Tang Hpre. Time is running out for the ethnic villagers of Tang Hpre, who have been told to leave their homes near the birthplace of Burma’s mighty Irrawaddy to make way for a new reservoir.The dam being built in northernmost Kachin state is expected to inundate dozens of villages, displace some 10,000 people and irreversibly damage one of the world’s most biodiverse areas.
“The people are terrified,” said a 70-year-old village preacher. “The State Peace and Development Council came and said we have to move. We can’t say no.”
Electricity from the hydropower project is destined for China, which is hungry for Burma’s rich natural resources, while the revenues are expected to line the pockets of the junta and their cronies.
For the people of Kachin, Myitsone Dam symbolizes the struggles they have faced for decades as a marginalized ethnic group in the repressed nation, which has been ruled by generals since 1962.
Although Burma is preparing for its first election in 20 years on Sunday, the poll will not offer the Kachin people a chance to air their political grievances.
The junta has scrapped the ballot in ethnic areas deemed unable to hold a “free and fair” vote, including villages in Kachin, Kayah, Karen, Mon and Shan states. The regime has refused registration to three Kachin parties and independent candidates, save for one party backed by the junta.
“People don’t really believe in this process,” a civil society worker said. “Throughout history, trust has been broken again and again.”
After Burma gained independence in 1948, civil war broke out between the regime and ethnic rebels. Decades of violence ended with a fragile cease-fire between the government and the Kachin Independence Organization in 1994.
“The KIO can’t surrender arms until there is a political solution,” said James Lumdau, the group’s deputy chief of foreign affairs, defending their refusal to disarm their militia, the Kachin Independence Army.
“Within six months, there are most likely to be serious military operations against ethnic groups. This will be the fight of their lives, a fight for survival,” said Maung Zarni, a Burma expert at the London School of Economics.
While the regime is likely to face pressure from key backer China to avoid sparking an exodus of refugees across the border, tensions are growing.
