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dam-l LS: Green groups fear Salween workshop spells danger for local inhabitants



Green groups fear Salween workshop spells danger for local inhabitants
13.Sep.1999
The Nation
 
A GROUP of 35 Thai and Burmese civil and environmental organisations 
yesterday expressed their grave concern that the four-day ''closed door, 
confidential'' workshop on the Salween River basin would be a forum ''to 
legitimise'' gigantic economic developments which could adversely effect the 
livelihood of many thousands of multi-ethnic people as well as damage the 
environment.

In an open letter distributed yesterday, the group demanded that any 
planning for large scale hydroelectric and water diversion projects on the 
river remain ''fully open, transparent and honest'' about all controversial 
issues that had dogged the planned development in the basin areas.

They also demanded that planning must ''fully recognise and respect the 
human, civil and political rights of all the development-affected people, 
ensuring their informed participation and fully compensating them for any 
losses incurred''.

''Any such plans or projects that fail to meet the conditions must be 
abandoned without delay,'' they added.

Speaking in a telephone interview yesterday, Chainarong Sretthachau, 
director of the Southeast Asia Rivers Network (SEARIN), said his 
organisation had rejected an invitation to attend the workshop starting 
today on the grounds that it ''deliberately excludes the participation of 
affected indigenous people, the real stakeholders'' in any 
multi-million-dollar projects on the Salween.

He charged that the workshops would be attended by representatives of Thai 
and Burmese government agencies, major international financial institutions 
such as the World Bank and the Manila-based Asian Development Bank and 
private developers, all of whom ''are virtually supporters of constructing 
dams''.

He said that a giant Thai construction firm, which has won nearly all major 
construction contracts here and in neighbouring countries, was believed to 
be attending the workshop.

It is still unclear who or which agency is organising the workshop in Chiang 
Mai and what the objectives are of those attending. The forum has been kept 
confidential and the venue of the meeting remains unknown.

In the open letter, the group said academics, government officials, business 
consultancy groups and multilateral banks were invited to attend the 
workshop which was ''ostensibly to promote dialogue among representatives of 
the various interests of the Salween Basin''.

''However, conspicuously absent from the participants list are the 
indigenous people who would inevitably bear the costs of such development of 
the river. Instead the listed participants of the meeting are members of an 
elite that in no way represent the interests of local communities,'' it 
added.

The letter said the gathering seemed closely linked to plans aimed at 
damming the Salween to produce hydroelectricity and divert water to 
Thailand.

The Thai and Burmese governments, with assistance from Japanese, Thai and 
Norwegian consultants, had been preparing development projects on the 
Salween for the past decade, ''carefully concealing them from the people, 
particularly those living on the river basin'', the letter added.

It said these communities had suffered years of warfare and human rights 
abuses by the military and that thousands of them had already been displaced 
by the Burmese regime from their rightful property.

''Some of the largest recent displacements have been taking place precisely 
in the same areas and at the same time when surveyors began studying the 
site of a potential dam on the river in the Shan State [of Burma],'' the 
letter added.

The letter said at least five sites had now been studied for dams in the 
river basin without the participation of the people living in each area and 
that these plans had advanced well beyond the point where environmental and 
social impact assessments should have been carried out.

''In the meantime, there has been absolutely no consultation with the real 
stakeholders in the projects: the indigenous people who stand to lose their 
land forever,'' it said.

The open letter, which is signed by groups such as SEARIN, Salween Watch, 
Wildlife Fund of Thailand, Shan Human Rights Foundation, Forum of the Poor, 
and Karen, Karenni, Shan and Burmese groups and exiled elected Burmese MPs, 
said the damming of the Salween would lead to the flooding of large areas of 
forest and farmland and would drown villages, disrupt agriculture and 
fisheries both above and below the dam.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chainarong Sretthachau
Southeast Asia Rivers Network(SEARIN)
25/5 Moo 2
Soi Sukhapibarn 27
ChangKhien-Jed Yod Rd.
Chang Phuak
Muang, Chiang Mai 50300
Thailand
Tel 6653-221157
Fax 6653-283609