A panel of experts appointed by the government have concluded after a year of study that the construction of an open-pit mine in the Phulbari region of northern Bangladesh is a “practical approach”. The 17 member committee, headed by the former chairman of the national oil company of Bangladesh, was formed a year ago to give opinions on the appropriate coal mining and its implications on social and environmental factors.
With the appointment of a new director, the London-based company GCM Resources is redoubling its efforts to install the Phulbari coal mine in Northern Bangladesh, despite calls by the UN for the project’s immediate halt.
Cultural Survival joins the International Accountability Project and Bangladeshi organizations in celebrating a victory in the fight against the Phulbari coal mine. On Tuesday, seven United Nations Special Rapporteurs issued a joint press release calling for an immediate halt to the project due to the many human rights risks and violations it poses.
International Accountability Project published a critical analysis of GCM's Indigenous Peoples Development Plan for the Phulbari Coal Project.
In a protest to defend the natural resources of Bangladesh on December 29th, more than 35 people were left injured after police confronted the activists with batons and tear gas. The demonstration aimed to pressure the Bangladesh Ministry of Power and Energy to accept a set of seven demands, including the cancellation of concessions to build the Phulbari open-pit coal mine as well the eviction of GCM Resources, the London-based mining company currently financing the Phulbari project.
On December 15th, GCM held its annual shareholders’ meeting in London, amidst throngs of protesters demonstrating outside the building. Protesters waved banners tagging the project as”modern day colonialism,” and carried “eviction notices” from the people of Bangladesh telling the company to abandon the Phulbari Coal project and leave the country, according to a report from the news site Morning Star.
Eighty-five organizations, including Cultural Survival, sent a letter sent to investors, urging them to withhold financing for the Phulbari Coal Project in Bangladesh. The project is controlled by Global Coal Management Resources plc (GCM), a London-based company, and its largest investor is Polo Resources, of South Africa. The letter is signed by leading human rights and environmental organizations based in 25 countries.
The people of Bangladesh continue to protest the construction of a large coal mine in the Northwest region of Phulbari. The mine will displace thousands of Indigenous people and destroy their agricultural lands. Cultural Survival launched a letter-writing campaign in February, 2011 to prevent this mine's construction.
A recent article, “Displacing People For Profit: Obama Administration Supports Controversial Coal Project in Bangladesh,” written by Christine Shearer and Joshua Frank and published by Ale
Two thousand Bangladeshi citizens blocked major highways and railways for six hours on March 28 and demanded a response from the prime minister by April 11. They are calling on her to honor a 2006 agreement to ban open-pit coal mining in the country. For seven years, Bangladeshi citizens, including the National Indigenous Union (Jatiya Adivasi Parishad) have fiercely protested a British company’s plan for open-pit mining in Phulbari.
by Kate Hoshour and Christine Shearer
Originally published on TruthOut.org
As the sun rose on March 28, 2011, roughly 2,000 people gathered to demonstrate against a mining project that would displace tens of thousands of people in northwest Bangladesh and establish one of the largest open pit coal mines in the world.
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