Myitsone blasts injure Chinese worker

Monday, 19 April 2010 21:03 Phanida

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) - Serial bomb blasts at Myitsone hydropower dam project in the northern state of Kachin on Saturday left no one dead, according to local residents and a Kachin Independence Organisation (KIO) source.
Four bombs exploded in rapid succession at the Asia World company office in Long Ga Zuap village, 10 kilometres south of the project site, at about 2 a.m. on April 17. A Chinese worker was injured.

“There have been no deaths. Only a Chinese worker received minor injuries to the leg,” a resident of Tan Phare village, at the May Kha-Mali Kha river confluence, the headwater of the Irrawaddy, told Mizzima.

Five heavy-duty trucks and two bulldozers were also damaged, he said.

At least 14 bombs exploded on the day; eight at Tan Phare village, two in Kyein Kha Ran and four in Lon Ga Zuap village, a KIO officer said.

The organisation denied involvement after Burma Army northern commander Major General Soe Win asked whether it had had a hand in the blasts, he said.

The blasts came just two days after the three explosions at the X2O water festival pavilion in a park beside a lake in Rangoon.

Though none have claimed responsibility for the blasts, observers speculate that the explosions were used to put pressure on the KIO by the Chinese government. Relations between the group and the Burmese junta are at an all-time low over the regime’s deadline on Thursday for the group’s armed wing, the Kachin Independence Army, to join the Burma Army’s Border Guard Force.

But the KIO officer reiterated that the bombings had nothing to do with the group because taking part in such an attack would jeopardise relations with Beijing.

In the wake of the blasts, inspection of house guests and collection of car lists and licence-plate numbers have been stepped up on orders of the Ward Peace and Development Council chairman in Myitkyina, the state capital, the residents said.

Major General Soe Win visited the villages yesterday, a source said.

The project is being built by the junta’s Ministry of Industry No. 1 in association with the Asia World and China Power Investment Corporation, one of the five largest state-run power producers. The expected 3,600 megawatts of electricity generated will be sold to supply China’s Yunnan province.

The project led to the forced relocation of up to 15,000 residents from at least 60 villages upstream of the site. Local residents and environmentalists are protesting against the project over heritage, wildlife, ecological and seismic concerns. The dam site lies less than 100 kilometres from the Sagaing fault line, posing a risk to basin inhabitants if an earthquake weakens the structure or causes landslides in the reservoir. If the dam broke during a quake, it would endanger the lives of hundred of thousands of people downstream in Myitkyina.

This is not the first time an Asia World company holding has been bombed. An explosion occurred at the company’s port terminal in Rangoon’s Ahlone Township last July.

Dam project partner Asia World and subsidiaries, owned by Tun Myint Naing (a.k.a. Steven Law), son of the notorious drug lord Lo Hsing Han, are the subject of sanctions by the European Union, United Kingdom and the United States over links to drug-trafficking and the Burmese junta, according to the governments’ websites.