Burma shows rare signs of bowing to public pressure

Burma's president has ordered a halt to the construction of a 2.4 billion pounds Chinese-backed dam in a rare example of a dramatic turnaround by the new military-backed government.

In a highly unusual statement to parliament, President Thein Sein said he was bowing to public pressure and that the huge hydro-electric power project was contrary to the will of the Burmese people.

Aung San Suu Kyi, the opposition leader, had backed human rights groups and environmental activists in urging a re-think to the Myistone Dam on the Irrawaddy River. Analysts cautiously interpreted the climbdown by the government, to the detriment of its powerful commercial neighbour, as a sign that the political change recently acknowledged by Ms Suu Kyi was increasing.

Aung Saw, editor of the Irrawaddy magazine, said: "It's a bold decision with the underlying message that we cannot kowtow to whatever China wants. This could be another turning point [indicating] which direction Burma goes in the next decade."

In a letter to the president, Ms Suu Kyi had backed the warnings of others who said the dam would force 12,000 people from 63 ethnic Kachin villages from their homes, flooding some 296?sq miles. Environmentalists also warned that damming the country's longest river would also damage irreversibly one of the world's greatest areas of biodiversity.

"It is something that we're all concerned about because the Irrawaddy is very important for the whole country, economically, geographically, ecologically and emotionally," said the Nobel peace prize winner.

A Burmese official said the president explained his decision to suspend construction for the five-year life of the government as acceding to the overwhelming demands of the electorate.

"(He) said that his government, being born out of the people's desire, has to act according to the desire of the people," said the official.