News & Articles on Burma-Tuesday, 25 January, 2011

News & Articles on Burma
Tuesday, 25 January, 2011
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‘We must speak in one voice’
Mon Party to introduce farm ownership bill
Burma Army’s camp construction causing migration
Army officials moved to govt ministries
Two journalists freed in Thailand
Thailand cancels reporters’ deportation
Myanmar to launch new private airline
Exiled print press goes quiet
A New Government for Myanmar (Not)
Speaking Truth to Burma
Hydropower plant opens in Kachin State
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‘We must speak in one voice’
Tuesday, 25 January 2011 14:49 Mizzima News

(Mizzima) - Recently, the Committee for the Emergence of a Federal Union (CEFU) was formed after a joint meeting of the Kachin Independence Organisation (KIO), the Karen National Union (KNU), the Karenni National Progressive Party (KNPP), the Chin National Front (CNF), the New Mon State Party (NMSP) and the Shan State Progressive Party (SSPP) in November 2010.

The committee plans to convene a broad ethnic conference, but one that its leaders describe as different from the proposed second Panglong-type conference that has been proposed by the National League for Democracy and ethnic political parties.
Mizzima reporter Ko Wild interviewed NMSP General-Secretary Nai Han Thar on what type of conference is planned and the issues involved.

Q: The CEFU is comprised of six ethnic organisations, and you’re now in an organizing stage, correct?

A: Yes, we plan to implement our work by coordinating with ethnic alliances such as the National Democratic Front (NDF), the Ethnic Nationalities Council (ENC) and the United Nationalities League for Democracy – Liberated Area (UNLD-LA). These alliance groups will send representatives to the conference. An organising committee will be formed first and it will do the preparatory work.

Q: What are the differences between your conference and the conference being initiated by domestic ethnic political parties and the NLD, which has been described as a second Panglong Conference?

A: The conference being initiated in Burma is like the 1947 conference [Panglong Conference], where Burmese representatives and ethnic representatives met and reached an agreement. Their intention is to implement an agreement similar to the one reached at that time between Burman and ethnic people.

Our conference is different. Most of the ethnic people on the border are waging an armed struggle against the government for our self-defence. Now the military regime is preparing to wage war against cease-fire and other groups. So these ethnic groups have to defend themselves in an coordinated effort.

On the other hand, all ethnic people must be united in trying to achieve a federal union. We must speak in one voice. In this way, we can resist the regime’s offensive in unity. We will be stronger if we can all unite on the same political platform.

Then we can represent ethnic people in a tripartite dialogue, which we are calling for. So our conference will work on all these issues.

Q: Previously, you formed the NDF and ENC for these purposes too.

A: Yes, we have had similar intentions before, but these two organisations diverged and became different entities over time. Their principles are now different from each other, and it is difficult to reconcile them. Under the circumstances, we need to consolidate ourselves as we resist a military offensive.

Q: In trying to consolidate all ethnic groups, some argue that Burman (Burmese groups) should participate as one of the ethnic groups. Do you agree and can you accept Burman groups as an ethnic group? How do you see the role of the ethnic Burman?

A: We can accept it if an organisation representing ethnic Burmese comes and join us. But there are no such organisations representing ethnic Burmese. Also there are no ethnic Burmese organisations fighting for the cause of ethnic Burmese. They are fighting only for democracy and human rights. This is because of their situation.

They are not suffering from national oppression and facing assimilation issue. They fight against military dictatorship only. Unlike us, they don’t need to fight for national liberation and national rights. You don’t have ethnic Burmese organisations fighting for the cause of ethnic Burmese.

Q: Ethnic groups had the Mae Tha Raw Tha Agreement in 1997-98. Is your current plan related to this agreement or different from it?

A: Yes, they are interrelated. Ethnic people held a seminar in Mae Tha Raw Tha in 1997. At that time, we held the meeting as a seminar. Now we intend to hold a conference. But the objective of a federal state will be the same.

