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Honoring Chevron With The Secretary's Award for Corporate Excellence
“But we went further in our own assessment of the top 100, we looked at the taxes paid over a period of time and that is why the federal inland revenue service is on the board. We also look at the employment they are generating and they have generated. We look at the level of investment they have in Nigeria and then their contributions in terms of social responsibility.” SIGN THIS PETITION!
Tell the State Department: Don't honor Chevron for its "corporate excellence.
"http://act.credoaction.com/sign/chevron_state_department/
Tell the State Department: Don't honor Chevron for its "corporate excellence.
"http://act.credoaction.com/sign/chevron_state_department/
Honoring Chevron with the Secretary's Award for Corporate Excellence
From The APP Newswire – The All Pompous Press – Autumn 2014 heralds landslide months of global awards for Chevron.
http://thenationonlineng.net/new/chevron-wins-cipm-awards-2/
Chevron Nigeria Limited (CNL), won the 2014 edition of the Chartered Institute of Personnel Management (CIPM) of Nigeria’s Human Resources (HR) Best Practice Awards in the Oil & Gas category and the Overall category. According to CIPM, Chevron Nigeria received both awards as recognition of the company’s robust human resources practices and policies, and engagement of employees on HR related issues.
The Nigerian Federal Government in Abuja said it had the names of Nigeria’s top 100 companies scheduled to have dinner with President Goodluck Jonathan during the presentation of the award on December 1, 2014.
The chairman of the Assessment Committee, Jim Obazee announced to journalists at a press briefing that companies that made the top 100 list include CHEVRON from the oil and gas industry, GLOBACOM in the telecoms, First Bank in the banking industry among others.
“But we went further in our own assessment of the top 100, we looked at the taxes paid over a period of time and that is why the federal inland revenue service is on the board. We also look at the employment they are generating and they have generated. We look at the level of investment they have in Nigeria and then their contributions in terms of social responsibility.”
19 Years Of Contributions In Terms Of Social Responsibility
There is less tension in Nigeria today, than 25 years ago. We must remember Ken Saro-Wiwa. In 1990, Saro-Wiwa launched a non-violent movement for social and ecological justice in his Ogoni homeland and the Niger Delta. The movement he led accused the Nigerian government and Shell and Chevron of waging an ecological war and genocidal series of attacks against the peoples of the Delta.
The movement was so effective, that by 1993 Shell had to pull out of Ogoni. The response by Shell and the military government of Nigeria was to frame him for murder and execute him. The hanging of Ken Saro-Wiwa dramatically and tragically illustrated the true price of oil.
Nine men – Baribor Bera, Saturday Dobee, Nordu Eawo, Daniel Gbokoo, Barinem Kiobel, John Kpuinen, Paul Levura, Felix Nuate and Ken Saro-Wiwa – were hanged 19 years ago, on the morning of November 10, 1995, in the yard of Nigeria’s Port Harcourt prison.
Witnesses reported that Saro-Wiwa’s last words were, “Lord take my soul, but the struggle continues.”
Today, Nigeria's struggle with oil, and toxic cleanup sadly continues:
http://priceofoil.org/2014/11/10/shell-accused-hijacking-clean-process-niger-delta/
“As Patrick Naagbanton, the environmental rights activist, who himself is from Ogoni, argues in this month’s New Internationalist magazine: “a new wave of anger, manifesting in large protests, is sweeping through Nigeria’s Ogoni enclave”. In one blockade last December, nearly 5,000 women and children protested at the Government’s lack of action on implementing the recommendations contained in a pivotal UNEP report on the state of pollution in Ogoni.”
http://newint.org/
Royal Dutch Shell Doesn't Get Any Awards
The original “Shell In Nigeria” UNEP report was published in 2011 and called for the “world’s most wide-ranging and long term clean-up exercise ever undertaken”. UNEP argued that the Nigerian government and oil industry should pay $1 billion needed for the extensive clean-up.”
http://postconflict.unep.ch/publications/OEA/UNEP_OEA.pdf
Abuja, 4 August 2011 - The environmental restoration of Ogoniland could prove to be the world's most wide-ranging and long term oil clean-up exercise ever undertaken if contaminated drinking water, land, creeks and important ecosystems such as mangroves are to be brought back to full, productive health.
http://www.unep.org/newscentre/Default.aspx?DocumentID=2649&ArticleID=8827
“The assessment has been unprecedented. Over a 14-month period, the UNEP team examined more than 200 locations, surveyed 122 kilometres of pipeline rights of way, reviewed more than 5,000 medical records and engaged over 23,000 people at local community meetings.
Detailed soil and groundwater contamination investigations were conducted at 69 sites.
“Altogether more than 4,000 samples were analyzed, including water taken from 142 groundwater monitoring wells drilled specifically for the study and soil extracted from 780 boreholes.”
Key Findings
“Some areas, which appear unaffected at the surface, are in reality severely contaminated underground and action to protect human health and reduce the risks to affected communities should occur without delay says UNEP's Environmental Assessment of Ogoniland.”
“In at least 10 Ogoni communities where drinking water is contaminated with high levels of hydrocarbons, public health is seriously threatened, according to the assessment that was released today.”
“In one community, at Nisisioken Ogale, in western Ogoniland, families are drinking water from wells that is contaminated with benzene- a known carcinogen-at levels over 900 times above World Health Organization guidelines. The site is close to a Nigerian National Petroleum Company pipeline.”
“UNEP scientists found an 8 cm layer of refined oil floating on the groundwater which serves the wells. This was reportedly linked to an oil spill which occurred more than six years ago. While the report provides clear operational recommendations for addressing the widespread oil pollution across Ogoniland, UNEP recommends that the contamination in Nisisioken Ogale warrants emergency action ahead of all other remediation efforts.”
“While some on-the-ground results could be immediate, overall the report estimates that countering and cleaning up the pollution and catalyzing a sustainable recovery of Ogoniland could take 25 to 30 years.”
UNEP presented its report to the President of Nigeria, The Hon Goodluck Jonathan, in the Nigerian capital Abuja, 3 months after his being elected. Among its other findings are:
1) Control and maintenance of oilfield infrastructure in Ogoniland has been and remains inadequate: the Shell Petroleum Development Company's own procedures have not been applied, creating public health and safety issues.
