Hundreds of residents protested Thursday against a China-backed petroleum pipeline project in western Burma’s Rakhine state over inadequate compensation and demands that the project developer provide better transportation infrastructure and higher salaries for local workers.

Around 400 people gathered to protest the Shwe Gas Project in Maday Island off the coast of Kyaukpyu town in the Bay of Bengal, also complaining that the project had polluted rivers which fishermen in the area had depended on for their catch.

“We protested today because we want the world see that the project is not making the lives of local residents better—it has only made things worse,” protester Tun Kyi told RFA’s Burmese Service.

The Shwe Gas Project is a joint venture between Beijing’s state-owned China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) and Burma’s national petroleum company Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise.

A conglomerate of two other companies from Burma, another company from China, two firms from India and one from South Korea also have a stake in the joint venture South East Asia Gas Pipeline Co, Ltd (SEAGP).

Tun Kyi said that residents had received compensation payment for only half of the area expropriated for the project, including a mountain owned by local residents from Maday Island.

But CNPC representatives claimed the company had made the full payment, he said, suggesting that part of the compensation has been unaccounted for.

“The Chinese businessmen are treating the local people unfairly. They occupied more than 400 acres (162 hectares) and we received compensation for only about 200 acres (81 hectares),” he said.

“No one knows where the rest of the compensation went. A lot of residents have lost their property.”

Protesters also wanted the company to build better transportation infrastructure from the crude oil jetty at Maday Island to the nearby villages of Kyauttan, Ywarma, and Panhteinse, and supply the area with electricity before continuing with the project.

They also called on CNPC to create more job opportunities for local workers and to pay them at international rates.

Demands unmet

Tun Kyi said that residents went ahead with the protest on Thursday even though the authorities refused to give them a permit to hold the gathering. They had applied for the permit in December last year, he said.

“First, we applied to the township authorities to protest about our rights being trampled on, but they wouldn’t let us. Then we applied to the state-level authorities to protest, but our application was rejected again,” he said.

When the group gathered at a nearby monastery at around 10:00 a.m. to launch the protest on Thursday, he said, the Kyaukpyu township administrator told them that CNPC had agreed to meet with them to discuss their demands.

But following a meeting with CNPC representatives, the protesters remained unsatisfied and decided to press on with their demonstration at around 2:00 p.m., marching two miles (3.2 kilometers) to the company’s headquarters in Kyaukpyu town while the authorities looked on.

“They didn’t [stop us]. We had heard that we would be shot if we entered the CNPC compound, so we didn’t ask to go inside. We just stood in front of the office shouting, ‘We don’t want CNPC’ and ‘We residents won’t shut our mouths for CNPC’,” Tun Kyi said.

He said that the township administrator and chief of police approached them and asked them to return to their homes, but the protesters said they would not leave until their demands were met.

“We asked them how they could help us to solve this problem. They told us that they would meet with someone from the CNPC on Friday at the [company’s] Social Eco office to discuss our demands.”

Protests to continue

Tun Kyi said that CNPC had created the office to negotiate with the community and to meet with township administrators, but he had little faith in the company’s willingness to accept his group’s demands.

Around 70 percent of local residents are fishermen, but we can’t even support ourselves that way because CNPC has thrown debris from the construction into our rivers.”

As a result, many of the area fishermen have gone to work as laborers on the pipelines, but only make around 90,000 kyat (about U.S. $100) a month—30,000 kyat (U.S. $34) of which is kept by the construction companies for meal costs, according to a report by the Irrawaddy online journal.

While contracts show that the workers are paid 9,000 kyat (U.S. $10) per day, they actually receive only 3,000 kyat, with most of the rest going to the local agents who found them employment with the pipeline companies, Irrawaddy said.

Tun Kyi said the protesters had vowed to continue protesting if CNPC didn’t agree to their demands at Friday’s meeting and would post leaflets outlining their grievances.

He said they wouldn’t bother applying for permission to continue protests because they know that the authorities would not grant it.

“They might arrest us, but they won’t dare do it publicly.”

Local blowback

Construction on the Shwe Gas Project began in 2009 and is slated for completion in May this year.

CNPC is constructing two pipelines to transport oil purchased in the Middle East and gas purchased in Burma’s Shwe Bay to China, beginning in September.

Each pipeline will cost U.S. $2 billion to build. Burma will earn U.S. $7 million per year in annual right-of-way fees to transport the fuel through its territory.

