The Inner Mongolian People's Party felt deep disappointment and strong sense of injustice when the World Bank voted in favor of the Chinese government on "China Western Poverty Reduction Project (WPRP)" on June 24, 1999. When 2  researchers from the United States and Australia were arrested and detained for a week by the Chinese Government for their independent research into the World Bank Project in Qing Hai province, it is evident that either the World Bank is blind to fact that the Chinese government is still a oppressive regime and can't be trusted, or the World Bank is ignoring the voice of the minorities under the pressure from the Chinese government. 

The WPRP initiated by the Chinese government covers 3 regions: Province of Qing Hai (Khokh Nuur in Mongol) , Inner Mongolia and Province of Gan Su. The Qing Hai part of the project is to re-settle about 60,000 ethnic Chinese people to the land that traditionally belongs to the Mongols and Tibetans. This is carried out without the consent from both the Mongols and Tibetans and will greatly effect the well being of the 2 peoples. The Inner Mongolia part of the project is to give aid to millions of people living in 15 counties in Inner Mongolia. Based on the fact that the population in these counties are almost all (over 95%) ethnic Chinese and they have been resettled by the Chinese government into Inner Mongolia during the past 52 years to consolidate the Chinese occupation of Inner Mongolia, we believe that the project will only help the Chinese government on its plan to occupy the land of the Mongols permanently.  

We strongly urge the World Bank to consider its position on the matter twice and fully consult with the minority people before releasing the fund to the hands of Chinese government. 

Followings are 2 sample letters and a open letter that the IMPP and its members and supporters have been sending to the World Bank. They explain the reason why we oppose the project and why should the World Bank have cancelled the project. 

For more on the World Bank's Project, please visit the International Campaign for Tibet site at: www.SaveTibet.org or the World Bank site at: www.worldbank.org

Sample letter one

Mr. James D. Wolfensohn, President

The World Bank

1818 H Street, NW

Washington, DC 20433

RE: China- Western Poverty Reduction Project

Dear Mr. Wolfensohn,

Speaking as one of many Mongols from Inner Mongolia, I am very concerned about the Western Poverty Reduction Project's devastating impact on the well being of the Mongols in Inner Mongolia and Qing Hai province. I call on the World Bank not to fund this project or any other similar project in the future. My main concerns are:

The project will assist the Chinese government to consolidate the occupation of the lands of the Mongols and Tibetans.

1. The government of the People's Republic of China has used the resettlement of ethnic Chinese into non-Chinese areas to dilute the local populations and thereby erase cultural and religious traditions of the minority peoples since the Chinese Communist Party took control in 1949.
2. These resettlement plans have often been carried out with the stated intention of improving living conditions, or developing the underdeveloped areas, but the local populations that are suffering marginalization and dilution as a result of these policies are not consulted in any meaningful manner. Carrying out interviews within the earshot of Chinese government officials should not be considered meaningful because any individual that disagrees with the current policy of the Chinese government is subject to arrest, harassment, and possible terms in the Reform Through Labor (laogai) Camps. Since Chinese government is soliciting the project, any dissent is subject to immediate and sure retaliation on the part of the government.
3. The reduction of people within regions to numbers and percentages demonstrates a complete lack of understanding or consideration for the historical, cultural and religious traditions that have been the heart of Mongols and Tibetans since ancient times. The small regions containing majority populations of Mongol and Tibetan people should be viewed differently and certainly, these regions should be respected on their own merits, instead of being grouped together as a province (Qing Hai) that isn't even seventy years old.
4. The resettlement of Han, Hui, To, and Salar people into 'majority minority' areas has the potential to cause ethnic tension, raising concerns about the welfare of the indigenous peoples. The addition of police and/or military units to enforce a peace raises concerns because the majority of members of this unit will most certainly be Han Chinese and what chance will the Tibetan and Mongolian people have for justice in their own land? For hundreds of years, the people on this land have been leading a nomadic, semi-pastoral existence and this is to change because of the development policies undertaken by the World Bank and the Chinese government. Without taking into consideration the opinions of the local population, the impact to centuries-old traditions, or the sudden insertion of other (possibly) hostile ethnic groups with no real recourse to justice, this project supports and coddles the Chinese government's policy of assimilating the non-Chinese inhabitants.