2) The impact of oil on mangrove vegetation has been disastrous. Oil pollution in many intertidal creeks has left mangroves-nurseries for fish and natural pollution filters- denuded of leaves and stems with roots coated in a layer of bitumen-type substance sometimes one centimetre or more thick.
3) The five highest concentrations of Total Petroleum Hydrocarbons detected in groundwater exceed 1 million micrograms per litre (µg/l) - compared to the Nigerian standard for groundwater of 600 µg/l.
4) When an oil spill occurs on land, fires often break out, killing vegetation and creating a crust over the land, making remediation or revegetation difficult. At some sites, a crust of ash and tar has been in place for several decades.
5) The surface water throughout the creeks in and surrounding Ogoniland contain hydrocarbons. Floating layers of oil vary from thick black oil to thin sheens.
Remote sensing has revealed that one area, an increase in artisanal refining between 2007 and 2011 has been accompanied by a 10% loss of healthy mangrove cover - over 307,380 square metres.
6) Remediation by enhanced natural attenuation (RENA) - a way of boosting the ability of naturally-occuring microbes to breakdown oil and so far the only remediation method observed by UNEP in Ogoniland - has not proven to be effective.
Currently, SPDC applies this technique on the land surface layer only, based on the assumption that given the kind of oil concerned, factors such as temperature and an underlying layer of clay, hydrocarbons will not move deeper. However, in 49 cases UNEP observed hydrocarbons in soil at depths of at least 5 m.
In 2013, 2 years after the UNEP report: “A former chairman of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People’s provisional council, Prof. Ben Naanen, has said Ogoni people are disappointed with President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration for failing to act on the United Nations Environmental Programme report on Ogoniland, two years after it was published. “The Federal Government has to do something about this situation urgently. Two years after the report was released, absolutely nothing has happened. We are disappointed about the fact that the Federal Government has been doing absolutely nothing about all the recommendations of the UNEP on Ogoni.”
“And for a government that is led by President Goodluck Jonathan, who is from the Niger-Delta, we are really disappointed. We are disappointed with the present government. If it were somewhere else, they would have scurried to implement that report a long time ago.”
http://www.punchng.com/news/unep-report-jonathan-disappointed-ogoni-people/
“Statistics and ratings show that the Nigerian economy has consistently maintained an unprecedented growth rate of 6-7per cent under the Jonathan administration. They also show that the Nigerian economy is now the leading economy in Africa and the 26th largest in the world with a gross domestic product of over $500bn per annum.” President Goodluck Jonathan Oct 17, 2014
Nigeria Has A GDP of $550 Billion
Human Rights Watch, declared in their World Report January 2014 - Nigeria http://www.refworld.org/docid/52dfddc59.html
“The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) made little progress combating corruption in the public sector. In a major setback in ending impunity for corruption among political officeholders, President Goodluck Jonathan in March 2013 "pardoned" Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, a former governor of Bayelsa State, and the only governor to have served prison time in Nigeria for corruption.”
“Corruption cases against several dozen senior politicians, as well as oil marketers for their alleged role in a fraudulent fuel subsidy scheme, had still not been completed at time of writing. Executive interference with the EFCC, a weak and overburdened judiciary, and the agency's own missteps, including failing to appeal tenuous rulings or prosecute senior politicians credibly implicated in corruption, have continued to undermine its efficacy. The country's other prominent anti-corruption agency, the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), established in 2000 to tackle corruption in the public sector, failed to file charges or achieve any major convictions in 2013.”
Violence and Poverty in the Oil-Producing Niger Delta
“The federal government's 2009 amnesty program, which saw some 26,000 militants, youth, and gang members surrender weapons in exchange for amnesty and monthly cash stipends, have reduced attacks on oil facilities in the Niger Delta. The government has doled out these financial incentives of US$400 million annually, (from the additional oil revenue accruing to government following the amnesty) but has still not addressed the region's underlying causes of violence and discontent, such as poverty, public sector corruption, environmental degradation from oil spills, and impunity for politically sponsored violence. In June, the government announced 2015 as the terminal date for the program and acknowledged that its inability to secure jobs for the trained ex-militants or implement an orderly exit strategy may portend more danger for the region.”
One week before the celebratory dinner, Nigeria’s former President, Olusegun Obasanjo, lampooned the National Assembly, saying it is largely an assemblage of looters and thieves. Mr. Obasanjo, who was speaking at the public presentation of the autobiography of Justice Mustapha Akanbi, in Abuja, regretted that every aspect of Nigeria’s national life is riddled with corruption.
“However, there were a few exceptions of people who stand out and would not succumb to the scourge of sleaze, even in the federal legislature.” In a speech delivered at the public presentation of “The Story Of My Two Worlds; Challenges, Experiences And Achievements” written by Justice Akanbi, the pioneer chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Related Offenses Commission, former president Obasanjo said the “National Assembly, is shrouding its corruption in the opaque nature of its budget, and has damaged its capacity to oversight the executive.”
Robust Human Resources Practices And Policies
But the December 2014 dinner with President Goodluck Jonathan celebrates robust human resources practices and policies by Chevron and other corporations in Nigeria. Chairman Obazee stated that “the celebration portends to Nigeria that the government of the day was finding a way to bring home to the citizens what value on to be placed on non-financial information of the companies.”
http://topshotprofessional.blogspot.com/2014/11/glo-chevron-fbn-other-for-award.html
Now, also in those very same months of Autumn 2014, Chevron's corporate social responsibility index was near zero regarding more than 20 years years of unsettled Burma (Myanmar) Yadana Pipeline accusations and the Ecuadoran Amazon Rainforest People's lawsuit stemming from 30 years of toxic dumping in the Oriente, and among the Chadians.
In the Ecuadoran case, Chevron's gambled on courtroom deceit and use of the civil racketeering law and won – temporarily - even with the overwhelming weight of legal authority in our federal courts that was lined up against Chevron on the issue. Also against Chevron was the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce (which does not want racketeering laws to be used to target corporations).
