At least 50 wounded as Myanmar cracks down on anti-mine protest

Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi arrived at a hospital in the Sagaing division to visit protesters who were hurt at their camp outside the Latpadantaung copper mine near Monywa township, 827 kilometres northwest of Yangon.

Demonstrators said police used water cannon, tear gas and firebombs to evict them from the camp, where they have staged the protest against the mining project for days. 

The authorities, however, denied reports that chemicals were used against the protesters. “I believe that the police did not use any chemicals. Instead, they used water cannons, tear gas and smoke bombs. The protest camps were fired by smoke bombs,” Zaw Htay, director of the President’s Office, told Eleven Media.

More than 200 hardcore protesters, including about 50 Buddhist monks, had remained camped outside the Latpadantaung copper mine in the Sagaing division near Monywa township as the government had ordered them to leave the site by midnight on Wednesday.

“I was at the main camp in front of the Wangbao Company when it happened. At around three in the morning, they tried to remove us by pumping water from the fire engines. They tried four or five times. But the demonstrators stayed put. Then, they used some kind of inflammable bombs, said a protester.

The protesters said the mine, a joint venture between the Myanmar military-owned Economic Holdings Ltd and China’s Wanbao Co Yang Tze Copper Ltd, illegally confiscated land from villagers who claimed they had not received compensation. The project also polluted the environment in their areas, they said. The protest was another test case for a reform engineered by President Thein Sein, who had cancelled the Chinese-invested Myitsone hydropower plant in the Irrawaddy River last year due to environmental concerns.