The oil pipeline is aimed at diversifying China’s crude oil imports routes from the Middle East and Africa, and avoid traffic through the Strait of Malacca. Oil storage tanks will be built on an island near Kyaukpyu.

The Shwe Gas Project has created a controversy in much the same way as the China-backed Myitsone Dam project did in Burma’s Kachin state two years ago—angering critics who saw the scheme benefitting the country’s northern neighbor while negatively affecting the lives of local inhabitants.

The megadam, which was designed to generate electricity mostly for export to China, was suspended by Burmese President Thein Sein’s reformist government after taking power from the former military junta in March 2011 due to public opposition.

Reported by Min Thein Aung and Zin Mar Win for RFA’s Burmese Service. Translated by Khet Mar. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.

 RFA

Photo (SGM)

A group of farmers from Shan state issued a public call on Friday demanding that Burma’s government remove sections of the Shwe gas pipeline built on their land.Representatives of the Northern Shan Farmers Committee sent an open letter to the Shan state parliament in Taunggyi citing environmental and human rights concerns regarding the twin oil and gas pipelines which are currently under construction.

When completed later this year the pipelines will transport gas and oil from Burma’s Arakan (Rakhine) coast to China’s Yunnan region, along some 800 KM of land largely expropriated from local farmers, including those from six townships in Shan state.

A report released on Friday by a coalition of Shan civil society organisations led by the Shan Human Rights Foundation (SHRF), that was timed to coincide with the petition highlights the pipeline’s numerous controversies. This includes the seizures of more than 2000 acres of land and what critics call an inadequate and completely non-transparent compensation scheme.

According to Sai Khur Hseng, a spokesman for SHRF many of the farmers who received compensation for their land were forced to sell against their wishes and then compelled to hand 10 percent of the funds they received to local officials who demanded kickbacks. The amounts of compensation distributed to the farmers varied widely depending on where their farms were.

Farmers in Namkham closest to the Chinese border received 14 million Kyat per acre. While those further south in Namtu and Hsipaw received 3 to 5 million Kyat per acre. But Sai Khur Hseng and his collegues say even the largest amount of compensation paid out to the farmers was below market rates and completely insufficient.

Another major concern for the farmers is the environmental impact that the pipeline will have on the land their land which the pipelines will pass through. Pipelines throughout the world are infamous for leaking and contaminating nearby farm land. The Shwe gas pipelines appear to be at serious risk for leaks in Shan state as they cross heavy salt deposits north of Hsipaw.

The farmers worry that the salt will corrode the pipes, a concern that has so far been ignored by both the Burmese government and and China National Petroleum Company (CNPC), the state-owned Chinese firm leading the consortium building the pipeline project.

The farmers say they were never invited to public consultations about the pipeline project nor were they given any opportunity to voice their concerns.

“We feel like a time-bomb has been placed under our homes,” said Nang Mwe Hseng a farmer from Namkham who was quoted in the press release accompanying the report. “Not only have our lands been taken without our consent, but our lives are now under threat,” he said.

The ongoing fighting in northern Shan state between government forces and armed ethnic groups is also a major concern for those monitoring the pipeline’s development. As recently as late last month clashes between Burma’s military and forces from the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), took place in an area next to the pipeline corridor.

Throughout the past few years the military has also fought frequently with the troops from the Shan State Army North and the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) in territory close to the pipeline. The continued fighting in Shan state poses a major risk for the pipeline, warned an oil industry security specialist during a recent interview with the Interfax news service.

“Running an over-ground gas pipeline in a location where an armed conflict taking place is absolutely unadvisable; an explosion could easily be caused by a stray bullet. If the pipeline is penetrated it will explode, causing it – and the surrounding area – significant damage” said Michael Oxlade, a consultant with Westminster International, a UK based firm that specializes in providing security services for global oil operations.

DVB

China, and local people affected by the project will be compensated, the energy minister said in parliament on November 9.

Myanmar to lease 5,600 acres of land for gas pipelines with China

The project will use about 879.75 (880) acres of land in Rakhine State, 1121.47 (1,121) acres in Magway Region, 1707.93 (1,708) acres in Mandalay Region and 1929.44 (1,929) acres in Shan State. Moreover, compensatory payments have been made for the houses in the project areas.

Over 27 billion Kyats (US$31.75 million) have been paid for five years in compensation for farmlands and crops, according to Minister Than Htay.