Q: Will you include domestic non-armed ethnic political parties in the conference?

A: I think the domestic ethnic political parties cannot come and join us. According to their situation, their political movement works only inside the country. They are calling for a second Panglong conference. They are conducting their movement in this fashion. So their movement is different from ours.

Q: Even so, among the many armed ethnic groups, you now have only six groups in your organization, the CEFU. How will you attract more groups?

A: We will invite all political and armed ethnic organisations when we can convene this conference by integrating both the NDF and the ENC. Our plan is to unite all the ethnic organisations on the border into a strong, single organisation.

Q: Is Mae Tha Raw Tha the only effort by ethnic people in consolidating themselves? Are there others?

A: As far as I can remember, there was one such meeting in 1976 held in Manerpalaw. At this meeting, 13 organisations attended and formed the NDF. Since then, our sole goal and objective is the emergence of a federal union, not secession.

Q: Can you describe the ethnic conference held in Taunggyi in 1961?

A: The 1961 Taunggyi conference was mainly for the implementation of the federal principle. The ethnic people were joined in an independence struggle. The Panglong agreement was achieved by the ethnic Chin, Kachin and Shan just before regaining independence from Britain. But this agreement could never be implemented and the ethnic people became, in effect, a colony under the Burmese people. So the Taunggyi conference was held to look for ways forward and to maintain a unity among all ethnic people. The conference was held to implement an agreement in building unity and to live as brethren on the basis of equality when we regained independence. This is also the federal principle.

Q: Your NMSP is a cease-fire group. Now you plan to join with non-ceasefire ethnic armed groups who are waging war against the regime. Is there more military tension in your control area because of this?

A: Our cease-fire agreement with the regime has been void since September 1, 2010. They do not recognise it anymore. We have to stand our own now, and we have to join with allied forces.

Q: How do you see the future?

A: Ethnic people will continue to call for a federal system of government. The regime cannot resolve the ethnic issues through military means. Military means have been used for more than 60 years and it cannot destroy even one armed group. In 1947, Bogyoke Aung San tried to resolve the ethnic issues based on national equality and self-determination as the basic principle of the Panglong Conference. Everybody would be happy if the same attitude and the same approach could actually be implemented in coordination with the new government. http://www.mizzima.com/edop/interview/4795-we-must-speak-in-one-voice.html
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Mon Party to introduce farm ownership bill
Tuesday, 25 January 2011 13:23 Kun Chan

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – The All Mon Region Democracy Party (AMRDP) will introduce a Parliamentary bill to allow farmers to own their farms.

Party leader Nai Ngwe Thein said: ‘We heard recently about the land confiscation cases in Kyaikmaraw to build a cement factory. We discussed that case in our party’s central committee meeting. We want farmers to own their own farms, and we will propose it’.

Last week, Mon MPs-elect traveled to Ye, Thanbyuzayat, Mudon, Chaungzon and Kyaikmaraw to conduct an informal survey of people’s opinions about private ownership of farms.

Many residents in Kyaikmaraw, Mudon and Ye said that their land had been confiscated including some farm land for dam projects, according to the party. Residents in Kyaikmaraw said that the Zaygabar Company Limited had seized more than 800 acres of farm land during the previous months, said party officials.

During 2002-03, the army confiscated land in Ye and Thanbyuzayat in Mon State and Yephyu in Taninsarim Division. More than 12,000 acres of farmland have been confiscated since 2010, according to a report compiled by the Human Rights Foundation of Monland, which is based in Thailand.

The proposal is likely to fail in Parliament, but Nai Ngwe Thein said it was important to introduce the issue for discussion.

The USDP party, which won a majority of seats in Parliament, supports the current law which gives ultimate ownership of farm land to the state.

During mid-January, five ethnic parties including the AMRDP held a meeting in Rangoon and issued a joint statement to urge the junta to release all political prisoners and to give them their full rights.

