Controversial BP Pipeline Under Yet More Fire; Report Calls for Moratorium

Cornerhouse; PLATFORM; Campagna per la Riforma della Banca Mondiale; Kurdish Human Rights Project

A fact-finding mission of international human rights and environmental groups [1] today released a detailed report calling for an immediate moratorium on the controversial BP-led Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline project, which would carry oil from the Caspian to the Mediterranean. [2] According to the Mission, the pipeline not only breaches international standards but also threatens human rights abuses.

The report documents the pervasive atmosphere of repression in the Kurdish region of Northeastern Turkey, through which the pipeline would pass. The Mission argues that the evident lack of freedom of speech precludes criticism of the pipeline project, effectively rendering invalid BP’s efforts at consultation.

The Fact-Finding Mission itself was detained twice by the Turkish military police, the Gendarmerie, had its luggage searched while left in its hotel and was prevented from completing its research by constant police and military harassment. The group was forced to abandon a number of planned visits to villages affected by the pipeline for fear of exposing residents to potential human rights abuses by state security agents.

"If this is what happens to us as visitors to the region, one can only imagine what local people in these isolated regions are subjected to when there is no outside scrutiny," said Greg Muttitt of PLATFORM, one of the NGOs involved in the mission. "Quite how BP can say that this project won’t have serious human rights implications is beyond me: we’ve seen them up close."

The campaigners were especially critical of the choice of the Gendarmerie as the lead force for pipeline security. The Gendarmerie was heavily implicated in the worst human rights abuses inflicted on Kurdish civilians in Turkey in recent decades, and has been repeatedly criticised by the Council of Europe.

The report also found the project to be in violation of international standards. "We are deeply concerned that, despite the promises that BP has made and the advice they have received from funders and non-governmental organisation alike, there are still widespread problems with compensation and a generalised failure to take account of the impact of the project on disadvantaged groups like women and ethnic minorities," says Nicholas Hildyard of The Corner House. "Their resettlement proposals even appear to breach Turkish law."

Although some of these problems can be remedied, say the campaigners, the repression in the region cannot be addressed by piecemeal measures.

"Since neither BP nor potential funders can take remedial action to ensure the respect for human rights in Turkey which this project needs in order to achieve its stated aims of regional development and poverty alleviation, there seems to us to be only one option," said Anders Lustgarten of the Kurdish Human Rights Project. "A Moratorium on appraising, financing and building the BTC project constitutes the only legitimate means available to the IFIs and the project developers for ensuring that human rights violations do not flow from the project."

Earlier this week, official complaints were lodged against the UK, US, French, Japanese and Italian companies in BTC Co, alleging that the project breaches the OECD’s Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises. The Complaint charges the consortium with having exerted undue influence on the regulatory framework for the project and undermining the host governments' ability to mitigate threats to the environment and human health.

BTC Co. faces further pressure next week when campaigners target the AGM of their biggest subcontractor, UK firm AMEC. The company has won a $320 million joint venture contract to construct the pipeline through Georgia. Protesters will attend the AGM as 'activist shareholders', challenging the Board to defend AMEC's role in the BTC project.

The report is available from www.baku.org.uk

1. Members of the FFM included representatives of the Kurdish Human Rights Project, Campagna per la Riforma della Banca Mondiale, PLATFORM and Cornerhouse
2. The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline, if built, would carry up to a million barrels of oil a day from the Caspian Sea through Georgia to Ceyhan on the Turkish Mediterranean coast. UK oil giant BP leads the project, and is seeking around $1.5 billion in public subsidy from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the World Bank and export credit agencies such as the UK’s ECGD. The BTC project has come in for extensive criticism for its human rights, social and environmental implications, as well as for what have been called the "colonialist" legal agreements between the host countries and BTC Co.