BP face protests· Oil company accused of plundering Iraq’s reserves

The Guardian: 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 
Thursday April 17 2008

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 living 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.”

This article appeared in the Guardian on Thursday April 17 2008 on p28 of the Financial section.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/apr/17/riotinto.bp

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