“50 hurt as Myanmar breaks up mine protest”
RIOT police fired water cannon and tear gas early yesterday to break up a three-month protest against a vast copper-mining project run by the powerful Myanmar military and its partner, a subsidiary of a Chinese arms manufacturer.
Activities said at least 50 people had been injured and 23 were in hospital, some of them suffering burns after incendiary devices were hurled into their camps by the police.
Witnesses said truckload of police officers arrived at camps near the mine in the Sagaing region in Myanmar’s north-west, where thousands have demonstrated against a US$ 1-billion (S$1.2-billion) expansion of the project, which they say has caused the unlawful confiscation of more than 3,160ha of land.
Mr Shin Oattama, a Buddhist monk who had helped the villagers, said the security forces began to use water cannon and other weapons at about 3am.
“They shot some sort of canisters that caused fire at the camp. We just don’t know what sort of weapon it was,” he said.
Land disputes are a growing problem in Myanmar. Protests were suppressed quickly under the military junta in place until last year, but have become more common as President Thein Sein opens up the country, also known as Burma, and pushes through reforms.
“The new right-to-protest law was hailed as a major reform, but it is clear there is still no right to protest in Burma,” said Mr Mark Farmaner, of London-based advocacy group Burma Campaign UK.
Ms Aung San Suu Kyi, Nobel Peace laureate and a Member of Parliament, was scheduled to visit the site yesterday, her National League for Democracy party said. She intended to speak to the protesters about their grievances.
The mine, Myanmar’s biggest, is run by a unit of China North Industries, a leading Chinese weapons manufacturer, under a deal signed in June 2010, after Canada’s Ivanhoe Mines pulled out in 2007.
It is backed by the military –owned Union of Myanmar Economic Holdings, which operated with impunity under the ruled Myanmar for almost half a century until last year.
Ref : My Paper (Singapore)
Date : 30 November 2012
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