The statement also urged the international community to lift economic sanctions against Burma and urged the Parliament to select ethnic representatives to be appointed as vice president and ministers in relevant states.

Sixteen out of the 34 AMRDP candidates won parliamentary seats in the recent elections.
http://www.mizzima.com/news/election-2010-/4794-mon-party-to-introduce-farm-ownership-bill.html
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Burma Army’s camp construction causing migration
Tuesday, 25 January 2011 16:17 Hseng Khio Fah

Burma Army’s new camp constructions, which are under its military expansion project in Shan State South, especially in areas near the territory of rebel armed groups, have reported to have caused more local residents to migrate to other areas as the constructions are demanding forced labor, according to sources from the Thai-Burma border.

The constructions have been conducted in Kali of Kunhing township and Mongzang of Monghsu township where the SSA North’s First Brigade that has spurned the ruling junta’s demand to go along with the Border Guard Force (BGF) program is active.

“All their camps were built by concrete including their bunkers and trenches,” a villager in Monghsu who just fled to Tachilek, opposite Thailand’s Maesai. “They were reportedly ordered to finish all the camps within three months since Deputy Senior General Maung Aye visited in November. Therefore, they [military junta] are working day and night to complete by the deadline.”

One of the camps under the constructions is located at Loi Zeun of Monghsu and another at Mongzarng, southeast of the SSA’s First Brigade.

According to informed sources, the military junta will place heavy artillery in Monghsu, Mongyai, Mongzang and Kali.

Meanwhile, the Burma Army’s Northeastern Region Command,with its headquarters Lashio, Northern Shan State, have also been breaking up units under its command for the newly installed “Middle East” regional command. All balkanized troops will reportedly be deployed to the area by the end of the month.

The expansion is believed to cut communications between armed groups that have been transformed into BGFs and those that had refused to. Its other purpose is also to prepare for a major operation against non-BGFs after the new government has been formed.

On the other hand, the SSA’s First Brigade has also re-formed the SSA North, with 5 new brigades, commanded by Sao Pangfa: 1st, 27th, 36th, 72nd and 74th with 3 battalions each.

The new expansion drive has alarmed people that military operations between the Burma Army and armed groups can break out at anytime and it will also require more recruitment then. http://www.shanland.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3426:burma-armys-camp-construction-causing-migration&catid=86:war&Itemid=284
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Army officials moved to govt ministries
By MIN LWIN
Published: 25 January 2011

Around 1700 low-ranking army officials have been transferred to government ministries since elections last year.

A source in the Burmese government said that military officials were effectively replacing thousands of civilian workers in offices such as the Ministry of Communication. They have been given positions from departmental head down to administrators.

It appears to be a near continuation of the major governmental shake-up that occurred prior to the November 2010 elections, when hundreds of top-ranking military officials ostensibly retired so that they could compete in the polls.

The move sparked serious doubt about the Burmese junta’s pledge to form a civilian government, particularly so given that a quarter of the new parliament is made up of pre-appointed military men still in their uniforms.

The source said that the recent appointment of army officials to government departments has created procedural difficulties for civilian workers, with the military unfamiliar with the inner-workings of ministries yet being automatically elevated to senior positions.

Parliament is due to hold its first session on 31 January, with the junta-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) dominating seats. It won 80 percent of the vote, while the National Unity Party, also with close ties to the regime, came in second.

The 388 army representatives for parliament were named by state media last week, and rank from brigadier-general down to captain. They will hold significant sway over the decision-making process – under the 2008 constitution, they can appoint 25 percent of all legislators, enabling them the power of veto.

A source close to the army said last week that the 388 include Burmese graduates from military schools in Russia, as well as army doctors, but that no personnel from combat and infantry troops were appointed.
http://www.dvb.no/news/army-officials-moved-to-govt-ministries/13874
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STRAITS TIMES: Jan 25, 2011
Two journalists freed in Thailand

BANGKOK - THAI authorities have released two photojournalists who had been facing deportation after re-entering the country from neighbouring Myanmar, police said on Tuesday.

