Shan Herald Agency for News

No: 02 - 09/2003

5 September 2003

Environment

Lahu Report: Mekong reef-blasting highlights destructive development
agenda in Shan State

ADB-promoted Mekong development plans are not only causing environmental
destruction in eastern Shan State, but also contributing to further
oppression and impoverishment of the local communities, charges the
latest report published by the Lahu National Development Organization
today.

Eastern Shan State lies on the west bank of the Mekong, opposite
northern Laos.

The 41-page report, Aftershocks along Burma's Mekong: Reef-blasting and
military style development in Eastern Shan State, based on research
conducted between December 2002-May 2003, calls for a halt to the
ongoing reef-blasting project that aims to make the region's longest
river navigable for vessels of 500 tons for most of the year.

The project is part of the Upper Mekong Navigation Improvement Project,
which in turn is part of the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) Economic
Cooperation Program, involving Burma, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam
and China's Yunnan province. The program, according to the Asian
Development Bank, aims "to help strengthen the economic and social
well-being of people in the sub-region."

From March-April 2002 and then from December 2002 - April 2003, major
reefs and rapids on the Burma-Laos stretch of the river were blasted,
without any consultation with the over 22,000 Shan, Lahu and Akha living
along the river.. The remaining reefs are to be destroyed in the
December 2003-March 2004 period.

The report claims that the Burmese military stepped up military
operations during the blasting, leading to increased militarization and
human rights violations in areas along the Mekong. Page 12 of
Aftershocks reads: "In the second week of April SPDC troops raped a Lahu
woman at Keng Larb (Tachilek District). The woman was married with three
children, but was divorced by her husband after the rape, and
subsequently left the village. " It holds that the perpetrators went
scot-free.

The report accuses the Burmese junta of promoting a development agenda
in eastern Shan State which is benefiting only a small elite, and
contributing to environmental degradation. The elite include leaders of
armies which have signed ceasefire agreements with the regime since
1989, and who have been given licence to exploit the local natural
resources.

Since 1988, LNDO estimates that 50% of eastern Shan State's forest cover
has been lost, and wildlife and forest products are also diminishing
rapidly. The report ridicules token gestures by the SPDC to protect the
environment: on page 28: "In October 2002, the SPDC in Kengtung issued
an order that anyone found cutting pine wood without authorization in
the forests at "Nga Ou Su" west of Kengtung would be given a 12-year
jail sentence and a 20,000 kyat fine. The area has already been almost
entirely deforested under concessions granted by the SPDC."

The LNDO is also sceptical of the junta's " War on Drugs" in the Golden
Triangle, Aftershocks reports that while orders not to plant poppies
were issued by the authorities, the same people have continued to
collect opium taxes. Token efforts to provide alternative sources of
income to the poppy growers have also been rendered meaningless by
ongoing extortion practices of the military: "For example, in December
2002, SPDC troops from LIB 316 from Talerh destroyed the poppy fields of
five villages on Mong Lane hill, 30 miles north of Tachilek, 10 miles
from the Mekong River, and then gave a small chicken to each house as
compensation. However, after three weeks troops from the same unit came
to demand 5-7 viss (8-11 kg) of chicken meat from each village in the
area, meaning that all the chickens which had been given to the
villagers then had to be killed and given back to the troops as meat."

The LNDO predicts that under military rule increased trade and
investment arising from development of the Mekong will only reinforce
the current inequitable and unsustainable development processes in
eastern Burma.

In conclusion, the LNDO urges the governments in the region to suspend
the navigation improvement project until proper environmental and social
impact assessments are carried out with participation of affected
communities. "A prerequisite for this must be the restoration of genuine
peace and democracy in Burma," it states.

LNDO, formed by the late Benjamin Min in 1997, has already published the
much-quoted Unsettling Moves: The Wa forced resettlement program in
Eastern Shan State last year.

For further information, please contact Japhet Jakui, Secretary of LNDO,
P.O. Box 227, Chiangmai GPO 50000; Email: <lndorg@yahoo.com>

For full text of the report, please visit:
http://www.shanland.org/Environment/After%20Shock/contents.htm

For further information, please contact S.H.A.N. at:
Shan Herald Agency for News.
Phone: 66-1-5312837
e-mail: <shan@cm.ksc.co.th>
http://www.shanland.org

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political or armed organization.
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