World Bank China dam update & Alert!

Subject: (50 Years) Tibet/WB Update! Outside-US Alert!
Date: Thu, 6 Jul 2000 21:25:05 -0400
From: Soren <Soren@afgj.org>

It is 9 pm in Washington on Thursday July 6.

We have just come from the World Bank, where the Tibetans and friends
demonstrating in support of a NO vote by the World Bank Board on the
Tibet/Western China project have just been informed that the Board has
adjourned for the evening without reaching a decision.  Board members
are to reconvene tomorrow morning at 9:30 am.  

We understand that the U.S. is standing firm in its opposition to the
project, but that the other G7 countries -- those with the biggest votes
-- are wavering.  (Some Europeans are firmer than others; we don't have
all the specifics.)  

The details on the project are given in the old alert below.  The report
from the Inspection Panel referred to in it has now been leaked to the
press, after the Board refused to release it.  It is indeed a
devastating indictment of how the Bank has acted on this project.  

We are calling especially on those in EUROPE, CANADA, and JAPAN to
contact your Executive Directors in the next few hours to urge a vote
against this project. Calls from other non-U.S. countries would also be
useful. This dissension within the Board is truly an extraordinary event;
public pressure from people in the Directors' constituencies NOW can be
VITALLY IMPORTANT.
The details on how to reach the E.D.s are at the end of the alert below.
Faxes and phone calls are best now (this is one case where the expense
could have a nearly immediate payoff!)

Thank you

50 Years Is Enough Network
Washington, DC  USA

-----Original Message-----
From: Soren
To: 'stop-wb-imf@50years.org'
Sent: 6/9/00 2:01 AM
Subject: Tibet/Western China: ACTION ALERT


From: Bank Information Center / Center for International Environmental
Law / International Campaign for Tibet


URGENT NEED FOR PRESSURE ON THE WORLD BANK 

June 6, 2000 

Dear friends -- 

Once again, we must ask for your assistance in ensuring that justice is 
served in the China Western Poverty Reduction Project. Our coalition 
made a powerful impact last year, when the World Bank wanted to give its

institutional and financial support to China's population transfer 
program by financing the resettlement of 58,000 Chinese farmers into an 
area that is considered to be a part of Tibet. We mobilized a powerful 
grassroots coalition to flood the key decision-makers with letters, 
emails and phone calls of concern. Our efforts paid off -- we triggered 
an independent investigation into the project and we convinced the Board

not to release money for the project until after the investigation was 
completed. However, now we must once again mobilize to prevent the Bank 
from moving forward with the project. 

As most of you know, the independent Inspection Panel has completed its 
investigation into the violations of the Bank's social and environmental

policies. The public has not had access to this carefully-guarded 
report, but we have been informed by many different sources that the 
Panel's report vindicates our claim and finds that the Bank was in 
violation of its policies on Indigenous Peoples, Resettlement, 
Environmental Assessment, Information Disclosure, and Agricultural Pest 
Management. We have also heard that the report provides a scathing 
critique of the Bank's performance in preparing this project, and that 
it raises very serious institutional issues about the Bank's lack of 
commitment to its social and environmental policies, particularly in 
repressive regimes like China. 

Under the Inspection Panel procedures, Bank management (the folks who 
brought you this flawed project) has an opportunity to prepare a 
response, which must be submitted to the Board of Executive Directors by

June 12th. The Board will then have to decide what to do with this 
project. We need each of you to call/fax/email your Executive Director 
and urge him/her to CANCEL THE PROJECT NOW. There are rumors that Bank 
management is preparing an "action plan", a proposal to "fix" the 
problems and allow the project to move forward under more strict 
conditions. This action plan approach is simply unacceptable. 

Without strong and effective citizen mobilization, the Board of 
Executive Directors will face intense political pressure to move the 
project forward. We must immediately engage the Board, and President 
Wolfensohn, in preparation for the release of Management's report. We 
should send a very clear message: Though the public does not have 
access to the report, we know that the independent Inspection Panel has 
confirmed serious violations of Bank policy. The Inspection Panel has 
confirmed that people in the project area live in a "culture of fear." 
There have been serious violations of the very policies that are 
supposed to protect ethnic minorities and the environment. No amount of 
tinkering around the edges will make this project acceptable. NO 
PROJECT. NO ACTION PLAN. The Bank should, rather, admit its mistakes, 
apologize for the harm caused, and explain how it will avoid making 
these mistakes in the future. 

