ミャンマーでの中国のダム建設で内戦勃発か

現在ミャンマーのミツォンMyitsoneにおいて中国による水力発電ダムの建設が行われている。ダムは2019年に完成すれば、世界で6番目に高いダムとなり、年間で6千メガワットの電力を生み出すことになる。すべての電力は中国へ輸出され収入はすべてミャンマー政府の懐に入る。しかしこの地域はイラワジ川の砂金の採掘地でダムが完成すれば、採掘地はダムの底に沈み、カチン住民約1万人が移住を余儀なくされる。またこの地域はミャンマー政府と対立するカチン独立機構(KIO)の実効支配地域と隣り合っており、昨年ダム建設現場において爆弾事件が起きたのに続いて、今年5月にはカチン独立機構はダム建設を止めなければ内戦になると警告を発している。同じ5月にはカチン独立機構のLanyaw Zawng Hra議長が胡錦濤主席へ書簡を送り、ミツォン・ダム建設を中止するよう訴えている。最近では形の上で休戦協定を結んでいるミャンマー政府軍とカチン独立機構の軍事組織であるカチン独立軍(KIA)との間で衝突が起きていて、中国のダム建設が内戦への引き金になる可能性がある。

Across the river, the corrugated-iron roofs of a prefabricated barracks glint in the midday sun. They house hundreds of Chinese labourers working on the Myitsone hydropower project. This, according to Myanmar’s government, will be the sixth highest dam in the world, and generate 6,000MW of electricity a year. On completion in 2019, the dam will flood the gold-prospecting area and displace more than 10,000 people. All the electricity will be exported to China. All the revenue will go to Myanmar’s government. If an environmental and social impact study was conducted at all, it did not involve consulting the affected villagers. Those displaced are not the only ones worrying about the project. The project abuts territory controlled by the Kachin Independence Organisation (KIO), one of a plethora of ethnic insurgencies that have battled the central government for decades. Last year several bombs exploded at the dam site and in May the KIO warned that if the dam were not stopped it would lead to civil war. The KIO’s armed wing recently engaged in skirmishes with government forces, despite a notional ceasefire. The KIO was banned from last year’s election in Myanmar because it refused to let its fighters join the government’s “border security force”. Its threat came as Myanmar’s newly installed “civilian” president, Thein Sein, a former general, embarked on a state visit to China.

http://www.economist.com/node/18806782

A Burmese tactical operation commander is among the dead and heavy casualties in the fighting with the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), according to Bauk Ja, an unsuccessful electoral candidate in Hpakant Township with the National Democratic Force.She said that more than 100 Burmese soldiers have died in the fighting.

http://www.myanmarnews.net/story.php?rid=46138173