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	Overview of the Problems
	Highlight: Russia's Sakhalin II
	Highlight: The BTC Pipeline

What's New! Vol. II, No. 5

April 11, 2003
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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 added onto the recipients list for "What's New!", join ECA-Action, the mailing list that disseminates latest articles, commentaries and announcements around policies and practices of ECAs and ECA-supported projects around the world. To join, simply sign up from the website, www.eca-watch.org today!
Questions? Email info@eca-watch.org
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Items

- 1 US OPIC and Exim Bank Financed Saddam's Iraq

- 2 IRN: Three Gorges to Fill Despite Human Rights Crisis

- 3 NGOs Call on European Union Commissioner to Reaffirm Commitment to ECA Reform

- 4 NADI Asks: Why Should Common People Pay for Bad ECA Debt

- 5 Campaigners Urge Moratorium on BP Pipeline

- 6 ECAs' Incoherent Role in Climate Change Policy

- 7 ECGD "Hush-Hush" on Iraqi Chemical Plant

- 8 4000 Indonesians to sue JBIC Over Destructive Dam

- 9 BTC Fact-Finders Harassed by Turkish Police

- 10 ECGD Snoops for Oil Deals in Iran

- 11 ECA Angst on APP

In this issue:

action>current alerts
ECA-Watch is proud to announce the launch of its "Current Alerts" e-petition feature. The feature is designed to highlight campaign action alerts of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) confronting the negative impacts of ECA-supported projects world-wide. The inaugural Current Alert features a call by the International Rivers Network (IRN) to write several Export Credit Agencies that support the monstrous and disastrous Three Gorges Dam project in China. Find out more.

ECA Campaign Action:

1) US OPIC and Exim Bank Financed Saddam's Iraq: A new report by the Sustainable Energy and Economy Network reveals that the U.S. Ex-Im Bank and OPIC financed oil projects in Iraq while turning a blind eye to evidence of the Iraqi regime's chemical weapons. "Crude Vision: How Oil Interests Obscured US Government Focus on Chemical Weapons Use by Saddam Hussein" was featured on National Public Radio and profiles skullduggery of current and former U.S. Government officials.

2) IRN: Three Gorges to Fill Despite Human Rights Crisis: A new report by International Rivers Network indicates that the reservoir of the controversial Three Gorges Dam in China's Yangtze Valley will start filling on April 10, aggravating already serious human rights problems in the resettlement areas. The report documents that the resettlement problems of this ECA-backed dam have not been resolved, and that project construction is linked to systematic human rights violations.

3) NGOs from seven countries call on European Union Commissioner Wallstrom to reaffirm the committment to ECA reform at the upcoming Angers G-8 Environment Summit.

4) NADI Asks: Why Should Common People Pay for Bad ECA Debt
A new paper by NADI details the massive ECA-backed pulp and paper sector failure in Indonesia. The report highlights the environmental, social and human rights impacts of the failure, and explores the current struggle over the shuffling of debt between the private and public sector creditors in Indonesia and abroad (in particular, the ECAs). The report contains key recommendations for ECAs to mend their ways.

5) Campaigners Urge Moratorium on BP Pipeline: Baku Ceyhan Campaigners have called for a moratorium on a controversial BP-led oil pipeline from the Caspian Sea to the Mediterranean. Visiting the Turkish section of the Baku-T'bilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline, they uncovered a pattern of constant surveillance, evident human rights abuses and manifest lack of freedom of expression.

6) ECAs' Incoherent Role in Climate Change Policy: A new policy paper by Sustainable Energy and Economy Network includes a proposal that ECA financing for fossil fuels be treated as a subsidy.

ECAs in the News:

7) ECGD "Hush-Hush" on Iraqi Chemical Plant : The Guardian reports 3/19/03 that UK Ministers knew that a chlorine plant supported in the 1980s by the UK ECA, ECGD, "was likely to be used for mustard and nerve gas production." The Guardian reports that the ECGD was instructed to keep details of the deal secret.

8) 4000 Indonesians to sue JBIC Over Destructive Dam: Planetark reports on 3/27/03 that over 4000 Indonesians plan to sue two Japanese agencies, the Overseas Development Agency and the Japanese Bank for Reconstruction and Development (JBIC), over their financing of a destructive dam in Sumatra. Claiming 5 million yen each in compensation, the plaintiffs say the Kotopanjang Dam devastated the natural environment, and denied them of water supplies and job opportunities in their area of resettlement.

9) BTC Fact-Finders Harassed by Turkish Police: OneWorld reports on 3/25/03 that NGOs on a fact-finding mission investigating on the proposed Baku-T'blisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline in Eastern Turkey "had been constantly followed, harassed, and detained by Turkish police as it attempted to gather information and interview residents about the situation in the region." The proposed BTC pipeline is being considered for financing by the U.S. Export-Import Bank, the International Finance Corporation and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

10) ECGD Snoops for Oil Deals in Iran: M-2 Presswire reports that the UK ECA, the ECGD, recently took a ten-day fact-finding mission to Iran at the invitation of Iran's National Petrochemical Company.

11) ECA Angst on APP: AP World reports on 03/25/03 that the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency has rejected a US$ 6.7 billion debt restructuring proposal from foreign creditors for the Asia Pulp and Paper Co. ECAs, from the U.S., Japan and European countries are among the creditors, proposed a separate plan, and urged Jakarta to intervene. See also NADI Asks: Why Should Common People Pay for Bad ECA Debt for more details on the social and environmental consequence of this ECA-backed debacle.

View 'back issues':

September 30, 2002