Kukis voice against Tamanthi Dam
Help the helpless Indigenous ethnic Kukis
Demonstrations and other activities
The Anti-Tamanthi Dam Campaign Committee (ATDCC) of Myanmar, today (28th June, 2005), demonstrated at Jantar Mantar, Delhi against the construction of the 1200 MW Tamanthi Hydroelectric Power Project in the indigenous Kuki area of Myanmar, under the Western Sagaing Division.
This project with the blessing of the India Government and the Myanmar Junta is being undertaken by the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC) where 80 per cent of the power produced will be exported to India. Necessary MoUs have already been signed to this effect.
The dam will be constructed over river Chindwin and it will affect around 35 Kuki villages and 17,000 acres of agricultural land.
According to ATDCC,
(i) The dam will displace about 3600 indigenous ethnic Kukis;
(ii) The military Junta will use forced labour of the local Kukis;
(iii) The area will be swamped by migrant Myanmar labour rendering the local Kukis to minority; and
(iv) The dam will severely impact upon the wildlife, flora and fauna of Myanmar's largest national park.
ATDCC is demanding that The Indian Government stop the proposed Tamanthi Hydroelectric Project and also Stop all investments in Myanmar until democracy is restored in Myanmar.
ATDCC is submitting memoranda also to the Prime Minister of India, Home Minister of India, External Affairs Minister, Union Power
Minister, Union Tribal Affairs Minister and to the NHPC.
More background details will follow.
You can also sign an online petition at
http://www.petitiononline.com/67kukis/petition.html
From Mizzima News
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| A Burmese child in the protest: Members of Kuki Students Democratic Front (KSDF) and Anti-Thamanthi Dam Campaign Committee (ATDCC) on 28 June 2005 staged a protest in New Delhi against the Burmese military junta for the Thamanthi Hydroelectric Power Project, which is being assisted by an India company. |
Kuki Protest Against Thamanti Dam in Burma
By Mungpi
Mizzima News (www.mizzima.com)
June 28, 2005
| India's undertaking that it will build the Thamanti dam project in northwestern Burma has resulted in widespread protests. Campaigners urged the Indian government to rethink its plan to construct the dam in view of the negative effects it will have. Over 100 demonstrators, mostly Kukis, said the construction of the dam will result in violation of human rights and exploitation of natural resources. It urged India to back out from its decision to build the Thamanthi dam on Chindwin river in Sagaing division of Burma. |  |
"The Indian government should seriously think of the negative impact of constructing the dam. And if at all the dam is set to be constructed then the Indian government should rightfully compensate the people for the land they will lose. Natural resources should not be exploited and there should not be forced labour or forced re-locations," Thawng Mang Chonglawi, president of the Kuki Student Organization (KSO) Delhi branch said at a protest rally held near the Jantar Mantar Park in New Delhi.
According to the ATDCC, the proposed dam site will cut across 35 villages and over 17,000 acres of agricultural land, which will be forcibly occupied in the form of forced re-location without any compensation to the villagers.
Burma's military paramount Senior General Than Shwe and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the construction of the Thamanthi hydro electric power project in October 2004.
It was agreed that the proposed dam was to be constructed by the National Hydroelectricity Power Corporation (NHPC) of India, and 80 percent of the power generated will be exported to India through its northeastern region, while 20 percent of the power generated will be for domestic use in Burma.
The dam is to be constructed near a village called "Leivomjang" located between Homalin and Thamanti towns in Chindwin basin and is expected to generate a minimum of 1200 Megawatts.
Pre-dominantly occupied by ethnic Kukis, the proposed dam site is also known as the largest natural park of Burma, where varied species of wild life ranging from the rhinoceros to tigers and wild boars abound. It also home to the famous hornbills and rare air-borne species.
"This project has already started exploiting our forestry and it will result in all our rare animal species to migrate to other places like the Kaziranga sanctuary in Assam," said Let Lam, advisor of the KSDF.
In October last year, India and Burma signed an understanding on flushing out cross-border militant groups, cross-border infrastructure development project, the Kaladan multi-modal transport project, India-Burma-Thailand trilateral highway project, India-Burma-Bangladesh gas pipeline projects and Thamanti Hydro-electric Power projects.
Supporting Message From FENB
The military junta of Burma has taken steps for the execution of the Tamanthi Hydel Electric Power Project. The military junta is a member of the World ommission on Dams. One of the five principles of the ommission is consultation of the local populace of he site before construction is approved. This rinciple has been violated.
Leivomjang, the site where the Tamanthi Hydel Electric ower Project is to be constructed, is a Kuki village. Leivomjang is one among the thirty-five Kuki villages in the vicinity of the proposed project. There is no record of the military junta consulting the Kuki people, who would be directly affected if construction of the dam were to go ahead. This flagrant disregard is typical of the military junta’s attitude towards the rights of the Kuki people and all other ethnic nationalities in Burma since they assumed power in a coup-de-tat led by General Ne Win in 1962. The Kuki Students Democratic Front of Burma had rightly protested against the construction of the Tamanthi Hydel Electric Power Project. FENB, in keeping with the spirit of their ‘Statement of Purpose’, strongly support KSDF’s stand.
History is a mirror of a community’s past. It should not be distorted or manipulated to cause deprivation to the community in question, nor to achieve present gains. Leivomjang and Tamanthi in Homalin District that lies along the river Chindwin are part of the ancestral Kuki domain. The Somra Tract, where the Kuki chiefs received tax and tributes from their subjects, the Tangkhuls, is in the north of this region. ‘Somra’, incidentally, is a Tangkhul corruption of
Som-lah, a Kuki terminology literally meaning ten-percent, the tax percentage paid to the Kuki chief of Zoujang.
Zale’n-gam is a term used to refer to the ancestral land of the Kuki people. Eastern Zale’n-gam, in present-day Burma, comprises the river Chindwin covering regions towards the West bordering India; in the north the river Nantalit covering regions; and to the South, the region stretching to the Chin State border. The various chieftains of this land executed the Kuki Rising
of 1917-1919 against the British colonialists to defend their sovereignty. The British subjected 11 (eleven) prominent Kuki chieftains to imprisonment for 3 (three) years at Tungyi Jail in Burma at the end of the rising in 1919. The military junta must not construct the Thamanti Dam at Leivomjang, which is in this region without consulting the Kukis. They must also stop creating new villages in Kuki territory and populating them with ethnic Burmans. The current policy to transplant Nepali people in the Kabow Valley at Kangmangphai, which is near Tamu Township, and an integral part of Zale’n-gam, must never be implemented without the consent of the Kukis.
The Kuki National Organisation, a member of FENB, is working to attain statehood for Eastern Zale’n-gam. The objectives of FENB include statehood for each of the ethnic members: Wa, Kuki, Palaung, Lahu, Pa-oh and Arakan in their respective ancestral land within a new democratic federation of Burma.
Engaging forced labour without pay for government projects is the modus operandi of the military junta. Should construction of the dam go ahead, this pattern would be applied not only to ethnic Kukis, but to other peoples in the neighbourhood, too. Given the circumstance and expediency to unite against the divisive design of the military junta, FENB urges all the ethnic nationalities, to demonstrate exemplary solidarity in opposing the construction of the Tamanthi Hydel Electric Power Project.
From,
The members of FENB:
Democratic Party of Arakan
Kuki National Organisation
Palaung State Liberation Front
Wa National Organisation
Lahu Democratic Front
Pa-Oh Peoples Liberation Organisation