Fresh batch of 300 Chinese dam workers arrive in Myitkyina

A fresh batch of over 300 Chinese dam construction workers arrived in Myitkyina capital of Kachin State in northern Burma today, replacing an earlier lot, who fled to mainland China in the wake of the serial bomb blasts on April 17, said eyewitnesses.


The new arrivals have come a month after the blasts, which killed four and injured over 12 Chinese workers in Irrawaddy Myitsone dam construction site. They belong to Chinese state-owned China Power Investment Corporation (CPI).

“At least 30 trucks arrived in Myitkyina today transporting over 300 Chinese workers and construction material like cement and steel,” the eyewitnesses said.


Environmentalist and local Kachin Development Networking Group (KDNG) functionary, Awng Wa said, the Burmese military junta will forcibly relocate residents living around the hydropower construction site and have arranged for tight security for the Chinese workers, who are worried about their security in the wake of the bomb blasts.

“Without the consent of the local people the junta is trying to relocate them,” Awng Wa added.

With the arrival of the fresh batch of Chinese workers local people will be under severe pressure from the regime to relocate from their homes, where they have been living for decades. It will also usher in demographic changes in the region.

The junta and township leaders held a meeting on May 16 in Tang Hpre village at the Myitsone 27 miles from Myitkyina to formulate a strategy to shift residents, who are still resisting the regime’s order.

A recent order from the Kachin State Peace and Development Council (Pa-Ya-Ka) entails involving 10 local people from each quarter in Myitkyina and Waingmaw townships to expedite relocation of all houses and churches from the Myitsone dam construction site. If the villagers continue to resist, trouble will follow, where Kachins will be made to fight Kachins, Awng Wa said.

According to environmentalists over 15,000 people will be relocated and millions of people will live in fear of floods if the dam collapses as the site is located less than 100 kilometres from the Sagaing fault line.

The Mali-N’Mai Zup, or Myitsone dam construction project got off the ground last year on December 21 and is being jointly implemented by Burma’s Asia World Company, military Junta’s Ministry of Electric Power 1 and China’s CPI much to the chagrin of local people, who want the project to be halted.

Meanwhile the junta authorities continue arresting and investigating residents over the bomb blasts but are yet to find the perpetrators. Locals believe the junta triggered the blasts to intensify security at the construction site and help drive out those meant to be relocated