But a Judge Kaplan, in New York ruled otherwise. An appeal is currently underway.
http://banslickwaterfracking.blogspot.com/2014/11/the-story-of-chevrons-ecuador-disaster.html
The untenable legal position advocated by Chevron and NOW, that private parties should be able to use the civil racketeering law to target their political and litigation adversaries, is highly controversial and likely to lose in court.
http://thechevronpit.blogspot.com/2014/10/a-hard-look-at-nows-support-for-chevron.html
The relationship between the National Organization for Women ("NOW") and Chevron in the Ecuador pollution case continues in even more interesting ways.
http://thechevronpit.blogspot.com/2014/10/chevron-paying-big-bucks-to-now-and.html
A Look at NOW's Support For Chevron In Ecuador Case Raises Ethical Concerns
Elaine Wood of National Organization for Women (NOW) Questioned About Failure to Tell Appellate Court About Her Business Ties to Chevron
October 22, 2014
http://thechevronpit.blogspot.com/2014/10/a-hard-look-at-nows-support-for-chevron.html
“Indigenous women in Ecuador for two decades have been part of an extraordinary community-based effort to hold Chevron accountable for deliberately dumping billions of gallons of toxic waste into the Amazon and creating an ecological calamity of shocking proportions. This dumping is visible for the world to see and has been verified by hundreds of journalists and visitors to the region as well as three layers of courts in Ecuador.”
“The question for NOW: why would it sacrifice its credibility for what appears to be temporary support from a big oil company? Even in Ms. Wood’s friend of the court brief, there is no mitigating language distancing NOW from Chevron’s atrocities in Ecuador. It reads as if it was designed, if not actually written by, a Chevron lawyer.”
Soft Corruption In Action
In one settlement offer, Chevron offered Ecuador’s government $700 million in "debt relief" in lieu of claims settlement. Wiki-leaks cables also show close collaboration between Chevron executives and U.S. diplomats in Quito to undermine the claims of the villagers.
http://chevrontoxico.com/news-and-multimedia/2011/0921-wikileaks-cables-expose-chevron-lobbying-of-ecuador-government-to-kill-environmental-case
In summation, what is known about Elaine Wood’s and NOW’s relationship to Chevron:
“In 2012, just as the Ecuador case in the U.S. was heating up, Chevron suddenly gave its first donation to NOW’s legal arm. Chevron’s main outside law firm in the Ecuador matter also gave a large donation.”
“Shortly thereafter, NOW's legal arm submitted a legal brief for Chevron without disclosing its ties to the company.”
“The person who signed the brief, Elaine Wood, works for a consulting company that counts Chevron as a client. She is also not a practicing lawyer and is not on the staff of NOW's legal group.”
“Ms. Wood formerly worked in the same division of the U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan where Randy Mastro worked. Mastro is Chevron's lead outside lawyer on the Ecuador matter.”
“NOW's legal arm has refused to verify that it has disclosed all of the donations it received from Chevron or any of its related entities, including Mastro's law firm.”
“Ms. Wood should also disclose whether the work Alvarez & Marsal has performed for Chevron involves the company's campaign to evade its Ecuador liability.”
“Ms. Wood also should explain why she, the person at NOW with ties to Chevron, signed the legal brief alone. Is there anyone familiar with the practice of a Board Chair writing a legal brief for her own non-profit organization when that organization has a staff of lawyers assigned to do that work?”
Around the world: ChevronTexaco have left a toxic legacy in Ecuador.
In Cameroon and Chad, which border Nigeria, Chevron is partners in the Cameroon pipeline.
In Burma, Chevron is partners in the Yadana pipeline, bringing offshore oil and gas to Thailand and China.
Burma’s political situation in brief: Burma has been under military rule since 1962. National uprising in 1988. National election in 1990: National League for Democracy (NLD), led by Aung San Suu Kyi, won a landslide victory with 82% of parliamentary seats.
Instead of transferring power to NLD, the military arrested and tortured many.
Saffron Revolution in 2007
Election law announced by the ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) - NLD did not participate in 2010 election. Pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, 63 years old and Nobel Peace prize winner, has spent more than 12of the past 18 years in detention. Over 2,100 political prisoners are still held in Burmese prisons.
At independence, Burma was one of Asia’s richest countries. Now it is among the poorest. Most of the people live under 1US$ per day. Internally Displaced People (IDP) number 540,000 by war or human rights abuses. There are an estimated 155,000 people live in refugee camps along the Thai-Burma border. The economy is mismanaged. People cannot afford even basic needs due to chronic inflation in the hundreds of percent. An estimated 35% of children under 5 years old suffer from malnutrition. The Junta and cronies are very, very rich, even though regionally, 57 million people are facing poverty. (2010 Arakan Oil Watch SE Asia Regional Meeting)
Burma’s military continues to engage in systemic torture against civilians in its ongoing war in Kachin State, now in its third year, and committing “war crimes” and “crimes against humanity,” a leading human rights watchdog has claimed in a report released Nov 7, 2014.
The 71-page report entitled, “Ending Wartime Torture in Northern Myanmar”, by Fortify Rights, documents the torture and abuse of civilians by the Burma Army, Military Intelligence and the Police, from June 2011 to April 2014 and uses 78 first-hand accounts. Fortify Rights said that the use of torture by the Burma Army was systemic and had the support of President U Thein Sein’s government.
“The Kachin State conflict, which first erupted in June 2011 with a Burma Army offensive against the Kachin Independence Organisation (KIO) shattering a 17-year ceasefire, has displaced more than 100,000 civilians into 165 displacement camps in Kachin State and neighboring Shan State, and has claimed hundreds of lives. Far from a small and localized conflict, the Kachin war has seen the use of government helicopter gunships, heavy artillery and jet fighters.”
Matthew Smith, executive director of Fortify Rights, has accused the Burma Army of acting with total impunity. “The authorities have tortured Kachin civilians with brutal and inhuman tactics, and those responsible for these crimes have acted with complete impunity for three years,” he said, “The government must fulfill its duty to put a stop to these serious crimes and ensure accountability for abuses.”
UNHCR estimates that there were 372,000 IDPs in Burma in January 2014 (UNHCR, 2014), Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) estimates that there were 643,000 IDPs due to conflict and violence in Burma as of July 2014. In September 2014, only 12,802 IDPs in eastern Burma ived in IDP camps, while the vast majority have to manage without any protection or aid apart from help from small local ethnic organizations.
Burma is not a party to an international legal treaty known as the Rome Statute, any action from the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands would first require UN involvement. A new report on violence by Burma's military was just published. Its release also comes just weeks after the Burma Army admitted that journalist Aung Kyaw Naing was shot dead while in military custody.
http://www.irrawaddy.org/burma/missing-reporter-killed-custody-burma-army-report.html
Then just 4 years ago, in 2010, the world learned of Myanmar's nuclear goals. Burma’s military rulers, it seemed, had been using natural gas revenue from US and French energy giants Chevron and Total to fund an illegal bid to build nuclear weapons. By 2012, the Myanmar Military had to come clean: “There has long been speculation, bolstered by reports from defectors, that Myanmar, also known as Burma, may be secretly developing a nuclear program of some sort with the help of North Korea.”