In case anyone thinks the Bank has already learned its lesson from the 
China/Tibet project, you should know that they are probably going to 
approve the Chad/Cameroon oil pipeline project on Tuesday, another 
highly controversial project that threatens indigenous and local 
peoples, will have devastating environmental consequences, and puts the 
Bank in partnership with corrupt and repressive governments and 
multinational corporations like Exxon and Chevron. 

The Bank must change its ways. Please contact your Executive Director 
(a list of EDs for every country is attached to the following Action 
Alert from the International Campaign for Tibet). Please also contact 
President Wolfensohn (fax 202-522-0355). Please also take the time to 
weigh in with your Treasury Department or Finance Ministries, and/or
your 
Development Ministries, since these agencies generally influence the 
decisions of the Executive Directors. You should also Finally, let your 
Congresspeople and Parliamentarians hear about how unhappy you are with 
the Bank's continuing lack of respect for the social and environmental 
policies (remember, the Bank is operating with taxpayer money). 

Tell them that it is time for accountability. It is time for the Bank 
to CANCEL the China Western Poverty Reduction Project, once and for 
all. NO PROJECT, NO ACTION PLAN. Please also urge your Executive 
Directors to call for an examination of the Bank's continuing lack of 
compliance with its social and environmental policies, which are 
supposed to prevent such flawed projects from moving forward . 

Remember that if we all join together, the truth can and will prevail. 
We need your help. Please act now. 

*********************************** 
ACTION ALERT: WORLD BANK CHINA WESTERN POVERTY REDUCTION PROJECT 

For More Information Contact: International Campaign for Tibet, 1825 K 
Street NW, Suite 520, Washington, DC 20006, Tel. 202.785.1515, Fax. 
202.785.4343, <<http://www.savetibet.org/>WWW.SAVETIBET.ORG 

All Gloves Are OFF! This is the final stretch in the campaign to stop
the World 
Bank's China-Tibet resettlement project formally known as the China
Western 
Poverty Reduction Project. 

It is now up to the Bank's Board of Directors to decide the FINAL
OUTCOME of 
the project once and for all. We have just a matter of weeks before the 
Board is due to meet on this issue. Therefore, it is essential that
everyone 
TAKE ACTION NOW to make sure that this project is CANCELLED. Please
focus all 
of your energies on mobilizing your networks to STOP THE PROJECT. 

Go on-line to 
http://www.savetibet.org/>http://www.savetibet.org 
http://www.ciel.org/>http<<http://www.ciel.org/>://www.ciel.org 
http://www.bicusa.org/>http<<http://www.bicusa.org/>://www.bicusa.org 
http://www.tibet.org/sft>http://www.tibet.org/sft 
http://www.milarepa.org/>http<<http://www.milarepa.org/>://www.milarepa.
org 
http://www.ustibet.org/>http<<http://www.ustibet.org/>://www.ustibet.org


BACKGROUND 
The Independent Inspection Panel Report which is still highly
confidential, was 
delivered to Bank management and Board members on April 28th. Under the 
Procedures of the Inspection Panel, Management has six weeks to review 
the Report and to generate a response. They are expected to send their 
response to the Board sometime this week, after which the Board 
has an indefinite amount of time to review both the Panel Report and 
the Response, before they schedule a Board meeting to make final
decisions 
about the project. They could meet as soon as July 7th! 

Though we have not been given access to the report, we have been told 
by several reliable sources that it is a scathing critique of the
project 
and that it finds policy violations which support the claim's
allegations. (Remember, 
the original claim alleged that the Bank had violated its Indigenous
Peoples, 
Resettlement, Environmental Assessment and Information Disclosure 
Policies, among others). Moreover, the Report apparently raises
important 
questions about fundamental institutional problems, and in particular
the chronic 
weaknesses in the Bank's application of its environmental and social 
policies in China. 


