On June 8th, the World Bank will vote on whether to fund the China Western Poverty Reduction Project, which would move tens of thousands of non-Tibetans into Tulan Dzong, located in Tibet's Amdo Province. A broad international coalition of human rights organizations, Tibet support groups, environmental and Bank-watching groups have launched a campaign to stop the controversial project.

The project would facilitate China's continuing population transfer efforts, which have already made Tibetans a minority in many parts of Tibet and are destroying Tibetan culture. The area covered by this project is part of the Tibetan plateau and is historically a part of Tibet. The Chinese government intentionally divided contiguous Tibetan areas in order to weaken Tibetan opposition to Chinese rule, and has been moving Chinese into these areas to assert control.

"The World Bank hasn't done their homework on this," said John Hocevar, Executive Director of Students for a Free Tibet. "There is no way to guarantee that China will not use prison labor to carry out this project. It's also pretty hard to believe that coercion isn't going to be involved in China's relocation of tens of thousands of people. On top of that, they don't really seem to understand what this is going to do to Tibetans. When Heidi Young, one of SFT's interns, called the World Bank to discuss the proposal, the response she got was 'can you spell Tibet for me, please?'"

The proposed project also has serious environmental implications, as it would double the population in this fragile ecological area that is already suffering from increased desertification. The proposal also calls for the construction of a 40-meter dam. The Bank has not done an adequate Environmental Impact Assessment, in violation of its own policies.

Many people are concerned that this project is being rushed for approval without complying with important World Bank policies concerning ethnic minorities, environmental assessment, and involuntary resettlement. "This is a completely unacceptable project in the guise of poverty alleviation, leading to cultural impoverishment of the Tibetan people," asserted Dana Clark, an expert on World Bank policy from the Center for International Environmental Law. "Why do the people who lack political power in the dealings with the Bank, those who are not recognized as its constituents, who have no voice -- why must they always pay the price of Bank-financed projects?"

Nancy Pelosi, ranking Democrat on the House of Representatives' Senate's Foreign Operations, Export Financing and Related Programs Subcommittee called a Subcommittee meeting with World Bank staff to ask the Bank to cancel the project. Representative Pelosi admonished World Bank officials, stating "I just don't understand why you would want to walk into a moving buzzsaw".