VZCZCXRO4062
PP RUEHCN RUEHDT RUEHGH RUEHHM RUEHVC
DE RUEHCHI #0004/01 0101007
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 101007Z JAN 07
FM AMCONSUL CHIANG MAI
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 0364
INFO RUEHBK/AMEMBASSY BANGKOK PRIORITY 0630
RUEHZS/ASSOCIATION OF SOUTHEAST ASIAN NATIONS
RUEHCHI/AMCONSUL CHIANG MAI PRIORITY 0404
RUEHOO/CHINA POSTS COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 CHIANG MAI 000004 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ENRG SENV PGOV PHUM BM CH TH
SUBJECT: PLANS FOR SALWEEN DAMS MOVE AHEAD DESPITE OPPOSITION 
 
REF: A. A)  (06) BANGKOK 7422 (REFORM BUT NO BIG CHANGES:  THAILAND'S NEW MINISTER OF ENERGY SPEAKS) 
 
     ¶B. B) (06) CHIANG MAI 66 (DAMMED BY THE GENERALS:  REPORT CRITICIZES SALWEEN DAM PROJECTS) 
     ¶C. C) (06) CHIANG MAI 51 (SALWEEN DAM PROPOSALS GENERATE ALARM) 
 
CHIANG MAI 00000004  001.2 OF 002 
 
 
¶1. (U) Summary: NGOs, academics and former senators opposed to 
the building of dams along the Salween River predict the project 
will bring dire human rights, environmental and cultural 
disruption to the region.  However, the post-coup Thai regime is 
sticking to the course set by the government of former Prime 
Minister Thaksin Shinawatra of investing in hydropower from 
Burma to slake some of Thailand's energy needs.   Thailand's new 
Minister of Energy reportedly discussed the project with the 
Burmese government on Dec. 6 (ref a), following the Electricity 
Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT) May 2006 agreement with 
China's Sinohydro for joint investment in Burma's Karen State. 
End summary 
 
¶2. (U) The Salween, the last major undammed river in Southeast 
Asia, runs 2,800 km from Tibet through China and into Burma; it 
forms the Thai-Burma border for a 118-kilometer stretch near Mae 
Sariang in Mae Hong Son province.  While the Thai government has 
refused to release to the public several agreements it has made 
with Burma to build dams on the Salween, a number of Thai, 
Burmese, and Chinese NGOs are actively seeking information and 
publicizing concerns about the planned projects.   A Nov. 23-24 
conference on "Mekong-Salween: Peoples, Water and the Golden 
Land of Suvarnbhumi/Southeast Asia" brought together 500 Thai 
teachers, researchers, NGO workers and government officials in 
Chiang Mai.   Participants also visited an area in Mae Hong Son 
likely to be flooded by the Hat Gyi dam. 
 
¶3. (U) Researchers at the November conference warned that 
hydropower dams on the Salween would adversely affect Karen, 
Karenni, and other ethnic and tribal groups as a result of 
forced labor used in dam construction and flooding once the dams 
are completed.  Charm Tong, a Shan activist and co-author of the 
2002 "License to Rape" expose of Burma Army abuses, predicted 
that more Burma Army troops would be deployed to protect the 
construction site at Ta Sang in Shan State, where a Thai 
company, MDX, has already sent heavy equipment and set up camps. 
 These disruptions within Burma would increase the number of 
migrants flowing into Thailand, she warned. Karen Rivers Watch 
and the Southeast Asia Rivers Network (SEARIN) estimated the Hat 
Gyi dam would drive 30,000-80,000 people out of Burma while the 
Karenni Development Research Group estimated that the Wei Gyi 
dam would displace about 30,000 people. 
 
--Thai agreement with Burma  -- 
 
¶4. (U)  The Thai and Burmese Ministries of Energy signed a 
memorandum of understanding (MOU) in May 2005 to conduct a 
feasibility study for five dams on the Salween (ref c).  The two 
that appear to be furthest along in planning are to be built at 
Hat Gyi in Karen State with Chinese investment and Ta Sang in 
Shan State.  Another three Salween dams are reportedly planned 
at Wei Gyi, Dar Gwin and Ywathit in Karenni State with an 
additional one on the Tenasserim River.   NGOs claim that these 
six dams would have a maximum capacity of about 16,000 MW per 
year, which, if true, would satisfy half of Thailand's estimated 
energy needs in 2012.   Others consider this figure far too 
high. 
 
