Gold mining and trade

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Sub-title: Residents say administrators take bribes to look the other way as their livelihoods are destroyed.
Description: "A rapid expansion in illegal gold mining since the military coup is poisoning the water supply in Myanmar’s Kachin state and destroying the livelihoods of residents who say the ethnic Kachin group that administers the region has failed to police the sector. Illegal mining of gold, as well as jade and rare earth minerals, is rampant in Kachin state, where successive governments have failed to regulate the industry for generations. However, the number of unsanctioned operations has ballooned since the military’s Feb. 1, 2021, takeover amid conflict between junta troops and armed resistance forces in the region. Residents of Sumprabum township told RFA Burmese that illegal gold mines had “nearly doubled” in Kachin state since the coup and are devastating the environment, despite local protests. “They used to dig in areas farther from our village but now they are digging quite close,” said a resident of Hpon Ing Yang village who, like other sources in the area, declined to be named citing fear of reprisal. “The water in our stream is no longer suitable, even for washing, he said. The miners “have already excavated all around our village ... [and] we might have to move to some other place where there is still good soil for us to farm.” The Hpon Ing Yang resident said that more than 20 companies using at least 40 machines are currently digging for gold near his village, which he described as “basically destroyed.” “Even if the political situation becomes more stable, I don’t think there is any hope left for us here,” he said. Expanding unchecked A similar situation can be found in nearby Puta-O township’s villages of Tsum Pi Yang, In Loi Yang, Shi Kai Yang, Ah Lang Gar, In Hkar Gar and Hpon Kyan, sources told RFA. According to laws governing small-scale and private mining, gold mines must be at least 300 feet away from water sources such as rivers, streams and lakes to prevent contamination from mining waste. Furthermore, gold mines are required to operate in a way that limits their environmental and socio-economic impact on local communities. Nonetheless, illegal gold mining has expanded virtually unchecked in Puta-O since last year, destroying local livelihoods, said a resident of In Loi Yang village. “In the past, people used to run small home businesses [such as farming] based on the natural shifts in the land and water table,” said the resident. “These days, people are digging with big machinery … and impacting our village and plantations, regardless of how much we ask them not to.” He said there may be as many as 150 gold mining rigs in Puta-O alone and complained that mines are even operating in areas of cultural significance to the Kachin people. Looking the other way Residents and environmental activists told RFA that mining companies pay bribes to both the junta and the rebel Kachin Independence Organization to look the other way as they operate illegally. Col. Norbu, spokesman for the KIO, said his group has established policies regarding gold mining and does not allow operations in populated areas or places of cultural significance. “We have provided written instructions regarding this matter at the state level,” he said. “The activities are scrutinized and allowed only after discussions at the state level. That’s why I think they are working in accordance with the instructions.” When asked by RFA about mining in areas where residents work for their livelihoods, Norbu said that there “may be a weakness” in oversight for the KIO's determination of permit areas, and noted that many companies do not ask for official permission to mine. Win Ye Tun, the junta’s social minister and spokesman for Kachin state, told RFA in October that there is “no legal permit for mining” in Kachin state and said the military has taken action against illegal gold mining in Mohnyin township. However, an environmental activist in Kachin state said that the only thing stopping companies from mining is running out of sites to exploit. “From an environmental standpoint, the areas designated as nature reserves and their natural resources will all be destroyed, and only land that does not produce gold will be left untouched,” the activist said. “All other areas will have been excavated,” the activist said. “If it goes on like this, Kachin’s natural resources will soon be gone.”..."
Source/publisher: "RFA" (USA)
2023-02-14
Date of entry/update: 2023-02-14
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Sub-title: Unwilling to accept military rule, many in Kachin are looking to the Kachin Independence Organization to fill a void in governance. As the KIO strengthens its influence, it is facing mounting pressure to regulate environmentally destructive gold mining.