TAKE ACTION NOW!!! Here's how: 

Contact your country's Executive Director and your Treasury 
Department/Finance Ministry by phone, fax, e-mail AND on official 
letterhead (E.D. info. follows). 

It would also help to have sympathetic members of parliament/ congress 
to write letters and make phone calls to your country's decision-makers 
as well and tell them to: 

Please CC: Peter Stephens from the Office of External Affairs Tel. 
202.458.2281; Fax 202.522.3405; Room 9-133 
<<<<mailto:pstephens1@worldbank.org>mailto:pstephens1@worldbank.org> and

ICT on all written 
correspondence. 

Ask Decision-Makers To: 

1. Read the Inspection Panel Report. 

2. Release the Panel's Report to the public before the Board meets on 
this issue so that there can be full transparency and public debate
about this 
project -- remember that this is public money that we are talking about!


3. Demand that the project is withdrawn or cancelled in its entirety. We

have heard from several reliable sources that the Report makes it
absolutely 
clear that this project should not move forward. The Board should not
allow 
Management to try and "fix" the problems with the project, but should
cancel it 
outright. 

4. Remind them that if this project were to go forward it would
demonstrate to the international community that the Bank lacks the
commitment to enforce its own policies and standards; it would result in
increased public and 
governmental scrutiny of other Bank projects in China, particularly
those that involve resettlement; and it would put an international stamp
of approval on China's policy of population transfer into occupied
Tibet. 

Click here to find out how to contact your Executive Director. 
<<http://www.bicusa.org/policy/execdir.htm>www.bicusa.org/policy/execdir
.<<http://www.bicusa.org/policy/execdir.htm>htm 

EXECUTIVE DIRECTORS' OFFICES 

World Bank Group 
1818 H Street NW 
Washington, D.C. 20433 USA 
All telephone and fax area codes are 202. 
All offices are located inside the World Bank Building unless specified 
IMF. 

Al-Saad, Khalid M. [Kuwait] 
(also representing Bahrain; Arab Republic of Egypt; Jordan; Lebanon; 
Libya; Maldives; Oman; Qatar; Syrian Arab Republic; United Arab
Emirates; 
Republic of Yemen) 
Room: MC12-125 
Tel 458-1030/31 Fax 477-3537 
Email: "kalsaad@worldbank.org" 

Alyahya, Yahya Abdullah M. [Saudi Arabia] 
Room: MC12-525 
Tel. 458-0191/90 Fax. 477-1759 
Email: "kalyahya@worldbank.org" 

Bachmayer, Ruth (Ms.) [Austria] 
(also representing Belarus, Belgium, Czech Republic, Hungary,
Kazakhstan, 
Luxembourg, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Turkey) 
Room MC12-541 
Tel 45-84661 Fax# 522-3453 
Email: "rbachmayer@worldbank.org" 

Bugrov, Andrei [Russian Federation] 
Room MC13-635 
Tel. 458-7080 Fax#477-4274 
Email: "abugrov@worldbank.org" 

Ferrer, Federico [Spain] 
(also representing Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico,

Nicaragua, Republica Bolivariana de Venezuela) 
Room MC12-453 
Tel 458-2089/90 Fax# 522-1575/76 
Email: "fferrer@worldbank.org" 

Gaoseb, Godfrey [Namibia] 
(also representing Angola, Botswana, Burundi, Eritrea, Ethiopia, The 
Gambia, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria,
Seychelles, 
Sierra Leone, South Africa, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, 
Zimbabwe) 
Room MC12-341 
Tel 458-2105/06, Fax 522-1549 
Email: "ggaoseb@worldbank.org" 

Garcia, Valeriano [Aregentina] 
(also representing Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay) 
Room MC13-561 
Tel. 458-2066/67/69 Fax# 477-3786 
Email: "vgarcia@worldbank.org" 

Haque, Inaamul [Pakistan] 
(also representing Afghanistan (informally), Algeria, Ghana, Islamic 
Republic of Iran, Iraq, Morocco, Tunisia) 
Room MC13-141 
Tel. 458-1084/85 Fax# 477-9052 
Email: "ihaque@worldbank.org" 

