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Updated Saturday, October 1, 2011 10:44 pm TWN, By Aung Hla Tun ,Reuters



	In this Jan. 7 file photo, a woman clad in traditional dress uses a bamboo container to fetch water from the Irrawaddy River in Kachin State, northern Myanmar. The country's President Thein Sein called Friday, Sept. 30, for a halt to construction of a controversial Chinese-backed hydroelectric dam on the river in the state, citing “the will of the people.” (AFP) Enlarge Photo

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Myanmar shelves US$3.6 billion dam: officials

YANGON -- Myanmar's government suspended on Friday a controversial US$3.6 billion, Chinese-led dam project, a victory for supporters of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and another sign of apparent reform in one of Asia's most repressive states.

After weeks of rare public outrage against the Myitsone dam, Myanmar's largest hydropower project, President Thein Sein told parliament his government had to act “according to the desire of the people,” officials in parliament told Reuters.

Its construction has been “shelved” during the president's five-year term, one official said.

The dam was backed by hardliners with ties to China and opposed by an increasingly vocal band of reformers. Some politicians appeared to fear they may not be re-elected if they defied public opinion and threw their support behind it, a sign democracy may be taking root after rare elections last year.

Suu Kyi had said the dam threatened the flow of the powerful Irrawaddy River and warned that 12,000 people from 63 villages would have to be moved to make way for it. Many other sectors of society had also voiced opposition.

“This is President Thein Sein showing he can exercise his executive power and that he can stand up against China,” said Aung Zaw, editor of the Irrawaddy magazine.

In his message to parliament, the president said “that his government, being born out of people's desire, has to act according to the desire of the people,” said an official in parliament who declined to be named because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

The will of the people was seldom considered under the military regimes that made Myanmar one of Asia's most reclusive and repressive countries for almost 50 years.

The statement is one of many signs of change since the army nominally handed over power in March to civilians after elections in November, a process ridiculed at the time as a sham to cement authoritarian rule under a democratic facade.

Recent overtures by the government hint at possibly deeper changes at work — from calls for peace with ethnic minority guerrilla groups to some tolerance of criticism and more communication with Nobel peace prize laureate Suu Kyi.

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