PRESS RELEASE from:
The Baku Ceyhan Campaign
Friends of the Earth
Kurdish Human Rights Project
PLATFORM
The Corner House
Tuesday 14 October
Caspian project breaks World Bank rules
on 173 counts
Benn under pressure over BP pipeline
cash
PHOTO OPPORTUNITY: NO PUBLIC MONEY FOR BP
PIPELINE
WHEN: 11am, Tuesday 14th October
WHERE: European Bank of Reconstruction &
Development, One Exchange
Square, London EC2
WHAT: Campaigners will hand in a 220-page
dossier, which outlines how the
pipeline breaks public lending guidelines on
173 counts. This will take place at the EBRD,
one of the lead institutions considering
providing public money to the
Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline. Development
Secretary Hilary Benn must vote on whether
the EBRD and World Bank should provide the
cash.
======================================================
Hilary Benn, the new International
Development Secretary comes under pressure on
Tuesday, when environment and human rights
groups present a dossier slamming a planned
USD 3.5 billion Caspian oil pipeline.
Just one week into the job, Benn must
decide by the end of the month whether to
give public funds to the BP-led
Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline.
The project is looking for 70 per cent of
its cost, or USD 2.5 billion, in loans - led
by the World Bank and the European Bank of
Reconstruction and Development.
But research by watchdog groups has found
that the project breaks World Bank lending
guidelines on 173 separate counts [1]. The
guidelines are designed to protect local
people and the environment, and to prevent
damaging projects receiving the Bank's
backing.
This will be a difficult decision for
Benn. While his responsibility as Secretary
of State for International Development is to
uphold World Bank standards on development
and human rights, he will be under pressure
from Tony Blair to support the project. BP,
sometimes dubbed "Blair Petroleum" for its
closeness to the Prime Minister, has insisted
that the pipeline must have "free public
money" [2].
The 220-page dossier, compiled by fifteen
groups in ten countries [3], finds that just
on the issue of consulting local people, the
project breaks six World Bank policies, on 83
counts. Pipeline companies only met with 2
per cent of the people living along the
route. The World Bank has recently been
criticised by its own Ombudsman for
persistent failures in consultation on the
projects it has funded [4].
Hannah Griffiths, of Friends of the Earth,
commented:
"Hilary Benn must stand up for development
and environment, and not give in to pressure
from New Labour's corporate friends. Public
money should not be given to dirty fossil
fuel projects, which contribute to the
problem of dangerous climate change."
The dossier also finds that the pipeline
stands to worsen the human rights situation
of the Kurdish people in Turkey. Over 30
Kurdish people have submitted legal
complaints to the European Commission,
claiming that they have been denied their
rights. Last month, the European Commission
agreed to investigate the pipeline [5].
The feared state Gendarmerie will have
responsibility for policing the line -
despite having been harshly criticised by the
Council of Europe on its rights record. But
BP denies the pipeline will have any adverse
impact on the Kurds [6].
Kerim Yildiz, Director of the Kurdish
Human Rights Project, added:
"Unless this pipeline can be shown to meet
international standards on human rights, it
must not be given public money. The word we
are hearing from the Kurdish regions is that
this project will be used as another reason
to marginalise and exploit people."
Nicholas Hildyard, of the Corner House,
said:
"If Hilary Benn says yes to this, he will
undermine the credibility of the banks' own
policies, and undermine the very possibility
that they can contribute positively to
development. At the very least, he must call
for a delay in the project, until its many
deficiencies are rectified".
More information:
Greg Muttitt, press officer, Baku Ceyhan
Campaign, + 44 (0)7970 589 611 (available on
site at the protest)
Rochelle Harris, public relations officer,
Kurdish Human Rights Project, + 44 (0)20 7287
2772
Campaign website: www.baku.org.uk
Notes for editors
1: The dossier is available online at
http://ifiwatchnet.org/doc/btceiareview.pdf
2: BP Chief Executive Officer John Browne,
quoted in Financial Times, 4 November 1998,
'Wisdom of Baku pipeline queried', p.4
3: The groups are: Amis de la Terre
(France), Baku Ceyhan Campaign (UK), Campagna
per la Riforma della Banca Mondiale (Italy),
CEE Bankwatch Network (Central & Eastern
Europe), The Corner House (UK), Environmental
Defense Fund (USA), Friends of the Earth
(England, Wales & Northern Ireland),
Friends of the Earth Japan, Green Alternative
(Georgia), Halifax Initiative (Canada),
Kurdish Human Rights Project (UK),
Milieudefensie (Netherlands), PLATFORM (UK),
Urgewald (Germany), WEED (Germany)
4: A recent critical review of
International Finance Corporation (the part
of the World Bank which would make the loan)
policy by the Compliance Advisor Ombudsman
stated: "Too often public consultation
occurred too late to affect project design,
did not facilitate local stakeholders'
understanding of the project and ability to
express their concerns, allowed insufficient
time for stakeholders to process the
information and provide thorough feedback,
and was not sustained after project
approval."
5: Letter to Kurdish Human Rights Project
et al, from Martin Harvey, EC Enlargement
Directorate, Turkey Team. See press release,
'European Commission to investigate
controversial BP pipeline', at
www.baku.org.uk
6: The entire extent to which the Kurdish
conflict and human rights situation is dealt
with in the project Environmental and Social
Impact Assessment is to note that:
"There is no difference in the potential
impacts of land acquisition between Kurdish
speaking and non-Kurdish speaking Turkish
households. What is important however is that
both groups lose a similar percentage of
their affected plot to both the 28-metre and
the 8- metre corridor,"
and hence conclude that,
"Language/ethnic groups are unlikely to be
disadvantaged since there is no difference in
the potential impacts of expropriation and
construction activities between
Kurdish-speaking and non-Kurdish speaking
Turkish households."
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