Belgian Pascal Schatteman and John Sanlin, a Myanmar passport holder, were detained on Thursday in the border town of Mae Sot after returning to Thailand from eastern Myanmar, where they reported on clashes between rebels and troops.

'The two journalists were released on Sunday, and they can stay in Thailand until their tourist visas expire,' said Lieutenant Colonel Peuan Duangjina at the immigration office in Tak province, where the men were arrested.

The men's passports were returned to them on Tuesday, he added.

Thailand had initially said they would be deported, drawing criticism from a media rights group as Sanlin faced returning to Myanmar, which is known for giving lengthy prison sentences to reporters working for unofficial media.

Thailand should 'take into consideration the prospect that Sanlin will suffer severe reprisals if he is forcibly returned' to his country, said the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). -- AFP http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/SEAsia/Story/STIStory_628073.html
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Thailand cancels reporters’ deportation
By AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Published: 25 January 2011

Thai authorities have released two photojournalists who had been facing deportation after re-entering the country from neighbouring Burma said Tuesday.

Belgian Pascal Schatteman and John Sanlin, a Burmese passport holder, were detained Thursday in the border town of Mae Sot after returning to Thailand from eastern Burma, where they reported on clashes between rebels and troops.

“The two journalists were released on Sunday, and they can stay in Thailand until their tourist visas expire,” said Lieutenant Colonel Peuan Duangjina at the immigration office in Tak province, where the men were arrested.

The men’s passports were returned to them Tuesday, he added. Thailand had initially said they would be deported, drawing criticism from a media rights group as Sanlin faced returning to Burma, which is known for giving lengthy prison sentences to reporters working for unofficial media.

Thailand should “take into consideration the prospect that Sanlin will suffer severe reprisals if he is forcibly returned” to his country, said the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).

Sanlin, who according to CPJ has previously provided video footage to Al Jazeera and France 24, told the group he feared reprisals if he was deported to Burma.

CPJ lists Burma as the world’s fourth-worst jailer of journalists, with at least 13 in prison.
http://www.dvb.no/news/thailand-cancels-reporters-deportation/13883
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Myanmar to launch new private airline

Yangon, Jan 25 : Asian Wings, a new private airline in Myanmar will be launched Thursday that will provide domestic and chartered services.

Two 70-seat TR 72-500 aircraft have arrived in Yangon for use in domestic flight services that would to cover 11 destinations, Xinhua reported citing the local Weekly Eleven News.

The Asian Wings airline is also planning international flights.

At present, there are three domestic airlines in Myanmar - state-owned Myanmar Airways (MA), private-run Air Mandalay and Air Bagan - and one international airline, Myanmar Airways International (MAI).

There are also 13 foreign airlines flying to Yangon, which includes Air China, China Southern Airline, Thai Airways International, Indian Airlines, Qatar Airways, Silk Air, Malaysian Airlines, Bangkok Airways, Mandarin, Jetstar Asia, Phuket Airline, Thai Air Asia and Vietnam Airlines.

--IANS http://www.newkerala.com/news/world/fullnews-132060.html
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Exiled print press goes quiet
By JOSEPH ALLCHIN
Published: 25 January 2011

Major funding cuts of some $US300,000 a year have forced leading exiled Burmese news organisation, The Irrawaddy, to cease printing its influential magazine.

The magazine’s informative news and analysis of political and humanitarian affairs was often critical of the Burmese regime, and thus like other independent Burmese media outlets, was banned inside Burma.

Although it was able to generate between six and eight percent of its revenue from subscriptions and commercial funding, editor-in-chief Aung Zaw tells DVB however that the problems were both economic and political.

