and VN 2020 Mekong Group
“The destruction of the ecology, regardless of time and space,
is another form of violence and violation of human rights”
A Glimpse of Myanmar
Myanmar has been known as “Shwe Pyidaw” – the “El Dorado” of Asia, a land richly endowed with natural resources such as valuable wood, precious stones, oil, and the Irrawaddy Basin, Asia’s most fertile land. This Basin, considered the “rice bowl” of this nation covers an area of 255,000 km2. Furthermore, the Burmese can also find a vast, bountiful fishing ground in the Andaman Gulf. Unfortunately, such a beautiful country graced with thousands of glistening golden pagodas is also a land of poverty where three quarter (3/4) of the population still suffers from illiteracy and food shortage. The situation is worse than when this nation lived under British rule. Its population of 54 million resides in an area of 676,552km2 - twice the size of Vietnam or larger than France and Great Britain combined. To the west and northwest, Myanmar shares common borders with India and Bangladesh, to the north and north east it abuts China and Laos while to the south and southeast it neighbors Thailand. Two main rivers flow through the land along a north-south axis and form valleys and plains covered with a thick layer of alluvium. The Irrawaddy, the longest of the two, originates from the Tibetan High Plateau and meanders through the hills and mountains of the Kachin region in northeastern Myanmar. It then continues southward on a 2,000 mile long journey before discharging into the Indian Ocean through various estuaries.The Irriwaddy is the lifeline of Myanmar and since British colonial times it has been used as this nation’s main waterway. Rudyard Kipling, the first English writer to be awarded the Nobel Prize for literature, authored the book, “The Road to Mandalay”. He became well known as a writer of the colonial era and the verse “Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet!” from his “The Ballad of East and West” (1892) is still being quoted to the present day.
In Burmese mythology, Mandalay Hill is known as the land of the Buddha. It was said that during a visit to this place, the Buddha and his disciple Ananda had foretold that come the year of 2400 of the Buddhist calendar Mandalay will be transformed into a flourishing Buddhist center of learning. Consequently, in 1857, the Burmese king Mindon moved his palaces to the vicinity of Mandalay Hill, on an elbow of the Irrawaddy. Soon afterwards, impressive structures designed for educational purposes were constructed with delicately carved precious woods. Overnight, Mandalay Hill turned into a de facto hub of Buddhist culture. In the following years, it came under British control then fell in ruins during the Second World War. Dilapidated Mandalay Hill of today is only a shadow of its former self.
Myanmar once ranked as one of the most profitable colonies of the British Empire. Kyaw Nyein, a former deputy prime minister of the Union of Burma described Myanmar under British colonial rule in the following way: “The country presented the picture of a social pyramid which had the millions of the poor, ignorant, exploited Burmese as its base, and a few outsiders – British, Indian, and Chinese – as its apex.”
Despite the fact that the British had left, the situation stayed unchanged for the next fifty years. The same social pyramid persists with tens of millions of destitute, illiterate, and exploited Burmese still at its base. The only difference is that they are now being exploited more thoroughly by their own fellow countrymen: the clique of Burmese generals.
In 1989, the military leaders changed the country’s name from Burma to Myanmar with a system of government described as “Socialist, Republic of the Union of Burma”. Any mail sent from overseas to this country bearing the old name “Burma” was returned to the senders with the inscription “Burma, country unknown” stamped on it.
Sunset on the Irrawaddy [2007 – 2011]
According to the government-owned newspaper “The New Light of Myanmar”, in May of 2007 China and the Burmese military junta jointly approved a deal between China Power Investment Co. (CPI) and the Department of Electricity of Myanmar to construct seven large hydroelectric dams on the Irrawaddy with a combined output of 13,360 MW.
Map of Dams in Burma
[Source: Burma Rivers Network]
Since the close of 2007, even though the Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA) were not yet concluded, China went ahead with the building of the Myitsone Dam, the largest in Myanmar and Asia as well, on the Irrawaddy. Its projected output of 3,600 MW is three times that of the Jinhong Dam on the Mekong’s main current. But in December of 2009, following the visit of the Chinese vice prime minister Xi Jinping to Myanmar, its output was raised from 3,600 MW to 6,000 MW or four times that of the Manwan Dam in Yunnan.