“The reformist government of President Thein Sein last month announced it would sign an international agreement that would require it to declare all nuclear facilities and materials. Although it would be up to Myanmar to decide what to declare, it could provide some answers concerning its acquisition of dual-use machinery and its military cooperation with Pyongyang that the U.S. and other nations regard as suspect.”
By June 2012, it was declared “Myanmar has formally abandoned its pursuit of nuclear power and has also scaled back its military and political ties with North Korea.” In mid-May, the president of Myanmar, Thein Sein, assured his South Korean counterpart, Lee Myung-bak, that his country would no longer purchase weapons from North Korea. Sein took pains to emphasize that Myanmar had only bought conventional weapons, not atomic arms, from North Korea over the past two decades.”
http://www.ibtimes.com/myanmar-abandons-nuclear-program-defense-minister-701322
The 2010 report-
Energy Insecurity: How Total, Chevron, and PTTEP Contribute to Human Rights Violations, Financial Secrecy, and Nuclear Proliferation in Burma (Myanmar)
http://www.burmapartnership.org/2010/07/energy-insecurity-how-total-chevron-and-pttep-contribute-to-human-rights-violations-financial-secrecy-and-nuclear-proliferation-in-burma/
This report also revealed on-going, serious human rights abuses associated with the Yadana project, including the recent extra-judicial killing of two ethnic Mon villagers in the pipeline area confirmed by EarthRights International in February of this year. The report goes on to analyzes how both Total and Chevron remain liable for these and other serious human rights abuse in their home countries.
English
http://d2zyt4oqqla0dw.cloudfront.net/sites/default/files/publications/total-impact.pdf
French
http://d2zyt4oqqla0dw.cloudfront.net/sites/default/files/publications/total-impact-french.pdf
EarthRights International had previously sued Unocal Corporation (now Chevron) for complicity in murder, rape, torture, and forced labor in connection to the same gas pipeline. In 2005, Unocal paid Burmese plaintiffs a confidential settlement before the company was acquired by Chevron. Download the full report here:
http://www.burmapartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/energy-insecurity.pdf
“A group of Myanmar residents filed a lawsuit against Unocal in US federal court in 1996. The plaintiffs alleged they had suffered human rights abuses such as forced labour, murder, rape and torture at the hands of the Myanmar military during construction of a gas pipeline, and that Unocal was complicit in these abuses. Unocal and Myanmar’s military government were in a consortium for the pipeline’s construction. The parties reached an out-of-court settlement in which Unocal agreed to compensate the plaintiffs and provide funds for programmes in Myanmar to improve living conditions and protect the rights of people from the pipeline region (the exact terms of the settlement are confidential). This settlement was accepted by the court, and the case was closed on April 13, 2005.”
Just 5 years had passed, and as the report “Energy Insecurity: How Total, Chevron, and PTTEP Contribute to Human Rights Violations, Financial Secrecy, and Nuclear Proliferation in Burma (Myanmar)” was being presented in Paris, international headlines began telling the story of how “Energy Giants Were Funding Burma’s Nuclear Drive.”
http://www.burmapartnership.org/2010/07/energy-giants-fund-burmas-nuclear-drive/
“Burma’s Yadana gas pipeline, run by the two companies along with Thai firm PTTEP, made billions of dollars for the military leaders, the Paris-based group EarthRights International said, citing data from the firms. The Thailand based NGO also branded the companies complicit in human rights abuses such as targeted killings and forced labor at the pipeline.”
It said Chevron, Total and PTTEP had generated US$9 billion dollars from Burma’s Yadana gas pipeline since 1998, more than half of which had gone straight to the ruling junta.
“These companies are financing the world’s newest nuclear threat with multi-billion dollar payments,” EarthRights said in a statement. “The funds have enabled the country’s autocratic junta to maintain power and pursue an expensive, illegal nuclear weapons program.”
In the 1990s, the French oil giant Total and its corporate partners moved into the remote and ethnically diverse Tenasserim region in southern Burma to construct a pipeline to export Burmese natural gas to Thailand, which today generates electricity for the Bangkok metropolitan area. A business as usual approach ensued,.
“Suraphol Duangkhae, deputy secretary general of the Wildlife Fund of Thailand, said PTT should not have been allowed to start construction before the environmental impact assessment has been completed to everybody’s satisfaction.”
“The initial EIA completed in 1996 by an engineering consultancy firm was been rejected twice by Thailand’s Office of Environmental Policy and Planning during the past few months due to incomplete information on the impact of the 26 km long, and 20 to 80 meter wide project route on the forest and on key wildlife species in the area.”
“The pipeline route will cut across a large area of some of the most diverse forest ecosystems in the region, which includes national parks and world heritage sites. The affected forest area boasts of 120 species of land mammals, 45 percent of Thailand’s total and 33 percent of mainland South-east Asia’s species.”
A third route was finally chosen.
“According to a report on the project prepared by a Bangkok based NGO, Towards Ecological Recovery and Regional Alliance (TERRA), the proposed route of the Thai section of the Yadana Gas Pipeline also falls within the Tennaserim Range seismic zone.”
http://www.ipsnews.net/1997/04/burma-thailand-burmese-pipeline-under-fire/
The evidence shows that human rights abuses are still a terrible reality of project security in Burma’s extractive industries, despite Total and Chevron’s claims otherwise. Based on more than two years of research, “Total Impact” included photographs and hundreds of interviews with local villagers in the pipeline area that reveal widespread and systematic forced labor, extrajudicial killings and torture, and violations of the rights to property and freedom of movement, all committed by Total and Chevron’s pipeline security battalions.
http://d2zyt4oqqla0dw.cloudfront.net/sites/default/files/publications/total-impact.pdf
Chevron Awards Quality Decisions, The Chevron Way
Corporate Social Irresponsibility and Misrepresentations Surrounding Total and Chevron’s Yadana Gas Pipeline in Military-Ruled Burma (Myanmar)
September 10, 2009
http://www.bnionline.net/news/mizzima/7015-burmese-generals-siphon-off-about-usd-5-billion-from-sale-of-gas.html
In the case of Total’s whitewashing, five favorable assessments of the company’s impacts in Burma, were published by a US-based organization called CDA Collaborative Learning Projects.