The main donor agency to cease funding was Denmark’s Danida. Some saw their cessation of funding as policy-driven, in that The Irrawaddy was viewed by some as too belligerent towards the ruling military and the elections in November last year.

Aung Zaw said however that “we will never ever compromise our editorial independence”. He believes the donors’ decisions may have been swayed by civil society groups in Burma who do not share the Irrawaddy’s commitment to free media and expression.

Indeed a number of exiled Burmese groups were said to be suffering from funding cuts due to what Aung Zaw calls “donor fatigue”, which has forced them, as he says, to “suspend printing indefinitely”. The magazine had been forced to reduce printing volume in 2008 after similar cuts.

There is also a perception, Aung Zaw says, that following the widely-doubted elections, the necessity to fund external groups is no longer there. In any case most individuals returning to the country would face the same punitive measures from the government, and Burma’s draconian press censorship shows no sign of abating.

There had also been calls for the publication to achieve a more commercial, or sustainable, business model. However, “name a single exiled media outlet that turns profit,” Aung Zaw says.

Indeed The Irrawaddy’s economic woes reflect a wider malaise in media funding, with few turning a profit. International broadcasters that are publicly funded, such as the BBC, are also facing budget cuts due to the global economic downturn.

The Irrawaddy will still remain active however. Perhaps in a sign of the times, “we will focus on our website and the multimedia” aspect, said Aung Zaw, noting that the organisation will produce a radio show for Radio Free Asia (RFA) and a TV show aired on DVB that “will reach millions” of viewers inside the country.

The Irrawaddy is also confident that the slow yet steady penetration of the internet into Burma will allow more readers to access their content.
Author: JOSEPH ALLCHIN Category: Media, News
http://www.dvb.no/news/exiled-print-press-goes-quiet/13870
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A New Government for Myanmar (Not)
Jan. 24 2011 - 7:55 pm |
By TIM FERGUSON
YANGON, BURMA - NOVEMBER 13:

Burmese democrats still need to watch their back

Burma is back in the news, with the looming opening on Monday of a kangaroo legislature in the isolated capital of Naypyitaw. This is the poisoned fruit of a manipulated election by which the ruling junta of what calls itself Myanmar aimed to buy some rare legitimacy.

The generals followed on their opposition-light vote by granting a relaxation of strictures on Nobel winner Aung San Suu Kyi, the prime symbol of dissent in a sad land. But any real popular resistance seems destined to be crushed anew.

The New York Times Sunday described the latest video evidence of repression, a documentary about a lapsed member of the 400,000-strong military that tightly rules the country. This follows on an earlier work, Burma VJ, which was nominated for an Oscar award last year. That production used smuggled footage to capture the 2007 Saffron uprising led by Burmese monks. I viewed the film after meeting at a New York reception three of the monks who helped lead that revolt. The trio, who escaped from Burma and reached the U.S., now live in Brooklyn and are trying to maintain their vows while pressing for reforms in their homeland. (An article about them, in the January 2011 issue of First Things magazine, is behind a paywall.)

It is through diligent monitoring and campaigning, mostly by outside non-governmental organizations that furtively keep tabs, that the predations of Burma’s military rulers are kept in the public eye. Certainly officials organizations ranging from the United Nations to the ASEAN group of Southeast Asia nations (which admitted Burma to membership in 1997) have been of limp use in supporting Burmese democrats and ethnic minorities at odds with the generals. Cyclone Nargis in 2008 was a reminder of how useless these bodies have been rendered.

Burma has suffered through nearly 50 years of this brand of dictatorship. An earlier military group seized power in 1962, and resisters have been outflanked or beaten down ever since, particularly in a 1988 uprising and the one followed it (also beginning on Sept. 18) in 2007. In reining in an admittedly splintered populace–with resistance movements that themselves can be violent–the Burmese regime has mixed ruthless muscle with the pretense of democracy.

