Burma: Village Protests Shut Down Coal Mine

24th Octo­ber The Karen Nation­al Union (KNU) in South­ern Bur­ma has sus­pend­ed a coalmine from oper­at­ing in the Pawk­lo area, east of Dawei.

The KNU stopped the mine after lis­ten­ing to the demands local vil­lagers made to the polit­i­cal organ­i­sa­tions dis­trict lead­ers.

The KNU Mer­gui-Tavoy Dis­trict 16th Con­gress that fin­ished on the 19 Octo­ber decid­ed that the coal mine in Tha Nay Kler vil­lage area should stop oper­at­ing after KNU town­ship rep­re­sen­ta­tives pushed for its clo­sure.

P’doh Saw Beel­er, chair­man of KNU Mer­gui-Tavoy Dis­trict told Karen News.

“We con­sid­er the vil­lagers demands request­ing the sus­pen­sion of coal min­ing in the Paw Klo area. We will time to inves­ti­gate the issue and talk and lis­ten to local peo­ple about their con­cerns.”

The KNU per­mit grant­ed to a Thai com­pa­ny East Star has been sus­pend­ed, but sources claim the com­pa­ny still has a grant issued by the Myan­mar gov­ern­ment.

East Star is a joint ven­ture with May Flower, a Burmese owned com­pa­ny, that was grant­ed a 25-year con­ces­sion by the gov­ern­ment to mine for coal in the Paw Klo area.

Until the recent cease­fire between the Bur­ma Army and the KNU, the Paw Klo area was a con­flict zone – it is still under the con­trol of the KNU. The com­pa­ny received per­mis­sion from the KNU to mine in 2011. The KNU agree­ment states the com­pa­ny must renew its per­mit every year.

The KNU per­mit lim­its large-scale coal min­ing to a 60-acre area and states that the com­pa­ny is only allowed to mine out­side vil­lage areas to avoid dam­age to farm­land, water­ways and the envi­ron­ment.

Vil­lagers in the Paw Klo area protest­ed against the com­pa­ny and alleged that the min­ing has destroyed their land and has had adverse impacts on vil­lage water sources. Vil­lagers claim that they fear the pol­lut­ed drink­ing water could have a neg­a­tive impact on their future health.

Vil­lagers in Paw Klo, sub­mit­ted a let­ter of com­plaint on Sep­tem­ber 2 urg­ing the KNU to stop coal min­ing in Tha Nay Kler vil­lage.

The let­ter sub­mit­ted on Sep­tem­ber 2 to the KNU Mer­gui-Tavoy dis­trict office states that, “The East Star Com­pa­ny has failed to fol­low the agree­ment made between the KNU and vil­lagers that it [com­pa­ny] will pro­tect against dam­age of the envi­ron­ment and would not harm local lands and peo­ples’ liveli­hoods.”