Stop Bauxite Mining Projects in Central Highlands of Vietnam

“Petition For the Immediate Halt On the Bauxite Mining Projects in Central Highlands of Vietnam in the Pending of Environmental Impact Assessments In Accordance with International Treaties and Vietnamese Environmental Laws and Regulations”.

To: The Secretary General of the United Nations, Mr. Ban Ki-Moon; The United Nations High Commissioner of Human Rights, Mr. Louise Arbour; The Executive Board Chairman of the UNESCO, Mr. Olabiyi Babalola Joseph Yai; The Director-General of the UNESCO, Mr. Koichiro Matsuura; The Director of the UNESCO’s Division of Cultural Property and Intangible Heritage (CLT/PIH), Mr. Gadi Mgomezulu

CC: Mr. Nguyen Phu Trong, the Speaker of National Assembly of Vietnam; Professor Nguyen Hue Chi (Vietnam); Professor Dr. Nguyen The Hung (Vietnam); European Parliament Foreign Affairs Committee, Chairman Jacek Saryusz-Wolski (Poland/Christian Democrats); European Parliament Subcommittee on Human Rights, Chairwoman Helene Flautre (France/Greens); European Parliament Culture and Education Committee, Chairwoman Katerina Batzeli (Greece/Socialist Group); U.S. Senate Subcommittee on East Asian and Pacific Affairs, Chairman Sen. Jim Webb (VA); U.S. Senate Subcommittee on International Operations and Organizations, Human Rights, Democracy and Women’s Issues, Chairwoman Sen. Barbara Boxer (CA); U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Chairman Rep. Howard L. Berman (CA); U.S. House Subcommittee on Asia, the Pacific and the Global Environment, Chairman Rep. Eni F. H. Faleomavaega (American Samoa); U.S. House Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights and Oversight, Chairman Rep. Bill Delahunt (MA); Vietnamese and International Media; International Environmental and Conservation NGOs & Advocates; International Cultural Heritage and Indigenous Rights Organizations.

WE THE UNDERSIGNED hereby Petition the above Honorable Dignitaries for the immediate halt on the Bauxite mining projects in the Central Highlands (Tay Nguyen) of Vietnam in the pending of environmental impact assessments (EIA) in accordance with international treaties and Vietnamese environmental laws and regulations.

THE POSSIBLE BREACH OF UNESCO’S INTANGIBLE CULTURAL HERITAGE TREATY:

Vietnam’s Central Highlands, bordering both Laos and Cambodia, comprises five provinces that are home to at least 30 different ethnic groups belonging mainly to the Austronesian language family (e.g., Ede, J’rai, Cham) and the Mon-Khmer language family (e.g., M’Nong, X’tieng). These populations, not the ethnic Kinh or other highlanders from the north immigrating to the region during and after the Vietnam war, are indeed indigenous to the Central Highlands having practiced village-based collective use over land and forests.

In November 25, 2005 during the Convention of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, the UNESCO and the Vietnamese government signed a treaty which requires the legal commitments and responsibilities to the preservation and safeguarding the UNESCO-recognized “Space of Gong Culture” – one of the living treasures of our humankind - in the Central Highlands of Vietnam. Besides, Vietnamese government is a signatory of the UN Declaration on the Rights of the Indigenous Peoples and other rights treaties, such as the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Vietnamese government therefore has the moral commitments and the legal responsibilities to protect and preserve the Central Highlands cultural heritage and ethnic rights.

By the Decision 167/2007/QD-TTg issued in November 1, 2007, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has approved the massive ongoing and planned Bauxite mining projects in the Central Highlands of Vietnam, particularly the two big projects to mine bauxite and produce alumina have already been started in Lam Dong and Dak Nong Provinces without considering its implication for the effect on the indigenous rights and cultural heritage.

And, sadly, UNESCO’s CLT/PIH authorities are standing by silent and have not upheld the UNESCO’s global mission and the moral and legal responsibilities to alert the Vietnamese government that it should consider its treaty obligations.

INEVITABLE DESTRUCTION OF THE SPACE OF GONG CULTURE AND THE LIVELIHOOD OF THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLES AND OTHER POPULATIONS:

The short sighted Bauxite mining projects planned and promoted by the Vietnamese government will turn hundreds of thousands of hectares of magnificent bio-diverse forests, exotic animals and plants, natural waterfalls and other surface water bodies, and the agricultural lands (e.g., cash crops, coffee, tea, and rubber for exports) of the Central Highlands literally upside down in order to extract a thin layer of bauxites from the soil to turn into raw materials for alumina production mainly for export to China. Ironically, China itself has shutdown several bauxite mines in Guangxi due to serious environmental problems, thus evidently making the Bauxite mining projects in Vietnam themselves nothing but a subtle form of diverting the Chinese environmental destruction itself to the Central Highlands of Vietnam.

