Bomb blasts hit dam project

A woman injured in bomb blasts in a water festival, is carried on a stretcher to a hospital in Myanmar. The explosions took place in the early hours of the morning at four locations where the Myitsone Dam is under construction in the country's northernmost Kachin state, the official said on condition of anonymity. -- PHOTO: AP

YANGON - A SERIES of bomb blasts at the site of a controversial dam project in a remote part of Myanmar destroyed cars and buildings and left one man injured on Saturday, an official said.

The explosions took place in the early hours of the morning at four locations where the Myitsone Dam is under construction in the country's northernmost Kachin state, the official said on condition of anonymity.

'One engineer was slightly injured. Some cars and buildings were destroyed because of the blasts,' he said.

The Myitsone Dam project has been under way since 2005 and is being built by Myanmar's ruling junta in partnership with the China Power Investment Corporation and China Southern Power Grid Corporation (CSG).

Environmental and rights activists have campaigned against the dam, which is being built a mile below the confluence of two rivers to create a giant reservoir.

The dam will force the displacement of 10,000 people, mostly from the Kachin ethnic group, while destroying rainforest and disrupting river systems that feed local agriculture, according to the activist group International Rivers. -- AFP
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