The construction site at the Myitsone Dam
[ Source: The Irrawaddy ]
The dam is located right at the junction of two tributaries named Mayhka and Malihka, 42 kilometers north of Myitsone, the capital of Kachin State [Map I]. As projected by the International Rivers Network (IRN) headquartered in Berkeley, California, if everything goes as planned, the Myitsone Dam will go into operation in 2018. The lion’s share (90%) of its power output will be diverted to China and the China Power Investment Corp. (CPI) will receive 70% of the profits.
If the political pundits are correct, Xi Jinping will replace Wen Jiabao as Secretary General of the Chinese Communist Party and Chairman of China in 2012.
Environmental Impact Assessments Kept Under Wraps
It was not until after the agreement between the two countries was signed that CPI went through the motion of assigning a non-government organization named Biodiversity and Nature Conservation Association (BANCA) to undertake an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) of the Myitsone Dam Project. BANCA sounded the alarm concerning the risk of building the dam near an earthquake fault line. It also expressed its concerns that deforestation in the area surrounding the dam site would cause flooding in populated centers like the city of Myitkyina. For those reasons, BANCA recommended that the dam be replaced by two smaller ones but the idea was promptly brushed aside by the Chinese companies and the Burmese military. Worse yet, pressured was exerted on this institution to keep its report under wraps. Eventually the document was leaked to the public giving birth to a widespread movement rallying intellectuals and environmental activists under the common banner “Save the Irrawaddy”, the lifeline and cradle of the Burmese culture.September 29, 2011 is celebrated as a memorable day for it marks the first time over 400 participants including Burmese officials met at a conference to discuss the “pros and cons” of the project.
Doctor Tun Lwin, Director General of the Meteorology and Hydrology Office, categorically voiced his opposition to the dam project citing its undesirable impacts such as climate change, flooding, and reduction of current flow.
Another Burmese official, Win Myo, Director of EcoDevelopment Management Office in Rangoon, also supported the above stand with this statement: “There is no doubt that the dam will damage the environment. Another question is whether the dam will really benefit the economy of Burma.” [8]
In total disregard to the growing opposition to the Myitsone Dam, the arrogant Chinese construction companies and Burmese capitalists joined ranks to forge ahead with the project.
According to the Kachin Environmental Organization headquartered in Chiang Mai, Thailand, violations of human rights and repressions of the local population at the dam site are all but daily occurrences. As the days go by, the natural landscape and cultural vestiges of the Kachin people are being irrevocably destroyed. Forty villages in the vicinity of the dam will be completely submerged by water and more than 10,000 inhabitants will lose their homes to face forced relocation. In the case of a dam collapse resulting from a phenomenon called reservoir-triggered seismicity, millions of people living downstream will be visited with indescribable sufferings. It is a recognized fact that northern Myanmar, Yunnan and the southeastern provinces of China lie within a seismically active zone. [9]
June 2010 saw a succession of two Chinese leaders Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Wen Jiabao on official visits to Myanmar “to discuss the energy issues”, a code word for the common resolve of the two nations to intensify and speed up the implementation of the hydroelectric dam projects in Myanmar. The Myitsone Dam on the Irrawaddy is only one of the seven to be built. Moreover, besides the China Power Investment Corp. (CPI), a second large Chinese dam building company named Datang International Power Generation Co. (CDC) was called upon to help achieve that goal.
[It would be worth mentioning here that this same company Datang was awarded the extremely controversial bid to construct two of the 11 dams downstream the Mekong’s main current: the Pak Beng (1,320 MW) and Xanakham(1,000 MW) Dams in Laos.]
