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Asia Energy, a British company that wants to extract 15 million tonnes of coal a year for the next 30 years from opencast workings in Phulbari in Bangladesh's north-western province of Dinajpur, is withdrawing staff, at least temporarily, after street protests that led to clashes with police and several deaths.
The company's mining project, one of the biggest in the world, would produce coal mainly for sale to fuel-hungry India and China.
However, scientists have warned that pumping water out of the proposed mine could dry up underground aquifiers, and local people are objecting because the project would destroy the homes of between 40,000 and 100,000 of them.
Asia Energy argues that most local people want the scheme. It says the mine would bring 2000 jobs to the country's poorest area, more than half of whose people are illiterate, and it has promised to relocate those made homeless in new villages and to spend $250million (£133m) on schools and hospitals.
David Lenigas, a non-executive director of the company, said: 'This town didn't exist until 1970. It's not like it's 300 years old. A lot of people live in tin shacks or mud houses.'
Thousands of protesters took to the streets with bows and arrows last month and five people, including a boy of 14, died in fighting with the police. The demonstration was followed by a national strike. In April Nasreen Huq, an Action Aid worker and opponent of the project, was killed when she was rammed against a wall by a car - driven by an Action Aid employee. Theories that Huq's death was ordered by the authorities abounded and the driver was arrested but not charged, and nothing has been proved.
Asia Energy says it is withdrawing until calm returns. If, however, the company has to abandon the £1.1billion scheme its future will be uncertain.
The company's mining project, one of the biggest in the world, would produce coal mainly for sale to fuel-hungry India and China.
However, scientists have warned that pumping water out of the proposed mine could dry up underground aquifiers, and local people are objecting because the project would destroy the homes of between 40,000 and 100,000 of them.
Asia Energy argues that most local people want the scheme. It says the mine would bring 2000 jobs to the country's poorest area, more than half of whose people are illiterate, and it has promised to relocate those made homeless in new villages and to spend $250million (£133m) on schools and hospitals.
David Lenigas, a non-executive director of the company, said: 'This town didn't exist until 1970. It's not like it's 300 years old. A lot of people live in tin shacks or mud houses.'
Thousands of protesters took to the streets with bows and arrows last month and five people, including a boy of 14, died in fighting with the police. The demonstration was followed by a national strike. In April Nasreen Huq, an Action Aid worker and opponent of the project, was killed when she was rammed against a wall by a car - driven by an Action Aid employee. Theories that Huq's death was ordered by the authorities abounded and the driver was arrested but not charged, and nothing has been proved.
Asia Energy says it is withdrawing until calm returns. If, however, the company has to abandon the £1.1billion scheme its future will be uncertain.
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