Myanmar suspends dam project after rare outcry

Myanmar's new army-backed government has suspended a controversial $3.6 billion hydroelectric power project following rare public opposition, according to a government official. Opposition to the dam has been building as pro-democracy and environmental activists test the limits of their freedom under the new nominally civilian regime, which is dominated by former military officers. President Thein Sein told lawmakers in the capital Naypyidaw that work on the Chinese-backed Myitsone dam on the Irrawaddy River in northern Kachin state would be halted during the term of the currengovernment. "The president decided to stop the dam project because the government is elected by the people and the government has to respect the will of the people," said the official, who did not want to be named. Environmentalists have warned the dam project would inundate dozens of villages, displace at least 10,000 people and irreversibly damage one of the world's most biodiverse areas. For the people of Kachin, the Myitsone dam has come to symbolise the struggles they have faced for decades as a marginalised ethnic group in the repressed nation under almost half a century of military rule. Police last week arrested a man who staged a rare solo protest against the project outside a Chinese embassy building in Yangon. They also blocked a rally this week by people seeking the release of political prisoners and an end to the Myitsone project, electricity from which is destined for neighbouring China. No arrests were made on that occasion. "For the contract with the Chinese company, both sides will discuss it based on goodwill," the official said. Protests are rare in authoritarian Myanmar, where pro-democracy rallies in 1988 and 2007 were brutally crushed by the junta. Demonstrators must have permission from the authorities.