The strong opposition by the Kachin minority group, the armed skirmishes with the local residents, and the bombings on 04/17/2010 resulting in the death of 4 Chinese workers and a number of wounded only provided a pretext for the Burmese military to mete out harsher retaliatory measures like arrests, tortures and suppression of the Kachin. Meanwhile the forcible relocation and pace of construction still go on unabated. [10]
About an Arrogant and Intransigent China
Early in 2006, a political organization known as Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) has announced its opposition to the Myitsone Dam Project. Its voice is not only confined to the dam site but also heard in the Burmese capital of Rangoon and as far away as Beijing. Many a time this organization wrote to the Chinese leaders to remonstrate to them the irreversibility of the Myitsone Dam’s nefarious impacts on the ecology particularly on the Irrawaddy Basin where the “rice bowl” of the Burmese can be found. KIO also correctly predicted the potential danger for armed conflicts with the local inhabitants should the project proceed ahead. As always, the Beijing government and the Chinese dam building companies persist in their arrogance. They refuse to even acknowledge receipt of the letters and turn down any offers to talk about the issues.However, sympathizers in the capital city of Rangoon heard the alarm bell and set up very active environmental groups elsewhere in the country. This time, they receive the extraordinary support of the well-respected democracy opposition leader Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi and reputable international environmental organizations like the International Rivers Networks (IRN). It becomes no longer possible for the Myanmar government to ignore them. The decision to suspend the construction of the Myitsone Dam by the civilian president Thein Sein has rolled back the curtain of darkness and ushered in a new day to a country where democratic life has been nonexistent for a long time. This course of action taken by the young government signals its courageous willingness to confront the giant neighbor to the North whose influence has been felt for many decades. Thus, an extraordinary “precedence” has been established that will undoubtedly have bearings on the building of other Chinese hydroelectric dams. It will reverberate beyond Myanmar’s borders and show that “the voice of a civil society” must be listened to.
The Myitsone case is a “lesson” for Vietnam and the other nations in the Mekong Basin. It shows that the “Made in China” dams, irrespective of their locations, must not be built “at any cost” just to meet China’s needs and interests in total disregard for their devastating impacts on the ecosystem or the disruptions they wreak on the lives of the local communities. It is just unacceptable. A question that comes to mind is: When will the Vietnamese people – in particular those living in the Mekong Delta – be allowed to speak their mind and be heard?
For the sake of practicality, China finds it expedient to do business with dictatorial regimes like in the case of Vietnam on the pretext that they offer “political stability”. However, from another perspective, this may simply be a case of “political opportunism” that only works with the use of brute force or ruthless oppression.
Dawn and a New Day on the Irrawaddy
September 30, 2011 marks an unforeseen day in the political life of Myanmar when the civilian president Thein Sein ordered the suspension of the long controversial construction by China of the giant Myitsone Dam on the Irrawaddy. The project’s initial investment cost of US$ 3.6 billion is expected to rise considerably when the dam’s planned output is raised to 6,000 MW. The water in its reservoir will flood an area of approximately 700 Km2 larger than the island state of Singapore causing an imbalance in the already fragile ecosystem of the Irrawaddy Basin. Meantime, vestiges and monuments of the Burmese culture will be submerged under the water.In a message to Myanmar’s Parliament, President Thein Sein asserted that the Myitsone Project did not “meet the expectations of the people”. This turn of event can be looked upon as the most remarkable progress on the country’s march toward “democracy”.
It would be interesting to recall that more than one year ago, when the military junta supported the elections to pave the way for the formation of a civilian government, Western leaders branded their efforts as mere “window dressing”. But, step by step, the civilian authorities took concrete steps toward “democratization”: easing of censorship, deregulations of the use of the Internet, promulgation of the right of assembly, and release of political prisoners. Most importantly, they broadened their diplomatic contacts to include new partners in order to develop their backward nation whose economy has been stagnating over the last decades. They started to lend an attentive ear to the voice of the people including that of the democratic opposition.
After years of imprisonment including seven years of house arrest, Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of the democratic opposition was finally released. Soon afterward, in August of 2011, she called for a popular movement to save the Irrawaddy and a reevaluation of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) of the entire Myitsone Project. Her appeal sent powerful shock waves through the world community. She quickly embraced and supported President Thein Sein’s decision to put a halt to the building of the Myitsone Dam and reasserted that it is the government’s duty to listen attentively to the voice of the people. On their part, the environmental activists openly expressed their joy and hailed the news as a victory for their cause.
