Myitsone bomb blast suspects arrested

The Burmese military junta has arrested five people on suspicion of triggering the April 17 serial bomb blasts in the controversial Myitsone dam project site, which killed four and left more than 12 injured.


The accused is Ze Lum, who owns a rubber plantation near the site in Chyinghkrang village. He has three children and lives 8 miles from Myitkyina the capital of Kachin State. He was arrested along with his four employees by the township police on April 18 said local residents.

“Maybe they (junta) arrested him because they thought he hatched the plot as he lost around 50 acres of rubber plantations, which was burnt down earlier for the construction of the project,” said a local source.

Township police searched his house when they arrested him. Later the authorities released two employees but are still detaining Ze Lum and two other employees.

“He had asked for compensation of around 30 million to 40 million Kyats (US$3,061 to $4,082) from Asia World Company because they burnt down his rubber farm. Possibly that is why he was arrested,” said residents.
The local people felt he was innocent.The authorities are investigating and questioning all other rubber farm owners close to the blast site.

Yesterday, Burmese military officials ordered people living in 8 mile to assemble and questioned them, said a villager.
Ze Lum made money from his gold mining business along with his brother Ze Dau in 2003. The family is known to neighbours as hard working and honest people.

“It’s not possible he did it. He is kind and honest. He is being framed,” said the source who knows the accused well.

In Saturday’s bomb blasts in five different places in Lungga Zup and Chyinghkrang village near the dam construction site the victims were mostly Chinese workers. Nearly 300 Chinese workers fled to China-Burma border in four buses along with the injured and the dead.

While no group has claimed responsibility for the bomb blasts, junta’s northern commander Maj-Gen Soe Win telephoned and asked the Kachin Independent Organization (KIO) whether it had a hand in the blast.

Following the phone call representatives of the KIO including its General Secretary Dr. Lahkyen La Ja, Col Hkawng Lum and other high ranking officers went to meet Maj-Gen Soe Win in Myitkyina and explained that the KIO was not involved.

The KIO is now into joint investigations with the junta on the 27 bomb blasts of 39 bombs planted. The explosions destroyed at least seven buildings and 10 vehicles, a large electric generator, a garage, two entrance gates and a 2000 gallon fuel tank in the dam project site.

The Myitsone hydro power project is being implemented by China state owned China Power Investment Corporation (CPI), Burmese firm Asia World Company and the regime’s No.1 Ministry of Electric Power.
The construction started in 2009 December despite opposition to the project by local people, who feared environmental devastation, relocation and a grave threat to their lives should the dam collapse, given it is only 100 kilometers from a fault line in Yunnan province in China.