ADBWATCH: Protest against ADB in Hawai'i on May 

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is a multilateral sister of the World Bank 
that funds projects which create poverty and undermine local control and 
cultural rights throughout Asia and the Pacific. The ADB is holding its 
Annual Meeting in Honolulu, Hawai'i from May 9-11.

Parallel NGO event opportunities May 5th to May 11th

ADBwatch Hawai'i invites you to join in and create non-violent activities 
and events challenging globalization and the ADB's record of imposing 
destructive and oppressive policies, projects and programs on communities 
throughout Asia and the Pacific.

ADBwatch is a broad coalition of people working for economic justice in 
Hawai'i, and includes youth, students, economic and environmental justice 
and human rights activists, Kanaka Maoli (Native Hawaiian) cultural rights 
activists, clergy, academia, and unions.

The ADB Annual Meeting was originally scheduled for Seattle but after 
massive WTO protests in Nov/December of 1999, the venue changed to Honolulu 
with the expectation of avoiding resistance and scrutiny. At last year's 
ADB Annual Meeting in Chiang Mai, Thailand, 5,000 Thai villagers and 
farmers protested for 3 days against water usage fees being imposed by the 
ADB. Keep the pressure on! Help to expose ADB's destructive policies and 
show the world there is no Aloha for the ADB.

No Aloha for the ADB !
Join the Global Movement for Justice!
Expose the Destructive Policies and Projects of the ADB!

For "WHAT CAN YOU DO?" or for more information please visit: http://www.crosswinds.net/~hexis/ADB-Watch.html 

or contact:
ADBwatch-UH-Hawai'i
2465 Campus Road
RIO Box
Honolulu, Hawai'i 96822
adbwatch@lava.net 

World Bank set to slash Indigenous rights

World Bank Plans to Set Indigenous Peoples' Rights Back 50 Years by Legitimising Forcible Relocation

Our friends of Forest Peoples Programme send us the following:

RED ALERT:
The Forest Peoples Programme has examined the latest draft of the IR policy dated March 2001. We are dismayed to see that the policy is severely weakened and discriminates against indigenous peoples and other ethnic minorities without formal legal rights (rights recognized by National law). The policy permits forcible relocation of indigenous peoples even when it will result in "significant adverse effects" on their "cultural survival."

The March 2001 draft policy that is *for information only* can be viewed here.

The Bank is clear that no further public comment will be received so the only chance of influencing this process and blocking this retrograde and offensive policy is by putting pressure on BOTH the World Bank President AND your Executive Director who will soon be asked to approve the policy. This is our last chance to affect this process.

It essential that the international community makes it clear that development standards that do not meet international human rights are not acceptable. Please lend your support by sending a letter and continue to urge the World Bank to adhere to international human rights law and to adopt the standards recommended by the World Commission on Dams. 

Click here for sample letter.

Please *copy* your letters to President Wolfensohn and your ED to Mr. Ian Johnson at:

Environmentally and Socially Sustainable Development
The World Bank1818 H Street, NW Washington, DC 20433
Email: ijohnson@worldbank.org 
Fax: 202.522.7122;

ALSO copy to Ms Joanne Salop, OPC, jsalop@worldbank.org 

Thanks you for your support. Sincerely, Tom Griffiths
Forest Peoples Programme, UK

Please send copies of your letters to FPP at: info@fppwrm.gn.apc.org 

Narmada Valley and the fight against the Man Dam Project (NVDP)

The tribals of the Man project have been fighting for land-for-land rehabilitation as provided by the Madhya Pradesh rehabilitation policy for the Narmada Valley Project.

We request to carefully read the action alert and take action as you deem fit (email / fax / phone / letters). Click here for the URGENT APPEAL TO INTERVENE.

We have put a separate page devoted to the Man Project with a project critique and press releases on the recent developments on the project at: http://www.narmada.org/nvdp.dams/man/index.html 

Dear friends, the sense of urgency calls for your immediate intervention. Please write protest letters asking for:

1. The immediate stoppage of the Project work and undertake rehabilitation of the project-affected families by providing them with agricultural land as per the policy.

2. Unconditional release of those arrested.

Write/Phone/Fax immediately to:

Shri Digvijay Singh, Dr. Rajesh Rajoria
Chief Minister, Collector
Madhya Pradesh District Dhar
Vallabh Bhavan, Madhya Pradesh.
Madhya Pradesh Fax:07292-34711
Fax:0755-540501 Phone:07292-34702
Phone:0755-540503

Shri Jaikrishnan,
Secretary,
Ministry of Environment and Forests,
Paryavaran Bhavan,
C.G.O.Complex,
Lodhi Road Institutional Area, New Delhi
Fax:011-4362746
Phone:011-4360721