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ILISU
DAM SCANDAL: MPs BACK CAMPAIGNERS
Friends
of the Earth, press release, 12 Jul 2000
Campaigners
against the proposed Ilisu Dam in Turkey [1]
were “delighted” today by a
hard-hitting report from the House of
Commons International Development
Committee,which slams the Government over
its plan to give dam builders Balfour Beatty
a $200 million export credit to build the
dam. FOE Policy Director Tony Juniper said
that the report“vindicates every
criticism we have made of this miserable
project” and called on the Prime
Minister to announce at once that the dam
would not get ECGD backing.
The
Report (“ECGD, Developmental Issues and
the Ilisu Dam”) states (all quotes
from Summary of Conclusions and
Recommendations):
 | “the
Ilisu Dam was from the outset conceived
and planned in contravention of
international standards and it still
does not comply.
For that reason, cover should not be
given”
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| “We
have no sense that the ECGD and UK
Government have at any point considered
what repercussions the construction of
the Dam will have on the prospects for
peace ... and the rights of the
marginalised in this region of Turkey”
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| “We
are astonished that the Foreign Office
did not raise any questions about the
proposed Ilisu Dam and its effect on the
human rights of those living in the
region”
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| “ECGD
should not provide cover for any project
which infringes the human rights of
workers, local populations or other
affected persons”
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| “We
recommend that ECGD blacklist companies
convicted of bribery or corruption,at
least those found on the World Bank
Listing of Ineligible Firms”
[2]
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| “The
debate over the Ilusu Dam has however
provided a welcome opportunity to
consider how issues of development,
human rights, conflict and corruption
and conditionality are handled by ECGD.
In all these areas we conclude that
improvements must be made.”
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Commenting,
Tony Juniper, Policy and Campaigns Director
at Friends of the Earth, said:
“This
report vindicates every criticism we have
made of this miserable project. The UK
Government announced before Christmas that
it was 'minded' to give Balfour Beatty an
export credit. Sources have confirmed to us
that this decision was made after the
personal intervention of Tony Blair. But now
the Prime Minister's own MPs are telling him
what we have known all along: the Ilisu Dam
is an environmental disaster, a human rights
scandal and a threat to peace.
The time for spinning and evasion is over.
Mr Blair must announce today that the Dam
will not get backing from the British
Government.”
NOTES
[1] The proposed dam site is on the
Tigris River, forty miles upstream from the
Turkish/Iraqi/Syrian border. It will flood
15 towns and 52 villages and displace up to
20,000 Kurdish people. The Ilisu project is
part of the South East Anatolia Project
(GAP), which has already displaced hundreds
of thousands of Kurdish people, many without
compensation. Because of the war between the
Turkish army and Kurdish guerillas,local
opposition to such schemes cannot easily be
voiced for fear of state reprisals. Towns
which will be lost include Hasankeyf, the
only Anatolian town to have survived since
the Middle Ages. In 1978, the Turkish
Government's Department of Culture gave the
town “complete archeological protection”
(decision A-1105).The dam and its proposed
sister a few miles further upstream will
control water flows from the Tigris into
Syria and Iraq, threatening regional
conflict (described by defence analysts as a
“water war”).
[2] Balfour Beatty faces prosecution in
Lesotho for corruption. Its Boston offices
were raided by the FBI in June this year.
Contact
details:
Friends
of the Earth
26-28 Underwood St.
LONDON
N1 7JQ
Tel: 020 7490 1555
Fax: 020 7490 0881
E-mail: info@foe.co.uk
Website: www.foe.co.uk
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