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E-Link: Amnesty International Speaks Out for Eco-Activists (fwd)
Shell information at bottom of posted story.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 24 Sep 1997 17:20:22 -0600
From: EnviroLink News Service <newsdesk@envirolink.org>
To: environews@envirolink.org
Subject: E-Link: Amnesty International Speaks Out for Eco-Activists
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL SPEAKS OUT FOR ECO-ACTIVISTS
By Frederick Noronha
GOA, India, September 23, 1997 (ENS) - International human rights watchdog
group Amnesty International today warned that the increasing globalization
of capital is leading to "development being pursued at the expense of human
rights" and cited a number of Indian examples of environmental protests to
underline its point.
Amnesty's statement was put out on Tuesday to coincide with the World Bank
- International Monetary Fund annual meeting taking place in Hong Kong.
It highlighted protests by ordinary Indian villagers, which can be seen
both as a struggle for their livelihood, and as campaigns to preserve their
local environment in the face of the country's headlong rush to
industrialization.
Protests against a National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) project in the
Singrauli region of Uttar Pradesh funded by the World Bank have continued
to provoke a violent response, the human rights organisation said.
In another World Bank funded project, the East Parej Opencast Coal Project
by Coal India Limited in Bihar, local people protesting against the
destruction of their homes caused by dynamite blasting and displacement,
have faced further intimidation.
Amnesty International said the major restructuring of the global economy
means the role of the state is undergoing a fundamental transformation, "in
which rights of people are frequently given less weight in public policy
than the interests of capital."
"Sustainable development cannot be measured solely in terms of economic
indicators," said Amnesty, taking a seemingly new role for its stance in
its 36-year-long history of campaigns.
Earlier, Amnesty focused largely on securing the release of those
imprisoned for their political or religious beliefs. But only last July,
this organisation took a strong stance over alleged human rights violations
against the setting up of the Enron power plant in the western Indian state
of Maharashtra, along the verdant Konkan coast.
In July, Amnesty released its report, "Protests Suppressed in the Name of
Development." This document cited suppression of local protests against a
joint venture by three U.S. based multinational corporations in India
involved with the Enron power project.
Amnesty said it "recognises" the rights of the state to safeguard employees
and property of infrastructural development projects and industry, but
argued that the rights of those protesting peacefully "should also not be
compromised."
It also cited the killing by police of some fifteen tribals between 1978
and 1982, during protests against the Subarnarekha Multi-Purpose dam
project in Bihar, funded by the World Bank.
Amnesty's case-study of India said this country showed how "international
financial institutions' policies and projects can impact upon the full
spectrum of human rights." But it conceded that India is not the "only or
worst" example in the region.
"Many affected by the projects and involved in the protests have been from
vulnerable groups, from Dalit (a disadvantaged group determined by caste
hierarchies) or adivasi (Indian tribal) communities," said Amnesty,
pointing to problems of displacement.
In December 1996, 21 adivasi were arrested during peaceful protests
against the construction of a luxury hotel located on the site of the World
Bank funded ecodevelopment Project in Rajiv Gandhi National Park (generally
known as the Nagarhole National Park) in the southern state of Karnataka.
Some of those arrested included babies and children, Amnesty said quoting
local news
reports.
Last year, the effect of the forcible eviction of members of the Maldhari
(adivasi) community from the area of the Gir National Park and Gir
Sanctuary in Gujarat, part of the India-Ecodevelopment Project of the World
Bank, was apparent as one pregnant woman was beaten by forest officials and
lost her child, said the study.
"This pattern highlights the degree to which the central and state
authorities in India are prepared to deploy state force to curtail freedom
of association, expression and assembly in the interests of development
projects," commented Amnesty.
Meanwhile, environmental activists have voiced concern about plans by Shell
to invest two billion dollars in Indian projects. Shell's chief of
operations in India Vikram Mehta announced in New Delhi that the capital
would be invested in the setting up of a power project and a liquefied gas
terminal in the western state of Gujarat.Shell International Gas is a part
of Europe's Royal Dutch Petroleum and Shell group and operates in 130
nations. It has a turnover of $128 billion with an annual net profit of $9
billion.
Shell's announcement this month was greeted by greens recalling that
company's involvement in the ethnic minority area of Ogoniland in Nigeria.
It has faced allegations there of environmental devastation and human
rights violations, culminating in the execution of environmental activist
Ken Saro-Wiwa and other Ogoni leaders.
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