Three Gorges

Three Gorges 
 
 (This is one of the worst single attacks ever by humans on nature -- and now
we learn it's also an attack on the Chinese people. Ronnie Kasrils went out
to see it in early 2001 and came back with a ringing endorsement of the
Chinese regime's management of the project.)

International Rivers Network, January 20, 2003:

Eyewitness Report Documents Serious Human Rights Abuses in Three Gorges
Project

International Rivers Network released today an eyewitness report on the
resettlement and human rights problems of the Three Gorges Project in China.
More than 640,000 people have been evicted to make way for the giant dam on
the Yangtze river. Resettlers have not been compensated according to
international standards. The resettlement process is fraught with corruption
and human rights abuses. Protests are widespread, and the police has used
excessive force to quell these protests.

IRN warns that the pressure on the local population will increase when
submergence in the reservoir area starts in April 2003. A letter endorsed by
106 international NGOs calls on the governments of Germany, Sweden,
Switzerland, Brazil and Canada - all of whom are helping fund the dam - to
demand that the Chinese authorities respect human rights, and suspend
submergence until resettlement problems have been resolved.

"The export credit agencies and the governments that back them share in the
responsibility for the impacts of the Three Gorges Dam, including the
resettlement problems and human rights violations," comments IRN's Doris
Shen.

Resettlement and human rights problems:

The eyewitness report was prepared by a long-time observer of the Three
Gorges Project. Because of the lack of freedom of speech in China, the
researcher is writing under the pen name of Yi Ming. Some of the main
findings of the IRN report are:


·       The land and the jobs which were promised to resettlers from rural
and urban areas are no longer available. Where land has been offered, it has
often turned out to be of inferior quality. The resettled people are forced
to buy housing at a cost which far exceeds the compensation they have been
offered.


·       According to the report, there is a "widespread belief that local
officials have used the project as an opportunity to fill their own
 pockets." Many cases of embezzlement of resettlement funds have been
documented. Local authorities also appear to have diverted a large part of
the resettlement budget into unrelated investments like luxury hotels and
roads.


·       No independent grievance mechanism exists, and the resettlement
process is conducted "in an atmosphere of officially orchestrated secrecy
and intimidation." The police have used "excessive force" to quell the
numerous protests against the resettlement problems, and the Three Gorges
Project has become "an instrument of repression with widespread human rights
abuses."


Civil society recommendations:

The Three Gorges Project is being built with major financial support from
government export credit agencies and private banks. The export credit
agencies of Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, Brazil and Canada approved more
than $1.4 billion for the project.

In a letter to the governments that fund the Three Gorges Project, NGOs from
around the world have put forward the following recommendations:


·       Affected people must be resettled, compensated and rehabilitated in
line with acknowledged international standards such as World Bank
operational policies. As long as the problems of resettlement have not been
resolved in line with international standards, the submergence of the
reservoir area must be suspended.


·       The state should create independent grievance mechanisms for the
people affected by the Three Gorges project. People should not suffer
repression for protesting peacefully, or for seeking redress for damages
they have suffered. The governments who share responsibility for the Three
Gorges Project should monitor the implementation of the project and the
resettlement efforts during this critical stage.


·       Export credit agencies should carry out human rights and social
impact assessments before taking decisions on credits and guarantees in the
future. They should also adopt the recommendations of the World Commission
on Dams, which integrate human rights aspects into the planning and
decision-making processes of dam projects.


These recommendations have been endorsed by 106 NGOs from 34 countries.

Background:

With a planned capacity of 18,200 megawatts, the Three Gorges Dam on China's
Yangtze river is the world's largest power project. More than 1.2 million
people  and according to some estimates, up to 1.9 million people  will have
to be resettled for the project. Submergence of the reservoir area will
start in April 2003, and will continue to 2008. So far, more than 640,000
people have been resettled, and tens of thousands will still need to be
moved before submergence starts.


Further information:

. Doris Shen, IRN, Berkeley, phone +1 510 848 1155, doris@irn.org
. Peter Bosshard, IRN, Zurich, phone +41 1 491 70 21, powerfinance@irn.org

The full resettlement report, background information on the Three Gorges
Project, video footage of the resettlement process, and photos of the Three
Gorges area are available at www.irn.org. The report includes a map of the
project area. The NGO letter to the governments funding the Three Gorges
Project is also available at www.irn.org.

Through a web action alert of Friends of the Earth/International, you can
send a message to the governments and ECAs involved in the Three Gorges
Project expressing your concern about the human rights abuses. Please check
out www.foei.org/cyberaction/3gorges.html


Box: Resettlement in Gaoyang township

Yunyang county has a population of 1.23 million, of which 120,000 will have
to be resettled for the Three Gorges Project. Resettlers from Yunyang were
sent as far as Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, and Hainan Island.

The poor township of Gaoyang, from where about 13,000  15,000 peasants will
need to be removed, was early on chosen to serve as a model for
resettlement. Yi Ming visited Gaoyang township in August 2002, and reports
that the resettlement efforts have run into massive problems. Some of the
main problems are:


·       There are wide discrepancies in the compensation offered. Those who
organized their own resettlement received 20,000 yuan ($2,400), others
received 10,800 yuan ($1,296), and those who went through a
government-sponsored resettlement program received as little as 6,800 yuan
($816).


·       7,000-8,000 people from Gaoyang were relocated to Tongliang in
Sichuan province. There appears to be widespread discontent because they
cannot find work. Other people who were resettled to Hubei province say they
were not given the land or compensation they were promised. Hundreds of
peasants from Gaoyang used their compensation to buy housing in suburbs of
Wanxian. After three years, most of them complained that they had not found
any work, and wanted to go back.


·       People complain that resettlement funds are being embezzled by local
officials. A petition from Hongmiao village in Gaoyang township claimed that
2,300 outsiders were added to the list of inhabitants requiring
compensation, and that officials issued fake resettlement certificates for
bribes of 500 yuan.


Peasants from Gaoyang began organizing themselves quite early to fight for
adequate compensation, and contributed to a fund to allow leaders to travel
to Chongqing and Beijing to voice their concerns. Some 10,000 peasants
supported a petition in July 1997, and there has been a steady stream of
protests, petitions and delegations sent from Gaoyang ever since. Some 300
peasants attacked resettlement officials in September 1999. In 2000, over
one thousand peasants staged public protests. When Yi Ming visited the
township, people were still organizing protests and managed to send another
delegation to the Three Gorges resettlement office in Beijing.

Resettlement officials gave public assurances that the complaints of the
peasants would be addressed. Yet the township authorities summoned riot
police to quell protests, and some people claim that petitioners are being
punished under the rules to prosecute supporters of the Falun Gong sect.
According to one source, the police arrested the delegation that was
travelling to Beijing in August 2002, accused them of belonging to Falun
Gong, and sent them home. In February 2001, two elderly peasants who had
helped coordinate the protests were arrested, and later given three year
prison sentences. At least five other peasants from Gaoyang are also serving
prison sentences.

In August 2002, nearly 900 people who had returned from being resettled
lived in tents and shacks near the former township, and refused to leave.
According to sources, local police ascended on them three times, burning
their shelters and beating them so they would leave before the area is
submerged. Yi Ming reports that people were now afraid of speaking out, but
that "everyone in Gaoyang seemed in a state of barely suppressed fury and
resentment."