Govt urged to suspend controversial mine project

Amnesty International said in a report released yesterday that Canadian and Chinese mining interests have profited from, and in some cases colluded with the Myanmar authorities in serious human rights abuses and illegal activity around the Monywa copper mine complex, which includes the notorious Letpadaungtuang mine. It called for the immediate suspension of the Letpaduangtuang mine.

“Myanmar offers the perfect storm of a rich natural resource base, a weak legal system and an economy dominated by military and special interests. The government has forcibly evicted people, crushed all attempts at peaceful protest and displayed a complete unwillingness to hold companies to account,” said Meghna Abraham, Amnesty International’s Corporate Crimes Researcher.

Canada-based Ivanhoe Mines and China-based Wanbao are at the centre of attention. While Ivanhoe may have breached Canada and UK economic sanctions to win the deal from the junta government Wanbao should be investigated for its role in the recent clash with local residents. One woman died in the incident. 

"The Monywa project is a cautionary tale on investment in Myanmar, where corporate projects are too often marked by abuses and communities are ripped apart in the pursuit of profit," said Abraham.

Ivanhoe was part of the joint venture winning the Monywa project in 1996. Wanbao took control of the project in 2010, three years after Ivanhoe's divestment.

Amnesty International report showed that thousands of people forcibly evicted in the 1990s, in violation of international law, to make way for the investment. Thousands more people forcibly evicted since 2011 to make way for the Letpadaungtuang mine. 

It urged the Myanmar authorities to provide adequate compensation and resettlement to people who were forcibly evicted and to reform its legal framework to better protect rights of mine-affected communities.