_________________ WTN-L World Tibet Network News _________________

Published by: The Canada Tibet Committee

Editorial Board: Brian Given, Conrad Richter, Nima Dorjee,

Tseten Samdup, Thubten (Sam) Samdup

WTN Editors: wtn-editors@tibet.ca

______________________________________________________________________

Issue ID: 00/06/23 Compiled by Thubten (Sam) Samdup

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Friday, June 23, 2000

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Contents:

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1. World Bank 'broke rules' in Tibet land plan (Financial Times)

2. World Bank Revives Disputed Tibet Loan (The Wall Street Journal)

3. World Bank Halts China Loan Review (AP)

4. World Bank directors mull Tibet Dam project (AFP)

5. Wolfensohn:Tibet too political for bank managers (Reuters)

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1. World Bank 'broke rules' in Tibet land plan

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By Sathnam Sanghera in Washington

Financial Times, June 23 2000

The World Bank repeatedly violated its own rules when assessing the

viability of a highly controversial project to resettle 57,750 Chinese

farmers on what were traditionally Tibetan lands, according to a

scathing independent report.

The report, compiled by three development specialists from the

Netherlands, Senegal and Canada at the request of the bank's board of

executive directors, concludes that the bank was in violation of seven

out of a total of 10 bank regulations when it examined, and decided to

back, the controversial project in China's Qinghai province.

Chinese officials say the project will help ease poverty in an area that

is a traditional homeland for Tibetan and Mongol herders, but Tibetan

exile groups have said it is tantamount to "cultural genocide".

James Wolfensohn, the World Bank's president, has accepted some of the

criticisms and proposed significant changes to the project including the

commissioning of a higher-level environmental analysis, the upgrading of

social assessments and the provision of better maps and documentation.

The bank has persistently expressed support for the project despite

opposition from two of its main lenders, the US and Germany. It approved

a $40m (£26.4m) loan for the project last year, but the financing was

delayed until the bank's inspection panel investigated objections to the

project from the International Campaign for Tibet, one of the largest

pro-Tibetan groups.

The bank's board is set to make a decision on July 6.

The panel, which was only authorised to consider whether the project had

been developed in line with bank rules, found repeated instances where

operational policies and procedures were not followed. It found that

population groups which would have to be resettled were not properly

consulted, that alternative investment and project alternatives were not

considered and compared, and that the project was not properly

classified.

It also concluded that the bank's environmental assessments and the

standard of maps, charts and references were inadequate and that the

bank did not properly comply with its own rules when assessing the

impact the project would have on indigenous communities in the area.

Furthermore, it found that information was not disclosed in accordance

with bank rules.

"In the panel's view, the actual scale of the area to be impacted by the

Qinghai project, the ethnic composition of the project's impacted

populations, and the boundaries of the project area were far too

narrowly defined by the management. The assessments fail to address many

of the most

significant social and environmental impacts of minority nationalities,"

it says.

"This report shows a number of instances where the panel feels that

operational policies and procedures were not followed, casting doubt as

to whether the project, as it stands, is the best alternative to

contribute to poverty reduction and sustainable economic growth."

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2. World Bank Revives Disputed Tibet Loan

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By Damian Milverton

Dow Jones Newswires

WASHINGTON, 06/23/2000 (The Wall Street Journal) -- World Bank managers

recommended their board approve a $40 million loan to China to relocate

poor rural families to a traditionally Tibetan region.

A letter to directors by World Bank President James Wolfensohn summing

up the managers' position said the project, which includes new

safeguards, fully meets bank standards. He added that the level of

surveillance and independent inspection of the loan are unprecedented,

though these new

requirements were added only after an independent inspection panel

criticized the bank for cutting corners in its initial consideration.

Regardless, he worried that political factors would decide the loan's

fate: "We will still be caught in the middle of a fight that management

can do little about." That fight is a sideshow to the drama surrounding

China's claim to Tibet, which it occupied by force in 1951. Pro-Tibetan

movements were outraged last June when the bank's board approved poverty

loans of $160 million for China because they included the plan to move

farmers from arid areas in Qinghai, western China, to Tibet. The U.S.

and Germany opposed the loan when it came before the board a year ago.

