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A woman protester was fatally shot yesterday during a crackdown on a protest at a controversial copper mine in north-west Myanmar.
National League for Democracy MP Khin San Hlaing said that the confrontation at the Letpadaung copper mine project had occurred because police and Chinese workers had erected a fence on land that the villagers claimed as their own.
She said that a woman in her 50s had been fatally shot in the head, though it was not made clear whether she had been shot by police or mining company security personnel.
Another woman was shot in the thigh, the MP said.
The massive mine project is a joint venture between a Myanmar military-controlled holding company and Chinese firm Wanbao Mining Copper.
The giant scheme drew international attention two years ago when police forcefully dispersed protesters, injuring more than 100 Buddhist monks in the process.
Many suffered severe burns from smoke bombs containing white phosphorus.
The mine has been the scene of some of the fiercest opposition to corporate land-grabbing in Myanmar since President Thein Sein came to power in 2011.
Villagers say thousands of acres of farmland were seized to allow the mine’s expansion and that the deal, which was approved when Myanmar was still under military dictatorship, lacked transparency.
They say that the mine is causing environmental, social and health problems.
Because of the outcry, work was temporarily halted.
The mining contract was renegotiated to ensure that millions of pounds go toward community development projects and to pay compensation to villagers, allowing the resumption of work.
But although the company paid compensation to some villagers, others refused to take the money and insisted that they would hold on to their land.
In yesterday’s incident, U Arlawka, an activist monk, said police killed the woman when they started shooting to chase people away so that the company could put up a fence.
“The police started firing with their guns and the Chinese security beat up the villagers on that land with axes and hammers, which injured a lot of farmers this afternoon,” he said.
