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PROTEST MARCH AGAINST ILISU DAM AT EISTEDDFOD
New coalition stages first demonstration

The Ilisu Dam Campaign Cymru, a new coalition group in Wales to stop British involvement in the controversial Dam project, is staging its first protest march at the Eisteddfod on Wednesday the 9th August at 2:30pm with speakers outside the Peace Stand. The dam is set to displace 25,000 mainly Kurdish people. The marchers, accompanied by a Kurdish dance group, will then proceed to the Labour tent and build a dam.

The rally will begin at 2:30pm with speakers outside the Peace Stand. The speakers are:

Eurig Wyn, Plaid Cymru MEP
Councillor Dafydd Iwan
Ann Clwyd MP (tbc)
Morgan Francis, Chairman of Ilisu Dam Campaign Cymru

The group will then proceed towards the Labour tent, at about 2:50pm, with a Kurdish dance group, where they will build a symbolic dam. Dam builders will be dressed in boiler suits and hard hats.

Morgan Francis, Chair of the Ilisu Dam Campaign Cymru, said:

" This group was launched in Wales in support of the 25,000 Kurdish people who will be displaced by the dam. These people have no democratic rights and are denied their own language and cultural identity. Where better, than our annual celebration of Welsh culture and language, to show solidarity with an oppressed people overseas? "

The Ilisu Dam Campaign Cymru considers British involvement in the Ilisu Dam to be inconsistent with the Government's ethical foreign policy. The Government is ‘minded' to grant an export credit guarantee of $200 million of taxpayers money to Balfour Beatty, a UK construction company responsible for building the unpopular Cardiff Bay Barrage. Balfour Beatty is currently facing corruption charges for previous involvement in a dam in Lesotho.

The group consists of representatives from Friends of the Earth Cymru, Kurdish Aid Wales, Wales Green Party, People and Planet and Cynefin y Werin/Common Ground. The group considers the campaign to have significant resonance in Wales, as the 25,000 Kurdish people who will be displaced by the dam are denied their language, cultural identity and democratic rights. The people of Wales are fortunate enough to have their own democratically elected Assembly, operating in English and Welsh, and working for the best interests of the people of Wales.

Notes

The Ilisu Dam in South East Turkey is seen by many as part of a wider ethnic cleansing program. It will also create many problems in various areas, such as :

HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS: The dam will forcibly evict 25,000 mainly Kurdish people from their homes, and affect a further 11,000. They have not been consulted, and no resettlement plan has been agreed.

ENVIRONMENTAL DAMAGE: The dam's reservoir is likely to bring waterborne diseases like malaria to the area, as admitted by the consortium of companies building the dam. It will also damage the ecological systems downstream.

WATER WARS: Analysts are already stating that the dam could precipitate future wars in the region - over water, as the dam could control up to 50% of downstream flows. Turkey has already threatened to block water flows to downstream Syria and Iraq.

CULTURAL DESECRATION: The 10,000 year old medieval town of Hasankeyf, the historical jewel in the crown of Kurdish culture, will be flooded by the dam. This would be the equivalent of the Turkish Government planning to flood Stonehenge.

ALTERNATIVES TO THE DAM: exist and have not been studied thoroughly.