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Rising Tide Activists Occupy Export Credits Guarantee
Department Offices to Protest Baku-Ceyhan Pipeline; Attempt at Participatory
Democracy Fails
Activists protesting against the activities of the
UK Export Credits Guarantee Department (ECGD), in particular its
likely support for the much-criticised Baku-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline,
today occupied the ECGD’s offices for much of the morning.
At least five members of London Rising Tide [1]hosue.org.
barricaded themselves into the boardroom and, in the spirit of participatory
democracy, attempted to open a constructive dialogue with ECGD staff
over the Baku-Ceyhan project. Sadly, their overtures were rebuffed,
and a unique opportunity to explain how this massively contentious
project is in the public interest was lost.
In recent years the Export Credits Guarantee Department
has come under increasing fire for using public money to subsidise
the arms trade [2], for supporting projects enmeshed in gross corruption
[3] and for failing to carry out sufficient research into the benefits
of the projects it supports for local people.
“The ECGD is now the single largest source of taxpayer subsidy
for big multinationals seeking to offload onto the public the risks
of their unwanted and exploitative projects in the South. Yet nobody
knows who they are,” said Jo Hamilton of Rising Tide. “This
could have been the chance for the ECGD to tell an interested section
of the public why they should get over £750 million a year
in taxpayers’ money, and frankly we’re baffled as to why
they didn’t take it.”
Despite repeated requests from the activists, no-one
with any knowledge of the Baku-Ceyhan project came to talk to them.
This was especially unexpected given the ever-increasing controversy
surrounding BTC.
A consortium of oil giants led by the UK’s BP are the sponsors
of the Baku-Ceyhan oil pipeline, which is intended to take Caspian
oil from Baku in Azerbaijan through Georgia and the Kurdish regions
of eastern Turkey to American markets. BP is currently in the middle
of applying for almost $2.5 billion in public funds to complete
the project, primarily from the World Bank and European Bank for
Reconstruction and Development. [4]
The project has been dogged with allegations of widespread
human rights abuses, inadequate compensation and consultation of
locally affected people and regional destabilisation and militarization.
In particular, activists are concerned about the legal agreements
for the pipeline, the Host Government Agreements (HGAs), which override
all local environmental and social laws for the next half century
and effectively make BP the sovereign power along the pipeline route.
“We were hoping the ECGD could explain to us
exactly how the HGAs, especially clauses like the ones which allow
paramilitary forces with long records of murder and torture to take
almost any measures to protect the pipeline and force affected people
to go to an industrial tribunal in Geneva under UK law to get their
basic rights, fit into its commitments to go ‘Beyond Business
Principles’ and respect human rights, “ said Mark Brown
of Rising Tide. “It’s a shame, if not a surprise, that
they chose not to do that.”
Photos of the event will shortly be available on Indymedia.
[1] To find out more, about Rising Tide’s work
against the Baku-Ceyhan project, visit www.burningplanet.net or
contact london@risingtide.org.uk.
[2] Almost 50% of the ECGD’s backing goes on arms deals, yet
the arms industry, above and beyond its horrific human costs, generates
only 3% of the UK’s gross exports.
[3] See the recent report by Sue Hawley, “Turning a Blind Eye:
Corruption and the UK Export Credits Guarantee Department”,
June 2003, available at www.thecornerhouse.org.uk.
[4] The 120 day public disclosure period for criticism of the project
lasts from June to October, giving another 6 weeks for concerned
parties to raise objections with the World Bank and the EBRD.
Leaflet text
Links to corner house studies of the role of the uk's
export guarantee department. inc arms trade, The case against ECGD
underwriting of arms sales. The ECGD's support for defence-related
exports has lost money every year for the past 12 years. ... The
case against ECGD underwriting of arms sales. ...
http://www.thecornerhouse.org.uk/document/subsidy.html
- 10k
The case for removing arms from the ECGD's portfolio
The Export Credits Guarantee Department (ECGD) and
other Export Credit Agencies (ECAs) should end support for military
goods. The Corner House. ...
http://www.thecornerhouse.org.uk/document/armsecgd.html
- 11k
Export Credits: What is the public policy aim?
The UK government's Export Credits Guarantees Department (ECGD)
supports British exporters. Using public money to support private
...
http://www.thecornerhouse.org.uk/document/aimecgd.html
- 14k
Recommendations for the Export Credits Guarantee Department
( ...
