CHINA-TIBET: THE WOLRD BANK MUST NOT BECAME ACCOMPLICE AND COAUTHOR OF THE VIOLATIONS OF HUMAN RIGHTS

Rome, 27 May, 1999. The World Bank Board will decide on 8 June this year on the concession to the People's Republic of China of a credit amounting 334 millions of dollars in support of a Project for Poverty Reduction in China, which, among other things, foresees the settlement of another 60.000 Chinese settlers in Tibetan territory.

Statement of Olivier Dupuis, Secretary General of the Transnational Radical Party and Member of European Parliament:

"If the World Bank took the decision to approve this project, it would do nothing less than become not only accomplice but co-author of the colonisation policy of Tibet (today, seven millions Chinese settlers placed in Tibet already outnumber 6 millions Tibetans) and of destruction of the ancient peoples and culture, carried out by the People's Republic of China during the last 50 years. Such a decision would force us to undertake all political initiatives in order that the share-holders of the World Bank withdraw their confidence in the actual leadership."

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