WEB DESK
The Community based organisations in Myanmar have blamed the Chinese gas and oil pipeline project of environmental destruction and human rights violation in the execution of the Shwe Gas Project and Trans-Burma pipeline.
The Rakhine based Community Based Organisation (CBO) Shwe Gas Movement (SGM) told the Irrawaddy newspaper that people in Rakhine were losing their livelihood and suffering serious human rights abuses due to these projects.
Responding to the allegation levelled by the Chinese Communist party mouthpiece Global Times in an article on Tuesday that CBOs in Myanmar are opposing China due to Western funding, the SGM denied the charge and said that it opposed the project because people of the region are getting no benefit out of it.
The work on the Chinese Oil and natural gas pipeline in Myanmar started in 2009. It was opposed by the local communities since its beginning provoking several protests in Rakhine, Shan and Magwe demanding fair compensation for loss of land and livelihood.
Another NGO Equality Myanmar said that the majority of projects causing environmental destruction and human rights violation are Chinese mega projects, reports Irrawaddy.
The twin pipelines carrying gas and oil connect the deep water port of Kyaukphyu in Rakhine State of Myanmar with Kunming in Yunnan province of China.