World Bank and IDB Call-In Day
March 13th, 2001
Contact:
- NISGUA, 202-518-7638, nisgua@igc.org
- Rights Action, 416-654-2074, info@rightsaction.org
On March 13th, 2001 NISGUA (Network in Solidarity with the People
of Guatemala) activists, working with the Guatemalan Human Rights
Commission, Rights Action [formerly Guatemala Partners], and Witness
for Peace will conduct a call-in to the World Bank and the Inter-American
Development Bank ("IDB").
This call-in event will be held on the 19th anniversary of the
March 13, 1982 massacre [the 2nd of four "Rio Negro massacres"],
in which Guatemalan soldiers and civil defense patrols brutally
killed 177 women and children.
By conducting a call-in, concerned citizens and activists will
be pressuring the World Bank and the IDB to acknowledge their contribution
to these crimes, and to make proper, and long overdue, compensation
and reparations to the surviving family members of the Rio Negro
community.
Between 1975 and 1985, the World Bank and the IDB made loans to
the US-backed military government of Guatemala in support of the
Chixoy Dam Project. By channeling $350,000,000 to such a military
regime, and by continuing with the project during the worst years
of genocide, the World Bank and the IDB legitimized the repression.
Between February and September 1982, 440 villagers from Rio Negro
were killed in a series of massacres, due to their resistance to
being forcibly displaced to make way for the dam. Shortly after
the fourth and final massacre, the land of the Maya-Achi community
of Rio Negro was flooded.
The survivors received little of the largely empty promises the
government offered for resettlement. Most survivors live today in
conditions of endemic poverty; most suffer on-going trauma related
to the massacres and forced displacement.
Both the World Bank and the IDB have refused to acknowledge their
contributory role in these crimes, initially claiming that the massacres
were a result of guerilla activities in Rio Negro! The UN sponsored
Guatemalan Truth Commission (CEH) has directly implicated the Chixoy
Dam Project as a cause of the Rio Negro massacres.
PLEASE TAKE THE TIME TO PHONE, FAX OR EMAIL
Demands:
- compensation for land, personal and community property lost
to the dam;
- reparations for land and personal and community property stolen
or destroyed;
- reparations for loss of life and suffering related to the repression;
- reparations for 17 years of lost income due to lack of access
to land and personal and communal property;
- reparations for lost family support due to murdered heads of
household;
- reparations for psychological damages.
WHO TO CONTACT:
-- WORLD BANK
James Wolfensohn
President
The World Bank
1818 H Street NW
Washington DC, 20433
Attention to:
Minneh M. Kane
[Asst. to the President]
F: 202-522-1677
E: mkane@worldbank.org
Donna Dowsett
Director, Central America Country Management Unit
E: ddowsettcoirolo@worldbank.org
T: (202)473-0121
F: (202)676-1464
Mario Marroquin
The World Bank, Guatemala City
E: mmarroquin@worldbank.org
-- INTER-AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK
Enrique V. Iglesias
President
Inter-American Development Bank
1300 New York Ave., NW
Washington DC, 20577
Jairo Sánchez
Deputy Manager, Regional Operations - Department II
E: jairos@iadb.org
Peter Bate
Media Liaison
E: peterb@iadb.org
INTERVIEWS
For interviews concerning the Chixoy Dam/ Rio Negro massacres Reparations
Campaign, contact Rights Action: - Annie Bird in Guatemala. Tel:
011 [502] 251-9803, partners@guate.net
- Grahame Russell. Tel: (416) 654-2074, info@rightsaction.org
FOR MORE INFORMATION
- Obtain a copy of the Witness for Peace report "A People Dammed".
Contact: witness@w4peace.org
- Go to the Advocacy Project website www.advocacynet.org
- For more information on this or other campaigns, please contact
Carrie Ferrence from NISGUA at 202-518-7638 or nisgua@igc.org
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