EITI fallout looms over Letpadaung clashes

EITI fallout looms over Letpadaung clashes

By Wa Lone and Thomas Kean   |   Saturday, 27 December 2014

Civil society groups have accused the government of breaching its Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative commitments as a result of recent clashes between demonstrators and police at the Letpadaung copper mine in which one person was killed and nine injured.

The Myanmar Alliance for Transparency and Accountability said its members would submit the case to the EITI Board, which is considering the government's applications for membership to the initiative.

In a statement on December 24, MATA said the government had violated its promise to guarantee freedom on speech on natural resource-related issues. Articles in state-run media blaming the protesters for the violence before an investigation had been conducted also breached the EITI code of conduct, said MATA, which was formed earlier this year to coordinate civil society involvement in the EITI process.

The group said the aim of EITI was to achieve "people-centred good resource governance" and protect communities from the "resource curse".

"However, the present situation is moving in the opposite direction and the conflict in Letpadaung this week are indications of this," it said.

It said the police had used "excessive and unnecessarily violent" tactics to quell the demonstrations.

"The police response ... highlights human rights abuses due to mismanagement of natural resources by the respective authorities and foreign investors from extractive industry."

The statement was released after one woman was killed and nine others injured in the latest clashes between police a defending Chinese miner Myanmar Wanbao and protesters at the Letpadaung mine in Sagaing Region's Sarlingyi township on December 22.

The long-running conflict at the copper mine was reignited when the company began using bulldozers to fence off land. Nearby residents quickly gathered and attempted to stop the fencing. A heated standoff then boiled over into rioting, with security forces firing shotgun rounds into protesters to quell the confrontation.

Wanbao spokesperson Mr Dong Yonfei told The Myanmar Times on December 23 that he felt "deeply sorry" for this incident but the company planned to continue its activities.

He said the company, which is working with army-run Myanmar Economic Holdings Limited on the project, had official permission to carry out the work.

"We already have permission from the government and we will complete our fencing operations in a few days," he said.

The company plans to fence off 3000 of the site's 6000 acres. The state-run Myanma Ahlin newspaper reported on December 23 that more than 100 police were part of the security operation. The report said 11 police officers were also injured in the melee, and that the officers fired into the crowd to try and make villagers disperse.

The daily newspaper added that some villagers had fired slingshots at the police.

Daw Khin Win, 60, was shot and killed during the riot. She had apparently joined the crowd to inspect land that she had been farming but was not being fenced off by the Chinese mining company, said Daw Khin Mar Aye, a sister-in-law to the deceased.

"I warned her not to go near the project because police were shooting at the villagers who got too close," Daw Khin Mar Aye said.

Villagers were enraged by the sight of bulldozers destroying farmland with crops waiting to be harvested to put up fences, said Ma Yin Hla from Tone village.

"We cannot do anything except cry," she added.

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, who headed the Letpadaung Commission and also chair of the National League for Democracy (NLD), issued a statement after the death.

The statement said the latest flare up in violence at the site, which has seen repeated incidents between police and villagers since November 2012, had occurred because the government and company had failed to follow the suggestions of the commission, which released its report into the project in early 2013.

The statement urged the government to take prompt action to limit further impacts on local villages.

The Letpadaung Commission was formed after a police raid on a protest camp in November 2012 that left scores injured, including monks. Human rights groups said the police had used phosphorous grenades in the night-time crackdown, despite an international ban on their non-military use.

Wanbao issued a statement saying that they have already made agreements to compensate more than 70 percent of villagers for the land they will take for the project. Mr Dong said the company had agreed to pay between US$70 and $160 per acre for every acre until the former farmers find new jobs.

The Chinese embassy expressed "deep sorrow" at the "unfortunate" clashes and said it was particularly concerned at "the casualties and injuries" suffered by Chinese workers at the site.

"We believe that violence will not help to resolve the problem," it said in a statement. "With regard to the tragedy, we expect further results of investigation by the authority."

http://www.information.myanmaronlinecentre.com/eiti-fallout-looms-over-letpadaung-clashes/