Residents from 23 villages in southern Shan state, who have been relocated to make way for the Upper Paunglaung Dam project, have urged the government to keep its promise in providing them with compensation and basic facilities in their new location.

A group of local activists and politicians in Shan state’s Kengtung township are preparing a petition against a Thai-owned coal mining project, which they say will cause widespread social and environmental problems.

Over 150 locals in central Burma’s Monywa staged another round of protests against the controversial China-backed Latpadaung copper mine on Wednesday after police and security guards began bulldozing their farms on the project site.

A ceremony was held on Wednesday in Rangoon’s Thanlyin township as lots were drawn by local residents to give them substitute plots of land to compensate for land acquired to build the Thilawa Special Economic Zone.

Once again, tensions peak at the Latpadaung mining project after officials begin to fence off farmland that falls within the project zone.

Farmers in Magwe division in north-western Burma say they have still not been compensated for the mass destruction of crops caused by the construction of the controversial China-backed Shwe Gas pipeline.