Hutagalung, Jannes [Indonesia] 
(also representing Brunei Darussalam, Fiji, Lao People's Democratic 
Republic, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Singapore, Thailand, Tonga, 
Vietnam) 
Room MC13-175 
Tel. 458-1197/98 Fax# 477-4116 
Email: "jhutagalung@worldbank.org" 

Hyden, Neil Francis [Australia] 
(also representing Cambodia, Kiribati, Republic of Korea, Marshall 
Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Mongolia, New Zealand, Papua
New 
Guinea, Republic of Palau, Samoa, Solomon Islands,Vanuatu) 
Room MC11-745 
Tel 458-1018/19 Fax# 477-2007 
Email: "fhyden@worldbank.org" 

Meyer, Matthias [Switzerland] 
(also representing Azerbaijan, Kyrgyz Republic, Poland, Tajikistan, 
Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan) 
Room MC13-227 
Tel 458.7050/1 Fax# 477-9110 
Email: "mmeyer@worldbank.org" 

Milleron, Jean-Claude [France] 
IMF13-118 
Tel. 623-6505 Fax# 623-4951 
Email: "jmilleron@worldbank.org" 

Miyamura, Satoru [Japan] 
Room MC12-305 
Tel. 458.0098/99 Fax# 522-1581 
Email: "smiyamura@worldbank.org" 

Niemi, Ilkka [Finland] 
(also representing Denmark, Estonia, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway,

Sweden) 
Room MC13-531 
Tel 458-1081/82 Fax# 477-6818 
Email: "iniemi@worldbank.org" 

O'Leary, Terrie (Ms.) [Canada] 
(also representing Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas,Barbados, Belize, 
Dominica,Grenada, Guyana, Ireland, Jamaica, St.Kitts and Nevis, St. 
Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines) 
Room MC12-175 
Tel 458-0077/78 Fax# 477-4155 
Email: "toleary@worldbank.org" 

Passacantando, Franco [Italy] 
(also representing Albania, Greece, Malta, Portugal) 
Room MC13-751 
Tel 458-1169/70 Fax# 477-3735 
Email: "fpassacantando@worldbank.org" 

Pickford, Stephen [United Kingdom] 
Room: IMF11-120 
Tel 623-4560 Fax# 623-4965 
Email: "spickford@worldbank.org" 

Piercy, Jan (Ms.) [United States] 
Room MC13-525 
Tel. 458-0110/11 Fax# 477-2967 
Email: "jpiercy@worldbank.org" 

Portugal, Murilo [Brazil] 
(also representing Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Hati, Panama, 
Philippines, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago) 
Room MC12-319 
Tel.458-0096/97 Fax# 522-1551 
Email: "mportugal@worldbank.org" 

Schaffer, Helmut [Germany] 
Room MC11-125 
Tel. 458-1183/84 Fax# 477-7849 
Email: "hschaffer@worldbank.org" 

Singh, Balmiki Prasad [India] 
(also representing Bangladesh, Bhutan, Sri Lanka) 
Room MC12-151 
Tel 458-1046/47 Fax# 522-1553 
Email: "ssingh@worldbank.org" 

Stek, Peiter [The Netherlands] 
(also representing Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, 
Cyprus, Georgia, Israel, former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Moldova,

Romania, Ukraine) 
Room MC13-433 
Tel. 458-2052/53 Fax# 522-1572/73 
Email: "pstek@worldbank.org" 

Toure, Bassary [Mali] 
(also representing Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Central 
African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Cote d'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of 
Congo, Djibouti, EquatorialGuinea, Gabon, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, 
Madagascar, Mauritania, Mauritius, Niger, Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Sao

Tome and Principe, Senegal, Somalia (informally), Togo) 
Room MC13-335 
Tel. 458-7126/27 Fax# 522-1585 
Email: "btoure@worldbank.org" 

Zhu Xian [China] 
Room MC13-111 
Tel 458-0058/59 Fax# 522-1579 
Email: "zxian@worldbank.org"  

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