“We have formed teams to pay compensations for the local people for the loss of their land and crops. We made the

calculations according to the current prices. The compensations will be paid for a five-year term,” the minister said.

Up to November 7, Rakhine State has received about 3.9 billion Kyats for the loss of land and crops plantations, Magway Region over 5.2 billion Kyats, Mandalay Region over 8.4 billion Kyats and Shan State over 10 billion Kyats.

the daily eleven

Burma’s neighbors, long seen as energy predators, could be the key to boosting the country’s power supply. (Photo: Reuters)

Burma’s chronic shortage of electricity, which threatens to stymie economic growth, could be eased by pushing for acceleration of plans by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) for a regional power grid.

Cross-border electricity swaps are growing as the 10-country bloc moves towards the goal of a single market by 2015. And one of the planks of the closer regional economic integration platform is a borderless energy network.

In a region where national self-interest and rivalry has been the rule for decades, Asean—45 years old this year—is playing an increasing role in forging closer business integration between its members.
Cooperation on power exchanges are being driven by rapidly rising demand and domestic production, which increasingly struggles to match it.

Asean plans for a regional power swapping grid are part of the organization’s ambitions for 2020. However, some countries are already developing electricity-swapping cross-border links and Burma could use its year as president of Asean in 2014 to push the project forward, say energy planners and experts.

There are already cross-border power links between Cambodia and Vietnam, Laos and Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore and now proposals for link ups between Burma and Thailand.

The biggest cross-border exchange of power supply so far is being developed between Malaysia and Indonesia, where state energy agencies have now inked two significant agreements on two-way electricity. This has all happened since March, when the Indonesian Parliament approved a law permitting the export of electricity for the first time.

The former governor of the state Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT) and now a senior Thai government adviser on energy, Kraisi Kannasutr, has spoken in favor of Asean power integration as a way of benefiting economic development for Thailand and its neighbors.

He told a Bangkok Senate inquiry into energy that a regional power grid would reduce electricity costs overall by pumping power to where it was needed cheaper than producing it in situ.

For example, this would help the development of a port-industry complex at Dawei on Burma’s southeast coast, proposed by Thai firms but currently in limbo—partly because the project lacks energy.

Thailand has a generating capacity of 26,000 megawatts, which reaches most remote rural areas of the country, while Burma has a mere 1,800 megawatts capacity, reaching barely 25 percent of the population and then for only a few hours each day.

“Until recently, Thailand has sought to milk the energy resources of Burma for its own use the way China has,” Bangkok power industry consultant Collin Reynolds told The Irrawaddy on Aug. 25. “I think the Thais are now realizing that if they are to benefit from Burma’s economic development there will need to be cooperation on electricity supplies, just as there are plans for trans-border road and railway networks.”

An example of such a system already being forged is a cross-border grid linking Malaysia’s Borneo State of Sarawak with Kalimantan, Indonesia’s Borneo province. Separately, an undersea transmission cable is planned between Indonesia’s Sumatra and peninsular Malaysia’s west coast as a result of a coal mining and power plant joint venture.

Malaysian state power monopoly Tenaga Nasional Berhad, or TNB, is teaming up with its Indonesian counterpart PLN and Indonesia’s state-owned coal miner Bukit Asam.

The threesome will cooperate in a mining, power plant and power exchange project costing over US $2 billion.

A coal mine with a 6 million tonnes per annum capacity is to be built in Riau Province in Sumatra to feed a 1,250 MW plant. Electricity produced will be shared between PLN and TNB, who will also share the coast and ownership of a 53-km cable to be laid beneath the Malacca Strait and into Malaysia.

The agreement envisages Indonesia transmitting power to Malaysia during off-peak times and TNB reciprocating during its off-peak period.

Work on the mine is to start soon, according to Bukit Asam, with the power plant and cross-border cable scheduled for completion by 2017.

Peninsular Malaysia suffered power shortages for the first time in 2011 and the shortfall had to be plugged by buying electricity from Singapore. The shortages were triggered by a decline in domestic gas supplies on which TNB has been dependent for 70 percent of its system.

Ironically, Malaysia has a surfeit of electricity in its two Borneo states, Sarawak and Sabah, due the massive Bakun Dam which flooded an area of jungle the size of Singapore. Power from the multibillion dollar 2,400 MW dam project was originally meant to be transmitted to peninsular Malaysia by undersea cable across more than 500 km of the South China Sea, but TNB abandoned this long-held plan on cost grounds.