Based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and purporting “to help corporate managers better understand the impacts of corporate activities on the contexts in which they work” CDA was commissioned by Total in 2002 to assess the companies’ impacts in Burma.
The assessments were the subject of a second report released by ERI, entitled ”Getting it Wrong: Flawed ‘Corporate Social Responsibility’ and Misrepresentations Surrounding Total and Chevron’s Yadana Gas Pipeline in Military-Ruled Burma (Myanmar)”.
The 84 page report, based on seven years of research and hundreds of interviews with local villagers, details the myriad problems with CDA’s work for Total in Burma. Since 2002, the organization visited Total’s “as-defined pipeline villages” on five separate occasions with escorts from the oil company, at times using interpreters provided by Total. Regarded as experts on Total’s impacts in Burma, CDA’s methodology provided for a grand total of 20 days in the Yadana pipeline corridor over a period of seven years.
Problems stem from CDA interviewing villagers in groups and in the presence of Total staff and military intelligence, which alone contravenes international best practice as well as every effective strategy for safely maneuvering through the repression, smoke and mirrors that are common under Burma’s dictatorship.
Despite the controversy surrounding the Yadana project, Total has never come clean.
The Thailand based ‘Earth Rights International’ (ENI) issued a 101-page report entitled ‘Total Impact: The Human Rights, Environmental and Financial Impacts of Total and Chevron’s Yadana Gas Project in Military-Ruled Burma (Myanmar)’.
“In the policy world, the irony is palpable. While the United States and France have consistently enacted ”tough” economic policies toward the Burmese military regime, Total of France and Chevron of the US have generated the multi-billion dollar revenues through the Yadana project that effectively undermine the policies of their home governments, ensuring their ineffectiveness. Policymakers have grappled with this for years.”
“While reasonable minds will still differ about the best ways to promote development in Burma, perhaps everyone can agree that misappropriating multi-billion dollar natural gas revenues generated from the peoples’ natural heritage, and at the cost of their basic human rights, is unacceptable, particularly when the country suffers beneath the lowest social spending in Asia.”
http://bigozine2.com/feature/?p=278
“In May 2011 at Chevron’s annual shareholder meeting, 22 indigenous, First Nation, and other impacted community members and supporters who had traveled to the company’s headquarters from locations around the globe and across the state confronted CEO John Watson with the brutal human and environmental abuses caused by the oil giants operations.
Watson struggled to defend his company’s record in the face of the devastating criticism from institutional investors, shareholders, and impacted community members and was instead forced to turn multiple times to pre-packed video and slideshows prepared prior to the meeting.”
“Outside the meeting, 150 supporters rallied in a colorful and creative protest against the company’s operations around the world and across their home state. In the video below, ERI’s Paul Donowitz speaks to the crowd about Chevron’s operations in Burma and their opposition to new transparency regulations in the US.”
“Community leaders from Angola, Ecuador, Nigeria, Indonesia, the tarsands of Canada, Alaska, Texas, and Richmond, and those representing communities in China, Australia, the Philippines, Kazakhstan, and more attended the meeting as share- and proxy-holders providing first-hand descriptions of their lives and environment in and around Chevron’s operations.”
“Half the meeting became a referendum on the company’s disastrous track record of supporting brutal dictators in Burma, decimating local livelihoods though its offshore operations in Alaska and Angola, and causing mass pollution and destruction of human health in locations as diverse as Ecuador, Richmond, California, Kazakhstan, Indonesia, and Nigeria.”
“Emem Okon of the Kebetkache Women Development and Resource Centre, who had come from Nigeria’s Niger Delta, challenged Watson’s assertions that the company had improved its record on flaring.”
“I am here to represent the women of the Niger Delta who live in communities near gas flares and who suffer health issues of infertility, early menopause, miscarriages, cancer, rashes; women who fish in waters polluted by Chevron.” Ms. Okon asked CEO Watson, “When will Chevron stop environmental violence against women? When will Chevron stop the toxic flares in the Niger Delta. When will Chevron management meet with the women of the Niger Delta and their international allies.”
“Gitz Crazyboy (Ryan) Deranger, of the First Nation Dene/Pikini (Blackfoot) people, came to the meeting from Alberta, Canada where Chevron is partner in extensive tarsands operations. Chevron’s pollution is killing our way of life. Our moose and caribou are dying. Our fish are dying. Chevron is destroying our culture, Chevron is committing cultural genocide.”
“Chevron’s understanding and definition of human rights is completely distorted. Their approach is to respond with charity work, but this does not address the long-term sustainable economic and social challenges facing the local fishing communities of Cabinda Province.”
Each speaker carried a copy of the True Cost of Chevron: An Alternative Annual Report, on which all had worked.
http://www.earthrights.org/publication/true-cost-chevron-may-2011
Speakers provided the report to eager shareholders, but when a Richmond, California resident (the Reverend Kenneth Davis) attempted to hand the report to Watson, he was stopped by private security guards. Watson threatened to stop the entire meeting if the Reverend insisted on handing the report directly to him.
http://www.burmapartnership.org/2011/05/chevron-withers-under-criticism-from-communities-suffering-human-rights-and-environmental-harms/
Chevron's role in propping up the brutal regime in Burma is clear. According to Marco Simons, U.S. legal director at EarthRights International: "Sanctions haven't worked because gas is the lifeline of the regime. Before Yadana went online, Burma's regime was facing severe shortages of currency. It's really Yadana and gas projects that kept the military regime afloat to buy arms and ammunition and pay its soldiers."
The U.S. government has had sanctions in place against Burma since 1997. A loophole exists, though, for companies grandfathered in. Unocal's exemption from the Burma sanctions has been passed on to its new owner, Chevron.
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi Speech at ILO – YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0w9IWh98gg
“Myanmar needs democracy-friendly development growth”, says Aung San Suu Kyi.
Tell the State Department: Don't honor Chevron for its "corporate excellence.
"http://act.credoaction.com/sign/chevron_state_department/
According to a State Department news release, "The U.S. Department of State Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs has announced the selection of nine finalists for the Secretary of State’s prestigious 2014 Award for Corporate Excellence (ACE)." The news release also states: “Chevron in Burma assisted local communities in 1,500 villages through its sustainable health improvement and empowerment program by providing funding to villagers for improvements in business, transmittable disease prevention (TB/malaria), agricultural practices, and infrastructure.”
