BRITAIN'S ethical foreign policy came under attack in an international report launched by
Nelson Mandela yesterday which questioned the Government's financial support of the
£1.25 billion Ilisu dam in Turkey.

Kadar Asmal, the South African minister of education, and chairman of the independent
World Commission on Dams, a body ranging from builders to environmentalists, called on
all governments to review proposals which may steal water from downstream nations or
displace thousands of people. The Chinese representative on the commission, which
questioned the Three Gorges scheme to dam the Yangtse, had to withdraw suddenly
"because of illness".

The commission has spent two years drawing up guidelines for building dams. Mr Asmal
said at the launch of its report in London: "Governments must take account of whether
export guarantees are given in conditions where downstream nations may suffer." Balfour
Beatty has a contract for the dam worth nearly £200 million. The Foreign Office's Export
Credit Guarantee Department has agreed to underwrite it.

Mr Asmal did not name schemes but it was clear from the commission's advice on "projects
in the pipeline" that Turkey has not consulted and negotiated with 20,000 Kurds in 15 towns
and 52 villages likely to be flooded, or with Syria, which fears that the dam will reduce the
flow of the Euphrates. Sources close to the commission said it had tried to visit Turkey to
look at its dam-building programme, but was refused, something which did not appear in its
report.

The problem of Kurdistan could well become a crucial issue in the Middle East settlement in
the coming years, Anatoly Ilyin, executive director of Russian Asian Solidarity Society, told
IPS.

However, the Kremlin is unlikely to get involved any time soon, because Moscow does not
want to undermine its ties with Turkey or Iraq, argues Ilyin, who is also an expert in the
Kurdistan conflict.
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The Kurdistan Observer
www.kurdistanobserver.com

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