Kukis voice against Tamanthi Dam

Help the helpless Indigenous ethnic Kukis

India’s Ugliest Dam Builder

India’s Ugliest Dam Builder

March 25, 2008
by Heffa Schücking

India's ugliest dam builder is undoubtedly the state-owned National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC). While the company is currently angling to acquire new capital, its operations at home and abroad have left a trail of ruined livelihoods and misery in its wake.

The best case in point is Burma. Where others see a human rights disaster, NHPC sees a prime business opportunity. In 2004, NHPC negotiated a contract with the country's military junta to build the Tamanthi Dam on the Chindwin River in Northwestern Burma. The dam is being built on the lands of the Kuki indigenous tribe, and will displace over 30,000 Kukis. Construction began in 2007, and according to reports from the area, the military has begun destroying villages and applying the slave labour system common to Burmese construction projects. Electricity from the dam will be exported to India and its proceeds will fill the military's coffers. As one Kuki leader says: "Tamanthi is yet another weapon in the hands of the junta."

Even in its home country (which after all prides itself on being the world's largest democracy), NHPC shows complete disregard for democratic norms or environment and human rights considerations. In the Indira Sagar project in the Narmada Valley, NHPC enforced a regime of terror, forcing people to leave their villages through intimidation and the use of special armed forces. During the 2004 impoundment of the dam, NHPC began flooding villages without prior notice, so that many villagers had to run for their lives. In the Omkareshwar Dam area, just 50 km downstream of Indira Sagar, NHPC's approach has been similarly brutal. Here, the inhabitants of the village of Panthiaji were given only 24 hours to leave their homes, and were told that they would not receive any compensation, unless they destroyed their own houses.

Ramphere Yadav of Panthiaji tells the story of what happened that day: "First we refused to go, but then the people from NHPC said that they would break our houses with their bulldozers and smash our belongings. So there was no choice. It was the monsoon and raining heavily, but we were forced to leave our homes, and all our belongings were lying in the rain. So we worked all night. We took out our belongings, took down our roofs and broke our homes because the pressure was so much. People were crying, and we were in extreme distress. Having to break our village was like breaking our own heart."

Amazingly, in spite of Supreme Court judgments, resettlement plans, project agreements, the conditions set out by India's Environment Ministry and state policies - all specifying that the affected villagers must receive land-for-land compensation and must be resettled at least six months before impoundment begins - NHPC has never provided a single family with new land. Recently, oustees in the Narmada Valley have managed to win a number of court cases against NHPC, so that the High Court of the State, for example, put a stay on the filling of the Omkareshwar reservoir. However, NHPC has completely ignored court decisions ordering it to compensate those who were already displaced for the Indira Sagar project. The result is that some 200,000 people, most of whom were formerly self-sufficient farmers, have been turned into refugees and paupers.

Currently, NHPC's dam building is focused on India's Northeast, a region with a fragile ecology and home to over 100 indigenous peoples. Here, too, the company is ignoring local laws and the rights of affected people. The best example is the Dzongu region in the State of Sikkim. Dzongu is home to the Lepcha people and the only remaining refuge for their culture. Over 100 years ago, when Sikkim was still an independent Buddhist Kingdom, Dzongu was proclaimed a Lepcha reserve in recognition of the tribe's unique culture and deep bond to nature. This law was affirmed when Sikkim became a member of the Indian Union in 1975. In the meantime, the area adjacent to Dzongu has been declared a Biosphere Reserve to protect the region's spectacular biodiversity. NHPC has nonetheless begun planning and building a series of dams that will have severe impacts on both Dzongu and the Biosphere Reserve. The Lepcha are waging a desperate battle against these projects and last year, two of their leaders went on a 63-day hunger strike. As Dawa Lepcha, one of the hunger strikers says: "The only law that the government is currently upholding is the Land Acquisition Act, which allows it to displace people. All other laws are thrown to the winds."

As a state-owned corporation, NHPC has been allowed to virtually ignore India's environmental laws and regulations, the conditions set out in project clearances, court judgments and in project agreements to guarantee the rights of people affected by its projects.

In recent years, the corporation has received support by European private banks such as Banca Monte del Paschi di Siena, Barclays, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, ING, Natixis, Société Générale and Standard Chartered as well as by the Asian Development Bank and export credit agencies such as Coface, Export Development Canada and JBIC.

NHPC has set a whole new standard for corporate social irresponsibility and sheer callousness. Any financial institution with a semblance of ethics needs to blacklist this corporation.

More information: 

The author is with the German environment and human rights organization Urgewald. This article is based on her new report, “NHPC: People Don’t Matter."

