The Kachin Development Networking Group, a coalition of NGOs, also accused the Government of doubling its military presence in the area, the Hukaung Valley. The Government signed a peace pact with the separatist Kachin Independence Organisation in 1994. As part of that expansion, the military has confiscated a third of the farmland and scores of public buildings in and around the main town of Danai, the group said.

"Local residents had high hopes peace would foster economic development and imp-rove living conditions," the re-port says. "However, under the junta's control, rich resources of the (Hukaung) valley have turned out to be a curse."

A spokesman for the Government did not respond to a request for comments.

The Hukaung Valley is home to the world's largest tiger reserve and has about 150 tigers or about a third of the country's entire population. It also has one of the largest wetlands in Asia and is home to variety of other animals including Asian elephants, clouded leopards and red panda.

The Government set up the reserve in 2001 to boost the numbers of tigers and other endangered animals in Myanmar. It tripled the size of the reserve in 2004 to 21,890 sq kilometres (8452 sq miles). Unlike a protected national park, the reserve allows tens of thousand of people - including the Kachin, Naga and Lisu ethnic groups - to live and work within its boundaries.

While the Government has been credited with reducing poaching in the reserve, the Kachin Development Networking Group says authorities have allowed gold mining to prosper by selling off individual concessions to select businessmen who operate large-scale, mechanised operations.