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june 5 2003
global call for moratorium on
controversial bp pipeline
Environment, rights groups in 29
countries lobby World Bank and
Governments
Over seventy environment and human rights
groups from twenty nine countries, today
called for an immediate moratorium on a
controversial BP oil pipeline, planned to run
from the Caspian Sea to the
Mediterranean.
Seventy two organisations have written to
the major public funders of the pipeline
project, arguing that the pipeline would
worsen human rights problems along the
pipeline route, and that a background of lack
of freedom of speech in the region made
proper consultation and land compensation
impossible.
The call echoes the findings of a recent
international fact-finding mission to the
Turkish section of the pipeline, which found
violations of international standards, and
Turkish law, on consultation, compensation
and resettlement - as well as human rights
problems including detentions, arbitrary
arrests and state harassment. The situation
is especially bad in the northeast of Turkey,
where 40% of the population is Kurdish. The
fact-finding mission itself was detained
twice by the state gendarmerie during the
course of its research.
Kate Geary, of the Baku Ceyhan Campaign,
commented, "The persistent and ongoing denial
by the Turkish state of Kurdish people's
rights makes it impossible for this pipeline
to be built in an acceptable way. The
responsible thing for BP to do would be to
call off the project, at least for as long as
this remains the case".
The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline, led
by UK oil giant BP, is designed to carry one
million barrels of oil a day through
Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey to the
Mediterranean coast, where it would be loaded
onto tankers for export to western markets.
BP and its partners are expected to request
about half of the USD 3.3 billion cost of the
project from public sources, what BP CEO Lord
John Browne has called "free public
money".
Tony Juniper of Friends of the Earth said,
"This pipeline will hit the environment and
local people hard, while benefiting only the
profits of companies like BP. The
fact-finding mission's report makes it clear
that it cannot be built to international
standards - so there is no justification for
governments to fund the project".
Petr Hlobil of CEE Bankwatch Network
added, "The array of deficiencies in this
project, combined with the abysmal human
rights situation in the region, means that a
moratorium on the project is now essential.
We call on governments and international
financial nstitutions not to consider
financing the pipeline in the current
climate".
The moratorium call is the latest in a
series of problems for BP. Last month, the
human rights impact of the pipeline was
criticised in a legal report by Amnesty
International, and in April groups submitted
complaints to the governments of France,
Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom and the
United States, charging that BP and its
partners were violating the "Guidelines for
Multinational Enterprises" of the
Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development (OECD).
The letter to the funding bodies can be
found at:
/www.bankwatch.org/issues/oilclima/baku-
ceyhan/mcorrespondence.html
Contact:
Petr Hlobil
CEE Bankwatch Network
mobile: +420-603-154 349
petr.hlobil@ecn.cz
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