In its bauxite mining strategy, the Vietnamese government has planned to upgrade the two ongoing bauxite mines to the massive scales and the authorities also plan to develop many more new complexes of bauxite mining and alumina production in the Central Highlands, exploiting up to 2/3 of the total natural land of the province of Dak Nong alone. Equally critical, as environmentalists and experts in the field have pointed out, bauxite mining results with the untreatable caustic toxic, the slurry “red mud” which requires permanent storage in the ground, which potentially contaminates the surface/underground water bodies and the downstream rivers due to the Central Highlands terrain which is not suitable for safe storage. It’s also noted that soon the bauxite ores are mined, the land becomes so caustic and completely dried out to the point that no living thing can survive on, leave alone growing crops. Besides, bauxite mining leaves behind another byproduct toxic, the “red dust” particulate in the air, which is capable of becoming disastrous environmental and human health impacts in the Central Highlands.

In the province of Dak Nong alone, an estimate of 100,000 families comprising about 300,000 people out of a total population of 400,000 inhabitants would be adversely affected. Under this ambitious bauxite mining strategy from the Vietnamese government, unless it’s placed in an immediate halt, the humankind heritage of the Space of Gong Culture and the forests and traditional lands of the indigenous peoples and other highlanders of the Central Highlands – which is their own homeland for more than 2000 years – will quickly disappear from humanity.

THE BREACH OF RULE OF LAW:

Through media, newspapers, ministerial meetings and workshops, environmentalists, social scientists, culture experts, intellectuals, students, and concerned citizens from around the world have raised concerns over the ongoing and planned massive Bauxite mining projects and have petitioned the Vietnamese government for a complete halt to the ongoing activities so that the issue can be brought to the floor of the National Assembly of Vietnam for debate and the parliamentary due process as required by Vietnam’s Constitution. And that the Vietnamese government shall allow the Bauxite mining projects to go through the transparent due process of environmental impact assessment (EIA) as required by Vietnam’s environmental laws and regulations.

Well-known figures, including retired General Vo Nguyen Giap, Major General Dr. Le Van Cuong, and hundreds of prominent Vietnamese experts and intellectuals inside Vietnam and overseas together with concerned citizens, students, and organizations from around the world have petitioned and voiced against the Bauxite mining projects in the Central Highlands of Vietnam. Unfortunately, the government led by Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has ignored these concerns of law and appeals to reason, democratic-due-process, and transparency.

Equally critical, the respect for UNESCO and its moral and legal commitments are also at stake. The silence of UNESCO’s CLT/PIH authorities are not only undermining the integrity, the morality and the legality in these institutions and international laws in Vietnam but are likely to be seen as a signal for continued and more extensive violations.

THE UNDERSIGNED THEREFORE RESPECFULLY REQUEST:

1. That all the UNHCR-recognized ethnic groups and other indigenous peoples’ rights and their livelihood in the Central Highlands of Vietnam be respected as required by the UN Declaration on the Rights of the Indigenous Peoples and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (of which Vietnam is the signatory);

2. That the Space of Gong Culture of the Central Highlands of Vietnam be kept intact as recognized by the UNESCO and the Vietnam’s National Commission for UNESCO in November 25, 2005;

3. That the UNESCO’s Division of Cultural Property and Intangible Heritage (CLT/PIH) to request an independent assessment of the current status of the Space of Gong Culture and to demand that the Vietnamese government fulfill its moral and legal responsibilities as a member state of the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage since 2005;

4. That the ongoing activities of the Bauxite mining projects in the Central Highlands of Vietnam be halted immediately so that a proper re-evaluation of the project can be made based on the environmental, social and cultural assessments in according with the law;

5. That the overall Bauxite mining – alumina production strategy approved by the Vietnamese government be submitted to the Vietnam’s National Assembly for open debate and to go through its parliamentary procedures for voting as required by Vietnam’s Constitution;

6. That the Vietnamese government allow the Bauxite mining projects to go through the transparent due process of the environmental impact assessment (EIA) as required by Vietnam’s environmental laws and regulations.

7. That the Vietnamese government accept the moral authority and uphold the political courage to open itself to the rule of law, the democratic due-process, and the transparency in the planning process for the long-term sustainable development strategy for the Central Highlands with respect to its cultures, peoples, and the natural environment.

Sincerely,

Viet Ecology Foundation
An International Environmental NGO (Non-Governmental Organization)
www.vietecology.org