The human rights fighter Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest
Seasoned observers believe Myanmar has embarked on a policy shift. As it “turns its back to Beijing” this country will be able to shake off the long-lasting influence China exerts over it. At the same time, the Burmese leaders succeeded in mitigating the popular discontent especially that of the Kachin minority group, the direct victims of the impacts caused by the series of hydroelectric dams on the Irrawaddy.
The environmentalists are keeping their fingers crossed and hope that the Rangoon government will stick to its words, at least until the end of the five-year term of the current president which will expire in 2015.
At the present time, with mounting pressures from China to reverse the sudden suspension, no one can tell for sure whether the book is closed on the “Myitsone Lesson” or not. As of 10/14/2011, two weeks after the Burmese government officially announced the suspension of the dam construction, the Kachin villagers have not detected any indications that this order will be observed.
A press release by the Kachin Development Networking Group (KDNG) [14/10/2011] revealed that all the equipment still remained at the construction site and the destruction of the gold mine for the building of the Myitsone’s reservoir still went on uninterrupted. Chinese workers carried on with their geological survey to the south of the dam and the works on the road linking Myitsone to the city of Tenchong near the border with China continued unabated. In spite of the order from the Rangoon government to stop all operations, the managers of China Power Investment Co. (CPI) still kept all the machinery and equipment in place so that they could resume their works at the end of the rainy season.
In view of this situation, the Kachin people cannot help harboring some doubt about how much authority their president holds over the big dam construction companies of China. The good news came to them and only lasted for a short while before they were troubled again by uncertainty. The stark reality is: in this twilight zone, they must persist in their struggle if they do not wish to be engulfed by the force of darkness. Beijing has long arms and if it can ally itself with Myanmar’s military junta, then the road ahead will be strewn with formidable obstacles.
The “Myitsone Lesson” shows that the voice of the Burmese people cannot be made clearer. The intention of the Chinese “Son of Heaven”, however, remains an enigma. The author will keep a watchful eye over this and will send in his reports as the situation evolves.
A Surprise and Costly Lesson for China
When it chooses to do business with repressive regimes like in the case of the Burmese military junta, China as usual feels very at ease and reassured. Therefore, the decision to suspend the construction of the Myitsone Dam by Myanmar must have caught the Chinese leaders completely unprepared and they became extremely baffled.In an interview with Xinhua News Agency, Lu Qizhou, Chairman of China Power Investment Co. (CPI), stated that he was “totally astonished” by the decision by Rangoon. It is China’s long-standing policy to do business with repressive governments abroad in complete disregard to the concerns and aspirations of the indigenous people. This callous approach gives rise to the growth of dissenting popular movements. Facing this “fait accompli”, Beijing realizes that its hands are forced and it is left with no other alternative but to sound a conciliatory note by calling for “open discussions”. Hong Lei, the spokesperson of China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, stated: “Revelant matters that have emerged during the implementation of the project should be properly settled through friendly consultations between the two sides.”
The “Myitsone Precedence” leaves the Chinese in a vexing position. There are other business deals between Myanmar and China that are now being put into question.
A case in point is the China Myanmar Oil & Gas Pipeline agreement that was quietly signed between Beijing and the Burmese military leaders in April of 2006. Its main objective is to bypass the Strait of Malacca with the project to construct an oil pipeline connecting the port city of Sittwee in the Bengal Gulf with Kunming, a city in the Chinese province of Yunnan. The pipeline will be built over hills and mounts and traverse areas densely inhabited by ethnic minority groups. The impacts of this mega project on the ecology and lives of the local people have not yet been fully assessed. One thing is certain: it will meet the opposition of the Burmese people. [11]
Human Rights and the “Made in China” Dams
Nowadays, the major dam construction companies in the world are located in China. Only a few decades ago, this country still had to rely on the companies of the West for technological assistance in the implementation of the Three Gorges Dam projects. However, the Chinese meantime had wisely put in place a cost-effective way of achieving technological transfer from the West to China in a record short time. They required their foreign business partners to manufacture half of the turbines in China with the use of Chinese engineers and technicians. Lured by billions of dollars in profit, the big companies of the West like ABB, Alstom, General Electric, and Siemens agreed to those terms and by the same token facilitated the transfer of industrial production process to China. The young Chinese engineers did not let that opportunity slip through their fingers. They learned fast and mastered the science of dam building from their foreign colleagues. It did not take long for them to design and manufacture all the machinery and equipment needed for the construction of dams in Mainland China.As a result, China, nowadays, has surpassed its mentors and controls the world market of dam construction. Besides the fact that China has mastered the technology for dam building, many have wondered how she was able to “export the industry of dam building” to so many countries?