Description: "Bawk Nu* has spent the last 11 years dreaming of the day she could safely return to her village of Nam San Yang. She is one of more than 100,000 people who fled their homes following a resumption in fighting between the military and the armed wing of the Kachin Independence Organization in 2011, and she has lived in a camp for internally displaced people near the KIO headquarters of Laiza ever since. Not long after villagers evacuated Nam San Yang, businesspeople started buying up their land for gold mining. After the coup, the scramble for gold turned into a frenzy. Excavator trucks turned what remained of the village into gaping craters and piles of earth, but Bawk Nu was one of the few who refused to sell. On December 27, KIO banned gold mining in areas within its sphere of influence. Both Bawk Nu and Mun Awng*, a member of the village’s Baptist church, said that although gold mining temporarily stopped in January, it had resumed when they visited the village in May. “During the day, everything was quiet, but mining happened at night,” said Bawk Nu. “The mining continued… The only thing that changed was that it wasn’t happening openly.” Among properties mined during that time were those adjacent to Bawk Nu’s. Her land buried in waste heaps, she recently conceded to sell it, feeling she had no alternative. “I had dreamed of going back home when my village became peaceful,” she said. “After I saw all the gold mining in my village, I felt like my dream was shattered.” She is one of many people across Kachin State who have suffered the adverse impacts of a gold mining rush since the coup, as a contracting formal economy pushes people to look for new sources of income and the collapse of rule of law emboldens people to extract resources without fear of consequences. Interviews with 12 villagers and seven members of Kachin civil society over the past six months for a series of articles on gold mining in Kachin State highlight an exacerbation of problems which have been reported by civil society groups since the early 2000s. These include a loss of land, the deterioration of social fabric, polluted water and eroded riverbanks. The interviews also reinforce a well-documented link between resource extraction and armed conflict. Kachin’s resources, including gold, jade and timber, have long provided funds for armed actors including the military and KIO. Since the coup, fighting in the state has intensified as the KIO continues its fight for self-determination and joins the national uprising against the junta. The situation has fostered the perfect conditions for the state’s conflict resource economy to thrive, at the expense of local communities and the environment. Local sources told Frontier that regardless of whether the military, KIO or militia groups claim control over an area, any group which can access the area is likely to collect taxes on gold mining operations there, but none were systematically regulating the industry. They said that as the KIO increases its influence in areas outside of its territory as well as its legitimacy in the eyes of the public, they would like to see it step up its response to gold mining. “In this current situation, we see the KIO as our parent and our government,” said Naw Ja* from Hpung Ing Yang village in Sumprabum Township. “I would like the government to address gold mining…[and] prioritise protecting our natural environment.” A sandy wasteland Although people in Kachin have traditionally panned for gold and used rudimentary diving methods, mechanised gold mining first picked up after the military and KIO signed a ceasefire in 1994 and the military began issuing large resource concessions across the state. Since the coup, however, the mining has reached unprecedented levels, local sources said. “After the coup, people mined gold without concern for the environment,” said Naw Ja in Hpung Ing Yang. “After gold miners finish, they just abandon their sites. Many cows fall into mining pits and die.” Sources also said that rivers and streams have become muddy and discoloured with sediment, that gold miners commonly use and dispose of mercury without taking any precautions, and that water levels are exceptionally low, affecting drinking, bathing, fishing and farming. Gold mining is even increasing in environmentally fragile locations, including in the Indawgyi Lake Wildlife Sanctuary. La Ring*, who is from a village** southwest of the lake, said that gold mining is especially spreading in Ma Mon Kaing and Maing Nawng villages. He added that it was encroaching on the Nam Yin Hka Forest Reserve, which officials were not only failing to monitor, but profiting from gold mining there. “Gold mining is turning the forest into a sandy wasteland,” he said. The increase in gold mining has also brought harmful social impacts. Several local sources described to Frontier an influx of narcotic drugs into some gold mining areas. “When gold miners become addicted to drugs, bosses cut the cost from their wages. Almost all of the bosses sell drugs to their workers,” said La Ring. Rifts have also developed between people perceived as enabling or benefitting from gold mining and those resisting it. Mun Awng of the Nam San Yang Baptist church said that the mining had placed the village’s two church denominations at odds because many of those involved in the business or brokering land sales were Catholic, while the Baptist church had been leading efforts to stop the mining. The situation is straining tensions that surfaced in 2019, when a group of mostly Catholic IDPs returned to Nam San Yang through a controversial initiative facilitated by the military, but Baptists mostly stayed in displacement camps. “This small number of people who returned are the ones doing all this mining and working as brokers,” said Mun Awng. “They call other villagers who are still living in IDP camps or other areas and ask them to sell their land.” In a village** on the Mali River just west of the town of Machanbaw, Htun Ja* said that many ethnic Lisus had sold their land. “Gold miners convinced [Lisus] to sell their farmland…so villagers from other ethnicities asked them why. We have to convince them not to sell,” he said. According to Htun Ja, some of those who sold had asked businesspeople to build public roads and irrigation canals in return. “We have to explain to them why we should not ask for help from businesspeople…Businesspeople are not a charity organisation. They are looking for profits,” he said. A vicious cycle Although many of those mining gold are migrants from across the state and country, people are also mining in their own villages at a time of diminishing alternatives. “Local gold miners feel bad about mining [gold], but they still have to do it for their livelihoods,” said Brang Naw* in Naung Chein village, Waingmaw Township. La Ring said that southwest of Indawgyi Lake, many farm labourers had also shifted to gold mining. “Rice farming businesses can’t compete,” he said. “Local farmers aren’t able to pay 10,000 kyats (US$5) per day to workers, but gold mining bosses can pay.” According to Zaw Man Aung of the Hukawng Land Development Programme, a civil society group based in Tanai Township, local people are also increasingly turning to gold mining in the Hukawng valley, which hosts a large wildlife sanctuary and has long experienced intensive gold mining to the detriment of its forests and local land rights. “Some people know [mining] isn’t good for the environment, but they have no choice,” said Joseph, whose group organised a debate for local youth on June 5 about whether gold mining should be banned. “Especially at this time…they take everything they can. They aren’t sure about tomorrow, so they will do it now.” Local sources described a range of factors driving people to sell their land and also said that land grabs were happening in some areas. Southwest of Indawgyi