Saturday, April 19, 2008

MIning Giants Face Wave of Protest In UK-KI6 Far from Alone in Their Concerns

Guardian Financial Pages
Investors in Rio Tinto and BP face protests: Oil company accused of
plundering Iraq's reserves: Mining firm blamed for pollution in West
Papua
Terry Macalister
520 words
17 April 2008
The Guardian
28
English
© Copyright 2008. The Guardian. All rights reserved.

A wave of protests will hit the annual meetings of BP and Rio Tinto in
London today as human rights and environmental campaigners voice their
concerns at the activities of the extractive industries.

Shareholders at Anglo American on Tuesday were met with similar
complaints, while Shell investors will also face protestors at its
meeting next month.

Richard Solly, secretary of the London Mining Network, a coalition of
non-governmental organisations (NGOs) coordinating the protests said:
"The UK government must ensure that our businesses do not profit at the
expense of the suffering and environmental destruction of communities
around the world."

Campaigners dressed as pirates will greet investors going to the BP
annual meeting. Their costumes symbolise the company's attempt to "rob"
Iraq of its oil through pressing the Baghdad administration to sign a
new oil law that could see BP negotiating to develop Rumaila, Iraq's
largest producing field.

Activist shareholders plan to question new chief executive, Tony
Hayward, on BP's plans in the face of what they claim is opposition
from two in three Iraqis, according to a poll released earlier by NGOs
in Britain and America.

Ruth Tanner, senior campaigns officer at charity War on Want, said:
"Iraq needs control over its resources to improve liv ing standards for
millions of people hit by war and occupation. To most Iraqis the name
BP will mean brazen pirates unless the company stops trying to plunder
their country's oil."

The British government has been using its position as a military
occupation power to push the interests of oil companies in Iraq,
according to London research group Platform. It obtained documents
through the Freedom of Information Act which, it claims, reveal
extensive efforts since 2004 to push for companies such as BP and Shell
to receive long-term contracts, giving them exclusive rights to exploit
Iraq's huge oil fields.

Tribal and community representatives from around the world will address
Rio Tinto's annual meeting and argue that the mining group's claim that
its operations are sustainable and fair is far from the truth. Benny
Wenda, chairman of the Koteka Tribal Assembly and representative of the
West Papuan independence movement, has been brought to London by the
London Mining Network. "Rio Tinto promised they would bring wealth,
health and education for my people, but they are paying the Indonesian
military that kills my people. They have filled our rivers with
pollution and they have destroyed our sacred mountain: their promises
are worth nothing to West Papuans."

Oil companies have also been under fire from NGOs over biofuels.
Forecourt suppliers have been under new legislative pressure from
Tuesday to provide 2.5% of all diesel and petrol from crop-based
sources to reduce carbon pollution.

Rachel Smolker, a campaigner with the Global Forest Coalition said:
"The UK has chosen to ignore a vast mountain of evidence that biofuels
are contributing to hunger, climate change, deforestation and human
rights abuses."