14 December 1999
Tomen Corporation
President Mr. Akihiro Tsuji
General Manager Mr. Akira Takabayashi, Global Environmental Office
Kokusai Shinakasaka Building
2-14-27 Akasaka
Minato-ku, Tokyo
JAPAN
Dear Sirs,
Please allow me to introduce myself. I am an
American scholar of Buddhism, who has been studying in and around Eppawala, Sri Lanka for more
than 15 years. I am Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Religion at Whitman
College, a first-tier liberal arts college east of Seattle. I am widely published, with
numerous books, articles and papers on every period of Indian and Sri Lankan Buddhist history,
world Buddhism, and Sri Lankan ethnography (a copy of my CV is enclosed, in case you would like
to check the academic credentials upon which my appeal in this letter is based). I am a
twice-elected Director of the American Institute of Sri Lankan Studies, and the elected
International Representative (Jatyantara Niyojita) of the grassroots Committee to Protect
Eppawala Phosphate. Though I have no previous experience as an environmentalist or activist,
I have found myself propelled into one by my long-time association with Eppawala.
I have been made aware of your company's
commitment to withdrawing from the Eppawala Phosphate scheme in the event it should be found to
entail serious environmental damage or harm to the people of Eppawala. I commend your efforts to
engage only in those projects which are environmentally friendly and which do not destroy native
populations. As a scholar with long experience in the Eppawala region - I am the only American,
and one of a handful of scholars worldwide who have conducted extensive fieldwork in this remote
region - it is my professional conclusion that sufficient evidence exists to remove any doubt
that the Eppawala Phosphate scheme will in fact produce an ecological disaster, and will cause
the people of the Eppawala region considerable suffering. I urge you to recognize that the very
nature of this scheme is antithetical to the good motives informing your corporation.
Given the necessity that this scheme will thus
undermine the virtue of Tomen Corporation, I can only assume that your continuing pursuance of
it reflects a lack of exposure to the relevant facts. I make this statement fully aware of the
claim on your web page that very little is yet known, which is disproved by the enclosed documents
and the contradictory claim on your website to correct "misunderstanding of the facts and
misleading information." Toward the end of providing you with such exposure to the relevant facts,
I enclose herewith copies of a large number of international publications including a scholarly
book, numerous scientific and journalistic accounts, and original publications of the grassroots
Committee to Protect Eppawala Phosphate. These fall into three rough areas, namely: (1) scientific
and scholarly evidence of the ecological and cultural devastation which will be consequent to the
pursuance of this scheme, (2) journalistic and scholarly evidence of the extent of local opposition
to the scheme and (3) journalistic and scholarly evidence of the ignoble track record of the
American companies into whose partnership this project will drag you. I encourage you also to visit
my website, "Americans for Eppawala" (http://www.people.whitman.edu/~walterjs/), which
contains further visual and textual documentation of the region's significance, the history of the
negotiations, the background of participating corporations, and the local protest movement. This
letter will also be posted there.
I shall also post the attached synopsis of the
relevant issues which are proven in further detail in the enclosed materials and on the website.
If you require further documentation or clarification of any of the points raised therein, I
encourage you to contact me.
It is my sincere hope that your actions in this
matter will cause me to maintain the respect which your web page and other reports of your company
inspire. Your withdrawal from this scheme would be for the good of humanity, of the environment,
and of yourselves, and starting with me there are many thousands of people worldwide who would
champion your name as a result. In particular, I can assure you in my positision as International
Representative of the Committee to Protect Eppawala Phosphate that the people of Eppawala would
be eternally grateful if you not participate in the destruction of their way of life.
Yours most sincerely,
Jonathan S. Walters, Ph.D.
Chair, Department of Religion
Member and Former Chair, Asian Studies Program
email: walterjs@whitman.edu
phone: 509-527-5246
fax: 509-527-5039
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