All Gloves Are OFF! The Final Stretch in the Campaign to Stop the World Bank’s China-Tibet resettlement Project

Action Alert on China-Tibet
June, 2000

 

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“,
https://www.ciel.org“, “http://www.bicusa.org“,
http://www.tibet.org/sft“,
http://www.milarepa.org“,
http://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.
    • 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>
      and ICT on all written correspondence.

Recommend/demand that the above contacts take the following steps:

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.

Executive Director’s 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, Equatorial Guinea, 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