Lake, La Ring said that many farmowners had sold their property because they “just saw an instant huge amount of money,” but that in other cases, gold miners “leave local landowners with no choice by disposing of waste on their farmland,” he said. West of Machanbaw, Htun Ja said some of the mining was happening on land which had not been sold, including that of villagers living in IDP camps. “When we went to ask [the miners] about it, they said they did all the process at the higher levels. We don’t know whether they have permission or not,” he said. At a time when humanitarian aid is dwindling and armed conflict is ongoing, some IDPs who held onto their land for years are now selling. “Many think that they will sell their land and buy land in the city and resettle there,” said Mun Awng in Nam San Yang. But land grabs and the loss of land through collateral damage are also common in the village, according to Mun Awng. “Some land has been mined without landowners’ consent or knowledge. In some cases…[people’s] land has been destroyed and landslides have been happening due to mining on their neighbours’ land. Some [businesspeople] don’t pay the full amount for the land and disappear,” he said. The situation has contributed to a vicious cycle in which, unable to monitor their land closely and fearing they will lose it anyway, many IDPs are selling, which then drives even more people to sell, often at low prices. “Landowners are worried that their land will disappear to landslides when it rains or mined without their knowledge, so one by one they are selling,” said Bawk Nu. A call for help Locals who have tried to resist gold mining said they felt unsupported by any armed actor or political institution and they feared social backlash as well as physical attacks as a result of speaking out. “I don’t feel safe because gold miners have noticed me,” said Htun Ja, who joined other locals near Machanbaw in appealing verbally to local KIO officers and petitioning in writing to the village’s General Administration Department, as well as posting wooden signboards gold miners to keep out, without any result so far. Near Indawgyi Lake, La Ring also said he felt unsafe for speaking out against gold mining, while his efforts appealing to the Forest Reserve Group and KIO officials had so far come to nothing. “The KIO do not take any action against gold mining because they even collect taxes from it. The SAC and militia groups also do not take any action,” he said, referring to the State Administration Council, the official name for the junta. Mun Awng said that the Nam San Yang Baptist church has been petitioning the KIO in person and in writing since around 2013 to stop gold mining in the village, and that he was frustrated not to see more decisive action yet. “We cannot sell farmland or houses in our area without KIO involvement. Although they say ‘We are not a government; we are a revolutionary organisation’, what I understand is that when they need to take something from us, they say they are our government, but when they need to solve problems for us, they say they are just a revolutionary organisation.” He also said he fears the consequences of raising his voice because it involves challenging the KIO. “It is not easy to speak against them in our area. When we speak against Bamar people, the whole public supports us, but when we speak against our KIO, people will think we are crazy.” Colonel Naw Bu told Frontier during a phone interview in April that the KIO had stopped nearly all gold mining operations in areas under its control since December of last year, and that it was not permitting new operations in the Kachin Region, which it defines as Kachin State and parts of northern Shan State. “We are a revolutionary organisation, but we take responsibility and accountability to protect our land,” he said. He said that the KIO was unable to address gold mining in areas outside of its control because it might lead to armed conflict with military forces, and that some businesses were “taking advantage.” “The formal dialogue channel is gone and we cannot negotiate anymore. We are in wartime and as such, we cannot enforce the law effectively,” he said. He also acknowledged that the KIO was still collecting taxes on gold mining operations in some areas under military control, but said that he did not have further information on the amount or locations because this was handled at the ground level. “We have ordered all offices to collect taxes where it is appropriate to do so,” he said in June, adding that the KIO central committee had warned its members not to engage in any deceitful acts. When asked in a follow-up call on June 23 to respond to claims that mining had resumed in Nam San Yang, he reiterated that the KIO had stopped all gold mining in the village, and said that the KIO was not collecting any taxes there either. “If we use our armed forces to check the situation, there might be some challenges or armed clashes with those responsible [for mining],” he added. “In this situation, some people might pull the wool over [our] eyes and keep on mining gold, but I would like to restate that the KIO has clearly banned gold mining in that area.” Frontier also spoke with Dr Hkalen Tu Hkawng, the National Unity Government’s Minister of Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation and an ethnic Kachin. He said that it was important to consider the KIO’s taxation of gold mining within the broader context of its fight against the military. “The KIO has supported and cooperated with many local revolutionary groups,” he said. “If we ask them not to collect taxes, how can they get money during this revolutionary period?” Monitoring and regulating gold mining is further complicated, he said, because of contested governance across the state, leaving a grey area regarding the legitimacy of permits – including the 236 small-scale gold mining permits of four acres each issued by the ousted National League for Democracy-led government. According to Dr Tu Hkawng, the first priority in addressing the gold mining crisis should be defeating the military regime. “We need lasting peace and stable politics in order to protect natural resources and close down mining…If we just keep on closing down all the mining, the people who get their incomes from it will be angry.” But he said that his ministry had no plan to respond to gold mining in Kachin because it fell under the jurisdiction of the Kachin Political Interim Coordination Team (KPICT), which is serving as an interim political body for the Kachin Region. Its spokesperson, Nsang Gum San, did not reply to Frontier’s emailed request for comments. Those interviewed by Frontier said that for people experiencing the harmful effects of gold mining, waiting for peace and stability to regulate it is unsatisfactory. “[The KIO] have been fighting for Kachin State, for federal democracy, for more than 60 years but our land and environment are being destroyed by gold mining,” said a civil society worker from the Myitsone confluence, where 100 women gathered to protest mechanised gold mining on 5 June. Seng Hkum, a Kachin student who is pursuing his master’s degree in public administration and natural resource management policy at Indiana University’s O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs, told Frontier he was hopeful that as voices from the public grow stronger, the KIO would respond. “As they are preparing to take on the role of government in the Kachin Region, they must be responsible and accountable for public concerns. The Kachin Region should seriously consider how to make its future economy more inclusive and diverse in order to reduce its natural resource dependency and chronic resource curse.” * denotes the use of pseudonym for safety reasons; **In the case of small villages where sources could be easily identified, village names have also been withheld.
