23rd Oct 2000 : Preliminary Report of Ilisu Fact Finding Mission

Britain should refuse export credit support for the controversial Ilisu dam project, urges an international Fact Finding Mission in a letter sent today to Stephen Byers, Secretary of State for Trade and Industry.

According to the Mission, none of the four conditions which the UK government has said must be satisfied before it will grant export credit support for the project have yet been met - and the prospects that they will be met in the near future are remote.

In a detailed preliminary report, issued today, the Mission documents numerous continuing concerns over the project, which will affect some 78,000 people (three times the number originally estimated) and flood the ancient city of Hasankeyf, a site of international archaeological importance.

The dam is planned in an area that has been devastated by an armed conflict between the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) and the Turkish state. Despite a recent peace initiative by the PKK, the region is still under Emergency Rule and torture and disappearances remain common. Throughout its visit, the investigating team were constantly followed by the state security police, with an officer sitting in uninvited on one interview.

Although a resettlement plan is currently being drawn up by Turkey in order to comply with the UK government's requirements, the Fact Finding Mission found disturbing evidence that consultations with key local officials which the authorities claim to have taken place have not in fact occurred. Villagers also alleged that consultation undertaken with them had been biased and constrained by an air of intimidation.

"The continuing repression and lack of basic freedoms in the region make a fair and just resettlement plan for Ilisu unattainable", Sally Eberhardt, a Mission member from the Kurdish Human Rights Project (UK), commented. "This Mission reconfirmed the continued absence of proper consultation with affected peoples and the fact that such consultation will only be possible when respect for human rights is established throughout the region."

The Fact Finding Mission also heard evidence which suggests that the UK government may have been mislead over the nature of the project.

"The UK government has always maintained that Ilisu is only intended for generating hydroelectricity - and that the dam will not therefore have an adverse impact on downstream water flows to Syria and Iraq, who are concerned that Turkey will use the project to deny them water," comments Nicholas Hildyard of The Corner House, which also took part in the Mission. "However the mission heard that water from Ilisu will also be used to feed a downstream irrigation dam at Cizre - a very different story. The implications for water flows to Turkey's neighbours could be severe, " says Hildyard.

The investigation also assessed measures being proposed to rescue the ancient cave town of Hasankeyf which would be flooded by the dam. It concluded that the proposed rescue efforts are "reckless, haphazard and contrived". "The rescue work will be restricted to salvaging moveable objects but the essence of Hasankeyf lies in its caves. These cannot be moved - and the dam would therefore destroy a site that has seen continuous human habitation for 10,000 years," says Hildyard.

The NGOs urge Byers to reject export credit support for this project. "To go ahead would not only be to ensure a resettlement disaster but also the destruction of an irreplaceable archaeological treasure. It would be unforgivable."

An international Fact Finding Mission of Non-Governmental Organisations from the United Kingdom, the USA, Germany and Italy which visited the Ilisu area from the 9^th-16^th October 2000. The Fact Finding Mission was organised by the Kurdish Human Rights Project and The Ilisu Dam Campaign. The NGOs represented on the Fact Finding Mission were, in alphabetical order: Campaign "An Eye on Sace" (Italy), The Corner House (UK), Kurdish Human Rights Project (UK), Pacific Environment Research Centre (USA), World Economy, Ecology and Development (Germany).

² The four conditions are to: 1) draw up a resettlement programme which reflects internationally accepted practice and includes independent monitoring; 2) make provision for upstream water treatment plants capable of ensuring that water quality is maintained; 3) give an assurance that adequate downstream flows will be maintained at all times; 4) produce a detailed plan to preserve as much of the archaeological heritage of Hasankeyf as possible.

³ The UK government has said that it is "minded" to grant a $200 million export credit to Balfour Beatty, which is leading the construction consortium for the project.