which sits just below he confluence and has not yet been relocated.
In the meanwhile, the Asia World Company, which is owned by a government crony, has been building houses between the dam site and Myitkyina to house relocated villagers.

Some villages, including Myitsone, have already relocated to the resettlement area, called Aungmyin Thar Yard, while other villages have yet to relocated.
Every householder is to be given a house and compensation for their land, if they can show a land title.
If you can't show a land title, you will not be compensated for your land, paddy field or orchard.
However, even if you can show a land title, villagers say they can't expect to receive land as good as what they've lost.
“I was given three acres when I showed my land titles. But the land they gave me is full of small stones and sand. How can I grow paddy on such land?” said a farmer in Kyainkaran Village.
Another villager complained that the government replacement land he was given is covered by bushes and trees, and it will take hard labor, money and time to make it useful.
Even housewives are unhappy, even though they will receive a new two-story wood house with a zinc roof, rice for one year for the whole family, piped water and a 21-inch color TV.
“We just miss our home [in the old village]. We just want to go back home,” said a 28-year-old housewife, as she piled firewood under the stairs of her new house. Like other households, her family left orchards and paddy fields behind.
Since she doesn’t see any means of livelihood here in the area of her new home, she worries about the future.
“I feel sad and cry whenever I think of our plight,” said the woman, a mother of two children. “Look, we’re simply hopeless and helpless here.”

From Irrawaddy News