A-Infos (en) ECUADOR: Cofan Tribe against occupies Texaco platform (excerpt)

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PIPELINE, Oilwatch Europe Newsletter, November 1998 C_O_N_T_E_N_T_S
Africa
-ANGOLA: low oil prices cut government budget by 25% 
-CONGO: Kabila alleged to pay for Angolese aid with offshore         
               concession 
-NIGERIA: * Thousands of Ogonis commemorate hangings in Bori 
                **  Ijaw activists keep flow stations occupied     
                *** Abubakar calls victims of Jesse disaster 'scavengers' 
 
Asia

-BURMA: report on forced labour during construction Yadana          
               pipeline

Latin America    

- ECUADOR: Cofan Tribe occupies Texaco platform
- ARGENTINA: Oilwatch statement on Climate Conference
- GUATAMALA: report on activities oil industry available 

Europe  

-EU parliament condemns role oil companies in Burma 
-DENMARK:The Danish NGO Ibis advises EU on code of conduct 
-FRANCE: Elf tried to influence foreign minister through prostitute
-BELGIUM: working group on Amazonia meeting in Brussels    
   
Headlines    

- Chevron admits transporting soldiers in Nigeria
- Texaco and Chevron oil workers kidnapped in Nigeria
- U.S.: attempt to decharter Unocal in California rejected    
- Elf seeks US$ 1 billion for new oil field in Nigeria    
- Shell sued for discrimination in the U.S. 
- AFP blames Shell for petrol scarcity in Nigeria    
- BP fires head security of Colombian division  
- Shell cuts 3,000 jobs worldwide    
- Merger between two biggest Japanese oil companies

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__A_F_R_I_C_A_____________________________________

-ANGOLA: low oil prices cut government budget by 25%   

The economic crisis in Angola following the slump in oil    
prices from $18 a barrel at the end of 1997 to around $12 has    
forced the Angolan government to slash its budget by a    
quarter. However, the prevailing security crisis has resulted    
in an overall increase in the defence spending, up from 5.7%    
to 9.12% of the total. Source: Angola Peace Monitor. Article can 
be forwarded on request 

-CONGO: Kabila alleged to pay for Angolese aid with offshore         
               concession 

Angola appears to have been paid off for its military support for 
President Laurent Kabila by gaining access to offshore oil fields. 
According to  allegations, printed in the London based
Southscan, the Angolan national oil company, Sonangol,
will be given access to offshore oil fields in return for
Angolan support for President Kabila. According to Etienne
Ngangura, spokesman for the anti-Kabila rebels, the Muanda
area has been earmarked for Sonangol. The area was previously
held by US oil companies. 
Sourse: http://www.gn.apc.org/southscan

NIGERIA: Thousands of Ogonis commemorate hangings in Bori

Thousands of Ogonis in Nigeria's southeast Delta region attended a 
rally in the town of Bori on the night of ninth of November to 
commemorate the execution of  Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight fellow 
Ogoni rights activists three years ago. The rally was addressed by 
Ledum Mitee, the acting president of the Movement for the Survival 
of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), Reuters said. 

Not only in Nigeria but also in the United States, Canada and 
Europe, protests, lectures, plays, memorial services, and films on 
environmental devastation and rights abuses in Nigeria were being 
held around the 10th of November in commemoration of the 
hangings.

NIGERIA: Ijaw activists keep flow stations occupied

The Ijaw youths, represented by the Federated Niger Delta Izon 
Communities (FNDIC) holding 20 flow stations run by Shell and 
Chevron in Niger Delta, are negotiating currently with Shell on the 
terms on which the platforms will be vacated. The occupations are 
entering there fifth week and are holding back 650,000 barrels per 
day in crude oil exports.   Source: IRIN West Africa, UN 
humanitarian information unit, 6 november 1998.
< irin-wa@africaonline.co.ci> <http://www.reliefweb.int>

NIGERIA: Abubakar calls victims of Jesse disaster 'scavengers' .

The new Nigerian leader showed another side of his personality by 
branding the over 500 victims of the explosion in Jesse as 
'scavengers'. Ignoring that many of the people wounded and killed 
were just curious on lookers and that the people gathering fuel 
were among the poorest in Nigeria, and ignoring that there had not 
been any prove of sabotage on the pipeline that should have been 
replaced ten years ago, he choose to blame the victims before any 
investigation into the accident had even started. Environmental 
Rights Action brought out two independent reports on the accident. 
Both can be forwarded on request. 

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BURMA: report on forced labour during construction Yadana 
pipeline

The French oil giant Total and the US-owned Unocal appear to have 
used forced labour in building a petroleum pipeline in Myanmar, 
according to a new US government report.

The report shies from  accusing Total and Unocal of using
forced labour, noting that Labour Department officials could not
independently confirm allegations because they could not get to 
the sites.

It notes however that Total's documented practice of using manual 
labour recruited by the army and quartered in army battalions 
demands explanation.The 95-page report will be presented in 
November to the governing body of the International Labour 
Organization. Source: AFP. Full article can be forwarded on 
request. 

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- ECUADOR: Cofan Tribe against occupies Texaco platform

Cofan indigenous communities are engaged in a tense stand-off     
with army troops over oil drilling in the Ecuadorian Amazon at an    
old Texaco drilling site that is currently operated by Petroecuador.   

On October 12th, some 76  families, comprising about 450 people,  
took over the Dureno oil well, which lies 12 kilometres from the     
town of Lago Agrio to protest the operations of the oil wells which    
 lie within 20 metres of water sources that supply the Cofan.    

"For centuries we have lived in this ancestral territory of ours as    
guardians of this forest, as its children and its sole owners. We     
have given land, food, materials, and work for so-called     
development, and in the process, we have become more     
impoverished and our very existence as a people is threatened,"     

says a press release from the occupying families that was     
distributed by Accion Ecologica, an environmental group based in   
Quito. Source: Project Underground http://www.moles.org    


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