Ten Brazilian Dam Protesters Hospitalized

>
>Environment
>
>Ten Brazilian Dam Protesters Hospitalized
>
>SAO PAULO, Brazil, March 13, 2002 (ENS) - Ten anti-dam protestors
>were hospitalized on Tuesday after clashes with the police in Rio
>Grande do Sul state in the far south of Brazil, according to a report
>>from the Brazilian branch of the conservation group International
>Rivers Network.
>
>The demonstrators are part of Brazil's Movement of Dam-Affected
>People (MAB) which is engaged in a national campaign of protests
>against Brazil's hydropower energy policy.
>
>Four MAB supporters, including two well known Catholic priests, were
>injured by police rubber bullets at the Barra Grande dam site on the
>Uruguay River. The priests were among the 500 people marching to the
>dam worksite. They were hospitalized in Esmeralda.
>
>The other six activists were hospitalized after being beaten by
>military police who attacked protestors at a public meeting at an
>electric agency in the state capital, Porto Alegre.
>
>The mobilization marks the week of March 14, the Fifth International
>Day of Action Against Dams and for Rivers, Water and Life.
>
>
>Itaipu Dam in southern Brazil. Its hydroelectric power plant is the
>largest in the world. (Photo courtesy AmericaTravelling)
>Also on Tuesday, MAB led a march of more than 500 people to the site
>of the Inter-American Development Bank's annual meeting in Fortaleza
>in northeast Brazil. The bank plans to finance new dams in Brazil.
>
>Other protests took place in 11 states, including Minas Gerais and
>Mato Grosso, where MAB is camped out in front of the governor's
>palace to try to meet with state political leaders.
>
>MAB will protest in Brasília on Thursday and present a series of
>demands to the federal government.
>
>The group is demanding that the government halt subsidies to energy
>intensive industries, such as aluminum production, and instead
>provide electricity to rural communities. Aluminum companies,
>including multinationals Alcoa and Billiton, plan to build a series
>of huge dams in the Brazilian Amazon.
>
>Also on Thursday, a protest in the city of Altamira on the Xingu
>river, a major Amazon tributary, will target plans to build Belo
>Monte, which would be the world's third largest hydropower plant.
>
>Opponents say that Belo Monte would only be economically feasible if
>at least four more reservoirs are built to store water upstream.
>These dams would flood over 10,000 square kilometers of the Amazon
>rainforest, affecting indigenous communities and endangered species,
>the International Rivers Network says.
>
>The anti-dam protesters are urging the government to provide
>incentives for improved energy efficiency and energy conservation,
>biomass and co-generation, and wind and solar energy.
>
>MAB is demanding fair compensation for people who have lost their
>lands and livelihoods as a result of dam construction. Tens of
>thousands of families have received either inadequate compensation or
>no compensation at all, and have been forcefully expelled from
>productive lands to regions with barren soils.
>
>MAB is calling on the Brazilian government to support these families
>with development programs which encourage small-scale farming
>communities.
>
>Tomorrow's International Day of Action Against Dams, and for Rivers,
>Water, and Life, will be marked by events in 35 countries worldwide.
>Details of these events are online at: 
>http://www.irn.org/dayofaction.
>--
>::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
>        Lori Pottinger, Director, Africa Program,
>          and Editor, World Rivers Review
>             International Rivers Network   <'})))>><
>                1847 Berkeley Way, Berkeley, California 94703, USA
>                    Tel. (510) 848 1155   Fax (510) 848 1008
>    http://www.irn.org
>::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
>
>____________________________________________
>Secretaria Nacional do MAB
>Movimento dos Atingidos por Barragens
>e-mail: mnab@terra.com.br
>www.mabnacional.org.br
>
>Rua Silveira Martins, 133 - Apto. 21
>Praça da Sé - Centro
>01019-000 São Paulo / SP
>Fone/fax: (11)3242-1328
>
>^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>Monti Aguirre
>Latin American Campaigns
>International Rivers Network

Brasil | IMF/WB | AGP/PGA