Gold rush hits Vietnam province<\/p>\n
HANOI (DPA): As many as 30,000 illegal gold miners have
\nflooded into a central Vietnam province recently, causing
\nextensive environmental damage to a region inhabited by ethnic
\nminority groups, officials said on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Quang Tri province's Vinh Linh district is being overwhelmed
\nby itinerant miners from mainly northern provinces in what local
\npolice are describing as a \"complicated and serious\" situation.<\/p>\n
\"Mercury has been used in excess during mining, and all the
\nstreams in the area have been seriously polluted,\" said a Vinh
\nLinh district policeman who asked that his name not be used.<\/p>\n
\"This will leave a long-term effect.\"<\/p>\n
The influx began last month, when stories of a Quang Tri gold
\nfind raced through mining communities like wildfire, the
\npoliceman said.<\/p>\n
\"The whole area now looks like it's been bombarded, with
\ncraters and wells everywhere.\"<\/p>\n
The officer's ironic description reflects Vinh Linh notorious
\ndistinction of having been the most bombed district during the
\nVietnam War, which ended in communist victory in 1975.<\/p>\n
Vast tracts along the border with Laos have been deforested,
\nand the indigenous ethnic minority group in the region, the Van
\nKieu, have been severely marginalized by the mining activity, he
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
\"Given this influx of illegal miners and the accompanying
\npollution, their lives have been made even worse,\" the officer
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
The friction comes seven weeks after ethnic minority unrest
\nbrought on by land disputes and stoked by religious tension
\nrocked the central highlands 300 kilometers to the south.<\/p>\n
Several minority groups there have struggled to cope with
\nrecent massive migrations of lowland Vietnamese and other
\nminorities into the highlands who were said to be encroaching on
\nancestral lands.<\/p>\n
Civilian and military authorities are combining forces in
\nQuang Tri \"to drive the miners from the locality,\" the officer
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
\"If we don't make preemptive efforts, troubles will inevitably
\narise, just as they did in Nghe An.\"<\/p>\n
Over 100,000 people swarmed into neighboring Nghe An province
\nin the mid-1990s in a mad rush for gemstones discovered there.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/gold-rush-hits-vietnam-province-1447893297",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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