Letpaduang people protest against copper mine company

17 February 2018
Letpaduang people protest against copper mine company
Police block protestors.​ Photo: Thet Naing Win

Local people from Letpadaung staged a demonstration against the Myanmar-Wanbao Company on 16 February at the Pathein-Monywa road junction calling for a stop to the copper mining.
The protestors staged the demonstration as they claimed the company did not abide by the recommendations of the Letpadaung copper mine inquiry report, claiming the project caused suffering to the local people and the loss of their jobs and livelihood.
Yee Win, local resident of Letpadaung, said that waste water released by this project affected the alluvial land in the (Chindwin) river during the summer season due to a build-up of sedimentation, and stone dust released into the air by stone crushers fell on their farmland and affected their livelihood.
The protestors claimed the company failed to implement one of recommendations mentioned in this report for developing 1,900 acres of land for landless farmers who lost their land to the project and also they failed to release surplus land currently in their hands under this project.
The local people of three villages from Mogyopyin, five villages from Se De village and Tone village participated in the demonstration and they called for a stop to the Letpadaung copper mine project. Police blocked these protesters at the junction.
The Letpadaung Copper Mine Project Inquiry Commission was led by Aung San Suu Kyi and after submitting this report to the government, the President Office formed an Implementation Committee for the Inquiry Commission Report in March 2013.