Critics cited potential environmental and social costs. For six weeks,

World Bank managers have

weighed a report from the independent panel, which said the staff had

rushed the evaluation. In response, World Bank managers stepped up the

proposed level of evaluation. Management and Beijing agreed to establish

a panel of "internationally recognized experts, acceptable to the Bank

and to China" to interview those affected.

In his letter, Mr. Wolfensohn barely concealed management's frustration

at being forced to re-evaluate "compliance" issues for a loan that is

essentially unremarkable when considered alongside 31 previous programs

in 23 Chinese provinces totaling $3.8 billion over 10 years. The bank's

24 executive directors will now debate the loan for the second time in

12 months, with a decision expected July 6 or 7.

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3. World Bank Halts China Loan Review

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By HARRY DUNPHY, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON, Friday June 23 (AP)- The World Bank abruptly canceled plans

to make public a highly critical review of a $40 million loan to China

for relocating 58,000 poor rural families to areas in a western province

populated mostly by Tibetan herders.

Bank officials said Friday the review was accompanied by a letter from

World Bank President James Wolfensohn to the bank's 24 executive

directors saying the project, which includes new safeguards, fully meets

bank standards.

The directors had told reporters and non-governmental organizations the

report would be made public late Friday. However after objections

surfaced at a board meeting, the decision was made not make the document

public - at least for now.

``There will be no release tonight nor any release next week,'' said

Peter Stephens, a bank

spokesman. ``The board did not feel there was sufficient grounds to make

an exception to normal

procedure.''

Under these procedures, the bank issues reviews and management comments

three days after loans are approved, not before. The China loan is due

to come before the board July 6 or 7.

A group of 60 members of Congress from both parties had written to

Wolfensohn, calling on him to release the review. Pro-Tibetan and

environment groups also were pressing for the documents to be made

public.

The report by the Independent Inspection Panel - a three-person watchdog

group within the bank - said staff members had rushed through the loan

evaluation process, failing to assess environmental and social concerns.

The report was sent to the bank's management six weeks ago.

One of its most surprising conclusions, according to those familiar with

the contents, is that the bank staff never discussed asking the Chinese

government to consider alternative relocation sites for the farmers.

Wolfensohn said in London on Friday that the bank's management is

determined to correct any problems with the loan, which is part of a

larger $160 million package for China.

``I said we'll fix it,'' Wolfensohn said, adding that although it was up

to the directors to approve the loan, he is determined to present the

board ``a perfect project document.''

And even if the board approves the loan package, no money will be

released in the next 15 months while Chinese, Mongols and Tibetans

affected by the project are interviewed, he said.

But Wolfensohn said the larger political issue of Tibet, which China

occupied in 1951, ``cannot be solved through the operating policies of

the bank.''

The $40 million loan is designed to provide for the relocation of mostly

ethnic Han Chinese from Qinghai province in western China into areas

inhabited by 4,000 Tibetan and Mongolian herders.

The bank directors will now debate the loan for the second time in 12

months with a decision expected July 6 or July 7. When the board took up

the loan last June, the United States, the bank's major shareholder, and

Germany voted against it and several other nations abstained.

That rare show of dissent at the board meeting, where most decisions are

reached by consensus without a vote, prompted the order for the

evaluation. The inspection panel, headed by Jim MacNeil of Canada, spent

three weeks in China last October.

Pro-Tibetan movements and a group of 60 bipartisan lawmakers including

Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., had put pressure on Wolfensohn to make

public both the report and management's response.

``It is imperative that those affected by the bank's projects have

access to the information before, not after, decisions affecting their

lives are made,'' the lawmakers said in a letter to Wolfensohn.

Normally, such documents are released three days after the board votes.

Chinese officials say the project will help ease poverty among

subsistence farmers, but Tibetan exile groups say it amounts to

``cultural genocide.''

The Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, when asked about the

loan Tuesday after meeting with President Clinton, said: ``Under the

present circumstances this would be a source of more problems. Therefore

it is not the right time.''

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4. World Bank directors mull Tibet Dam project

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WASHINGTON, June 22 (AFP) - Directors of the World Bank will vote in

early July on whether to go ahead with a project in China which

opponents claim will trigger a destructive tide of migration into Tibet,

a spokesman said Thursday.

