Ludford demands an end to waste of taxpayers money on unethical dam

12.00.00am UTC (GMT +0000) Wed 14th Mar 2001

Earlier today to mark the Ilisu Dam Campaign Day of Action and International Day of Action on Dams, Baroness Sarah Ludford, Liberal Democrat Euro-MP for London, sent a message from Strasbourg to the Ilisu Dam Campaign Demonstration in London.

Her statement read:

"I call on Balfour Beatty to pull out of the construction and Tony Blair to stop wasting taxpayers' money on export credit for this disastrous project."

"As co-ordinator of the Kurdish network in the European Parliament, I am deeply concerned about the human rights of the largely Kurdish population of south-east Turkey. I had the opportunity last year to see, as part of a visit to the Kurdish region, the historic and beautiful town of Hasankeyf, which would be flooded by the dam."

"I'm appalled that the British government could still be contemplating helping fund the Ilisu Dam, which offends every notion of the values an ethical foreign policy should be. This dam will destroy the lives of thousands of people by uprooting them from their homes, damage the environment and threaten to cause 'water wars' with neighbouring states. And it will not even benefit the local economy."

"I am sorry I am unable to be with the Ilisu Dam Campaign for the March 14th day of action as I have to be in Strasbourg, but I will be meeting today the mayor of Diyarbakir who is visiting the European Parliament and I will be expressing to him my solidarity with the Kurdish people".

Baroness Sarah Ludford will be Chairing a meeting concerning the Ilisu Dam at this weekend's Liberal Democrat Federal Conference in Torquay.