It held the bogus elections Nov. 7 to set up the next stage of the tyranny (rumor is that ruling Gen. Than Shwe will appear Monday as president before the new legislature) and, having done that, let Aung San See Kyi free of house arrest in Rangoon. (Her surprise victory in a 1990 vote was what triggered the latest 20 years of harsh order.) How many of her fellow Burmese she can now reach in a society where electronic communication is stifled is anyone’s guess–probably few.

The general case for continued despair over both the plight of the Burmese and the unhelpful actions of outside parties is made in this recent posting by veteran Southeast Asia journalist Bertil Lindner, and buttressed by the latest country report from Human Rights Watch.

For now, the civilized world will simply watch how this ruse plays out, and what part international entities, especially the governments of China and India, play in it. http://blogs.forbes.com/timferguson/2011/01/24/a-new-government-for-myanmar-not/
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The Wall Street Journal: OPINION ASIA

JANUARY 25, 2011
Speaking Truth to Burma
The junta cannot be allowed to win its war against the journalists who resist its tide of lies.
By AUNG ZAW
It's a sad thing to watch your country die a slow death. This is what is happening in Burma today, and like millions of other Burmese living in exile, I am alternately depressed, disgusted and outraged by what I see. It is as if the blood that was spilled when the current military junta seized power in 1988 has never stopped flowing.

Elections held late last year—Burma's first in more than 20 years—were an attempt to staunch this hemorrhaging with a flimsy gauze of lies. It was no coincidence that the country's ruling generals announced their plans to hold these elections soon after brutally cracking down on the "Saffron Revolution," the monk-led mass demonstrations of September 2007. Something had to be done to erase the unsightly images of blood-soaked bodies.

Although a handful of overseas "Burma experts," junta apologists and well-meaning but uninformed humanitarian aid workers will tell you otherwise, Burma is not on the road to recovery after the beating it received over the past two decades. Any impartial Burmese will tell you that the country is still in the throes of social and economic decline. The junta's new era of "disciplined democracy" only forestalls the next political crisis or outbreak of ethnic-based civil war.

As painful as it is to know all this, however, there is no sense averting our eyes or burying our heads in the sand. Indeed, the evidence that Burma is bleeding to death is all around us, in the faces of the estimated two million Burmese who have fled to Thailand to escape persecution or poverty.

Luckily, millions of Burmese both within Burma and around the world are fighting back. As the editor of The Irrawaddy, a magazine that is named for a river that is symbolic of Burma's long and often tortured history, I have tried to fight back in my own way, by joining forces with other exiled journalists to resist a tide of lies with a river of information about what is really happening inside the country.

We make no apologies for believing that journalists must tell the truth, and not simply present different versions of the facts put out by various interested parties. We don't take sides on the basis of political affiliation—we have found fault with Burma's pro-democracy icon, Aung San Suu Kyi, and her party, the National League of Democracy, as well as with the junta and a host of other stakeholders—but we will always come out on the side of those with the courage to speak the simple, honest truth.

It hasn't always been easy. Recently we came to the difficult decision to end publication of our print magazine—our signature product since our founding in 1993—to commit more of our limited resources to reaching wider audiences both inside Burma and abroad. In addition to our Burmese- and English-language websites and blog, we are producing a television program for the Democratic Voice of Burma and a radio program for the Washington-based Radio Free Asia.

For all these efforts, The Irrawaddy depends on support from international donors. This means that we have always had more than our fair share of financial ups and downs. Overall, though, we have continued to grow, from two or three reporters barely getting by on a couple thousand dollars in 1993 to a staff of around five dozen now, with reporters both inside and outside Burma working on a budget last year of nearly $1 million. While we acknowledge that we are far from financially self-sufficient, we have always guarded our editorial autonomy, and most of our donors have respected this.

