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Myanmar cardinal lashes out at controversial dam on Irrawaddy


Cardinal Charles Bo says people must resist Chinese attempts to restart $3.8m Myitsone dam on the Irrawaddy River.

By Robin Gomes

Cardinal Charles Bo of Myanmar is vehemently opposing the China-backed Myitsone dam on the Irrawaddy River saying it is “the death sentence” to the people of Myanmar.

In a January 28 press release, the Archbishop of Yangon appealed to all stakeholders to stop the project saying the controversial dam is an “environmental disaster” that will deprive millions of farmers of their livelihood in a nation where 80 per cent of the population depends on agriculture. 

Livelihood at stake

“The grim prospect of millions of farmers losing their livelihood, the abuse of sacred sites along the rivers, the death and destruction of the precious flora and fauna of our dear nation, are becoming a nightmarish reality,” he said.

In an earlier message on the occasion of Christmas 2017, Cardinal Bo had spoken against the project, urging the people of Kachin state to protest against the $3.8 billion dam , a massive hydroelectric power development project, 90 per cent of whose electricity is expected to go to China.

By 2010, the dam’s construction had caused the relocation of at least 3,000 people.  The military-backed government of President Thein Sein suspended construction in September 2011, but China has vigorously called for the resumption of the project. 

Pawning mother to greedy superpower 

“Faced with the sad prospect of losing our mother Irrawaddy, through Myitstone dam, to the greed of a superpower,  every Myanmar citizen pleads with all people of good will to come to the support of the poor of Myanmar,” the cardinal wrote in the release message entitled, “Stop Trafficking Our  Mother  Irrawaddy”.

Regarding Irrawaddy more than a river, the cardinal said she is a sacred mother whose history is intertwined with that of the nation and its people; it is a commodity that cannot be bartered.  “She is our hope, she is our destiny.”

Concerns over the resumption of the Myitstone dam grew after a December visit by Ambassador Hong Liang of China to Kachin where he met with political parties and social organizations.  Two weeks later, the Chinese embassy released a statement saying the local Kachin community were not against the project but some outside individuals and social organizations were objecting.

Three Kachin political parties quickly refuted the Chinese claim.

Cardinal Bo decried the “big and powerful countries” who want everything from the nation.  “For decades, they abused its strategic position to threaten Myanmar. They commodified our girls and women through human trafficking in the northern states of Myanmar,” he alleged. 

The outspoken cardinal compared those who support restarting the dam project to “sons and daughters who commodify their parents for monetary gain”. “History will never forgive those who sell our mother Irrawaddy,” he warned and hoped that the country’s “leaders will resist all efforts to destroy our nation’s destiny and dignity”.

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