Contact the author at: 

Ann Kathrin Schneider
annkathrin@internationalrivers.org
+49 30 214 0088

Sources: 

http://www.internationalrivers.org
 

Hydro Dam May Force 30,000 to Move

Hydro Dam May Force 30,000 to Move

By YENI Wednesday, August 30, 2006

 

The northwest Burmese town of Khamti on the border with India would be submerged and its 30,000 inhabitants forced to move if a proposed hydro-electric dam project goes ahead, say environmentalists.

The project, mainly intended to supply electricity to India, would also displace 35 villages of the Kuki whose land would be part of the 17,000 acres likely to be flooded.

These are the conclusions of the India-based Kuki Students’ Democratic Front, Tamanthi Dam Campaign Committee and environmentalists in Rangoon. Lu Lun, one of the leaders of the Kuki students’ group, said: “So far there has not been any consultation with the affected Kuki people.”

A memo of understanding has been signed between the Burmese junta and India’s National Hydro-electric Power Corporation which would build and operate the dam.

It’s not known when the project, to be located on the Chindwin river which passes through Khamti, will be built or at what financial cost.

The Tamanthi hydrodam is meant to have a generating capacity of 1,200—more than Burma’s entire current generating capacity. Similar sized hydrodams being built in Laos, or planned on the Salween river near Burma’s border with Thailand, are budgeted to cost close to or above US $1 billion, analysts note.

NGOs and environmentalists say most of the people who would be directly affected by the Tamanthi project are Kuki, an ethnic group who live on both sides of the India-Burma border. Naga people would also be affected. Rangoon-based journalists told The Irrawaddy that surveys of the likely social and environmental impact of the hydrodam are now under way. “The residents there are not very happy to hear that they must move,” said one.

The environmentalists also warned that the proposed dam development could encroach on part of Burma’s largest national park—Hukaung Valley Wildlife Sanctuary—and threaten endangered wild life, including tigers, leopards and gorillas.

The World Bank has estimated that Burma, which produces very little electricity—less than 1,000 megawatts—has the potential from its rivers to produce up to 100,000 megawatts a year. Up to 80 percent of the electricity planned to be generated at Tamanthi will go to India, and most of the power produced by a 600-megawatt hydrodam to be built at Hatgyi on the Salween will go to Thailand.

TAMANTHI DAM IN BURMA

TAMANTHI DAM IN BURMA 

 

YET ANOTHER WEAPON

IN THE HANDS OF THE MILITARY JUNTA

 

 

 The Indian Government and the NHPC are the accomplices

The Tamanthi Dam

 

The Tamanthi Hydroelectric Power Project (THPP) with a generating capacity of 1200 projects is proposed on the Chindwin river that flows through the heart of Kuki inhabited area of Western Sagaing Division. Leivomjang, a Kuki village between Tamanthi and Homalin, is the dam site.

 

THPP has been entrusted for construction to the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC), a Central Sector Indian power utility, by the State Peace and Development Council (SDPC), the Burmese military junta, through an MoU signed between the SDPC and the Indian Government during Gen. Than Shwe’s visit to India in October 2004. According to the MoU, 80 per cent of the power generated will be exported to India.

 

The proposed dam will affect 35 Kuki villages which need to be relocated. About 17,000 acres of agricultural land will be acquired for the project. So far neither the NHPC nor the SDPC has held any consultation with the affected Kuki people and the villagers. No documentation on the project, environmental and social impacts and mitigation is available.

 

How NHPC came into the scene

 

According to information gathered, the preliminary survey for the THPP was first carried out by technical experts from Japan and then Korea. Owing to certain deadlock over sharing of profits, any further talks did not materialise. In November 1999, the Indian power delegation and Myanmar Electric Power Enterprise carried out a joint investigation and a report was prepared for discussion in the Indian Parliament. After the visit of the SDPC Chairman, a five-member team of power experts comprising D V Khera, Member CEA, A N Sinha, Member, Planning CEA, Yogendra Prasad, Chairman and Managing Director, NHPC, B Sharma, Executive Director, NHPC and R K Madan, Director Projects, Power Grid Corporation of India visited Burma on February 19, 2005 and held further discussions on transmission links, technical aspects, investments, payment contracts etc.

 

Our concerns

 

The ruling military regime is committed to planning and building hydroelectric power projects, trying to harness its huge potential. There are proposals, at present to erect 200 large, medium and small hydro power stations with the total generation capacity of nearly 40,000 MW, most of them without scientific investigation into the potential impacts and also without any consultation with or participation of the affected community. While none of these projects are directly supported by Multilateral Development Banks, it is certain that the Regional Power Interconnections plan of the Asian Development Bank''s Greater Mekong Sub-region program is on the role and providing incentive for Burma to exploit its river systems aggressively.

