(June 3, 1997) The World Bank’s Executive Directors have quietly approved a new guarantee mechanism to protect commercial lenders that make joint investments with governments in some of the world’s poorest countries. The new guarantee mechanism is unchartered territory for the World Bank. It is designed to make large power and infrastructure projects attractive to commercial lenders in high-risk countries with governments that are considered uncreditworthy.
Swiss banks find only $3.4 million in Mobutu assets
(June 3, 1997) Swiss banks have found $3.4 million in assets stashed away by ousted Zairian President Mobutu Sese Seko, far short of the billions the rebels who toppled him claim he has.
Probe Alert: Asian Development Bank bulldozes ahead with Mekong dams
(June 1, 1997) If the Manila-based Asian Development Bank (AsDB) has its way over the next decade, the Mekong and its largest tributaries will be choked by a series of giant hydropower dams, and up to 60 million ethnic minority people could be forced out of the region’s highlands.
Probe Alert June 1997
Asian Development Bank bulldozes ahead with Mekong dams
Saddled with apartheid debts
(May 22, 1997) Nelson Mandela used a world economic forum in Harare this week to argue that South Africa’s major problem is servicing the massive debts run up by apartheid governments.
Cambodia debates damming of Mekong
(May 15, 1997) A way of life could disappear in meeting the demand of electricity. Having survived the Khmer Rouge terror, deadly diseases and even tiger attacks, stoic peasants in this remote corner of Cambodia now must ponder irrevocable change.
Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam to cooperate on hydro
(May 12, 1997) Officials from Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam pledged on Tuesday to cooperate in the development of hydroelectric and other power developments in their region.
World Bank ‘could be partly to blame’ but information may have been withheld
(April 22, 1997) The World Bank is partly to blame for the plight of villagers affected by the Pak Moon dam, a bank expert said yesterday. Resettlement specialist Warren Wicklin III said the bank may have failed to obtain full information on the project when it was proposed to the bank for financing which is one reason why affected villagers did not receive adequate compensation. "It’s possible the Thai government withheld information that could have had a negative impact on our decision-making but it’s also our fault that we didn’t try to obtain correct and enough information either," he said.
China revives controversial resettlement plan
China has revived a controversial plan to resettle Han Chinese, China’s ethnic majority, into the western province of Xinjiang, populated mainly by Muslim minorities, to make way for the massive Three Gorges dam.
Patronage Canada
(April 2, 1997) Probe International’s Executive Director, Patricia Adams, looks at some of the disastrous projects backed by the Canadian Crown corporation, the Export Development Corporation.
Probe Alert: World Bank considering guarantee for controversial dam in Laos
(April 1, 1997) The World Bank is preparing to back a hydroelectric dam project in the Mekong region of southeast Asia that will decimate the fisheries, forests, economies, and water supplies of thousands of local people, and threaten endangered wildlife.
April 1997 Campaign Letter
Canadian mining companies are wreaking havoc on the Third World’s environment – and the Canadian government is quietly helping them to do it.
Probe Alert April 1997
World Bank considering guarantee for controversial dam in Laos
Should we pay the debt of the past regime?
(March 14, 1997) Should the people who were victims of the oppressive machinery of apartheid now be forced to repay those financiers who were immoral enough to finance the machinery?
Thai utility drops Nam Theun 2 hydro project but World Bank tries to keep it alive
(March 6, 1997) The Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand has decided not to purchase power from the yet-to-be-built Nam Theun 2 dam in Laos until at least 2004, according to a report in the Bangkok daily, The Nation. The World Bank is still involved in the project, despite EGAT’s withdrawal, insisting it will not make a decision to finance the dam until the Lao government and the project’s private developers have completed environmental impact and resettlement studies. World Bank official Nina Shapiro, contacted last week, was unaware that the Nam Theun 2 power deal was in jeopardy.
Patricia Adams
Dai Qing
Fan Xiao
Lawrence Solomon
Mu Lan
Probe International
Lisa Peryman
Probe Media
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