On the other hand, the forced resettlement of Tibetan and Mongol people into new and foreign lands places an undue burden on these people and directly attacks their culture, religion and social structure. The mass of people thus forced into an unwilling exile from their lands are victims as much as their new neighbors, only the people who have been moved are cut off from all they had known previously and thrust somewhere else to either survive or perish.

In addition to assisting the Chinese government's cultural genocide of the Mongolian and Tibetan people, the project also attacks the basis of the pastoral lifestyle of the local inhabitants. Agricultural projects in the past have resulted in the desertification of significant portions of Inner Mongolia. Nomads and semi-nomadic herders have inhabited these lands for centuries, the land has never been used for cultivation, except with disastrous consequences. The traditional lifestyle of the Mongol and Tibetan peoples resulted from their experience with the land and thousands of years of this experience have created culture and customs that permit existence in these lands. It is unconscionable that the wisdom gained through hundreds of years of first hand experience would be tossed away because the current opinions of the Chinese government deem it necessary and vital to the national interest.

The indigenous wildlife is also under attack in the project areas, some of which are endangered. Creating roads, new agricultural and housing projects will reduce habitat and apply undue pressure on the creatures that are unique to these areas. The continuation of the development will render species extinct and as evidence from the heavily populated Han Chinese areas of Inner Mongolia shows the only remaining species will be the rats. It has been suggested that the extinction of species is in some manner related to the culinary habits of the Han Chinese, whose broad menu includes any creature moving.

The project lacks an independent monitoring mechanism. The project's supervision and monitoring tasks are almost solely dependent on the Chinese State Council and all levels of the Chinese government. The grievance procedures also rely heavily on the Chinese government. As previously mentioned any dissension concerning the project (which would include the supervision, monitoring and grievance procedures) could serve as evidence of crimes against the State and be used to imprison, torture, or execute anyone brave enough to tell the truth. There is no reason to trust a government that consistently lies to its own people and the international community. Millions of Mongols and Tibetans have been killed and/or persecuted by the Chinese government during the last 50 years and thousands of students and citizens were killed 10 years ago in Tiananmen Square. The Chinese government still denies these realities, it would be a much smaller concern to lie about the project to the World Bank as compared to the massacre of thousands of unarmed civilians in Beijing.

Due to the influence of corrupt bureaucratic officials, the money will not get into the hands of poor people. China has a most corrupt and bureaucratic government system and has even stated so in the State-run press. It is common that while the ordinary people of the poor areas are still hungry for food, the top officials are riding imported sport utility vehicles. The officials will not only have the opportunity to embezzle the money meant for the poor people, they will also have the opportunity to increase local taxes for their own personal needs.

For all these reasons, I am calling again on the World Bank to stop funding the Western Poverty Reduction Project.

Thank you for your time and attention,

Sample letter two

Mr. James D. Wolfensohn, President

The World Bank

1818 H Street, NW

Washington, DC 20433

RE: China- Western Poverty Reduction Project

Dear Mr. Wolfensohn,

The purpose of this letter is to express my opposition to the World Bank’s plans to fund the Western Poverty Reduction Project in China. I speak on behalf of myself, as well as my Inner Mongol brethren, in our opposition to this project because it will have a devastating impact on the culture and well-being of the Mongols in Inner Mongolia and Qing Hai province, as well as the Tibetans. The project will essentially marginalize the Mongolian and Tibetan people in their native lands. It will force a drastic change in the traditional agrarian lifestyle and culture of my people. I call on the World Bank to not fund this project or any other similar project in the future.

The project will encourage the Chinese government to further consolidate the occupation of lands traditionally belonging to the Mongols and Tibetans, whose culture and language is completely different from the Han Chinese. Funding this project will send a message to the Chinese government that the World Bank condones the population resettlement policies of the Chinese government, a policy which allows them to annihilate minority cultures with impunity. You must understand that the Chinese government’s resettlement polices are not really an economic tool, they’re a political tool by which the Chinese government subdues the nascent opposition felt by the minority peoples towards the violation of their human rights by the Chinese government. This policy has served the Chinese government well in eliminating political opposition in the name of improving the living condition of the minorities, or developing the undeveloped areas. The devastating effect it has had on the Mongols of Inner Mongolia in eliminating our language and culture, the effects on our environment through desertification are now perhaps close to irreversible, and this project will add further force to the devastation of my people.

