Resource information
Only 40 kms north of the Thai border
in the mountains of eastern Shan State,
Thai investors are poised to begin
mining and burning large reserves
of coal at Mong Kok. Ihis
project — which will ravage a
pristine valley and poison
the Kok River, impacting
countless Shan and northern
Thai communities downstream
- must be stopped immediately.
The Italian-Thai Power Company has entered into
agreements with the Burmese military regime to
develop an open-pit coal mine and power plant at
Mong Kok in eastern Shan State, to export both
coal and power to Thailand.
Home to over a thousand Shan, Lahu and Akha farmers,
Mong Kok lies in a conflict zone, where troops of the
Burmese junta clash regularly with ethnic resistance
forces, and commit systematic abuses against the local
peoples. The regime has poured troops into the area to
secure the mining site. Villagers have been forced to
sell their farmlands for a pittance, and are being forced
into a resettlement site directly adjacent to the mining
area. Many have fled to the Thai border.
Conducted in secrecy and with armed intimidation, this
project blatantly contradicts any standards of responsible
investment. But if Thai investors think the project's
impacts are going to stay safely outside their borders,
they should think again. Hundreds of coal trucks a day
and huge new power pylons will be blighting the scenic
Chiang Rai landscape, while the mine and power plant
will be flushing poisons into the Kok River - harming
an ecosystem that sustains countless communities
downstream in Thailand, and threatening the lucrative
tourist trade along with it...
