No.17 - 03/06
20 March 2006

Environment

Salween dams force hundreds of Karens to leave homes

Reporter: Arntai Khaikharnfha

Since the beginning of March 2006, more than 500 Karen villagers from Mutraw, Karen State, have fled to Thai-Burmese border after being forced by the Burmese military to build a road for the Salween river dam project, according to one of the environmental activities who has just returned from Karen State.

“The road which the villagers have been forced to build runs from Papun to Weigyi, the Salween dam site, but since the Thai authorities don’t allow them to cross the border, they are still hiding in the jungle,” he said.

Meanwhile, he quoted the villagers saying that within the past four months the Burmese military regime has sent thousands of its troops into Karen State. There are at least 800 junta soldiers stationed around dam site area near Thai border.

Since January 2006, nearly thousand of Karen villagers have fled to Thai border, due to both the Salween dam projects and the movement of the new capital to Pyinmana by the Burmese government.

In December 2005, the Thai-Burmese government had signed a MoU to build four dams along Salween River, the longest free flowing river in Southeast Asia: at Tasang in Shan State and Hutgyi, Weigyi and Dagwin in Karen State, that together will produce 15-20, 000 megawatts of electricity which will be sold to Thailand and other Asian countries.         

On 14 March 2006, the green groups of Mon, Karen, Thai, Shan and Karenni had together made a protest at the dam project site of Weigyi in Karen State near the Thai border. They called for a stop to all the projects saying that the way of life of local residents and the environment would be affected by the dams.

Observers pointed out that either Hutgyi or Tasang project might be built first, because they are far from the border and therefore could avoid protests by green groups.