Source/publisher: "Frontier Myanmar"
2022-06-24
Date of entry/update: 2022-06-24
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Description: "On March 8, 2021, one of the bloodiest days of the military regime’s crackdown on nationwide anti-coup protests, staff of Australian-led Access Resources Asia (ARA) met with local officials in Mong Phyak, eastern Shan State, to push ahead with large-scale gold exploration. ARA’s initial exploration site covers 574 square kilometers, out of its total 1,800 sq. km. concession area in eastern Shan State. This giant gold mining venture is strongly opposed by local communities, due to the devastating environmental and social impacts of existing gold excavation in eastern Shan State, which has gutted mountains and poisoned farmlands and water sources over a wide area, particularly in Tachileik township. In 2017 and 2018, Mong Phyak residents sent petitions to the NLD government to stop the ARA project, but to no avail. On November 26, 2020, ARA was granted a 3-year exploration permit in Mong Phyak by Burma’s Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation. On January 6, 2021, ARA staff visited Mong Phyak to meet with local officials regarding the opening of a branch office. On January 24, 2021, Mong Phyak locals, including community leaders from 13 village tracts and 3 town wards, wrote a petition to the President and State Counsellor to stop the project signed by 3,883 people. ARA ignored this petition, and is now openly partnering with the new coup regime in pushing through its investment. Long before the coup, SHRF had called for Access Asia Mining Pte Ltd (the Singapore-based parent company of ARA) to end its exploration plans in Eastern Shan State, citing community opposition, the ongoing conflict and heavy Burma Army militarization. In April 2018, SHRF documented the rape and robbery of a 73-year-old woman by a Burma Army soldier in Mong Phyak, and urged Access Asia Mining (AAM) to stop planned mining exploration in the area or risk complicity in the military’s atrocities. In response to SHRF’s concerns, AAM sent a letter on May 14, 2018, to the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre, stating it had “never engaged with the Tatmadaw to solicit their support or to request security. We state this categorically and unequivocally. AAM has always found the areas of Myanmar that we operate in safe and secure with a welcoming people. We have never felt the need for security and indeed, as stated above, as we have no operations or permanent presence in Shan State there is nothing to be protected.” It is clear that ARA/AAM does indeed now have “operations” in Shan State, and, particularly following the February 1 coup, ARA/AAM is now undeniably partnering with the military authorities in implementing these operations. ARA/AAM is therefore directly complicit in the security forces’ atrocities against unarmed protesters across the country, as well as ongoing atrocities against villagers in ethnic conflict areas. Although registered in Singapore, the management of Access Asia Mining is comprised of Australian nationals, self-advertised as “principals behind several major Australian engineering firms,” who must realize the risks now far outweigh any potential benefits of staying in Burma. SHRF reiterates our call for Access Resources Asia/Access Asia Mining to immediately end their investments in Burma. SHRF urges foreign companies not to invest in Burma until there is peace and a new federal democratic constitution, enabling local communities to protect their lands and resources from predatory exploitation..."
