soethanlynn @ gmail. com

THE government has insisted that villagers forced to move for the Myitsone hydro project are not worse off in their new communities but says it will make“ further arrangements for them” in cooperation with the Kachin State government.

However, it stopped short of pledging to allow them to return to their former villagers inside the Myitsone project area, despite the president having suspended the dam in September 2011.

Residents have complained that housing in two new villages is substandard and the ground is not suitable for cultivation. As The Myanmar Times has previously reported, many risk arrest by returning to their old villages to graze cattle and grow crops.

But Deputy Minister for Electric Power U Myint Zaw told the Pyithu Hluttaw on July 3 that the ministry had managed the resettlement“ appropriately … based on the terms and conditions of the project agreement”.

“ It is certain that their new villages are notof a lowerstandard than before. After negotiating with the state government, we will continue to conduct further arrangements for them as much as possible while the hydropower project is suspended,” U Myint Zaw said in response to a question from Daw Dwe Bu of Injangyang constituency in Kachin State.

She said that while the Myitsone project has been suspended for almost two years there has been little relief for people displaced by the project, who are strugglingto earn a living and fearful for their future.

Men ride a motorbike through Aung Myin Thar San Pya village in Kachin State. The village is one of two established for people relocated because of the Myitsone dam hydro project. Photo: Boothee

Residents from Ma Li Zut, Tang Hpre and La Byant villages were moved to Aung Myin Thar Sanpya village, while those from Dow Pan and Aung Jar Yan villages were shifted to Ma Li Yang village.

“ Most villages in my constituency are included in Myitsone project,” she said.“ Whenever I visit them they complain that the new villages are very different from where they lived before.

“ The residents said that the old villages have good land to grow seasonal crops and it is convenient for their livelihoods and the education of their children. But the land in the new villages ishas a lot of stones and they can’ t grow crops.

“ When the project launched, the officials pledged that the residents will have access to cultivatable land in the surrounding area until the lands are

flooded. Because of the president’ s goodwill, the Myitsone area has not been flooded but the villagers have not been allowed to cultivate- they have even been barred from accessing their old land so now they are disgusted.”

She said additional villages

slated for relocation that have not yet moved are also suffering.

“ For three years the children in these villages can’ t go to schoolbecausethe schools have been relocated to Aung Myin Thar village.”

Daw Dwe Bu has previously

lobbied the government to reconsider its plan for communities in the Myitsone area. In October 2012 she sent a question asking whether the displaced people could be resettled in their original villages and what plans the government was making for their future.

In a reply letter, the Minister for Electric Power said that there is currently no plan to let them return to their original villages“ because the ministry has to follow terms and conditions of the Myitsone project agreement”, she said.

“ There are many explanations in the letter but these are just the same as what has already been done in the past. The point is that the residents want to know what their future is,” she said.

Responding to criticism of living conditions in the two

Aaron David Miller Former Middle East

new villages, the deputy minister on July 3 said the villages had a 24-hour water supply and other facilities, includinga school, hospital, monastery, church, post office, police station and fire brigade building. He said these were built under the memorandum of agreement withthe project’ s Chinese backer, China Power Investment, that aimed to“ create high living conditions for displaced residents”.

“ The ministry resettled 408 households from five villagesbetween May 28, 2010 and May 20, 2011 under the agreement. It spent a total of K16.692billion( about US $ 17 million) to resettle the villages, including construction of infrastructure and homes and compensations for cash crops and orchards. We also give them electricity supply every night,” U Myint Zaw said.

– Translated by Zar Zar Soe