Thai Indigenous Dispossession
Dams on Thailand's Salween River Threaten Indigenous Groups
Officials plan to use Thai villages for a development project, displacing over 80 000 indigenous people.
Native Thai villages such as Me Koh, in the Mae Hong Son province, are facing relocation due to plans to build a series of dams on the Salween River. Soon they, along with many other indigenous communities in Burma and Thailand, will be underwater.
Over 80 000 indigenous people will be displaced by the dam project, including Karen, Shan, Yintalai and Karenni peoples. Rare plants and animals will also be made extinct by the actions of the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand.
A coalition of non-government organisations handed a letter of protest to the minister for energy, stating that the entire decision-making process for the planning and implementation of the Salween hydropower development projects had been shrouded in secrecy.
There was no indigenous consultation by the government of the targeted communities in Burma and the fifty-plus Karen-Thai villages living along the Salween river in Thailand's Mae Hong Son province.
The Burmese military, who are also stakeholders in the project, have been trying to take control of Shan and other indigenous homelands, using the age-old colonial tactics of burning, looting, execution and rape. Thailand already hosts over 300 000 Burmese refugees who have fled the depredations of the military dictatorship in Burma. Clearly, beneath the glossy image of “development” and “progress”, dam construction continues to represent a means of ethnic cleansing in Burma’s war against the indigenous Karenni.
This is nothing new for the region. In the 1960’s the Mobye dam was built using the Karenni as a cheap source of forced labour. Over twelve thousand Karenni saw their homes disappear beneath the waters of that dam. The surrounding land was planted not with trees or crops, but with landmines to prevent the traditional owners from claiming water frontage that had suddenly become valuable real estate.
Since that time the Karenni have constantly been the target of genocidal abuse from the military regime. Part of the genocide strategy involves targeting native women routinely for military gang rape. Another element is denial of water for subsistence living – the river water to their remaining communities has been diverted beyond the reach of Karenni households and farms. There are life-threatening water shortages as a result.
The Karenni have always retained aboriginal sovereignty, even under British occupation. It was only when Burma gained independence in 1948 that things began to change. It seemed the Burmese had internalised the colonising behaviour of their former oppressors, invading Karenni territory and assassinating their leader. Karenni resistance groups were formed, and fought with great success. However, in 2002 they agreed to sign a ceasefire. The Burmese double-crossed them, and used the cessation of hostilities to sneak in and take over Karenni territory.
Since then the survivors have been moved to relocation camps where the conditions are horrendous. The abuse and human rights violations have escalated, as planning for further development and the construction of more dams goes ahead. There is considerable foreign investment in these dam projects.