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/12/08/1350387/-State-Department-selects-Chevron-as-finalist-for-corporate-excellence-award
SIGN THIS PETITION!
Tell the State Department: Don't honor Chevron for its "corporate excellence.
"http://act.credoaction.com/sign/chevron_state_department/
Tomas DiFIore
From The APP Newswire – The All Pompous Press – Autumn 2014 heralds landslide months of global awards for Chevron.
http://thenationonlineng.net/new/chevron-wins-cipm-awards-2/
Chevron Nigeria Limited (CNL), won the 2014 edition of the Chartered Institute of Personnel Management (CIPM) of Nigeria’s Human Resources (HR) Best Practice Awards in the Oil & Gas category and the Overall category. According to CIPM, Chevron Nigeria received both awards as recognition of the company’s robust human resources practices and policies, and engagement of employees on HR related issues.
The Nigerian Federal Government in Abuja said it had the names of Nigeria’s top 100 companies scheduled to have dinner with President Goodluck Jonathan during the presentation of the award on December 1, 2014.
The chairman of the Assessment Committee, Jim Obazee announced to journalists at a press briefing that companies that made the top 100 list include CHEVRON from the oil and gas industry, GLOBACOM in the telecoms, First Bank in the banking industry among others.
“But we went further in our own assessment of the top 100, we looked at the taxes paid over a period of time and that is why the federal inland revenue service is on the board. We also look at the employment they are generating and they have generated. We look at the level of investment they have in Nigeria and then their contributions in terms of social responsibility.”
19 Years Of Contributions In Terms Of Social Responsibility
There is less tension in Nigeria today, than 25 years ago. We must remember Ken Saro-Wiwa. In 1990, Saro-Wiwa launched a non-violent movement for social and ecological justice in his Ogoni homeland and the Niger Delta. The movement he led accused the Nigerian government and Shell and Chevron of waging an ecological war and genocidal series of attacks against the peoples of the Delta.
The movement was so effective, that by 1993 Shell had to pull out of Ogoni. The response by Shell and the military government of Nigeria was to frame him for murder and execute him. The hanging of Ken Saro-Wiwa dramatically and tragically illustrated the true price of oil.
Nine men – Baribor Bera, Saturday Dobee, Nordu Eawo, Daniel Gbokoo, Barinem Kiobel, John Kpuinen, Paul Levura, Felix Nuate and Ken Saro-Wiwa – were hanged 19 years ago, on the morning of November 10, 1995, in the yard of Nigeria’s Port Harcourt prison.
Witnesses reported that Saro-Wiwa’s last words were, “Lord take my soul, but the struggle continues.”
Today, Nigeria's struggle with oil, and toxic cleanup sadly continues:
http://priceofoil.org/2014/11/10/shell-accused-hijacking-clean-process-niger-delta/
“As Patrick Naagbanton, the environmental rights activist, who himself is from Ogoni, argues in this month’s New Internationalist magazine: “a new wave of anger, manifesting in large protests, is sweeping through Nigeria’s Ogoni enclave”. In one blockade last December, nearly 5,000 women and children protested at the Government’s lack of action on implementing the recommendations contained in a pivotal UNEP report on the state of pollution in Ogoni.”
http://newint.org/
Royal Dutch Shell Doesn't Get Any Awards
The original “Shell In Nigeria” UNEP report was published in 2011 and called for the “world’s most wide-ranging and long term clean-up exercise ever undertaken”. UNEP argued that the Nigerian government and oil industry should pay $1 billion needed for the extensive clean-up.”
http://postconflict.unep.ch/publications/OEA/UNEP_OEA.pdf
Abuja, 4 August 2011 - The environmental restoration of Ogoniland could prove to be the world's most wide-ranging and long term oil clean-up exercise ever undertaken if contaminated drinking water, land, creeks and important ecosystems such as mangroves are to be brought back to full, productive health.
http://www.unep.org/newscentre/Default.aspx?DocumentID=2649&ArticleID=8827
“The assessment has been unprecedented. Over a 14-month period, the UNEP team examined more than 200 locations, surveyed 122 kilometres of pipeline rights of way, reviewed more than 5,000 medical records and engaged over 23,000 people at local community meetings.
Detailed soil and groundwater contamination investigations were conducted at 69 sites.
“Altogether more than 4,000 samples were analyzed, including water taken from 142 groundwater monitoring wells drilled specifically for the study and soil extracted from 780 boreholes.”
Key Findings
“Some areas, which appear unaffected at the surface, are in reality severely contaminated underground and action to protect human health and reduce the risks to affected communities should occur without delay says UNEP's Environmental Assessment of Ogoniland.”
“In at least 10 Ogoni communities where drinking water is contaminated with high levels of hydrocarbons, public health is seriously threatened, according to the assessment that was released today.”
“In one community, at Nisisioken Ogale, in western Ogoniland, families are drinking water from wells that is contaminated with benzene- a known carcinogen-at levels over 900 times above World Health Organization guidelines. The site is close to a Nigerian National Petroleum Company pipeline.”
“UNEP scientists found an 8 cm layer of refined oil floating on the groundwater which serves the wells. This was reportedly linked to an oil spill which occurred more than six years ago. While the report provides clear operational recommendations for addressing the widespread oil pollution across Ogoniland, UNEP recommends that the contamination in Nisisioken Ogale warrants emergency action ahead of all other remediation efforts.”
“While some on-the-ground results could be immediate, overall the report estimates that countering and cleaning up the pollution and catalyzing a sustainable recovery of Ogoniland could take 25 to 30 years.”
UNEP presented its report to the President of Nigeria, The Hon Goodluck Jonathan, in the Nigerian capital Abuja, 3 months after his being elected. Among its other findings are:
1) Control and maintenance of oilfield infrastructure in Ogoniland has been and remains inadequate: the Shell Petroleum Development Company's own procedures have not been applied, creating public health and safety issues.
2) The impact of oil on mangrove vegetation has been disastrous. Oil pollution in many intertidal creeks has left mangroves-nurseries for fish and natural pollution filters- denuded of leaves and stems with roots coated in a layer of bitumen-type substance sometimes one centimetre or more thick.
