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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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