World Bank President James Wolfensohn on Wednesday circulated

management's response to an inspection panel's report on objections to a

component of the China Western Poverty Reduction Project, spokesman

Peter Stephens said.

"The recommendations will be considered and a decision will be made in

early July," he added.

Executive Board members are expected to vote on July 6 or 7.

The Inspection Panel, a three-member board set up to assess complaints

of proposed bank projects, was reportedly highly critical of the project

in Qinghai Province which will relocate 57,000 people.

Human rights campaigners have demanded that the project should be

cancelled completely, and claim the bank has violated its pledge to be

transparent over the initiative.

They say the migrants, most of whom are Han Chinese, will move to a

county in Tibet, which China has occupied for nearly 50 years, and

overwhelm the local culture.

Supporters of Tibet's claim to autonomy from Beijing are furious at the

project.

"What we are saying is that the bank has no problem with moving Chinese

into Tibet as long as it meets environmental and social requirements,"

said John Ackerly, President of the International Campaign for Tibet.

"We feel that the bank has a very myopic view of what the requirements

are," he added.

In Washington this week, the Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled spiritual

leader, warned that China's policies over Tibet, where it is accused of

gross human rights violations were putting a unique culture at risk.

"The present situation inside Tibet is very, very critical. If we look

(at the) Tibet problem locally, then time is running out," he said.

The Bank says it has done everything it can to ensure that all

criticisms of the project were met.

It adds the 40 million Qinghai section of the wider 160 million dollar

Western Poverty Reduction Project, will also benefit 110,000 people who

will stay in the province and people in the area to which migrants will

move.

The program includes the provision of special health and schools

services for minorities and careful monitoring of the environmental

impact of the migration.

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5. Wolfensohn:Tibet too political for bank managers

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WASHINGTON, June 22, 2000 (Reuters) - A project pending before World

Bank directors to resettle Chinese farmers in traditional Tibetan lands

is too political for the bank's managers to be involved, World Bank

President James Wolfensohn said in a recent letter.

"My concern is that we are debating an issue at the Board of the Bank

which is being considered as an issue of compliance when, for many,

whatever we do will not address their political concerns," Wolfensohn

said in a confidential June 21 letter to directors in which he outlined

management's stance on a independent study.

"Bank management cannot be involved in this debate," Wolfensohn wrote in

his letter, which accompanied the bank's crucial independent inspection

panel's report on the so-called China Western Poverty Reduction Project.

Bank managers have been reviewing the study -- which is likely to be

released publicly later this week or early next week -- for the past six

weeks.

Last week, China asked the World Bank to delay its response to the

independent review of the project.

The $160 million loan would pay for resettling some 60,000 poor Chinese

farmers in the area where Tibet's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, was

born. Chinese officials say the project will help ease poverty in the

area, but Tibetan exile groups say it is tantamount to "cultural

genocide."

"This debate is about Tibetan issues and it raises emotions and concerns

in political bodies and civil society around the world," Wolfensohn

wrote.

"So far, the attention has focused almost exclusively on Tibetans in and

around the so-called move-in area, though it is the Mongol herders who

will be most immediately affected."

Despite Wolfensohn's concerns, World Bank managers did offer some

proposals to help forward the project. For example, managers, as

expected, called for a new environmental assessment of the impact of the

project.

In addition, managers also proposed that independent experts, acceptable

to both the World Bank and China, review the social and environmental

impacts of the resettlement plan.

Funding for the project would not be released for quite some time, as

the upcoming board action would be followed with more studies.

Campaign for Tibet President John Ackerly faulted the bank for not

releasing the independent inspection panel report, together with World

Bank management's response.

"It shows that they are not committed to the transparency they profess,"

Ackerly told Reuters.

A World Bank spokesman said neither Wolfensohn's letter, nor the

inspection panel report have been officially released to the public.

China annexed Tibet in 1951 and rules it from Beijing. The World Bank

staff initially appeared unaware of the political implications when it

began assessing the project.

But despite mounting criticism from Tibetan exile groups and others, the

bank's board approved the loan last year against the wishes of the

United States and Germany, two of the institutions top three

shareholders.