... Recommendations for the Export Credits Guarantee Department
(ECGD) on Debt and Export Credits. ... 3. ECGD Annual Report and
Resource Accounts 2000/01. ...
http://www.thecornerhouse.org.uk/document/debtecgd.html
- 15k
Recommendations from Friends of the Earth to the ECGD
regarding ...
... Recommendations from Friends of the Earth to the ECGD regarding
Sustainable Energy and Climate Change. ... 2. Why should ECGD support
sustainable energy? ...
http://www.thecornerhouse.org.uk/document/climate.html
- 11
Corner House Document
... UK Export Credits Guarantee Department (ECGD) Minimum Conditions
For Reform. ... The Urgent Need for Reform. Reform of the ECGD is
long overdue. ...
http://www.thecornerhouse.org.uk/document/ecgdmemo.html
- 18k
Corner House Document
... the controversial Ilisu Dam in Turkey, which the UK government
is provisionally supporting through its Export Credit Guarantee
Department (ECGD), have obtained ...
http://www.thecornerhouse.org.uk/document/ilisurap.html
- 37k
The Corner House - Documents
... Recommendations for the Export Credits Guarantee Department
(ECGD) on Debt and Export Credits. ... The ECGD and the Human Rights
Act. ...
http://www.thecornerhouse.org.uk/document/
- 77k
The ECGD and the Human Rights Act
Since October 2000, the UK Export Credits Guarantees Department
(ECGD) has been bound by the UK Human Rights Act. ... The ECGD and
the Human Rights Act. ...
http://www.thecornerhouse.org.uk/document/hraecgd.html
- 20k
Summary
... This report focuses on the UK's Export Credits Guarantee Department
(ECGD). Its assessment of nine ECGD-backed projects reveals ...
http://www.thecornerhouse.org.uk/document/
summary/correcgd.html - 6k - pages
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What’s wrong
with the Export Credits Guarantee Dept?
(And why shouldn’t it back
BP’s Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan [BTC] pipeline?)
Exporting Corruption, Guaranteeing Destruction:
so what is the ECGD?
The ECGD is a shadowy, taxpayer-backed government
agency which gives financial guarantees (c£760m per
year) to UK companies operating abroad. Arms companies supply
up to 50% of its business, and are also heavily subsidised.
It is now the single largest source of taxpayer support for
private sector companies seeking to offload on to the public
the financial risks of their business projects in the South
and Eastern Europe. Ultimately, it is the poorest in these
countries who end up paying the bill. ECGD-backed projects
- from arms and oil pipelines to dams and polluting power
stations - are environmentally destructive, socially oppressive
and often financially unviable.
Burning Planet: BP’s Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan
(BTC) pipeline
BP is seeking ECGD and public banks’
backing for a huge new oil pipeline from its Caspian Sea oilfields,
through Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey, to the Mediterranean.
The BTC pipeline, likely to be guarded by the US military,
would carry 1 million barrels of oil every day. It would cause
serious human rights abuses, could spark or reignite regional
wars, would rob local people of their land and livelihoods,
and would deliver yet more oil to already saturated Western
markets, further contributing to climate chaos. The pipeline
legal agreements make BP the effective governing power over
a strip of land 1,750 miles long, overriding all environmental,
social, human rights or other laws, present and future, for
the next 40 years. BTC fails spectacularly the ECGD’s
own social, environmental and human rights guidelines.
Who are we and why are we here?
This protest is being carried out by London
Rising Tide and friends, and is part of a wider campaign to
stop BTC, as well as a chance to point a much-needed spotlight
at the dodgy activities of the ECGD in general. We’re
here today to disrupt the ECGD, as well as to say “let’s
scrap the BTC pipeline, dismantle the ECGD and build a global
community based on justice, peace and a real (not lipserviced)
respect for the environment’. Not much to ask, eh?
3 things you can do:
1.) Let the ECGD know what you think: mbrown@ecgd.gov.uk
or help@ecgd.gov.uk
PO Box 2200, 2 Exchange Tower, Harbour Exchange Square, London
E14 9GS
Phone: 020 7512 7000; Fax: 020 7512 7649
2.) Get involved in the campaign to stop the BTC pipeline:
London Rising Tide: london@risingtide.org.uk
www.burningplanet.net
Rising Tide UK: www.risingtide.org.uk
Baku Ceyhan Campaign: www.baku.org.uk
See also: www.earthfirst.org.uk/manchester/baku/
& www.thecornerhouse.org.uk
3.) Get yourself down to the protests to shut down the DSEi
arms fair at the Excel Centre from September 8-11th: www.dsei.org
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