Instead, PLN will buy some of the Bakun capacity, which will be shipped across the border into power- hungry Kalimantan via a 120-km cable. When the first electricity flows in 2014 the West Kalimantan grid will have a 20 percent increase in its distributable supply.

Despite abundant coal resources, much of Kalimantan’s limited power supply is generated via expensive oil and diesel fuels.

Under-developed Laos is benefiting from deals in which Thai firms finance and build hydro dams on its side of the border, separated by the Mekong River. They pump much of the ensuing electricity into Thailand, but some power goes to Laos, which also earns income.

“The cooperation between Indonesia and Malaysia in energy is the best example yet of how countries within Asean are likely to increasingly merge their power systems,” Hong Kong-based energy industries analyst Vince Lomax told The Irrawaddy.

“In the short-medium term I think we will see a move by Thailand to boost Burma’s electricity supply. This will be necessary if Thai business is to benefit from investing in the emerging economy of its neighbor.”

However, plans by Thai firms, led by EGAT, to build a 1,280 MW hydro dam directly on the Mekong in Laos are meeting stiff opposition from Cambodia and Vietnam downstream.

They argue that a dam would undermine river flows and damage their freshwater fishing on which millions of people depend.

But as Asean’s economies grow and the combined 620 million population demands more electricity, it increasingly looks like compromises will have to be made.  Irrawaddy

Mandalaynites started the protest at 7p.m on 20 May by lighting up the candles in front of Regional Office of Myanma Electrical Power Corporation situated at 77st road between 26th and 27th streets, as well as in front of Swan Hotel.

“The cut-off of electricity started in April. Power shortages become gradually more severe later. There are many consequences of this problem. While day and night temperatures are getting high, people have been suffering a lot of miseries for months. However, the government officials did not solve the problems. So we are now asking peacefully to relieve our sufferings,” said a resident in
Mandalay.

With regard to this demand, Mandalay Region Minister for Electricity and Industry Dr. Myint Kyu and responsible engineer Daw Aye Aye Min of Electricity Power Corporation hold a press conference at 9a.m on the same evening.

“We understand the problems of people. We are not neglecting them. While we are drawing plans to tackle them, we have to experience this protest,” said the minister.

“We have asked for generators from our regional headquarters to supply electricity in Mandalay city. Although we want to fully distribute electricity, we have no enough power supply. So we are just to ask the electricity from Heaven Spirit for shower,” said the engineer of EPC.

The responsible persons said at the press that electricity will be distributed in central Myanmar city with five- hour rotational basis by dividing three areas.

Eleven Media Group

For more information on this topic and BEWG member groups, please see accompanying statement. For more background information, please refer to BEWG’s 2011 report, Burma’s Environment: People, Problems, Policies. More information is also available on BEWG’s website (www.bewg.org).

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Public protests took place in Kyauk Phyu and Yangon as part of the 7th Global Day of Action Against the Shwe Gas and Trans-Burma Pipelines Project. Courageous activists and local residents made their opposition to the project known in a loud and public fashion at significant personal risk.  T-shirts stating “Our Gas Our Future” and “Stop China-Myanmar Oil & Gas Pipelines” were distributed and generated much interest among people on the street.

Japan (Global Day of Action)

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Bangladesh (Global Day of Action)

Bangkok, Thailand(Global Day of Action)

Over 100 people demonstrated at the Chinese Embassy in Bangkok. The crowd chanted slogans calling for a stop to the Shwe Gas and Pipelines Project and for domestic utilization of Burma’s energy resources before exportation. Activists delivered a copy of the Shwe Gas Movement’s open letter to President Thein Sein to embassy staff. A number of media covered the demonstration.

Chiang Mai,Thailand (Global Day of Action)

In Chiang Mai the large mock-pipeline reading “Stop The Pipelines” grabbed public attention as activists held it up in front of the Chinese Consulate on Chang Lor Road. Approximately 50 people held signs and chanted slogans while organizers spoke to the media. After 30 minutes a copy of the Shwe Gas Movement’s open letter to President Thein Sein was given to a consulate staff member along with a copy of The Shwe Gas Movements recent report Sold  Out: launch of China pipeline project unleashes abuse across Burma.

