DATE=9/1/1999
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=CHINA-WORLD BANK (L ONLY)
NUMBER=2-253323
BYLINE=ROGER WILKISON
DATELINE=BEIJING
CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO:  For the second day in a row, China has lashed out 
at opponents of a controversial World Bank-sponsored 
resettlement project in an ethnic Tibetan area in a remote 
western Chinese province.  VOA correspondent Roger Wilkison 
reports, the Chinese Foreign Ministry says World Bank 
investigators scheduled to take a closer look at the 
project in a few weeks should avoid all interference in 
China's internal affairs.

TEXT:  China's ire is mainly directed at exiled Tibetan 
activists and their Western supporters, who have demanded 
that the World Bank halt its funding of the project.  The 
Foreign Ministry accuses them of  -- in its words -
deliberately looking for excuses to maliciously attack the 
Chinese government.

The World Bank approved a 160-million dollar loan to China 
last June for an irrigation project in Dulan county, a 
sparsely populated area of  western Qinghai province.  Most 
of the area's few inhabitants are ethnic Tibetan or 
Mongolian herders.  But China plans to resettle 58-thousand 
poor Chinese farmers from other parts of Qinghai in Dulan 
county.  And that is what has sparked the outcry among pro-
Tibet activists, who say the project will disrupt the 
culture and livelihood of the area's indigenous people.  
Environmentalists also complain that the project will cause 
ecological damage to the area.

The project was approved by the World Bank despite 
objections by the United States and Germany, two of the 
institution's three biggest shareholders.  But it is still 
unclear if the bank will ever give the project final 
approval.  A three-member panel of World Bank experts is 
due to travel to the area later this month or early in 
October to talk to local inhabitants and study the land 
where the Chinese farmers would be resettled.  

China says the project is the only way to improve the lives 
of the impoverished farmers who are being relocated from 
other areas in the province.  The Foreign Ministry says the 
World Bank investigation team should maintain political 
neutrality and objectivity when looking at the project.  It 
warns the investigators not to meddle in China's sovereign 
affairs, a hint that they should avoid consideration of the 
criticism leveled by what Beijing calls anti-China forces.

China recently expelled an American pro-Tibet activist and 
an Australian researcher, who sought to conduct an 
independent study of the project.  Chinese authorities 
accused them of taking photographs and conducting 
interviews in restricted areas in Qinghai.  The American - 
Daja Meston - was airlifted out of China last week after he 
suffered spinal injuries and broken bones  in an apparent 
attempt to escape Chinese police.  The fate of the ethnic 
Tibetan interpreter for the two men is unknown.  (Signed) 

NEB/RW/FC/KL



01-Sep-1999 07:24 AM EDT (01-Sep-1999 1124 UTC)
NNNN

Source: Voice of America
.