Source/publisher: Shan Human Rights Foundation
2021-04-01
Date of entry/update: 2021-05-06
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Description: "Since February 2017, gold mining in Paw Hkloe has contaminated streams and waterways, upon which the local population depends on for their drinking water. The road construction between Hkay Tu Toe and Hpaw Taw The Weh Pa Meh area has caused damage to local plantations. The company contracted to build this road did not provide compensation to local villagers because they argued that the road is being built for the benefit of civilian populations. Situation Update | K?Ser Doh Township, Mergui-Tavoy District (March to May 2017) The following Situation Update was received by KHRG in June 2017. It was written by a community member in Mergui-Tavoy District who has been trained by KHRG to monitor human rights conditions. It is presented below translated exactly as originally written, save for minor edits for clarity and security..."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG)
2018-09-28
Date of entry/update: 2018-10-04
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Description: "This Field Report includes information submitted by KHRG community members describing events which occurred in Hpapun District between January and December 2013. The report describes human rights violations, including sexual harassment, violent abuses, landmine incidents, forced labour, land confiscation, gold mining, arbitrary taxation, and theft and looting. In addition, fighting between Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) and Border Guard Force (BGF) soldiers resulted in injury and displacement of villagers. The report also documents villagers? concerns regarding the stability of the 2012 preliminary ceasefire and issues important to the local communities, such as access to education and healthcare. - Between January and December 2013, villagers reported ongoing militarization and use of landmines by Tatmadaw and BGF soldiers in Bu Tho and Dwe Lo townships, resulting in fatalities and injury to villagers and livestock. - BGF soldiers committed human rights abuses such as sexual harassment, violent abuse, and demands for forced labour from villagers in Bu Tho Township. - Monk U Thuzana?s followers ordered villagers to perform forced labour for the monk?s bridge construction project. - A private gold mining enterprise has been endangering villagers? health in Dwe Lo Township. Villagers expressed their opposition to gold mining projects in the area by producing placards and posting them along the road and the river..."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG)
2016-03-02
Date of entry/update: 2016-04-10
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 1.3 MB
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Description: "In response to strong community resistance to gold mining in Mong Len, eastern Shan State, the Shan State Mining Minister ordered the mining to stop in July 2014. Despite this, mining is ongoing in this area till today, with permission from Naypyidaw, and is continuing to have grave impacts on the health and livelihoods of local villagers. This booklet documents the struggle of the villagers to hold the mining companies accountable, and the failure of companies and government officials to protect local communities? rights. The booklet is dedicated to Loong Sarm, a villager from Na Hai Long, Mong Len, who was shot and killed by Burmese government soldiers on October 13, 2015, when he went with a group of villagers to monitor the gold mining in the hills above his village. The soldiers were providing security for the mining operations..."
Source/publisher: Shan State Farmers? Network (SSFN)
2015-12-07
Date of entry/update: 2016-03-19
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English, Burmese (မြန်မာဘာသာ), Shan
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Description: "Villagers in Karen areas of southeast Myanmar continue to face widespread land confiscation at the hands of a multiplicity of actors. Much of this can be attributed to the rapid expansion of domestic and international commercial interest and investment in southeast Myanmar since the January 2012 preliminary ceasefire between the Karen National Union (KNU) and the Myanmar government. KHRG first documented this in a 2013 report entitled ?Losing Ground?, which documented cases of land confiscation between January 2011 and November 2012. This report, ?With only our voices, what can we do??, is a follow up to that analysis and highlights continued issue areas while identifying newly documented trends. The present analysis assesses land confiscation according to a number of different factors, including: land use type; geographic distribution across KHRG?s seven research areas; perpetrators involved; whether or not compensation and/or consultation occurred; and the effects that confiscation had on local villagers. This report also seeks to highlight local responses to land confiscation, emphasising the agency that individuals and communities in southeast Myanmar already possess and the obstacles that they face when attempting to protect their own human rights. By focusing on local perspectives and giving priority to villagers? voices, this report aims to provide local, national, and international actors with a resource that will allow them to base policy and programmatic decisions that will impact communities in southeast Myanmar more closely on the experiences and concerns of the people living there."..... Toungoo (Taw Oo) District... Hpa-an District... Dooplaya District... Hpapun (Mutraw) District... Mergui-Tavoy District... Thaton (Doo Tha Htoo) District... Nyaunglebin (Kler Lwee Htoo) District...