Over 100 local youths who were organized by a local campaign group known as the Ray of Arakan or “Rakkha Ahluntan” were said to have participated in competitions of their traditional tug-of war held from 3 to 7 February, between the urban wards in Sittwe wearing the t-shirts that read “Stop the Shwe Gas Project” and “Give 24-hour Electricity in Arakan”.

“We started our campaign wearing the t-shirts on the first day of our traditional game in Sittwe. There were police but they had not disturbed us. But on second day they forcibly stripped the t-shirts off our youths. Some of the youths who did not want to take off their t-shirts had to run away from the game”, said Daw Mar Mar who is one of the leaders of the campaign.

Daw Mar Mar said the “Ratha Swe Bwe” is one of the most popular traditional games in Arakan State and they launched the campaign with the game to raise wider awareness among their own Arakanese people who are being deprived of their rights in their own region.

Ma Khine Khine, another leader of the campaign who is a resident of Shwebrar Ward in Sittwe, also said she was warned by the organizing committee of the game not to launch the campaign using the game.

“Eight of the organizing committee of the game came to my residence on the day before the game started and told me not to launch the campaign with the game as they had signed agreements with the authorities not to do anything affiliated with political activities. We understood that they had difficulties with the authorities, but we had to continue what we had decided to do for the cause of our whole Arakanese people, who have been starving for electricity for development in their homeland”, said Ma Khine Khine.

She said her group had organized a team of youths from her own ward to compete in the game wearing the t-shirts of the campaign, but the committee members of the game and police had not allowed them to compete in the game and confiscated their t-shirts.

She also said she and other leaders of the group have to hide away from their residences, as the authorities are closely watching them after they had launched the campaign.

The group have distributed the pamphlets that urge all Arakanese peoples to demand their rights from the Shwe Gas Project as part of their campaign in the traditional game as well.

Campaign Poster for 24 hours electricity in Arakan. 

Among the ten detained are both men and women, who were coordinating to carry out the electricity campaign in Sittwe, the capital of Arakan, on the occasion of Burmese National Day yesterday.

“A daughter and granddaughter, who is Ma Wa Wa Khaing, of prominent politician U San Shwe Oo (Kwe Baluu) are among those arrested. We do not know about other detainees or their current whereabouts since the arrest,” the source said.

Moreover, a female government teacher, Ma Khaing Khing, was also detained by police but later released after interrogation.

“Ma Khaing Khing was brought to No. 1 police station in the early morning yesterday, but the police released her around 1 pm. She was interrogated by police officers about her role in the campaign and other programs in the campaign,” said another colleague of Ma Khaing Khing.

A police team raided a hotel where some campaigners were staying and seized many campaign t-shirts, posters, and equipment.

U Aung Mrat Kyaw, Arakan State parliament legislator, confirmed detention of campaigners but stated that up to 20 individuals had been detained.

“As far as I know, over ten campaigners were detained, but the number is not more than 20. They were interrogated separately in different police stations in Sittwe. I heard there has been no harassment and they are being interrogated about their campaign. I hope they will be released very soon,” he said.

The campaign for 24-hour electricity in Arakan, generated by natural gas extracted from Arakan, is now spreading in the state after Union Minister for Energy U Than Htay said in Pyithu Hluttaw that natural gas obtained from the Shwe natural gas fields will be exported to China through the Burma – China natural gas pipeline, and can not be used in Arakan State per the bilateral agreement with China.

The campaign began in response to the Burmese government’s decision to sell Arakan’s natural gas to China, without any benefit for Arakan itself.

On 26 October, a group of youth in Rathidaung, 20 miles north of Sittwe, staged a protest by wearing anti-Shwe Gas t-shirts. Police forced them to take off the t-shirts and threatened them with punishment it they conducted such activities in the town again. The campaign is being carried out by many youths in Arakan in several towns across the state, including Kyauk Pru, Rambree, and Taungup.

Arakan State has the lowest amount of electricity supplied in all of Burma. Electricity is currently generated by expensive diesel and petrol engines and residents have to pay higher rates – 400 to 600 Kyat per unit of electricity – than anywhere else in Burma.

In central Burma, electricity is charged at a rate of 28 Kyat per unit for household use and 50 Kyat per unit for industrial use. The electricity being produced from the generators in Arakan is too low in voltage to run factories, but households are charged significantly more per unit than in central Burma. Because of this, most residents in the region are unable to access electricity at all.

Narinjara

FCCT Bulletin

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