Fifty Campaign Groups Protest World Bank Failures on Controversial BTC Oil Pipeline

April 29, 2005 (Kurdish Media)— More than fifty human rights and environmental groups from thirteen countries have launched a protest against the failure of the World Bank to rectify ongoing problems with the controversial Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline. The groups outlined serious safety, environmental and human rights concerns with BTC in a detailed Memorandum to the Bank and other BTC project funders. The controversial pipeline is being built by the oil giant BP to take oil from the Caspian Sea through Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey to the Mediterranean. Most of its nearly £2B cost comes from public sources, including the UK ECA, the Export Credits Guarantee Department (ECGD), which is backing the pipeline with £60M public money.