04/09/2009
Le dighe costruite dalla Cina sul fiume Salween – Articolo della Shan Sapawa Environmental Organisation
Pubblichiamo un comunicato stampa
della Shan Sapawa Environmental Organisation. Il comunicato denuncia uno dei
problemi più gravi della Birmania di oggi. Non solo rifugiati e sfollati
interni (IDPs) per la violenza dei conflitti presenti nel Paese, ma anche
rifugiati, sfollati interni e trasferimenti forzati per i progetti della Giunta e di molte
società straniere (DDPs)
In questo caso si tratta
della costruzione di una delle 5 dighe sul fiume Salween - ad opera delle
cinesi
Hanergy Holding Group (già
Farsighted Investment Group) e
Gold Water
Resources Company – che ha portato al dispiegamento di migliaia di soldati
nello Stato Shan e alla fuga di 30.000 rifugiati in Cina.
Per maggiori
informazioni vai su
www.salweenwatch.org.
Segue il comunicato in inglese.
Renewed fighting and refugee influx a wake-up call to
Chinese dam-builders
Burma Army clashes with Kokang at site of planned
Upper Salween Dam
Shan activists are calling on China to immediately halt all investment in dams
on the Salween River
following the recent heavy fighting between the Burmese military regime and the
Kokang ceasefire army near the site of the Upper Salween Dam planned by Chinese
companies in northern Shan
State.
Heavy clashes have taken
place just east of the town of Kunlong,
about 15 kms from the planned dam site. Fighting broke out on August 27, 2009,
after the regime deployed thousands of troops to seize control of the Kokang
territory, shattering the 20-year ceasefire and causing over 30,000 refugees to
flee to China.
Kokang forces have sought to repel the Burma Army troops.
Plans to build the Upper
Salween Dam, also known as the Kunlong Dam, were announced in April 2007 by two
Chinese companies, Hanergy Holding Group (formerly Farsighted Investment Group)
and Gold Water Resources Company. Since then a team of Chinese and Burmese
technicians have been conducting feasibility studies for the 2,400 MW dam, 25
kms from the Chinese border.
The Kunlong Dam is one of five
mega dams being planned on the Salween in Burma
by the SPDC and Chinese and Thai companies, to produce electricity to be sold
to China and Thailand. The
Shan Sapawa Environmental Organisation, together with the Salween Watch
coalition of environmental groups from Thailand
and Burma,
has been monitoring the controversial dam plans for ten years and advocating
for their immediate halt.
“The renewed fighting and the
flood of refugees into Yunnan should be a
wake-up call to China about
the risks of investing in Burma,”
said Sapawa spokesperson Sai Khur Hseng.
“Not only is there no free
and informed consent to these dam projects, but they are being built over the
dead bodies of our people.”
The other mega dam being
planned in Shan State is the giant 7,110 MW Ta Sang dam,
100 km
from the Thai border. In early August, the regime renewed a scorched earth
campaign in townships close to the Ta Sang dam site, torturing and killing
civilians and driving 10,000 villagers from their homes.
(4 Agosto 2009)