 

In a blatant disregard to the internationally accepted principles of the World Commission on Dams (WCD), of public access and participation, equitable resettlement programme, effective environmental mitigation and fair sharing of benefits between the affected communities and developers, the Military Junta of Burma, in collaboration with NHPC of India, propose to build a mega hydroelectric power project in the heart of Kuki inhabited areas in Burma which will displace the ethnic Kukis from their ancestral homeland.

 

The THPP will adversely affect the biodiversity, ecological balance and the climatic conditions of the region. Floods in the upstream, and changes in the morphology of the riverbed and bank will destroy the habitats of precious species of flora and fauna. Burma’s largest National Park is very close to the dam site.

 

The ethnic Kukis of the area will be subjected to forced labour till the completion of the proposed project. Relocation of 35 Kuki villages and acquisition of 17,000 hectares of agricultural land will result in severe food security and loss of livelihood.

 

He subjugation of Kukis will continue through the game of outnumbering them and reducing them to minority through a calculated influx and settlement of poverty-ridden people from other regions of Burma as construction labourers for the project.

 

Strengthening the Military Dictatorship: sustaining through resource extraction

 

Already an UN sponsored international economic sanction exists against the Burmese Government. The military junta continues to incarcerate Daw Aungsan Suu Kyi, the noble peace laureate by her continued house arrest. On the other hand, India, the largest democracy in the World, is in fact strengthening this junta’s hands by supporting them in dam building, hydel power project construction, laying of gas pipeline and highways. Various trade pacts are also signed.

 

The military junta, in order to sustain its misrule, has been rampantly and indiscriminately extracting Burma’s precious natural resources. Thousands of acres of forest land has been destroyed and deforested. Though Burma’s military govenment has signed several international agreements including the “Convention on Biological Diversity and the International Tropical Timber Agreement” (CBDITTA), more than 70 per cent of the Kuki inhabited areas have been deforested by largescale lumbering of timber, most certainly for strengthening the barbaric regime, whose army strength has grown from 200,000 in 1988 to more than 400,000 in 2002. The Kuki inhabited areas are famous for growing Teak, a high value timber in the international market.

 

Having exhausted the forest reserves, the SPDC is now out to exploit its water resources. It has planned to earn millions of dollars by exporting surplus power produced through hydro electric projects across Burma. The Tamanthi dam will give them one such opportunity to earn millions through exporting 80 per cent of the power produced to India.

 

Mike Hurle of The World Markets Review states, “Whilst the project was first proposed five years ago, the participation of an Indian partner could push it off the drawing board, at a time when Indian delegations have been looking at a wide range of energy co-operation options with their eastern neighbour Asia Regional: 29 January 2004: India Considers Developing Energy Linkages to Myanmar). Myanmar has over a dozen hydroelectric projects under consideration and has been seeking assistance from its neighbours, including in South-East Asia and China, as well as India.”

 

The Kuki nationality, therefore, feels that instead of strengthening the Burmese military rule, a democracy like India is expected to facilitate and foster the ushering of democracy in Burma. This act will be consistent with India’s international obligations.

 

Kukis must be protected and their sovereignty respected

 

Like many other ethnic groups in Burma, the Kukis are one of the many nations who have been living in Burma since ancient times. A freedom loving people, they rose up in rebellion against the British invasion. However, the independence of both India and Burma, and redrawing of their boundaries divided the Kuki nation also.

 

Kukis living in the Indo-Burma region have been the victims of terror by successive military rulers. Kukis have suffered forced labour, rape , torture, destruction of their property, migrant influx and livelihood loss, but never subjugated themselves to the military junta. Another dam, another round of relocation and displacement will not deter them.

 

The Federation of Ethnic Nationalities of Burma (FNEB), Kuki National Organisation (KNO), the Kuki Students Democratic Front (KSDF) together with the Anti-Tamanthi Dam Campaign Committee:

 

§         Demand that the Indian Government and NHPC stop the proposed Tamanthi Hydroelectric Power Project and all other mega projects in Burma must be stopped until the restoration of democracy and consultative people’s participation in decision making takes place.

§         Call for ban on and oppose all forms of investment and development assistance in to Burma until genuine democracy is restored

§         Call upon the international community to condemn the Burmese military for their systematic human rights violations and ethnic subjugation of Kukis.

§         Urges the Indian democracy and its people to support immediate peaceful democratic change in Burma.