3) The five highest concentrations of Total Petroleum Hydrocarbons detected in groundwater exceed 1 million micrograms per litre (µg/l) - compared to the Nigerian standard for groundwater of 600 µg/l.
4) When an oil spill occurs on land, fires often break out, killing vegetation and creating a crust over the land, making remediation or revegetation difficult. At some sites, a crust of ash and tar has been in place for several decades.
5) The surface water throughout the creeks in and surrounding Ogoniland contain hydrocarbons. Floating layers of oil vary from thick black oil to thin sheens.
Remote sensing has revealed that one area, an increase in artisanal refining between 2007 and 2011 has been accompanied by a 10% loss of healthy mangrove cover - over 307,380 square metres.
6) Remediation by enhanced natural attenuation (RENA) - a way of boosting the ability of naturally-occuring microbes to breakdown oil and so far the only remediation method observed by UNEP in Ogoniland - has not proven to be effective.
Currently, SPDC applies this technique on the land surface layer only, based on the assumption that given the kind of oil concerned, factors such as temperature and an underlying layer of clay, hydrocarbons will not move deeper. However, in 49 cases UNEP observed hydrocarbons in soil at depths of at least 5 m.
In 2013, 2 years after the UNEP report: “A former chairman of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People’s provisional council, Prof. Ben Naanen, has said Ogoni people are disappointed with President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration for failing to act on the United Nations Environmental Programme report on Ogoniland, two years after it was published. “The Federal Government has to do something about this situation urgently. Two years after the report was released, absolutely nothing has happened. We are disappointed about the fact that the Federal Government has been doing absolutely nothing about all the recommendations of the UNEP on Ogoni.”
“And for a government that is led by President Goodluck Jonathan, who is from the Niger-Delta, we are really disappointed. We are disappointed with the present government. If it were somewhere else, they would have scurried to implement that report a long time ago.”
http://www.punchng.com/news/unep-report-jonathan-disappointed-ogoni-people/
“Statistics and ratings show that the Nigerian economy has consistently maintained an unprecedented growth rate of 6-7per cent under the Jonathan administration. They also show that the Nigerian economy is now the leading economy in Africa and the 26th largest in the world with a gross domestic product of over $500bn per annum.” President Goodluck Jonathan Oct 17, 2014
Nigeria Has A GDP of $550 Billion
Human Rights Watch, declared in their World Report January 2014 - Nigeria http://www.refworld.org/docid/52dfddc59.html
“The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) made little progress combating corruption in the public sector. In a major setback in ending impunity for corruption among political officeholders, President Goodluck Jonathan in March 2013 "pardoned" Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, a former governor of Bayelsa State, and the only governor to have served prison time in Nigeria for corruption.”
“Corruption cases against several dozen senior politicians, as well as oil marketers for their alleged role in a fraudulent fuel subsidy scheme, had still not been completed at time of writing. Executive interference with the EFCC, a weak and overburdened judiciary, and the agency's own missteps, including failing to appeal tenuous rulings or prosecute senior politicians credibly implicated in corruption, have continued to undermine its efficacy. The country's other prominent anti-corruption agency, the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), established in 2000 to tackle corruption in the public sector, failed to file charges or achieve any major convictions in 2013.”
Violence and Poverty in the Oil-Producing Niger Delta
“The federal government's 2009 amnesty program, which saw some 26,000 militants, youth, and gang members surrender weapons in exchange for amnesty and monthly cash stipends, have reduced attacks on oil facilities in the Niger Delta. The government has doled out these financial incentives of US$400 million annually, (from the additional oil revenue accruing to government following the amnesty) but has still not addressed the region's underlying causes of violence and discontent, such as poverty, public sector corruption, environmental degradation from oil spills, and impunity for politically sponsored violence. In June, the government announced 2015 as the terminal date for the program and acknowledged that its inability to secure jobs for the trained ex-militants or implement an orderly exit strategy may portend more danger for the region.”
One week before the celebratory dinner, Nigeria’s former President, Olusegun Obasanjo, lampooned the National Assembly, saying it is largely an assemblage of looters and thieves. Mr. Obasanjo, who was speaking at the public presentation of the autobiography of Justice Mustapha Akanbi, in Abuja, regretted that every aspect of Nigeria’s national life is riddled with corruption.
“However, there were a few exceptions of people who stand out and would not succumb to the scourge of sleaze, even in the federal legislature.” In a speech delivered at the public presentation of “The Story Of My Two Worlds; Challenges, Experiences And Achievements” written by Justice Akanbi, the pioneer chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Related Offenses Commission, former president Obasanjo said the “National Assembly, is shrouding its corruption in the opaque nature of its budget, and has damaged its capacity to oversight the executive.”
Robust Human Resources Practices And Policies
But the December 2014 dinner with President Goodluck Jonathan celebrates robust human resources practices and policies by Chevron and other corporations in Nigeria. Chairman Obazee stated that “the celebration portends to Nigeria that the government of the day was finding a way to bring home to the citizens what value on to be placed on non-financial information of the companies.”
http://topshotprofessional.blogspot.com/2014/11/glo-chevron-fbn-other-for-award.html
Now, also in those very same months of Autumn 2014, Chevron's corporate social responsibility index was near zero regarding more than 20 years years of unsettled Burma (Myanmar) Yadana Pipeline accusations and the Ecuadoran Amazon Rainforest People's lawsuit stemming from 30 years of toxic dumping in the Oriente, and among the Chadians.
In the Ecuadoran case, Chevron's gambled on courtroom deceit and use of the civil racketeering law and won – temporarily - even with the overwhelming weight of legal authority in our federal courts that was lined up against Chevron on the issue. Also against Chevron was the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce (which does not want racketeering laws to be used to target corporations).
