Written Statement – Item 7 of the provisional agenda

The right to development: Internal resettlement and development in the Lao PDR

Tens of thousands of members of ethnic minority groups have been forcefully relocated during the last three decades in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic because of the construction of hydropower projects. Most of the resettled people have been belonging to indigenous minority groups. The Lao PDR is an ethnically diverse country. Less than 50 percent of the population is Lao. The remaining 50 percent are mostly members of 49 upland hill tribes. The Hmong are one of the largest and most prominent highland minority groups. The Lao constitution provides for equal rights for all minority citizens. There is no legal discrimination against them, but social discrimination against ethnic minorities persists. Indigenous minority groups have almost no say in government decisions that affect their traditional lands and the allocation of natural resources.

Several of the dams have been funded by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), in spite of its promise to pay close attention to development projects that directly affect the lives of ethnic minority groups. „Indigenous peoples need to have the possibility to participate in and of the projects”, states the ADB in its policy objectives. Rather than ensuring the participation of indigenous peoples, large and costly hydropower projects in Laos have caused nothing but harm and suffering. During the fall of 2005, the World Bank decided to fund the controversial Nam Theun 2 Hydropower Dam. In the course of this project 4.500 indigenous people will be displaced from their ancestral lands. Tens of thousands will be deprived of their fishing and farming livelihoods, and 450 square kilometres of the Nakai Plateau, an area of rich biological diversity, will be flooded. Proposed to generate electricity for export to Thailand, the economic viability of the project is in doubt due to Thailand’s oversupply of power and its changing power market. 110 NGO’s from 33 countries expressed their concern about the project, but the Lao government went ahead with the project without engaging indigenous peoples in the process.

Apart these relocation programs for the construction of hydropower projects, various resettlement programs have been launched in the last ten years to remove indigenous ethnic communities from the more remote highlands to lowland areas. The government of Lao PDR has given seven major justifications for its resettlement policy. The development of rural areas, the reduction of poverty, the eradication of the shifting cultivation, free access to infrastructure, the cultural integration and assimilation of ethnic minority groups, security concerns and the eradication of opium production.

Internal resettlement threatens livelihood and culture of indigenous peoples

Human rights organisations have expressed their worries about the impact of a resettlement program for ethnic minorities sponsored by the government. The negative impact of internal resettlement in Laos was first documented in an UNESCO/UNDP study in 1997. The report detailed mortality rates of up 30%, much higher than the national average, in indigenous highland communities following poorly managed resettlement. In 2000 a Participatory Poverty Assessment sponsored by the Asian Development Bank documented that many resettled people are convinced, that the program has created more poverty. Academic research and NGO studies have confirmed that the resettlement has contributed to environmental degradation, cultural alienation, increasing social conflicts and long-term poverty.

A program as such should promote the prohibition of the production of opium and methods of slash-and-burn agriculture, but not interfere with the cultural practices and traditions of the resident indigenous peoples. The program requires relocation of indigenous groups from the highlands to large communities in the lowlands where they have to adapt to unknown techniques of paddy rice farming. Tens of thousands of indigenous ethnic minority people have suffered and many died due to the impacts of ill-conceived and poorly implemented resettlement projects. Much of what officially is classified as „voluntary” resettlement is, in reality, not villager-initiated. Official services in villages targeted for relocation may be suspended, thus providing further inducement to move. By officially restricting swidden agriculture, the fallow cycles are shortened to such a degree that villagers are no longer able to grow enough food to survive. When conditions deteriorate to a certain level, many villagers agree to move to new centralized villages, the so called „Focal sites”. In 1998 the government of Lao PDR announced plans to create at least 87 „Focal sites”, regrouping 1.200 traditional villages and 450.000 people. Amid dozens of international aid agencies at least six UN agencies (UNDP, UNCDF, UNICEF, UNDCP, FAO, WFP) supported the establishment of „Focal sites”.

Many Hmong have been forced to move from their highland homes to areas with poor agricultural potential. Furthermore, lacking knowledge of the different farming conditions in the lowlands, many resettled peasants have run into dept, lost their land and properties and become marginalized. The negative impacts on traditional society and cultural practices have been outweighing the benefits (easier access to schools, medical care and markets).

Society for Threatened Peoples calls on the Commission to urge the Government of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic to:

– stop relocation programmes for indigenous peoples that threaten their livelihood and cultural traditions,

– to promote sustainable development for villages of indigenous peoples in the uplands,

– ensure a meaningful participation of ethnic minority groups in development projects that affect their land or livelihood.