Mekong Council Set to Discuss Laos’s Don Sahong Dam

 
Ministers from four countries that share the Mekong River are set to discuss this month whether Laos should be required to consult its neighbors before moving ahead with a second controversial dam on the regional waterway, officials said Friday. Laos’s planned Don Sahong dam will be on the agenda when the top council of the Mekong River Commission (MRC)—the intergovernmental body responsible for coordinating use of water resources by Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, and Vietnam—meets in Thailand on June 26-27, MRC officials said.

Laos’s neighbors have raised concerns about the transboundary impact of the 260-megawatt project, which is to be built just north of the Cambodian border. They insist it should be put through a formal consultation and technical assessment, while Laos has maintained it should go through MRC procedures that require Vientiane only to provide neighbors information about the project.

Following disagreement over the procedures at a lower-level MRC meeting in January, the water and environment ministers of Laos, Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam who make up the MRC Council will take up the issue at this month’s meeting, an MRC communications officer told RFA. “At the end of the MRC Joint Committee meeting in January, the four [countries] could not come to any agreement on whether this project should be part of the MRC’s Prior Consultation Process,” the officer said.

“The MRC Council will take a look at this.”

Controversial project

The dam is to be built on the Mekong’s Hou Sahong channel about one mile (2 kilometers) north of the Cambodian border in the Siphandone area where the Mekong splits into multiple braided channels.If it goes forward it will be the second major dam on the Lower Mekong, following the Xayaburi dam that Laos has begun building over objections neighboring countries raised last year. This month’s MRC Council meeting will not touch on the Xayburi project, according to an official from Thailand’s Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment.

The topic of what MRC procedures Laos should follow for the Don Sahong was added to the agenda on the proposal of Vietnam, he said. “We won’t talk about the Xayaburi dam anymore; we will talk about the Don Sahong. We will select this issue for the chairman to include in the agenda,” he told RFA.

Proper procedures

Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand have raised concerns that damming the Hou Sahong will have a greater impact than Laos has acknowledged, particularly on fish migration routes.  Laos says the project is not mainstream dam and will use only 15 percent of Mekong flows.

Hans Guttman, chief executive officer of the Mekong River Commission Secretariat, told Bloomberg News that compromises were possible during the MRC Council meeting. “They could come to some understanding that they should do a limited investigation and joint work on how the impacts can be mitigated and how they would work with impacts on fisheries,” he said.

“There’s still an opportunity for coming to an agreement.”Global green group International Rivers has called the Don Sahong a “ticking time bomb” for Mekong fish.

The project poses a regional security threat for the some 60 million people in Southeast Asia who rely on fish and other products from the river for their nutrition and their livelihoods, the group says.Under MRC rules, member countries are required to engage in “notification” procedures for year-round intrabasin water-use projects and interbasin diversion projects on the Mekong’s tributaries, and for wet-season water use on the mainstream.

“Prior consultation” procedures—the ones Laos’s neighbors are calling for—apply to proposed water use projects on the mainstream in the dry season, diversion of water from the mainstream to other basins during the wet season, and diversion of surplus water to other basins in the dry season.  A third set of rules known as “specific agreement” procedures are required for projects diverting water from the mainstream to other basins in the dry season.

Chinese ships display mounting aggression

A Vietnamese fisheries resources surveillance boat was damaged after being attacked by Chinese ships

The Chinese fleet, including about 120 vessels, also blasted sirens, fired water cannon at and were ready to ram Vietnamese vessels any time, preventing them from approaching the rig, the department said.At the same time, fishing vessels of China, backed by four coast guard ships, kept hampering Vietnamese fishing boats from operating in their traditional fishing grounds within Vietnam’s waters, noted the department.A Vietnamese fisheries resources surveillance boat was damaged after being attacked by Chinese ships

On the day, up to 40 Chinese coast guard ships, more than 30 cargo ships and tugboats, 40-45 fishing vessels and four military ships - two were minesweepers and the others were missile-armed frigates - were maintained at the rig’s site. A Y-8 aircraft was spotted to fly above the rig.
Despite the Chinese aggression, Vietnam Fisheries Surveillance ships continued to maintain their operations at about 9-11 nautical miles from the rig to voice protests and demand China remove its rig immediately out of Vietnam’s exclusive economic zone and continental shelf, said the department.
Meanwhile, Vietnamese fishermen continued their normal catching activities about 35-40 nautical miles from the rig, demanding their fishing grounds, it added.

At the beginning of May 2014, China illegally dispatched the rig as well as a large fleet of armed vessels, military ships and aircraft to Vietnam’s waters and positioned the rig at 15 degrees 29 minutes 58 seconds north latitude and 111 degrees 12 minutes 06 seconds east longitude. The location is 80 miles deep inside Vietnam’s continental shelf and exclusive economic zone.
On May 27, China expanded the rig’s operation by moving it to 15 degrees 33 minutes 22 seconds north latitude and 111 degrees 34 minutes 36 seconds east longitude, 25 nautical miles from Tri Ton Island in Vietnam’s Hoang Sa (Paracel) archipelago and 23 nautical miles east-northeast from the old location.On June 3, the oil rig moved yet again to another new position, at 15 degrees 33 minutes 36 seconds north latitude and 111 degrees 34 minutes 11 seconds east longitude. The new position is still completely within Vietnam’s continental shelf.

China aims to occupy entire East Sea: int’l analyst

Hanoians demonstrate against China's illegal oil rig.

