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September 30, 2002
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"What's New!" is a bi-weekly email
update to keep you informed of the latest uploads onto the website
which features a wide range of materials submitted by over 50 NGOs
actively participating in the coalition. If you would like to be
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ECA-Action,
the mailing list that disseminates latest articles, commentaries
and announcements around policies and practices of ECAs and ECA-supported
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www.eca-watch.org today!
Questions? Email info@eca-watch.org
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Items
- 1 The Corner House Press Release on the Lesotho Highlands Water Project
- 2 The IRN Press Release on the Lesotho Highlands Water Project
- 3 Canadian Engineering Firm Braces for African Bribery Verdict in Faraway Lesotho
- 4 Transparency or High Risks (Finnish ECA Campaign)
- 5 CAAT Submission to the IDC's Inquiry on Corruption
- 6 The War and Terror, OPIC, Unocal and East Kalimantan
- 7 UNOCAL ADMITS TO INDONESIAN OIL SPILL
- 8 The Casecnan Multipurpose Irrigation and Power Project
- 9 CAAT Submission to ECGD on its Mission
- 10 US ExIm's Dubious Renewable Energy Support
- 11 Dark World of Export Credits - in Finnish
What's New:
 Corruption
& Transparency: Canadian firm convicted
of bribery for Lesotho Highlands Water Project
In a landmark decision, the High Court in Lesotho has convicted
Acres International, a Canadian engineering consulting firm, of
paying bribes to win contracts on the multi-billion dollar Lesotho
Highlands Water Project (LHWP). Sentencing will take place on October
7th and 8th.
Acres was found to have paid $266,000 in bribes to Masupha Sole,
the former chief executive of the LHWP. Earlier this year, Sole
was sentenced to 18 years in prison for receiving bribes from Acres
and a number of other multinationals, including the consortium of
which Balfour Beatty, the UK construction giant, was a part. Spie
Batignoles, the lead company in the consortium, is due to appear
in court on bribery charges next year. Balfour Beatty received financial
support from the UK Export Credits Guarantee Department.
1. Press
release by Cornerhouse, UK
2. Press release
by International Rivers Network
For more information, visit the section
on the Lesotho corruption trials in the Odious Debts website,
run by Probe International
3.Canadian Engineering Firm Braces for African Bribery Verdict in Faraway Lesotho
Oakville
engineering company braces for African bribery verdict: A tale of
Swiss bank accounts and battered reputations unfolds in a courtroom
in faraway Lesotho: September 12, 2002
- Toronto Star, Thursday Ontario Edition, By Catherine Porter
4. Tranparency or
High Risks? a Study commissioned by The Finnish ECA Campaign
5. Submission
from the Campaign Against Arms Trade to the International Development
Committee's Inquiry into corruption []
Indonesia/US:
OPIC-supported Offshore Oil drilling project in E. Kalimantan by
UNOCAL
The Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) has
agreed to loan US$350 million of US-taxpayer dollars to US-based
Unocal Corporation for an offshore oil and gas field in Indonesia.
The annual production yield has been projected at 145,000 barrels
of oil. OPIC is a US- government agency that provides political
risk insurance andfinancing to US corporations abroad. Unocal is
a well-known and well-documented human rights abuser. Jaringan Advokasi
Tambang (JATAM), an Indonesia-based mining watchdog, said in a press
release, this is thekind of "arrogant behaviou that has been
shown since the first time the company [Unocal] entered the Marangkayu
region, with the evictions of the community at Semangkok village
in 1970 to the shooting incidents of October 8, 2000, also known
as "Dark Sunday".
6. Deceived Again?
The "War Against Terrorism", OPIC, and UNOCAL Operations
in East Kalimantan
June 2002 - Stephanie Fried, Environmental
Defense
"This 'War on Terrorism' initiative...was rushed ahead despite
the fact that local communities in this deeply religious Muslim
area have apparently been severely affected by pollution, loss of
resource-dependent livelihood, and the climate of terror and intimidation
associated with Unocal operations in East Kalimantan for decades,
including the recent shootings & beatings. To all appearances,
with 40 new wells in planning stages and two new proposed 60 kilometer-long
pipelines, the climate of terror in coastal East Kalimantan is now
poised to grow far worse." [more]
7. UNOCAL ADMITS
TO INDONESIAN OIL SPILL: Environmental Defense Questions OPIC Support
For Troubled Project In East Kalimantan
Honolulu, September 26, 2002 - Environmental Defense
8. The
Casecnan Multipurpose Irrigation and Power Project
The Casecnan Multipurpose Irrigation and Power Project located
in Nueva Vizcaya, Philippines, involves a financing from the US
ECA, Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) of Washington,
DC. California Energy, one of the proponents of Casecnan project,
got a support worth $250-million from OPIC. The amount includes
a $ 100-million loan guarantee and up to $ 150-million in political
risk insurance for the construction and operation of the plant,
a run-of-the-river hydro facility. The project went on stream early
this year. Freedom From Debt Coalition has produced a report on
the controversial Casecnan project: "The
Controversial Casecnan Project"
by Maria Teresa Diokno-Pascual and Shalom MK Macli-ing.
UK:
The ECGD and Arms Trade Support
9. Submission
by the Campaign Against Arms Trade in response to the Export Credits
Guarantee Department Review of its Mission and Status
By CAAT, October 1999
10. US:
Ex-Im's Dubious Renewable Energy Support
On September 17, 2002, the GAO (General Accounting Office) released
its study of Export-Import Bank of the United States, on its financing
of renewable energy projects as compared to fossil fuels. See http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d021024.pdf
Foreign Language Materials:
11. The
Dark World of the Export Credits (Finnish)
By Tove Selin, The Finnish ECA Campaign
This document presents first the IFIs and then the Finnish ECAs
and similar institutions, then their transparency and environmental
performance. In the end there is the demands of the ECA campaign
and the history and action plan of the International and Finnish
ECA Camapign.
View 'back issues':
September 12, 2002
August 26, 2002
August 02, 2002 - ECA Watch web team was on vacation.
July 19, 2002
July 08, 2002
June 14, 2002
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