¶5.  (U)  Although anti-dam activists were initially encouraged 
by an Oct. 9 announcement from new Minister of Energy Piyasvasti 
Amranand that he would shelve plans to build a network of 
hydropower dams on the Salween river system in Myanmar, 
Piyasvasti reportedly resumed discussions of the Hat Gyi project 
while accompanying Prime Minister Surayud to Burma Dec. 6. 
 
¶6.   (SBU)  EGAT Environmental Division Director Rewat 
Suwanakitti told the Consulate Jan. 8 that the state enterprise 
plans to complete its feasibility survey of the Hat Gyi site in 
late 2007 and then make a final decision on whether to build the 
dam, which he said would have a capacity of 600-1000 MW per 
year.  (According to EGAT forecasts, Thailand is expected to 
need 23,000 MW in 2007.)  He said that EGAT's survey team is 
protected by Burmese military forces in an area controlled by 
the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), described by Embassy 
Rangoon as the Burmese regime's proxy army. 
 
¶7.   (SBU)  Rewat explained that the 2005 MOU between the Thai 
and Burmese governments "was signed at a time when EGAT was in 
trouble with NGO movements against dams in Thailand and EGAT 
desperately needed new power sources."   In May 2006, EGAT 
signed an agreement with China's Sinohydro for joint investment 
if the project proves feasible.   Neither MOU has been made 
available to the public. 
 
-- NGO efforts -- 
 
 
CHIANG MAI 00000004  002.2 OF 002 
 
 
¶8. (U) Frustrated by the refusal of EGAT and the Ministry of 
Energy to release either of the two MOUs concerning the dams, 
Thai NGOs, academics, and several former senators have 
publicized their concerns through a series of actions and 
conferences, including the November conference in Chiang Mai 
held under the auspices of the Foundation for the Promotion of 
Social Sciences and Humanities Textbooks Project (FPSHTP). 
 
¶9. (U) Key academics in the FPSHTP, which began in 1978 with 
Rockefeller Foundation funding, include Prof. Saneh Jamarik, 
chair of the National Human Rights National Human Rights 
Commission, and Dr. Charnvit Kasetsiri, President of Thammasat 
University 1994-1995.  Both were involved in a 1970s movement to 
oppose a dam in northeast Thailand, commemorated in the 
underground film "Tongpan".  The alliance also includes several 
activist former senators, including Kraisak Choonhavan, Jermsak 
Pinthong and Tuanjai Deetes, who were instrumental in extracting 
information about the planned dams from secretive EGAT. 
 
¶10. (U) Other active opponents to the dam projects include 
SEARIN, led by coordinator Pianporn Deetes, as well as Salween 
Watch, the Karenni Development Research and Karen River Watch, a 
network of six Karen organizations that work together to protect 
natural resources and human rights.   These NGOs organized a 
gathering of  400 Karen at the Salween in March 2006, which they 
dubbed "World Anti Dam Day", arranged field trips to the border, 
and staged a Nov. 30 demonstration in front of the World Bank 
office in Bangkok.  Working with civil society groups in China, 
they have also petitioned the Thai and Chinese governments to 
stop the dams. 
 
¶11. (U) These efforts have not deterred EGAT and the Ministry of 
Energy from pursuing hydropower generation plans in Burma and 
Pianporn is not optimistic that SEARIN will be able to force 
EGAT to conduct an environmental impact assessment. 
Nevertheless, "getting EGAT out into the light would be a 
success for us," Pianporn told Consulate staff, explaining that 
her organization is pushing for greater transparency by EGAT in 
both Thailand and Burma. 
 
--Comment - 
 
¶12. (U) At least some of the hydropower dams planned for the 
Salween River are likely to be built despite NGO opposition and 
the expected negative impact on border areas.  Although 
activists initially hoped that Thaksin's ouster would bring a 
slowing of Thai investment in Burma, the reality is that both 
governments have too much to gain from hydropower development on 
the Salween.   Thailand needs the energy supply and Burma needs 
the hard currency the projects will bring; damming the Salween 
would satisfy both. 
CAMP