DATE=9/1/1999
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=CHINA-WORLD BANK (L ONLY)
NUMBER=2-253323
BYLINE=ROGER WILKISON
DATELINE=BEIJING
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: For the second day in a row, China has lashed out
at opponents of a controversial World Bank-sponsored
resettlement project in an ethnic Tibetan area in a remote
western Chinese province. VOA correspondent Roger Wilkison
reports, the Chinese Foreign Ministry says World Bank
investigators scheduled to take a closer look at the
project in a few weeks should avoid all interference in
China's internal affairs.
TEXT: China's ire is mainly directed at exiled Tibetan
activists and their Western supporters, who have demanded
that the World Bank halt its funding of the project. The
Foreign Ministry accuses them of -- in its words -
deliberately looking for excuses to maliciously attack the
Chinese government.
The World Bank approved a 160-million dollar loan to China
last June for an irrigation project in Dulan county, a
sparsely populated area of western Qinghai province. Most
of the area's few inhabitants are ethnic Tibetan or
Mongolian herders. But China plans to resettle 58-thousand
poor Chinese farmers from other parts of Qinghai in Dulan
county. And that is what has sparked the outcry among pro-
Tibet activists, who say the project will disrupt the
culture and livelihood of the area's indigenous people.
Environmentalists also complain that the project will cause
ecological damage to the area.
The project was approved by the World Bank despite
objections by the United States and Germany, two of the
institution's three biggest shareholders. But it is still
unclear if the bank will ever give the project final
approval. A three-member panel of World Bank experts is
due to travel to the area later this month or early in
October to talk to local inhabitants and study the land
where the Chinese farmers would be resettled.
China says the project is the only way to improve the lives
of the impoverished farmers who are being relocated from
other areas in the province. The Foreign Ministry says the
World Bank investigation team should maintain political
neutrality and objectivity when looking at the project. It
warns the investigators not to meddle in China's sovereign
affairs, a hint that they should avoid consideration of the
criticism leveled by what Beijing calls anti-China forces.
China recently expelled an American pro-Tibet activist and
an Australian researcher, who sought to conduct an
independent study of the project. Chinese authorities
accused them of taking photographs and conducting
interviews in restricted areas in Qinghai. The American -
Daja Meston - was airlifted out of China last week after he
suffered spinal injuries and broken bones in an apparent
attempt to escape Chinese police. The fate of the ethnic
Tibetan interpreter for the two men is unknown. (Signed)
NEB/RW/FC/KL
01-Sep-1999 07:24 AM EDT (01-Sep-1999 1124 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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