In the case of Vietnam, even though there are no known statistics on hand, it is safe to assume that not a few turbines and equipments installed at the big and small dams of Vietnam bear the stamp “Made in China”.
Peter Bosshard, Policy Director of the International Rivers Network (IRN), believes he has found the answer to that question. In his view, Western companies may command more experience and higher technology but, as a group, they are at the same time more mindful of the social and environmental impacts caused by the dams they build. On account of this “respect for human rights”, they tend to be “cautious and conservative” in their business dealings. On the other hand, China failed to show the same degree of concern for those issues. Beijing had never let go of an opportunity to make a profit. It did not have any second thoughts when submitting a bid and proceeded on regardless of whether it met the ecological criteria set by the international community or not. [8]
International Rivers Network (IRN) also reported that the Myitsone Dam is only one among the 300 big projects to build hydroelectric dams on major rivers in 78 countries that the Chinese are directly involved in: the Irrawaddy and Salween rivers in Myanmar, the Mekong in Asia, the Nile in the Sudan, and the Omo River in Ethiopia … all those mega projects share one thing in common: deficient Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA). For that reason, it is not surprising that anywhere they built, the Chinese met with strong opposition from the local populations who had to pay “extremely high social and ecological costs” while most of the benefits do not go to their countries but end up in the coffers of the big state-owned Chinese corporations instead.
In the end, before the court of public opinion, China cannot wash its hands from the disastrous impacts caused by the hydroelectric dams it built and by its other ventures like the exploitation of bauxite in the Vietnamese Highlands; the China Myanmar Oil & Gas Pipeline in Myanmar; the deforestation, logging and exploitation of minerals in Africa. We can say that Chinese direct investments have reached the farthest corners of the globe. To describe this situation, the press has cleverly offered a picture of a China that walks perilously on thin ice. Such an image of China will undoubtedly worsen were that country to persist in carrying out their objectionable building projects all over this planet.
The destruction of the ecology, regardless of time and space, is another form of violence and violation of human rights. It is equally evident that democracy can only thrive where there is a healthy ecology.
NGÔ THẾ VINH
16 -11-2011
REFERENCE:
- Myanmar Halts China Dams; Celine Fernandez, Brian Speglele – The Wall Street Journal, Oct 1-2, 2011
- Myanmar: Blocked Dam Project Raises Hopes – Rangoon Oct 5, 2011, IRIN / http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=93891
- Lessons from Myitsone Dam in Burma; Grace Mang – International Rivers Network, Sept 30, 2011 http://www.internationalrivers.org/en/node/6886
- Global Ecology And the “Made in China” Dam; Ngo The Vinh – Viet Ecology Foundation, July 20, 2010 http://www.vietecology.org/Article.aspx/Article/62
- Cửu Long Cạn Dòng Biển Đông Dậy Sóng, Chương 4 – Ngô Thế Vinh, Nxb Văn Nghệ California 2000. http://www.vietecology.org/
- Good News, But the Story Isn’t Over – Paul Stuart, The Irrawaddy, Oct 1, 2011.
- A Turning Point for Chinese Dam Builders – Grace Mang, International Rivers Network, Oct 14, 2011
- Burma’s Burning Issue: The Myitsone Dam Project – Wai Moe, The Irrawaddy, Friday September 16, 2011
- Irrawaddy Dam Construction Begins, Human Rights Abuses Begin. Saw Yan Naing. The Irrawaddy News Magazine, Jan 29, 2008.
- Kachins Anxious Wen’s visit will boost Irrawaddy Dam construction. Jun 3, 2010. www.kachinnews.com/News/Kachins-anxious-Wen’s-visit-will-boost-Irrawaddy-dam-contruction/
- Construction of Sino-Myanmar Gas Pipeline to Start in Yuxi, Yunnan Province in July 2011; In Kunming Time: 2011/4/7.