The Chinese have been nurturing an ambitious plan to occupy the entire East Sea, turning the nine-dotted line (Đường lưỡi bò, in Vietnamese, which means "cow tongue line") around the dispute territory into reality and grabbing the exclusive economic zones of Vietnam and other countries. (The nine-dotted line is the demarcation line used by the governments of both the People's Republic of China (PRC) and the Republic of China (Taiwan) for their island claims of part of the South China Sea.)

In an interview given to VietNamNet, the US analyst stressed that what has happened in recent days in the East Sea is quite predictable. China’s determination to control the lands and waters in the East Sea has been clear to everyone.China has been reinforcing its navy and air force capability in recent years in an attempt to expand its influence and control over the East Sea. It has been carrying out many activities to implement its ambitious plan. The latest one was the dispute with the Philippines at Scarborough Shoal.The deployment of the oil rig in the Vietnamese exclusive economic zone seems to be different from the way China did with the Philippines, but it is actually of the same type.
Firing high-power water cannons and hitting Vietnamese ships proved to be the favorite trickery Chinese like to use because it is very effective. The Chinese seem to avoid the use of fire and military weapons when trying to expand their control in the East Sea.

However, in South East Asia, Vietnam understands China better than any other country. And it is not easy to be trapped by them.Dr. Marvin believes that Vietnam has been responding to the Chinese provocative activities wisely. There is a big gap between China and Vietnam in military strength. If Vietnam sent navy ships to the site to force Chinese ships to retreat, and if fire broke out, the situation would turn bad for Vietnam. And Vietnam did not do this.What Vietnam has done is bring the case to the international community, drawing the world’s attention to China’s provocative acts in the East Sea.

What Vietnam can also do, according to the US analyst, is consult with other South Asian countries which also claim to have sovereignty in the East Sea, namely the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei. Vietnam and the countries could reach a consensus on joining forces to look for solutions to settle disputes in the region. If so, they could create a common front when confronting China.
“Divide and rule” is a part of Chinese tactics. They want to settle disputes with Vietnam separately, then with the Philippines and later with Malaysia. China does not want to deal with a bloc of united South East Asian countries which have a common voice.

The Philippines has made a wise move to bring the case of China’s statement about the “cow tongue line” to the international court. All international lawyers believe that the Philippines will win the lawsuit, though it will have to wait several years. If this comes true, China’s “invented” nine-dotted line will be officially judged as illegal.The decision of the Philippines to sue China in the international court will be beneficial to all countries in the region. China, which understands well that its claim about the “U-shaped (nine-dotted/cow’s tongue) line” does not have any legal foundation, has shown its hostile attitude to the Filipino action, trying to stop the lawsuit.

China, after taking a series of unilateral provocative activities in the East Sea, has unexpectedly “lowered its voice”, suggesting that it would settle the dispute through negotiations.
Dr. Marvin commented that this is just another artful behavior conducted by China. The country in 2011 once signed a document, calling to settle the disputes peacefully. At that time, many scholars doubted if China would fulfill its commitments. And what is happening now shows that they had reasons to be worried.All the Chinese acts and trickeries, in the US analyst’s opinion, have one goal – turning the U-shaped line into reality – which would allow it to occupy nearly the whole East Sea, and encroach on the exclusive economic zones of Vietnam and other regional countries. China has been attempting to turn the cow tongue line into the territory’s boundary that would be recognized in the world.

However, China cannot implement its plan at once. In order to avoid strong protests from the international community, China tries to be “soft” after every activity that seeks to expand its control in the East Sea, such as the Scarborough Shoal and the HD 981 drilling rig. This is called being “an iron fist in a velvet glove” by some people.China should understand that the international community has lost faith in China, which has conducted activities in an attempt to expand its de facto occupation and control. All the regional countries have become watchful of China, while its good relations and cooperation programs built up in the last many years have been spoiled within a short time.

Pakistani woman: My relatives shot me, threw me in canal for marrying neighbor

 

Yet somehow, 18-year-old Saba Maqsood lived to tell her story. Had she not, Pakistani police say, it could very well have been another honor murder.Those responsible for her horror, Maqsood told reporters Friday, are her father and brother. They shot her because they didn't approve of her marriage to a neighbor, she said.The first bullet hit her cheek, the next one her hand, after which the teenager says she "was slightly conscious, but alive."

"They put me into a sack, tied up the mouth of the sack and threw it into the canal," Maqsood recalled. "They thought I was dead, but I was not."It was in a canal in the city of Hafizabad, a city in Punjab province about 120 kilometers (75 miles) northwest of Lahore, that workers at a gas station spotted the sack and the young woman inside and immediately alerted authorities, Hafizabad police officer Ali Akbar told CNN.After corroborating the basics of Maqsood's story, including her injuries, Akbar said, "This seems to be an honor-related crime."

Such crimes -- which the perpetrators rationalize as necessary because the targeted women have somehow brought dishonor on a family -- are hardly unprecedented in Pakistan, a nation of about 180 million people.The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan said 869 women were victims last year.

One recent case that's gotten worldwide attention is the killing last month of Farzana Parveen, a 25-year-old woman who was publicly beaten to death with bricks in Lahore because she married a man against her family's wishes.There have been 13 arrests in her case, including her father, a brother and a cousin -- Deputy Inspector General Zulfikar Hameed said. 

Suspects in stoning death to go to terrorism courtThe plight of Maqsood -- whose hometown in Gujranwala, another city in Punjab province -- is different from Hameed because she survived.

Akbar said Friday that police have registered complaints against the 18-year-old's brother, father, uncle and aunt."The accused are on the run," the police officer added. "We are hopeful to apprehend them soon."