Recently, however, we have seen disturbing signs that some in the donor community are abandoning our side amid the junta's war of attrition against its critics and opponents. Last year one of our donors circulated an email to fellow donors, without our knowledge, announcing that it had decided we were no longer worthy of its support. The email accused us of being a "donor stooge"—language that echoes that of the regime's official mouthpieces, which were quick to pick up this "news" and declare our imminent demise.

We are not alone in feeling the chill from some donors who have decided their money would be better spent within Burma. While we continue to enjoy solid support from most of our long-time donors, there is a dangerous trend among some others to buy into the junta's line that assisting exiled civil society groups and refugee organizations is merely prolonging Burma's conflict. The elections, they say, point the way forward.

Do they really believe this? It's difficult to imagine any intelligent observer of the situation inside Burma today actually accepting the notion that the election was anything other than a complete farce. And yet, incredibly, some in the West are now criticizing us for our "negative" take on the elections and our efforts to expose some of the shady junta-affiliated organizations now posing as potential "partners" for international donors. It is perhaps the ultimate irony of Burmese journalism that some of my colleagues inside Burma—where draconian censorship is the norm and reporters are routinely locked up—commiserate with me for having to be a bearer of bad news that some in the "free" world simply don't want to hear.

Journalists inside Burma know, but can't report, that the recent wave of "privatization" inside Burma is nothing more than the formal transfer of the country's wealth to a few dozen junta cronies or relatives of top generals, and not a sign of economic reform. And so it falls to us to reveal, for instance, that for every major investment these self-styled entrepreneurs make, hundreds or even thousands of people are summarily evicted from their homes. No inside media will report that the generals' sons and daughters confiscate state-owned prime spots and buildings in Rangoon, for instance, or that junta cronies are stashing millions of dollars in Singaporean banks and buying expensive condominiums overseas.

The generals would like to think that our days are numbered, but they are wrong. It is not funding from the West that sustains us, but the desperate desire of the people of Burma to hear the truth told about their country. As long as the regime continues to deny them their right to know, our own struggle will continue.

Mr. Aung Zaw is founder and editor of The Irrawaddy magazine. He received the Prince Claus Award for Journalism in 2010. http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10001424052748703398504576101013572919394-lMyQjAxMTAxMDIwNDEyNDQyWj.html
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Hydropower plant opens in Kachin State
Tuesday, 25 January 2011 13:21 Myo Thant

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – The Tarpein-1 Hydropower Plant, one of 18 hydropower projects built or under construction in Kachin State, opened on Sunday, according to state-run newspapers.

Work on the Tarpein-1 Hydropower Plant in Momauk was begun in December 2007 in partnership with a Chinese company, Datang (Yunnan) United Hydropower Developing Co., Ltd. and the Ministry of Electric Power No. 1.

The plant can generate 1,065 million KW hours a year. According to the development index of Burma that was compiled by the World Bank in 2010, the average Burmese uses 94 kilowatts of electricity per year. Burma is ranked ninth among southeast Asian countries.

Burma has a total of 31 power plants. Fifteen are hydropower plants, one is a coal-fired power plant and 15 are gas-fired power plants. They can generate a total of 3,045 Megawatts a year, according to Burmese officials.

The 18 hydropower projects in Kachin State are Myitsone, Chiphwe, Wusauk, Khaunglanphu, Yeenan, Phizaw, Lazar, Chipwenge, Htarkh, Gawlan, Wukyonejie, Khankan, Htoneshinchaung, Laungdin, Tarpein (1), Tarpein(2), Namtabet (1) and Namtabet (2), with a total capacity of 20,760 Megawatts.

The projects have been implemented in partnership of the Ministry of Electric Power No. 1 and three Chinese companies: Datang (Yunnan) United Hydropower Developing Co., Ltd., China Power Investment Corporation and Yunnan Power Investment Corporation.

The amount of electricity demand in Burma is 1,555.25 Megawatts, according to the Ministry of Energy. http://www.mizzima.com/news/inside-burma/4793-hydropower-plant-opens-in-kachin-state.html
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