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG)
2015-06-30
Date of entry/update: 2015-07-10
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English, Karen and Burmese
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Description: "A new report by the Karenni Civil Society Network (KCSN) raises concerns about international ?peace support” programming amid st increasing Burma Army militarization in Karenni State after the2012 ceasefire with the Karenni National Progressive Party (KNPP). The report ?Where is Genuine Peace?” exposes how a pilot resettlement project of the Norway-led Myanmar Peace Support Initiative (MPSI) in Shardaw Township is encouraging IDPs to return to an area controlled by the Burma Army where their safety cannot be guaranteed. The MPSI claims that between June 2013 and September 2014 it supported 1,431 IDPs to return to 10 Shadaw villages forcibly relocated in 1996. However, KCSN found only about a third of these IDPs in the villages, most of whom were working-age adults returning to carry out farming, but not daring to return permanently due to fears of renewed conflict. As in other parts of Karenni State, the Burma Army has been reinforcing troops and fortifying its positions in Shadaw, where there is a tactical command centre and over 20 military outposts. ?Instead of encouraging IDPs to return home be fore it is safe, international donors should be trying to ensure that the rights of conflict-affected villagers are protected,” said one of KCSN. ?There must be pressure on the government to pull back its troops from the ethnic areas and start political dialog ue towards federal reform.” KCSN also criticizes the MPSI for fuelling conflict by ignoring Karenni-managed social service organizations that have been providing primary health care and other support to IDPs in Shadaw for decades. MPSI?s health support was through the government system, which remains highly centralized and dysfunctional in Karenni State. ?Donors should not just give one-sided support to expand government services into ethnic conflict areas. This won?t be effective, and will only increase resentment and fuel conflict,” said KSWDC. The report also raises concerns about rampant resource extraction after the ceasefire, land confiscation, military expansions and lack of transparency around dam plans on the Salween and its tributaries in Karenni State. KCSN is calling for a moratorium on large-scale infrastructure and resource extraction projects in Karenni State until there is genuine peace." [from the KCSN press release of 5 December, 2014]
Source/publisher: Karenni Civil Society Network (KCSN)
2014-12-05
Date of entry/update: 2015-01-08
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
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Description: "Farmers from eastern Shan State?s Tachileik Township have called for an immediate end to gold mining operations in the area, which they say are seriously polluting water sources and causing other environmental damage. The ethnic Shan villagers from Na Hai Long, Weng Manaw and Ganna villages in Talay sub-township said that more than 300 acres of farmland can no longer be cultivated due to waste produced by gold-mining companies. A group of the farmers traveled to the Shan State capital of Taunggyi to give a press conference organized by the Shan Farmers? Network on Wednesday..."
Creator/author: Nyein Nyein
Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy"
2014-07-16
Date of entry/update: 2014-07-16
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: "This report includes a situation update submitted to KHRG in May 2013 by a community member describing events occurring in Papun District mostly between March 2012 and March 2013, and also provides details on abuses since 2006. The report specifically describes incidents of forced labour, theft, logging, land confiscation and gold mining. The situation update describes military activity from August 2012 to January 2013, specifically Tatmadaw soldiers from Infantry Battalion (IB) #96 ordering villagers to make thatch shingles and cut bamboo. Moreover, soldiers stole villagers? thatch shingles, bamboo canes and livestock. It also describes logging undertaken by wealthy villagers with the permission of the Karen National Union (KNU) and contains updated information concerning land confiscation by Tatmadaw Border Guard Force (BGF) Battalions #1013 and #1014. The update also reports on gold mining initiatives led by the Democratic Karen Benevolent Army (DKBA) that started in 2010. At that time, civilians were ordered to work for the DKBA, and their lands, rivers and plantations were damaged as a result of mining operations. The report also notes economic changes that accompanied mining. In previous years villagers could pan gold from the river and sell it as a hedge against food insecurity. Now, however, options are limited because they must acquire written permission to pan in the river. This situation update also documents villager responses to abuses, and notes that an estimated 10 percent of area villagers favour corporate gold mining, while 90 percent oppose the efforts..."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG)
2013-07-16
Date of entry/update: 2013-08-10
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
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Description: "This photo set includes 18 still photographs selected from images taken by a community member from Bilin Township, Thaton District in January 2013. These photographs depict gold mining in Baw Paw Hta village and show village lands that were bought by the Mya Poo Company and subsequently damaged because of mining."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG)
2013-06-28
Date of entry/update: 2013-08-10
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: "Unregulated gold mining, agro-industrial farming and hydropower development in Kachin State is affecting thousands of villagers, who are suffering from environmental destruction and a loss of farmland, a Kachin rights group warned. The People?s Foundation for Development, a NGO based in the Kachin state capital Myitkyina, launched a report in Rangoon on Monday that documented ten cases in which local villagers lost their land and livelihoods to large-scale investment projects and rampant gold mining. The group said that in recent years about 3,500 people had been forcibly evicted to make way for the suspended Myistone hydropower dam and for for the Yuzana Corporation?s massive cassava and sugarcane plantations in the remote Hukaung (also Hukawng) Valley. Since 2006, Yuzana, with the cooperation of local authorities, has been granted 81,000 hectares (200,000 acres) of land in the region. Much of it was reportedly confiscated from hundreds of Kachin families, while the firm allegedly also cleared large parts of a tiger reserve in the valley..."
Creator/author: LAWI WENG
Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy"
2013-05-28
Date of entry/update: 2013-05-29
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: Deep in the wilds of northern Myanmar?s Kachin state a brutal civil war has intensified over the past year between government forces and the Kachin Independence Army (KIA). People & Power sent filmmakers Jason Motlagh and Steve Sapienza to Myanmar (formerly Burma) to investigate why the conflict rages on, despite the political reforms in the south that have impressed Western governments and investors now lining up to stake their claim in the resource-rich Asian nation.
