Bangladeshi Coal - America Dirty
Friday, April 8, 2011
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Energy at What Cost? Protests Against Forced Eviction from US-Backed Coal Mine Continue in Bangladesh
by Kate Hoshour and Christine Shearer
8 April 2011
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.
Located in an agricultural region that is home to thousands of farming and indigenous families, the Phulbari Coal Project has been fiercely opposed by Bangladeshi citizens for over six years. Regardless, the UK-based company pursuing the project, Global Coal Management Resources, or GCM (formerly the Asia Energy Corporation), is expressing confidence that the mine will go forward.
In their most recent action to halt the project, protestors enforced a six-hour blockade of Bangladesh's railways and highways that began at 6 AM, reportedly forcing railway authorities to reschedule seven intercity trains and disrupting roads between the northwestern district of Dinajpur and other parts of the country.
In Phulbari, educational and business institutions reportedly remained closed during the blockade.
The demonstrators built on a demand made exactly one month ago: for the government to halt the mine and expel GCM Resources from the country. This time, they said, they will allow 15 days for their demands to be met.
Responding to announcements of the protest, police and members of the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) were deployed in advance to guard GCM's office, the Phulbari railway station and other key establishments.
RAB, set up as an elite anticrime and antiterrorism force, has become notorious for what several human rights groups describe as the routine use of torture and an alarming number of extrajudicial killings that occur in RAB custody.
Although RAB has been denounced by Human Rights Watch as a "government death squad," diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks in 2010 revealed that the UK has provided support to RAB, including training in "investigative interviewing techniques" and "rules of engagement."
The Phulbari Coal Project is now at a critical juncture. It was stalled in the planning phase when political instability in the country and widespread protests led to the imposition of emergency rule in Bangladesh in 2007. Following national elections in 2008, a new administration began actively reconsidering the mine.
The recent release of another WikiLeaks cable shows that the US has been exerting diplomatic pressure for the project's approval, citing US corporate interests.
Forced Eviction on a Massive Scale
According to GCM's project plans, the Phulbari coal mine would have a lifespan of at least 36 years and extract 16 million tons of coal annually at peak production. Of this, three million tons would be used for domestic energy consumption, with the construction of at least one 500 megawatt coal-fired electricity plant. The remaining coal would be exported.
The project's draft resettlement plan calls for the open pit mine and associated infrastructure to acquire nearly 6,000 hectares of land.
Estimates of the number of people who would be evicted from their homes and lands in order to make way for the immense mega-project vary widely and are disputed. more truthout
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