Twenty defiant families still staying in Myitsone village

Despite mounting pressure from the Burmese authorities, 20 families are still in Tanghpre village at the Myitsone hydro electric power project, where most villagers from around the project area have been forced to relocate to the new village called Aung Min Tar since 2010.

“They do not have a choice because there are no more houses or place for them in the new village, which is overcrowded,” said a source close to the villagers.

Kachin Roman Catholic Church in Tanghpre under Myitsone dam site. Photo: Kachin News Group

The Asia World Company and China’s state owned China Power Investment Corporation (CPI) are jointly constructing the hydropower project at Myitsone on the Irrawaddy River, construction for which began in 2009. Villagers were forced to relocate to a new village.

Thousands of villagers around the hydropower plant project have been shifted to the new village of Aung Min Tar, where they are facing problems of earning a livelihood, lack of health care facilities, lack of education facilities and absence of opportunities to go for agriculture.

The environmental activist organization Kachin Development Networking Group (KDNG) has warned that more than 15,000 villagers will be faced with forced relocation from the Myitsone dam project area and millions of people, who are living downstream of the river will have to live with the fear of devastating floods if the dam collapses because it is not more than 100 kilometers from the Sagaing fault line.

Almost all villagers depend on agriculture for their livelihood and in the new village there is no place to start plantations. The soil there is red in color and not suitable for agriculture.

“Those who fear for their safety are staying in the Church at night and the Baptist Pastors, Roman Catholic Father and Buddhist monks are not moving anywhere but watching the Church and the Monastery,” said Tsa Ji, general secretary of KDNG.

After civil war broke out between the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and the Burmese Army villagers have been feeling insecure.

There are more than 50 Burmese soldiers living in empty houses after breaking the locks in Tanghpre village and they are collecting money from travelers passing the village, said the source.