Creator/author: Jason Motlagh, Steve Sapienza
Source/publisher: People & Power (Al Jazeera)
2012-10-04
Date of entry/update: 2012-10-08
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English, Burmese, Kachin, (English subtitles
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Description: Executive Summary: "The remote and environmentally rich Hugawng valley in Burma?s northern Kachin State has been internationally recognized as one of the world?s hotspots of biodiversity. Indeed, the military junta ruling Burma, together with the US-based Wildlife Conservation Society, is establishing the world?s largest tiger reserve in the valley. However, the conditions of the people living there have not received attention. This report by local researchers reveals the untold story of how the junta?s militarization and self-serving expansion of the gold mining industry have devastated communities and ravaged the valley?s forests and waterways. The Hugawng valley was largely untouched by Burma?s military regime until the mid-1990s. After a ceasefire between the Kachin Independence Organisation (KIO) and the junta in 1994, local residents had high hopes that peace would foster economic development and improved living conditions. However, under the junta?s increased control, the rich resources of Hugawng valley have turned out to be a curse. Despite the ceasefire, the junta has expanded its military infrastructure throughout Kachin State, increasing its presence from 26 battalions in 1994 to 41 in 2006. This expansion has been mirrored in Hugawng valley, where the number of military outposts has doubled; in the main town of Danai, public and private buildings have been seized and one third of the surrounding farmland confiscated. Some of the land and buildings were used to house military units, while others were sold to business interests for military profit. In order to expand and ensure its control over gold mining revenues, the regime offered up 18% of the entire Kachin State for mining concessions in 2002. This transformed gold mining from independent gold panning to a large-scale mechanized industry controlled by the concession holders. In Hugawng valley concessions were sold to 8 selected companies and the number of main gold mining sites increased from 14 in 1994 to 31 sites in 2006. The number of active hydraulic and pit mines had exploded to approximately 100 by the end of 2006. The regime?s Ministry of Mines collects signing fees for the concessions as well as 35% - 50% tax on annual profits. Additional payments are rendered to the military?s top commander for the region, various township and local authorities as well as the Minister of Mines personally. The junta has announced occasional bans on gold mining in Kachin State but as this report shows, these bans are temporary and selective, in effect used to maintain the junta?s grip on mining revenues. While the regime, called the State Peace and Development Council or SPDC, has consolidated political and financial control of the valley, it has not enforced its own existing (and very limited) environmental and health regulations on gold mining operations. This lack of regulation has resulted in deforestation, the destruction of river banks, and altering of river flows. Miners have been severely injured or killed by unsafe working practices and the lack of adequate health services. The environmental and health effects of mercury contamination have yet to be monitored and analyzed. The most dramatic effects of this gold mining boom, however, have been on the social conditions of the local people. The influx of transient populations, together with harsh working conditions, a lack of education opportunities and poverty have led to the expansion of the drug, sex, and gambling industries in Hugawng valley. In one mining area it was estimated that 80% of inhabitants are addicted to opium and approximately 30% of miners use heroin and methamphetamines. Intravenous drug use and the sex industry have increased the spread of HIV/AIDS. Far from alleviating these social ills, local SPDC authorities collect fees from these illicit industries and even diminish efforts to curb them. The SPDC continually boasts about how the people of Kachin State are benefiting from its border area development program. The case of Hugawng valley illustrates, however, the fundamental lack of local benefit from or participation in the development process. The SPDC is pursuing its interests of military expansion and revenue generation at the expense of social and environmental sustainability This report documents local people speaking out about this destructive and unsustainable development. Such bravery should be encouraged and supported.".......The main URL for this document in OBL leaqds to a 1.5MB version, obtained by passing the original through ocr software. The original and uthoritative version can be found as an alternate link in this entry.
