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DAM-L LS: Ethnic Karennis protest Japanese aid for Myanmar hydropower plant(fwd)

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Date: Mon, 30 Apr 2001 21:37:32 -0700 (PDT)
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Subject: LS: Ethnic Karennis protest Japanese aid for Myanmar hydropower plant
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AP: Ethnic Karennis protest Japanese aid for Myanmar hydropower plant

April 26, 2001

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) _ Ethnic Karenni opponents of Myanmar's ruling
military said Friday that Japan's plan to provide dlrs 24 million to the
regime for renovating a hydropower plant will only hurt local people.

  They claimed the electricity from the Baluchaung hydropower plant has
never provided for indigenous Karenni villagers, but only fed the
capital Yangon and the second largest city, Mandalay.

  ``The Karennis there don't have a single light (bulb). They have to buy
candles to burn,'' Doh Say, director of foreign affairs for the Karenni
National Progressive Party, told The Associated Press by telephone from
northern Thailand.

  The KNPP has a small armed wing that fights a guerrilla war against the
regime.
  Earlier this month, Japan announced it was considering a plan to
renovate the power station, which was originally built in 1960 with
Japanese war reparations to Myanmar, also known as Burma. A final
decision on the aid is expected by the end of the year. With nearly 200
megawatt production capacity, the plant is the biggest electricity
generator in Myanmar.

  The Japanese aid would represent the most significant foreign grant to
Myanmar since the regime took power in 1988 after a bloody crackdown
against a democracy uprising. Since then, donors have only allowed a
trickle of humanitarian assistance.
  The grant from Japan is designed as incentive for the regime to press
on with talks with democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, whose party swept
general elections in 1990 but has been barred from taking power.

  The talks, which began in secret in October, are seen as the most
significant dialogue in a decade of political deadlock, although there
has been no public announcement on how they are progressing.

  The KNPP said in a statement this week that providing aid would only
``further entrench and empower a government that holds no regard for the
people of Burma.'' It asked that plans to rebuild or repair the dam be
stopped.

  Doh Say said that seven villages had been forcibly moved out of the
Lawpita area around the power station in the early 1990s to secure the
plant. Rebel guerrillas had attacked the plant and electricity pylons in
the past.

  Doh Say claimed that thousands of anti-personnel land mines have also
been laid in the area, which lies about 320 kilometers (200 miles)
northeast of Yangon, often injuring villagers and livestock.

  In 1998, when water level in Balu river became low, water was diverted
from farmlands to supply the turbines, Doh Say said. He feared the
problem would worsen if the power plant was expanded.

  ``Whatever they do, the Karenni people will face forced labor and more
land mines will be laid,'' he said.

  The rebels signed a cease-fire with the Myanmar regime in 1994, but
took up arms again when they said government forces invaded their
territory and cut timber. The regime has accused the KNPP rebels of
involvement in the drugs trade.
  Nearly 20,000 Karenni refugees live in Thailand.





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