المركز الاوربي للحقوق الدستورية والانسانية يرفع دعوي جنائية ضد مسئوليين من لامايير

Euorpean center for Constitutional and Hunman Rights
لامايير الهندسية هي الشركة الالمانية الاستشارية والمخططة لسد مروي ولها دور اساسي في تخطيط وتصميم وتنفيذ سد مروي ...في مطلع هذا الشهر رفع المركز الاوربي للحقوق الدستورية والانسانية دعوي جنائيةضد اثنين من المسئوليين التنفيذيين لشركة لامايير لمسئوليتهم في اغراق 30 قرية وتهجيير سكانها ال 4700
http://www.ecchr.de/lahmeyer-case.html
GERMAN ENGINEERING – REGARDLESS OF THE CONSEQUENCES?
ECCHR REPORTS AN OFFENSE AGAINST THE PLANNING OFFICE LAHMEYER INTERNATIONAL
On 3 May 2010 the ECCHR filed a complaint against two executive employees of the engineering company Lahmeyer International GmbH at the department of public prosecution in Frankfurt am Main. Lahmeyer International GmbH was instrumental in constructing the Merowe dam in Northern Sudan. In the criminal complaint the two employees are charged with the flooding of over 30 villages, the displacement of over 4,700 families and the destruction of their livelihood.

The Merowe dam construction in the north of Sudan is the biggest hydropower project in Africa to date. According to conservative estimates 40,000 people have been affected by the construction of the dam and the associated resettlements. The German company Lahmeyer International GmbH was responsible for the construction planning, construction supervision and control of the commissioning of the dam and the hydropower plant. Lahmeyer began construction even though the resettlement plans had not been fully negotiated with the affected population - as demanded by international World Bank standards.

At the time of the commissioning of the first turbines of the hydropower plant at the dam the Sudanese government could not reach an agreement with the population group affected. During the progress of the building project under the aegis of Lahmeyer they were literally displaced from their villages by flooding. Approximately 4,700 families have been affected by the flooding: their crops have been destroyed, along with their belongings, and their livestock has been killed.

It was not the first time that Lahmeyer International- which has many years of experience building hydropower projects- had faced these massive difficulties in resettlement; the like happened in Argentina (Yacyretá project), Burma (Ta Sarng project), China (Xiaolangdi- dam) or in Ethiopia (Awash III) - all projects in which the Lahmeyer company was involved. While Lahmeyer claims it was responsible solely for the construction supervision and not for the resettlement measures, this does not exempt them from their obligation to work in such a way that third parties are not threatened. Lahmeyer conducted the preparatory studies for the construction project themselves and they knew about the flooding potential of the dam. Moreover, Lahmeyer knew that many people affected had not been resettled before or during the construction work. There had been numerous public protests against it. What the farmers living several kilometers upstream in the future dam area did not know was that a continuation of the construction in the critical phases of the dam construction would lead to the inundation of their the settlements. Those in charge of Lahmeyer, on the other hand, knew about this; they had conducted measurements and studies during the construction planning. Not even a statement of the UN Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing explicitly requesting a suspension of the building work could hinder the company's resolve to continue their project.

From the point of view of the ECCHR this case is symptomatic of the dangers for human rights resulting from big infrastructural projects. Such projects are supposed to serve the respective country, including the local population. However, authoritarian regimes like the Sudanese government under President Al Bashir rarely care about the social and ecological impact for the population affected. In the present case the German company Lahmeyer intensified the inhuman approach of the Sudanese government through its reckless continuation of the building project. The result was the loss of housing and livelihood for several thousand people. The joint responsibility of a German company for such a blatant violation of the human right for adequate housing and food must not go unpunished. From the point of view of the ECCHR it is the duty of the German judiciary to act.