Source/publisher: Kachin Development Networking Group (KDNG)
2007-01-09
Date of entry/update: 2010-09-09
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 1.51 MB
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Description: Executive Summary: "This report describes how human rights and environmental abuses continue to be a serious problem in eastern Pegu division, Burma ? specifi cally, in Shwegyin township of Nyaunglebin District. The heavy militarization of the region, the indiscriminate granting of mining and logging concessions, and the construction of the Kyauk Naga Dam have led to forced labor, land confi scation, extortion, forced relocation, and the destruction of the natural environment. The human consequences of these practices, many of which violate customary and conventional international law, have been social unrest, increased fi nancial hardship, and great personal suffering for the victims of human rights abuses. By contrast, the SPDC and its business partners have benefi ted greatly from this exploitation. The businessmen, through their contacts, have been able to rapidly expand their operations to exploit the township?s gold and timber resources. The SPDC, for its part, is getting rich off the fees and labor exacted from the villagers. Its dam project will forever change the geography of the area, at great personal cost to the villagers, but it will give the regime more electricity and water to irrigate its agro-business projects. Karen villagers in the area previously panned for gold and sold it to supplement their incomes from their fi elds and plantations. They have also long been involved in small-scale logging of the forests. In 1997, the SPDC and businessmen began to industrialize the exploitation of gold deposits and forests in the area. Businessmen from central Burma eventually arrived and in collusion with the Burmese Army gained mining concessions and began to force people off of their land. Villagers in the area continue to lose their land, and with it their ability to provide for themselves. The Army abuses local villagers, confi scates their land, and continues to extort their money. Commodity prices continue to rise, compounding the diffi culties of daily survival. Large numbers of migrant workers have moved into the area to work the mining concessions and log the forests. This has created a complicated tension between the Karen and these migrants. While the migrant workers are merely trying to earn enough money to feed their families, they are doing so on the Karen?s ancestral land and through the exploitation of local resources. Most of the migrant workers are Burman, which increases ethnic tensions in an area where Burmans often represent the SPDC and the Army and are already seen as sneaky and oppressive by the local Karen. These forms of exploitation increased since the announcement of the construction of the Kyauk Naga Dam in 2000, which is expected to be completed in late 2006. The SPDC has enabled the mining and logging companies to extract as much as they can before the area upstream of the dam is fl ooded. This situation has intensifi ed and increased human rights violations against villagers in the area. The militarization of the region, as elsewhere, has resulted in forced labor, extortion of money, goods, and building materials, and forced relocation by the Army. In addition to these direct human rights violations, the mining and dam construction have also resulted in grave environmental degradation of the area. The mining process has resulted in toxic runoff that has damaged or destroyed fi elds and plantations downstream. The dam, once completed, will submerge fi elds, plantations, villages, and forests. In addition, the dam will be used to irrigate rubber plantations jointly owned by the SPDC and private business interests. The Burmese Army has also made moves to secure the area in the mountains to the east of the Shwegyin River. This has led to relocations and the forced displacement of thousands of Karen villagers living in the mountains. Once the Army has secured the area, the mining and logging companies will surely follow..."
Source/publisher: EarthRights International (ERI)
2007-02-20
Date of entry/update: 2007-03-06
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: Big companies push small prospectors aside in hunt for Burma?s riches... "In Alice in Wonderland, the Red Queen tells Alice: ?A word means what I want it to mean.” That sums up in one sentence the state of Burma?s statute books—particularly those decrees relating to mining the country?s rich resources. Robert Moody, in his 1998 ?Report on Mining in Burma,” put it more directly. The law on mining passed by the Rangoon regime in 1994, he said, ?is not just one, but a parade of farts in a bucket.” The law makes no provisions for holding mining companies responsible for failure to stabilize workings and waste piles, nor for rehabilitating closed mines. There are no requirements for an environmental and reclamation bond to be posted by a mining company, no need for an environment and social impact assessment, nor for an independent monitor to ensure compliance during mining and post-closure operations.The law allows private citizens to prospect for gold, but they are not permitted to use machinery. People granted permits must sign an agreement to turn over 30 percent of their refined gold to the Ministry of Mines. Citizens are also permitted to pan for placer gold found in streams, although they are increasingly being edged out by Chinese contractors dredging the Irrawaddy River..."
Creator/author: Charles Large
Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy" Vol. 13, No. 10
2005-10-00
Date of entry/update: 2006-04-30
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: Contents:-ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS; MAP; EXECUTIVE SUMMARY; INTRODUCTION & METHODOLOGY;; BACKGROUND; UNEARTHING BURMA; ENVIRONMENT AND MINING LAWS; THE LAND OF THE KACHIN; GEOGRAPHY & BIODIVERSITY; HISTORY; GOLD IN THE KACHIN HILLS; CONCESSION POLICY; ROLE OF THE KIO; FOREIGN INVESTORS; CHINA; GOING FOR KACHIN GOLD: MINING TECHNIQUES; PLACER MINING; PANNING; BUCKET DREDGES; SUCTION DREDGES; HYDRAULIC MINING; GOLD ORE; OPEN-CAST MINES; SHAFT MINES; CHEMICALS IN THE MINING PROCESS; DANGER: MERCURY; ALTERNATIVES TO MERCURY; CYANIDE LEACHING; CASE STUDIES OF MINING AREAS IN KACHIN STATE; HUKAWNG; MALI HKA; N?MAI HKA; HPAKANT; GOLD AND THE ENVIRONMENT3; AFTER THE GOLD RUSH: TAILINGS AND ACID MINE DRAINAGE; LAND REHABILITATION; THE RIVER ECOSYSTEM; GOLD AND ITS SOCIAL IMPACT; SEEKING WORK, SEEKING GOLD; ENDANGERING MINERS; MINING AND HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS; RECOMMENDATIONS... APPENDICES: IVANHOE MINES LTD.; EXAMPLES OF MERCURY AND METHYLMERCURY POISONING; CASES OF CYANIDE POLLUTION; AGREEMENT BETWEEN MYITKYINA TPDC AND NORTHERN STAR MINERALS TRADING AND PRODUCTION CO.
Source/publisher: Images Asia Environment Desk, Pan Kachin Development Society
2004-11-00
Date of entry/update: 2004-12-21
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf pdf
Size: 3.38 MB 3.3 MB
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