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Statement on project to build Dam o



Subject: Statement on project to build Dam on Salween.

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Statement on Attempt to Build a Dam on Salween River<br>
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Regarding the project to build a dam on Salween for the generation of
electrical power, at a location where the river serves as a boundary
between Thailand and Burma, the NCUB has to make a statement as
follows:<br>
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1.&nbsp; This project would result in the widespread destruction of
environment, at the site in the part of Burma. It would also result, on
an extensive scale, in the destruction of cultivated fields, farms and
homes of the natives living in the environs of Salween. As the project
was intended to bring in foreign exchange for the SPDC regime rather than
to benefit the people, it would be of no benefit to the country.&nbsp;
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2.&nbsp; Moreover, a dam on the river would obliterate the traditional
cultures of the indigenous peoples, their native homes, large tracts of
forests, natural fertility of the soil, and cause the emergence of
wetlands, contamination of the drinking water, and thus, further causing
serious health problems for the natives.<br>
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3.&nbsp; The SPDC military regime is merely a regime that came into being
by seizing power and spilling the blood of the people, like a river. It
is not a government formed on the consent and will of the people. Only a
government elected by the people, or a people's parliament, has the right
to manage and use the natural resources such as water, forests and the
rivers, and the export of them. The management of the natural resources
of the country by the SPDC military clique arbitrarily in such a way,
without the consent of the people, amounts to the high crime of
misappropriation against the nation.<br>
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4.&nbsp; We, the NCUB, demand the countries, which have invested in
Burma, not to act solely in self-interest, but to take into consideration
the plight of the people of Burma, who have to bear widespread violations
of human rights, and reconsider their plan to work in cooperation with
the SPDC for the use of Salween water, which would cause more harm and
hardship to the country.<br>
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September 13, 1999<br>
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