 

 

The dam affected people and their allies around the world at the Second International Meeting of Dam Affected People and their Allies, at Rasi Salai, Thailand, resolved in December 2004:

 

“Under the current military regime in Burma, the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), dam building – like all other large scale development – leads directly to serious human rights abuses and environmental destruction. People face severe and systematic human rights violations, such as forced relocation, systematic sexual violence against women, extra judicial killings, intimidation of local populations, which has forced them, especially in the ethnic nationalities area, to become refugees in neighbouring countries, as well as Internally Displaced Persons.

 

Let the Chindwin river flow

 

Let Kuki people live with dignity

 

Say no to Tamanthi Dam, Say no to tortures of military government

 

Say no to NHPC and Indian support to the Burmese military government

Htamanthi Dam threat to Ethnic Kukis

Kukis Campaign Against Tamanthi Dam
Exploitations Of Natural Resources In Kuki Areas

By: Anti-Tamanthi Dam Campaign Committee



* Historical Background of the Kukis in brief:-

From time immemorial, the present Burma has been inhabited by different ethnic groups with an invisible line of demarcation between territories. Without belonging to any particular nation, it was the land of all the communities inhabiting it while the territorial integrity of each community was respected by the other. In such a scenario, the main pre-occupations of the people were religion, culture and trade. 

The Kukis are one of the many nations who have been living in Burma since olden times. A freedom loving people, they rose up in rebellion against the British invasion can be judged from the fact that it affected all the Kuki inhabited areas of the present day Burma and India. Due to their superior arms, the Britishers were able to subjugate the Kukis after a long drawn-out-struggle of three years (1917-19).

They lived under the British rule for nearly thirty years. By then, India and Burma had already been the British colonies for more than 100 years. Unfortunately, when the British left India and Burma, the border line of these two countries was drawn passing right through the middle of the territories of the Kukis and thus remains their (the Kuki’s) sovereignty un-restored.

This is the reason why the Kukis are found living along Indo-Burma regions and the Kukis of Burma must doggedly bear merciless treatment- torture, rape, pottering, etc. in the hands of successive military rulers.

Man power exploitation

Since Newin coup power in 1962 from the then democratic govt. headed by prime minister U Nu followed by another coup in 1988, the Kukis have been subjected to all kinds of human rights violation such as forced labour, pottering (sometimes with their bullock cart) of the food items, arms, ammunitions, etc. of the patrolling army from village to village. It was a daily routine that was in vogue for more than two decades until the road transport gets improved a little.

Forced labour was used in the construction of roads, govt. school buildings and quarters, hospitals, army camps, 500 houses in 10 villages to give influx of slums from cities and prisoners permanent settlement, digging or excavation of irrigation canals trenches in army out post, erection of electric posts, soil preparation of acres of agricultural land own by the army out post officers, so on and so forth. Endless suffering stories of the Kukis in the hands of tyrannical regime are there.

Failure to attend forced labour summoned due to various considerable reasons like sickness, out of station, etc. results in physical torture and doubling in the volume of work to be done. According to the secretary’s record of a Kuki village, one person from each was subjected to forced labour for 120 days in a year without any provision.

Forest

Though Burma’s military govt. has signed several international agreements including the “Convention on Biological Diversity and the International Tropical Timber Agreement” (CBDITTA), more than 70% of the Kuki inhabited areas have been deforested by cutting down of trees for sale as timber, most certainly for strengthening the barbaric regime, whose army strength has grown from 200,000 in 1988 to more than 400,000 in 2002.

The SPDC regime of course senses the ill effect such as change of rainfall and climate, extinction of species of animals, insects, plants etc. that would arise from deforestation. But as regards to priorities of things are concerned, environmental consideration is far behind “the continuity of the barbaric regime” that matters to the army generals.

While other nations of the world are putting constant stress on the people to preserve forest and encourage planting of more trees, the military junta of Burma is driving on the vice. The Kukis are robed of their properties. It is painful for one to see one’s own trees being fallen and sold on large scale by another without prior consultation or giving a thought to potential harm.

Water Resource Exploitation

The Kukis are now under attack by the SPDC regime to rob of their water resources after forest. The means of its approach is seemingly nice and good that even some of the Kukis who would be affected are also convinced because they are not far sighted.

What aggravates the plight of the people of Burma is that the head of army who is ruffian has at present more than 200 places to erect large, medium and small hydro power stations with the total generation capacity of nearly 40,000 MW, most of them without scientific investigation into the potential impacts and also without the concern or open participation of the affected community.

Among this projects one of the largest is proposed to be constructed in the Kuki inhabited area- the details of it is given below:

Name of the Proposed Dam:
Tamanthi Hydroelectric Power Project.

