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h e w o r l d b a n k Help terminate the Western Poverty Reduction Project before it's too late:
02.25.00 | World Bank Update! The campaign against the World Bank's proposed China Western Poverty Reduction Project has so far been a great success. Just yesterday, for example, one member let us know that Working Assets' inclusion of the call to action in their November telephone bill resulted in near 40,000 responses! The latest word from the Bank is that the Inspection Panel will probably be giving their report to World Bank President James Wolfensohn and the Board of Executive Directors in late March. Under the procedures, Wolfensohn will then have up to six weeks to make a decision, either to pull the plug on this flawed project or to pass it on to the Executive Directors. We are confident that the Panel report will vindicate the concerns we have raised about this project and its failure to comply with the Bank's social and environmental policies. And we believe that if the report does find that the project is in violation of Bank policies and procedures, the most reasonable thing would be for the Bank management to immediately withdraw the project. We recognize, however, that they could refuse to take this approach and could instead try to "fix" the problems and punt the project back to the Board for approval. We are still calling on the World Bank to cancel this flawed project! In the meantime, we've also recently learned that Jean Michel Severino, Vice President for the East Asia and Pacific Region, is resigning from his position to be replaced on March 1st by Jamel Kassum, a career Bankster. Let's welcome Mr. Kassum to his new job and call on him to exercise his responsibility to withdraw this flawed project! contact: Mr. Jamel-ud-din Kassum, Vice President jkassum@ifc.org and jkassum@worldbank.org To help ensure that the Bank responds to the Inspection Panel report with integrity, please make sure Management hears from you! Let them know that you are aware that the Inspection Panel is preparing its report of investigation, and let them know that you will be expecting Management to withdraw this project once it has received the Panel's report. contact: Mr. Jamel-ud-din Kassum, Vice President Sari Soderstrom, Senior Economist The World Bank, 1818 H Street NW, Washington DC 20433 USA Fax: 202-522-1674 ssoderstrom@worldbank.org jkassum@ifc.org and jkassum@worldbank.org and C.C.: Mr. James Wolfensoh, President Peter Stephens, External Affairs The World Bank, 1818 H Street NW, Washington DC 20433 USA Fax: 202-522-3405 pstephens1@worldbank.org If the Bank fails to cancel the project, we will be ready for that too. If that happens, the Board of Executive Directors will need to hear from you again. So please stay tuned! On June 24th, 1999, the World Bank Board of Directors approved a $160 million loan in support of China's Western Poverty Reduction Project. Among other things, the loan would finance the transfer of 57,775 Chinese farmers onto fragile nomadic lands located within a so called 'Tibetan and Mongolian autonomous prefecture'.* Though ostensibly designed to alleviate poverty, the project promotes China's policy of colonization of Tibet, and violates the World Bank's own environmental and social policies. Unwilling to challenge China, its biggest client, the Board of Directors overruled American and German opposition and approved this fundamentally flawed project. The approval of this project sends a clear signal that the World Bank does not respect its policies; it also means that the Bank is providing financial and institutional support to the Chinese government's population transfer, the greatest threat to the survival of the Tibetan people, and sets a dangerous precedent to all occupied territories. Environmental
groups, Tibet support groups, students, bank-watching organizations, musicians,
politicians, grassroots activists and concerned citizens have joined Tibetans
to challenge this project. The result of this alliance has been a torrent of opposition,
including an enormous fax and e-mail campaign. A week before the vote, the International
Campaign for Tibet (on behalf of local people) filed a claim to the Inspection
Panel to investigate these policy violations and the associated harm - this claim
is still pending. [
photo | nancy jo johnson ]
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