by Pianporn Deetes, Regional Campaigns Director, Southeast Asia Program October 18, 2023 – Over 80 people gathered at the Chiang Mai Administrative Court in Thailand today to mark the filing of a lawsuit against the Yuam/Salween Water Diversion Project. The lawsuit challenges the legitimacy of the project and the project’s environmental impact assessment (EIA), which…
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Originally posted in the Bangkok Post By Pianporn (Pai) Deetes, Thailand and Myanmar Campaigns Director of International Rivers This morning at Sob Moei — the confluence of the Moei and the Salween rivers on the Thailand-Myanmar border — indigenous peoples and their supporters are attending a spiritual ceremony to express their collective stance to protect…
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Two decades of indigenous peoples working to keep the Salween River free-flowing By Pai Deetes, Thailand and Myanmar Campaigns Director of International Rivers Originally published in the Bangkok Post On a sandy beach by the Salween River on the Thai-Myanmar border in March 2006, boats carrying Karen villagers and other ethnic groups such as Karenni,…
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By Petro Kotze and Nalori Chakma Once an ‘unseen’ person, she now helps ensure her community does not disappear When I was born, my father tied my umbilical cord around a tree in the forest, says Mueda Nawanat. Mueda is from the Ban Tha Rua village in Thailand’s Sob Moei District in the Mae Hong…
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By: Pai Deetes, Regional Campaigns and Communications Director, Southeast Asia ProgramInternational Rivers Originally published in the Bangkok Post ‘I can’t figure it out. Thai officials told us to leave and [we’ll] probably have to end up living in the forest. We need to squeeze ourselves among the cracks of the ravines to keep ourselves safe…
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By: Pai Deetes, Regional Campaigns and Communications Director, Southeast Asia ProgramInternational Rivers Op-ed originally published on Bangkok Post Soithip, an ethnic Karen-Thai woman from Bang Kloi in the Kaeng Krachan Forest, was among 22 villagers who were rounded up last Friday by state authorities and put behind bars at the Phetchaburi Provincial Prison. Returning to…
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By: Pai Deetes Thailand and Myanmar Campaigns Director This article was originally featured on the Bangkok Post Over the past few months, the Irrigation Department and the House Committee Review of Integrated River Basin Management have been heavily promoting an inter-basin water diversion scheme. Planned projects will divert water across Thailand, incorporating international river basins,…
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Nestled beside Asia’s last free-flowing river, the Salween Peace Park in Myanmar’s Karen State (officially called Kayin State) is protecting the rights of Indigenous Karen people to self-determination, cultural survival and environmental conservation. By Pianporn Deetes, Thailand and Burma/Myanmar Campaigns Director Introduction In Myanmar’s Karen State, the Indigenous Karen people have turned a war zone…
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By: Maureen Harris, Programs Director & Pai Deetes, Thailand & Myanmar Campaigns Director Last week we lost a champion for the Mekong and Salween Rivers, Kraisak Choonhavan, a long time supporter and friend of International Rivers. Senator Kraisak passed away on 11 June after a long battle with cancer. He held many roles during the course…
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BY: Pai Deetes, Thailand and Myanmar Campaigns Director Originally published on the Bangkok Post Muesaw Chokedilok, an ethnic Karen woman from Thailand’s Kaburdin Village in Chiang Mai’s Omkoi district, hops aboard an old pickup truck for a rugged ride up the mountain. With her are a group of housewives from the same village, all clad…
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Chinese companies are pushing to resume destructive dam projects, ignoring a key assessment By: Maureen Harris, Programs Director & Pai Deetes, Thailand & Myanmar Campaigns Director Also featured on China Dialogue Much media attention in Myanmar is focussed on China’s apparent efforts to revive the stalled Myitsone dam, its role in advising the Myanmar government on developing a new…
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