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Senate panel
wants dam plans scrapped
Human rights abuses `likely to increase'
Kultida Samabuddhi, Bangkok Post Dec 19, 2002
The Senate foreign affairs panel has called on the
Electricity Generation Authority of Thailand (Egat) and MDX Plc, a
construction group, to scrap projects to build dams on the Salween river in
Burma, citing concerns for national security and image.
Panel chairman Kraisak Choonhavan yesterday said the projects would lead to
more human rights violations in Burma, thus forcing more oppressed Burmese
people to seek refuge in Thailand.
Thailand already had to deal with more than four million illegal Burmese
immigrants. If the government gave the projects the go-ahead, the problem of
illegal labour and refugees would worsen, the senator said.
MDX is set to sign a memorandum of understanding with Rangoon on Friday on
the construction of a 3,600-megawatt dam, called Ta Sang, on the Salween
river in Burma's Shan state.
Meanwhile, Egat is pushing the government to give the green light to another
two dams to be built downstream, opposite the Thai district of Mae Sariang
in Mae Hong Son.
The Salween project was discussed at a recent Asean summit in Cambodia,
where energy ministers agreed the project would go ahead. Rangoon is
encouraging other Asean states to help develop basic infrastructure in
Burma.
Mr Kraisak said the government would be condemned by the international
community if it decided to do business with the Burmese military junta.
``International forums had already blamed Thailand for implementing the
Yadana gas pipeline project, which led to the use of forced labour and rape
of ethnic people in the project area. The government should not repeat this
mistake,'' Mr Kraisak said.
The Senate would raise this issue with Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra,
the Foreign Ministry and Egat, he added.
Nassir Archwarin, of the Thai Action Committee for Democracy in Burma, said
the dams would destroy one of Southeast Asia's richest river ecosystems.
The Salween was the lifeline of more than 10 million people in 13 ethnic
groups, he added. Thailand had no real need for a hydro-power dam at the
moment because the country already had a huge oversupply of electricity.
Mr Nassir yesterday handed a petition to Mr Kraisak calling on the Senate to
stop the government and agencies concerned from supporting the projects.
The petition was backed by Burma's opposition National League for Democracy
party led by Aung San Suu Kyi, as well as 69 Thai and Burmese NGOs working
on environment and human rights issues. Mr Nassir said local villagers were
being relocated by force, raped and killed by Burmese troops guarding the
site of Ta Sang dam.
``The Thai government must explore other more suitable alternatives in order
to ensure sustainable power management, not just to take advantage of the
lack of democracy in Burma to push through these projects,'' he said. |
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