Archived press release

Ilisu dam would breach human rights

1 October 2001

Press Release

Immediate Release: Monday 1st October 2001

ILISU DAM CAMPAIGN PRESS RELEASE
Embargoed till 00.01am Wednesday 3 October

"SUPPORT FOR ILISU COULD BREACH HUMAN RIGHTS ACT"SAY CAMPAIGNERS

The Ilisu Dam Campaign and seven other UK and international groups have today(Tuesday 2/10) released a 200-page response to the environmental impact report (EIAR)on the proposed Ilisu Dam in Turkey. UK campaigners have also been advised that UK support for the Ilisu project could be in violation of the Human Rights Act.

The campaigners' report is a devastating critique of the proposed dam and the EIAR, and reveals:
* that dam planners do not yet know exactly how many people will be affected and have not said where and how they will be resettled; previous official estimates put the number of those affected at 78,000
people, the majority of them Kurds;
* that on resettlement issues alone, the dam would break 15 international guidelines on 75 counts;
* even with proposed water treatment plants, there is still a high risk that the dam will lead to the poisoning of the Tigris River, risking the health of the local population;
* that independent analysis of the EIAR's own figures reveal that the dam threatens to cut off downstream water flows to Syria and Iraq in periods of drought;
* and that each of the UK government's five self-imposed conditions for supporting the dam have still to be met.

The government will decide whether to support the dam with $200m of export credit guarantees within the next month. Its decision will be based on the EIAR, on public comments and expert advice.

UK campaigners have strong reason to believe that UK support for the Ilisu project would be in violation of the Human Rights Act, as it would bring about human rights violations in Turkey.

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"With the publication of our report, we are issuing a challenge to the government _ drop this project now or we believe there will be strong grounds for a legal challenge," said Kurdish Human Rights Project Director Kerim Yildiz.

"The environmental report, on which the government will base its decision, is so bad as to be embarrassing," said Nicholas Hildyard of the Ilisu Dam Campaign. "It is contradictory,incomplete, partial and in many places wildly inaccurate. In some areas _ especially those that touch on the security situation in the Ilisu region _ we question whether the report has been censored by Turkish authorities," he said.

"On the basis of this EIA, the UK government cannot _ morally or legally _ support this dam," he said.

The campaigners' submission to five of the governments considering support for Ilisu,including the UK, US, Italy, Switzerland and Germany, covers the resettlement, cultural heritage, hydrological, and water quality impacts of the dam; and a critique of the environmental report's analysis of alternatives to the dam. The submission also includes a plea from Southeast Turkey's Diyarbakir Bar Association to reject the dam.

The EIAR was published only in English _ and was therefore inaccessible to the vast majority of affected people.

Mark Muller, Vice-Chair of the Bar Human Rights Committee, will be available for comment on the Ilisu dam and the Human Rights Act at the Brighton Labour Party Conference on Tuesday 2nd October (call 0794
9032466).

FOR MORE INFORMATION:
On the EIAR critique:
Kate Geary: Ilisu Dam Campaign 01865 200550
Nicholas Hildyard: The Corner House 01258 473795
Fiona MacKay: Kurdish Human Rights Project: 0207 2872772
Sally Eberhardt: Kurdish Human Rights Project 01273 505795
Hannah Griffiths: Friends of the Earth: 0207 5661666

On Ilisu and the Human Rights Act implications:
Mark Muller, Vice-Chair of the Bar Human Rights Committee: 0794 9032466

If you're a journalist looking for press information please contact the Friends of the Earth media team on 020 7566 1649.

Published by Friends of the Earth Trust