Gold mining activities damaging farmlands in Mone Township

Gold mining activity has been occurring in Haw Hkoh Wah Hkee (along the K’Law Myaw river), which is between S---, L---, and K--- villages, Thaw T’Koo village tract, Mone Township, since 2017. It is still on-going in 2019. Some of the Township leaders, along with local Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) Battalion and Company commanders, are engaged in this gold mining process, which has impacted the local villagers’ farms and has also damaged rivers.

The gold mining activity expanded to S--- village, Thaw T’Koo village tract, damaging lands in Tha Loo Plaw and Kyee Kya Leh Plaw fields. A villager from S--- said that the gold mining process was being conducted across 346 acres located in Tha Loo Plaw and Kyee Kya Leh Plaw fields, as well as in farms. S---’s villagers also explained that this gold mining process does not benefit villagers. Instead, it has negatively impacted the villagers’ livelihoods and the environment. Excess soil from the gold mining process was carried by the river into the farms in S--- village, destroying paddies.

The villagers shared information about these damages and expressed their difficulties in a village tract meeting and a Township meeting [KHRG was not able to find out the exact date]. Local authorities came to take photos of the gold mining place but the gold mining process is still on-going. Despite villagers expressing their worries about the potential damages of this gold mining process and reporting the case, the situation has not changed.

In 2017, the gold mining damaged local farms and crops in S--- village, including Tha Loo Plaw and Kyee Kya Leh [Plaw] fields. In addition, it also affected aquatic life, and killed cattle that consumed water containing chemicals from the gold mining. Local people also reported about this case to the Township authorities, who did not take any action concerning this report. Because the Township authorities failed to tackle the case, people have continued to engage in the gold mining project until now.

In 2019, the [KNLA] Battalion #8 and Company Commanders started mining gold in Plaw Too and Thaw T’Koo village tracts, Mone Township. They invited miners from other places to participate in this gold mining. The gold mining has again negatively impacted, rather than benefitted, local villagers. This gold mining activity is also located in Haw Hkoh Wah Hkee (K’Law Myaw). On August 1st 2019, Mone Township leaders formed a gold mining committee in the township and granted permission to local villagers to conduct gold mining in Haw Khoh Wah Hkee.

A villager who applied for a gold mining permission stated: “People who applied to engage in gold mining were given two acres of land. However, they were asked to pay taxes according to the amendment [rule] set by the [Township leaders]. There were around 70 to 80 people who applied for permission to engage in the gold mining.” Local people heard that the Myanmar government also sold the gold mining area to many individual business workers and foreign companies. Those individual businesses, companies and local people who applied for the gold mining agreed that they would avoid any actions that could cause damage, and would take responsibility for any damage caused by the gold mining.

However, the people who applied for the gold mining permission are not residents in the village and they have no land near the mining locations. Therefore, large numbers of people who do live near and have lands in the gold mining area do not agree with the project. The village leaders who went to Township meeting [see above] did not come back to consult with all villagers, sowing the seeds for tension between villagers who engage in the gold mining, and the large number of villagers who do not agree with the gold mining project. The latter believe that it will have negative impacts on the local environment, forests, and plantations. Villagers who engage in the gold mining project do not fully understand the gold mining process, which is why they have invited gold processing companies who have experience in gold mining.

Local people stated that the gold mining investors and their activities dramatically increased in 2019. They are more aware of the potential harmful impacts on them and their future generations. Although local people reported this case to the Township authorities, they could not do more than that to fight against the project.

Concerns over a sand extraction project in Mone Township

On August 10th 2019, villagers from K--- village, Thaw T’Koo village tract, Mone Township, received a letter sent by the Kyaukkyi Township administration office. In the letter, U[3] Kyaw Min Lwin, an individual who lives in Mone town, section #4, requested permission to extract sand from the Ko Plah Lo Kloh River that flows through K--- village. On August 11th 2019, 12 village leaders from K--- and H--- villages held a consultation meeting about the letter and they decided to reject the request. Then, they wrote an objection letter to the Kyaukkyi Township administration office.

On August 21st 2019, Aung Zaw Zaw – a representative of the Myanmar Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Irrigation in Kyaukkyi – and U Kyaw Min Lwin asked Saw[4] M---, the K--- village administrator, to gather K--- and H--- village heads to negotiate with the villagers and convince them to give their permission to implement the project. However, the villagers did not grant permission. They raised their concerns against the project because it could damage the river and nearby plantations, erode the river bank, and kill the fish. They are still worried that U Kyaw Min Lwin might try to implement the project after the rainy season despite their objections. At the time of drafting, there had been no updates regarding this case.

Logging issues and arbitrary taxation in Mone Township

In March 2019, Karen National Union (KNU) leaders in Mone Township granted permission to the villagers living in Kwee Dee Hkoh, Htee Leh Baw Hta, Leh Klah, and other village tracts to conduct logging as they were facing difficulties to build houses. This opportunity was granted because of the destruction of local paddies by flooding and mice in 2018 and 2019.

The KNU Township leaders allocated specific areas to conduct logging. Local villagers engaged in logging activities to build houses or to sell the logs to secure their livelihoods. However, some of them did not respect the limitations set by the KNU. Therefore, the KNU Township authorities, as well as KNLA Battalion and Company commanders and leaders assigned people to monitor the activities in the forest.

The KNLA soldiers and local village watchmen who were assigned for this monitoring complained a lot because they had to patrol the forest. When patrolling, they did not have enough food or enough money to buy cigarettes. To be able to cover these costs, they started collecting taxes from the villagers who were conducting logging – between 20,000 kyats (USD 13.31 as of December 4th 2019) and 30,000 kyats (USD 19.96 as of December 4th 2019) per bullock cart full of logs.