The intersection of militarization, land grabbing for large dam projects, gender violence and top-down development is clear for women from the ethnic Kayan community. In the Pyinmana hills of Burma, over 3,500 people will be displaced in order for the military government to build the Upper Paunglaung Dam, financed by Chinese investment. In response, the Kayan Women’s Union launched a report entitled “Drowning the Green Ghosts of Kaya Land” to bring attention to the negative socioeconomic, political and ecological impacts of large hydro-dams that have been built on their land for the last 40 years and the suffering that this new dam will bring to them and their communities.