The project will also have long term effects on the health and well-being of the Mongols and Tibetans. This so-called development project will inevitably reduce the amount of grazing lands available to the Mongols and Tibetan people, who are nomads, and subsist mainly through grazing their livestock. This requires large amounts of land which will disappear as large numbers of peasant farmers move in. My people will be forced to either settle down and adopt the ways of the Chinese peasant farmers or to move to more remote places. Either way, the net effect of this pressure will be to abandon their traditional lifestyle which will greatly affect their health and well-being in trying to cope with a new economic order, in an unfamiliar and unfavorable environment.

The project will also cause irreversible environment damage to the area. The greater part of the lands are not suitable for agriculture. The lands turn quickly into sands and deserts after one or two years of cultivation. Massive desertification in Inner Mongolia over the last 50 years of Chinese occupation has been the result of their farming practices which completely ignore the long term environmental impact of their farming methods. A related environmental concern is the effect the resettlement project will have on endangered species in the areas. Some of the areas covered by the project are also grazing land for several endangered species. What will happen to them?

I am also very concerned that this project lacks an independent monitoring mechanism. The project's supervision and monitoring tasks are almost solely dependent on the Chinese State Council and various levels of government. There is no reason to trust a government that consistently lies to its own people as well as to the international community. How can we trust the words of a government who denies that anyone was killed at the Tienanmen square massacre 10 years ago?

Finally, you should be concerned about the level of corruption in the bureaucracy of the Chinese government. I doubt that the money will get into the hands of poor people. While the ordinary people of the poor areas are still hungry for food, the top officials are riding imported sport utility cars. The officials will not only embezzle the money meant for the poor people, they will increase local taxes for their own personal needs, and this highly touted project will doubly hurt the poor.

For all these reasons, I call upon the World Bank to stop the funding of the Western Poverty Reduction Project.

Thank you for your time and attention,

Open Letter to the World Bank President

June 2, 1999

Mr. James D. Wolfensohn, President

World Bank

1818 H Street, NW

Washington, DC 20433

RE: China- Western Poverty Reduction Project

Dear Mr. Wolfensohn,

We, a group of Mongols from Inner Mongolia, are writing to you regarding the "China-Western Poverty Reduction Project". As you should aware, the province of Qing Hai (Amdo in Tibetan or Khokh-Nuur in Mongol) has always been homeland to the Tibetans and Mongols and, the specific area to where the project intends to re-settle a large number of Han Chinese is an autonomous prefecture of the Mongols.

Since the foundation of the People's Republic of China, the Chinese government has been re-settling millions of ethnic Chinese onto the lands traditionally belong to the non-Chinese people, namely, Tibetans, Mongols and Uighurs. We believe that the Chinese government's population transmigration policy is to permanently occupy the lands of the minority people and legitimize the occupation. In fact, the policy already has resulted in severe consequences to the occupied people. In Inner Mongolia for example, ethnic Chinese settlers were less than 10% of the population in 1949 but through 50 years of mass re-settlement projects, the ethnic Chinese population now reaches 86% of the entire inhabitants. Many of those re-settlements projects were executed under the face names, such as the improvement of the living condition of the ethnic minorities. However, all those so-called development assistance to the minority regions had in fact, further deprived off the ethnic minority's land and resources, and degraded minorities into the most impoverished living conditions.

We believe that the Poverty Reduction Project funded by the Chinese government and the World Bank will inevitably serve the Chinese government's longstanding policy of occupying and colonizing the minority peoples' lands one step further. We strongly urge the World Bank to cancel the project and refrain itself from any similar assistance to Chinese government that exploits and victimizes minority ethnic peoples.

Thank you for your attention,

Sincerely,

Oyunbilig,

Secretary General,

Inner Mongolian People's Party

Note: The Western Poverty Reduction Project ventured by the Beijing government and the World Bank is to re-settle about 60,000 Han Chinese to Hai Xi Mongolian Autonomous Prefecture in Khokh-Nuur (Eastern Tibet or Qing Hai Province). The region is traditionally homeland to the Mongols and Tibetans. The World Bank will provide about $160 million to the project if it is passed on June 22 world bank meeting.

Please visit the International Campaign for Tibet website for more on this project