Phulbari Anti-Mine Movement

</image> <label>Performers</label> <label>Date</label> <label>Location</label> </infobox>The Phulbari Anti-Mine Movement was an effort by environmentalists and indigenous people to stop the construction of a coal mine in Bangladesh from 2006 to 2014.

Background

Phulbari is a region in the northwest region of Bangladesh. It is an important agricultural region that is also home to low quality coal deposit. Several companies have proposed to use the open pit technique for mining the coal, which would displace thousands of people, many of them indigenous people. The proposed mining projects would destroy farmland, homes, and divert water sources to be used in the mining process. The Australia-based mining company BHP Billiton discovered coal at Phulbari during surveying and drilling between 1994 and 1997.

In 2005, BHP Billiton assessed Phulbari’s coal mining potential and decided to sell its rights to mine to London-based Asia Energy Corporation after concluding that the depth of the coal deposits would making mining activity so destructive that it would not be feasible to comply with Australia’s environmental standards or those of any nation worldwide. Asia Energy Corporation bought the rights to mine and proposed an open pit mine project in 2005. Asia Energy Corporation estimated that the mining project would take 36 years to mine the deposit, extracting up to 8 million tons of coal per year. The Bangladesh Department of Environment granted the project “Environmental Clearance for Mining” on the 11th of September 2005. In order for the project to move ahead, the Government of Bangladesh had to officially approve the project proposal.

Timeline of Events

• 26/08/2006: 50,000 people marched in protest against the proposed mining project. The Bangladesh Rifles, a paramilitary organization, fired on the protesters and killed 3 people. Between one and two hundred other protesters were injured. One protester defiantly said: “We will give our lives, but we will not leave this place. We will not allow the mine to happen. The government can take as many dead bodies as they want, we won’t leave the village. And no one from Asia Energy will come here again. They won’t even be able to enter this area. We will fight.”
• 28/08/2006: Workers' in shops, offices, schools and roads launch a three-day long general strike that shuts down the countries economy in protest of the mines construction. The strike causes Asia Energy Corporation to suspend operations in the country and its employees flee the country under police escort.
• 31/08/2006: The Bangladeshi government signs the August Agreement, which promises to ban open pit mining in Phulbari, institute peoples’ ownership over their own resources, ensure energy security, cancel bad deals, ban the export of mineral resources and strengthen national capability to ban open-pit mining in Phulbari and exclude Asia Energy Corporation from the country. This stops the strike.
• ??/02/2007: Mr. Nuruzuman, a local leader of the anti-mine movement, is publicly tortured by the military.
• 26/08/2008: On the second anniversary of the massacre of anti-mine protesters, a public vigil is held. Also in August, 110 environmentalist organizations sign a letter to companies that invested in the mine project to end their investments. Several banks comply and withdraw capital from the project.
• 10/03/2009: The Bangladeshi government claims to have lost a report by a government formed committee of experts that found the government's plan to reopen the mine illegal and that it was not economically viable.
• 26/08/2009: On the third anniversary of the massacre of anti-mine protesters, flowers are placed in public locations across Bangladesh to remember the fallen. Protest marches occur across the country in protest of the proposed reopening of the mine.
• ??/10/2010: Tens of thousands of people march for 400 kilometres over 7 days to protest the mine.
• 28/02/2011: Two thousand people blockade a highway in Phulbari and demand the government honour the August agreement. The Rapid Action Battalion (an internationally condemned death squad for its use of torture and extra-judicial killings) is sent in to intimidate the protesters and guard offices of the coal company.
• 05/05/2011: Women and children protesting the mine are attacked by thugs employed by the government, publicly breaking their hands. Other protesters begin a two-day blockade of roads and railway lines in protest of this display of violence.
• 07/05/2012: Police attack and violently beat protesters calling for a ban on open pit mining and demanding renewable energy projects. 15 of the protesters were injured.
• 23/11/2012: The Bangladeshi government bans gatherings of more than four people indefinitely in an effort to stop the movement. This results in thousands rioting across the country, a strike that paralyzes trains, businesses and schools, attacking police and blocking roads. An effigy of Dan Mozena, the United States Ambassador to Bangladesh, is burned because of his lobbying for the mine's construction.
• 01/01/2013: Protesters threaten to destroy the offices of the mining company if not vacated.
• 27/01/2013: The mining company sees shareholder's take out their capital, refuse to visit the country and many senior members resign.

Results

On the 6th of February, 2014, the government of Bangladesh canceled the coal project, recognising that food security and protecting the farmer's land is in Bangladesh's best interest. Open pit mining in Phulbari has stopped for now. Further development in the mining is being prevented by the protesters threat of action against the project.