Background (history):
Preliminary survey was conducted by the technical experts of Japan and then Korea but owing to certain deadlock over the sharing of profit, the talks have both run into rough weather. Then in November 1999, Indian Power delegation team and Myanmar Electric Power enterprise jointly carried out the investigation followed by report and discussion in the Indian Parliament.

The Chairman of SPDC, Gen Than Shwe visited India during October 24 to 29, 2004 and held talks with UPA Govt. of India and signed MoU on the Project besides many others India’s External Affairs Minister (EAM), K.Natwar Singh paid a visit to Burma on “Look East” policy during 24-27 March 2005 at the invitation of Burma’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, U.Nyan Win..

India’s security concerns in the North-East, cross-border infrastructure development projects, Kaladanmulti-modal transport project and the India-Myanmar-Thailand Trilateral Highway, India-Bangladesh-Myanmar gas pipeline and Tamanthi Hydro-electric Power project were figure on the agenda. A five member team of power experts comprised of the member, Central Electricity Authority (CEA), DV Khera, Member planning, CEA, AN Sinha, Chairan and managing director, NHPC, Yogendra Prasad, Executive Director, NHPC, B Sharma and director, Projects, Power Grid Corporation of India Limited, PGCIL, RK Madan visited Burma on February 19, 2005 and held discussions over exporting around 80% of Power Generated, laying the transmission links from the project to an appropriate location in North East India, from where it will then be transmitted to other regions of the country, the technical aspect details related with the funding of this project along with the payment contracts, investments required to put up transmission lines, etc.

Name of the river:
Chindwin that originates from Hukaung valley and flowing into Irrawaddy (Ayeyawaddy).

The Dam site:
Leivomjang, a Kuki village between Tamanthi and Homalin in Chindwin basin, in the heart of Kuki inhabited area of Western Sagaing Division.

Generation Capacity:
1200 Megawatts.

Sharing of Power Generated:
80% of the power generated will be exported to India while only 20% for local supply (mostly for the SPDC).

No of Kuki villages affected:
More than 35 villages will be relocated.

Area of compulsory acquisition:
About 17,000 acres of agricultural land.

Company Undertaking the project:
National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC), India.

Projects such as this require thorough and scientific investigation into social and Environmental impacts in compliance with the World Commission on Dam (WCD) recommendation. According to the internationally recognized principles and guidelines established by the WCD, any propose hydroelectric project must adhere to respect the following five points:

1. Public access, acceptable and ensuring participation.
2. Equitable resettlement program such as adequate compensation.
3. Effective environmental mitigation.
4. Fair sharing of benefits between affected communities and developers.
5. Co-operative in managing the national rivers and investigation of trans-boundary impacts.

Unfortunately, the military regime of Burma does show respect to and have violated all the above five points. Earth Right Committee the Kuki Students Democratic Front (KSDF), Burma, therefore, vehemently object, protest, campaign and fight against the implementation of the proposed Tamanthi Hydroelectric Power Project in Chindwin river for the following additional reasons.

1. It will adversely affect the existence of biodiversity, ecological balance and climatic conditions of the region
2. Flood on the upstream and change in the morphology of the riverbed and bank will destroy the habitats of birds and animals like hornbill, peacock, tiger, elephant, rhinoceros, wild bear, boar, wild buffalo, etc. because the proposed dam site is part Burma’s largest National Park.
3. The regional Kukis will be for sure subjected to forced labor till completion of the work.
4. More than 35 Kuki villages will be subjected to relocation together with acquisition of thousands of acres of their agricultural land uncompensated.
5. It has political intension to constantly subjugate or suppress the ethnic Kukis by the Army arranged settlement of influx and poor Burmans from cities and prisoners (who will purposely outnumber and reduce the regional Kukis to minority) on the pretext of poverty eradication program. (Thousands of houses have already been constructed in other parts of the Kuki areas with the same purpose).
6. According to the plan 80 % of the power generated will be exported to India by which the brutal dictatorship will earn millions of rupees that will be used to crush pro-democracy fighters and ethnic nationalities.
7. Rise in power of the Army will pose threat to the regional peace in South East Asia.

Appeal

Anti-Tamanthi Dam Campaign Committee (ATDCC), Burma earnestly request and appeal to all individuals and organizations of Students, teachers, Intellectuals, doctors, scientists, engineers, politicians, religious and social workers, ecologist and environmentalist of all communities across the globe to join hands with us in this campaign against the construction of Tamanthi Hydroelectric Power Project on Chindwin river at Leivomjang, Sagaing Division Burma.

Anti-Tamanthi Dam Campaign Committee

Sign KSDF's online petition at the URL link below

http://www.petitiononline.com/67kukis/petition.html

For more information visit 

www.ksdf.org