But a Judge Kaplan, in New York ruled otherwise. An appeal is currently underway.
http://banslickwaterfracking.blogspot.com/2014/11/the-story-of-chevrons-ecuador-disaster.html
The untenable legal position advocated by Chevron and NOW, that private parties should be able to use the civil racketeering law to target their political and litigation adversaries, is highly controversial and likely to lose in court.
http://thechevronpit.blogspot.com/2014/10/a-hard-look-at-nows-support-for-chevron.html
The relationship between the National Organization for Women ("NOW") and Chevron in the Ecuador pollution case continues in even more interesting ways.
http://thechevronpit.blogspot.com/2014/10/chevron-paying-big-bucks-to-now-and.html
A Look at NOW's Support For Chevron In Ecuador Case Raises Ethical Concerns
Elaine Wood of National Organization for Women (NOW) Questioned About Failure to Tell Appellate Court About Her Business Ties to Chevron
October 22, 2014
http://thechevronpit.blogspot.com/2014/10/a-hard-look-at-nows-support-for-chevron.html
“Indigenous women in Ecuador for two decades have been part of an extraordinary community-based effort to hold Chevron accountable for deliberately dumping billions of gallons of toxic waste into the Amazon and creating an ecological calamity of shocking proportions. This dumping is visible for the world to see and has been verified by hundreds of journalists and visitors to the region as well as three layers of courts in Ecuador.”
“The question for NOW: why would it sacrifice its credibility for what appears to be temporary support from a big oil company? Even in Ms. Wood’s friend of the court brief, there is no mitigating language distancing NOW from Chevron’s atrocities in Ecuador. It reads as if it was designed, if not actually written by, a Chevron lawyer.”
Soft Corruption In Action
In one settlement offer, Chevron offered Ecuador’s government $700 million in "debt relief" in lieu of claims settlement. Wiki-leaks cables also show close collaboration between Chevron executives and U.S. diplomats in Quito to undermine the claims of the villagers.
http://chevrontoxico.com/news-and-multimedia/2011/0921-wikileaks-cables-expose-chevron-lobbying-of-ecuador-government-to-kill-environmental-case
In summation, what is known about Elaine Wood’s and NOW’s relationship to Chevron:
“In 2012, just as the Ecuador case in the U.S. was heating up, Chevron suddenly gave its first donation to NOW’s legal arm. Chevron’s main outside law firm in the Ecuador matter also gave a large donation.”
“Shortly thereafter, NOW's legal arm submitted a legal brief for Chevron without disclosing its ties to the company.”
“The person who signed the brief, Elaine Wood, works for a consulting company that counts Chevron as a client. She is also not a practicing lawyer and is not on the staff of NOW's legal group.”
“Ms. Wood formerly worked in the same division of the U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan where Randy Mastro worked. Mastro is Chevron's lead outside lawyer on the Ecuador matter.”
“NOW's legal arm has refused to verify that it has disclosed all of the donations it received from Chevron or any of its related entities, including Mastro's law firm.”
“Ms. Wood should also disclose whether the work Alvarez & Marsal has performed for Chevron involves the company's campaign to evade its Ecuador liability.”
“Ms. Wood also should explain why she, the person at NOW with ties to Chevron, signed the legal brief alone. Is there anyone familiar with the practice of a Board Chair writing a legal brief for her own non-profit organization when that organization has a staff of lawyers assigned to do that work?”
Around the world: ChevronTexaco have left a toxic legacy in Ecuador.
In Cameroon and Chad, which border Nigeria, Chevron is partners in the Cameroon pipeline.
In Burma, Chevron is partners in the Yadana pipeline, bringing offshore oil and gas to Thailand and China.
Burma’s political situation in brief: Burma has been under military rule since 1962. National uprising in 1988. National election in 1990: National League for Democracy (NLD), led by Aung San Suu Kyi, won a landslide victory with 82% of parliamentary seats.
Instead of transferring power to NLD, the military arrested and tortured many.
Saffron Revolution in 2007
Election law announced by the ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) - NLD did not participate in 2010 election. Pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, 63 years old and Nobel Peace prize winner, has spent more than 12of the past 18 years in detention. Over 2,100 political prisoners are still held in Burmese prisons.
At independence, Burma was one of Asia’s richest countries. Now it is among the poorest. Most of the people live under 1US$ per day. Internally Displaced People (IDP) number 540,000 by war or human rights abuses. There are an estimated 155,000 people live in refugee camps along the Thai-Burma border. The economy is mismanaged. People cannot afford even basic needs due to chronic inflation in the hundreds of percent. An estimated 35% of children under 5 years old suffer from malnutrition. The Junta and cronies are very, very rich, even though regionally, 57 million people are facing poverty. (2010 Arakan Oil Watch SE Asia Regional Meeting)
Burma’s military continues to engage in systemic torture against civilians in its ongoing war in Kachin State, now in its third year, and committing “war crimes” and “crimes against humanity,” a leading human rights watchdog has claimed in a report released Nov 7, 2014.
The 71-page report entitled, “Ending Wartime Torture in Northern Myanmar”, by Fortify Rights, documents the torture and abuse of civilians by the Burma Army, Military Intelligence and the Police, from June 2011 to April 2014 and uses 78 first-hand accounts. Fortify Rights said that the use of torture by the Burma Army was systemic and had the support of President U Thein Sein’s government.
“The Kachin State conflict, which first erupted in June 2011 with a Burma Army offensive against the Kachin Independence Organisation (KIO) shattering a 17-year ceasefire, has displaced more than 100,000 civilians into 165 displacement camps in Kachin State and neighboring Shan State, and has claimed hundreds of lives. Far from a small and localized conflict, the Kachin war has seen the use of government helicopter gunships, heavy artillery and jet fighters.”
Matthew Smith, executive director of Fortify Rights, has accused the Burma Army of acting with total impunity. “The authorities have tortured Kachin civilians with brutal and inhuman tactics, and those responsible for these crimes have acted with complete impunity for three years,” he said, “The government must fulfill its duty to put a stop to these serious crimes and ensure accountability for abuses.”
UNHCR estimates that there were 372,000 IDPs in Burma in January 2014 (UNHCR, 2014), Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) estimates that there were 643,000 IDPs due to conflict and violence in Burma as of July 2014. In September 2014, only 12,802 IDPs in eastern Burma ived in IDP camps, while the vast majority have to manage without any protection or aid apart from help from small local ethnic organizations.
Burma is not a party to an international legal treaty known as the Rome Statute, any action from the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands would first require UN involvement. A new report on violence by Burma's military was just published. Its release also comes just weeks after the Burma Army admitted that journalist Aung Kyaw Naing was shot dead while in military custody.
http://www.irrawaddy.org/burma/missing-reporter-killed-custody-burma-army-report.html
Then just 4 years ago, in 2010, the world learned of Myanmar's nuclear goals. Burma’s military rulers, it seemed, had been using natural gas revenue from US and French energy giants Chevron and Total to fund an illegal bid to build nuclear weapons. By 2012, the Myanmar Military had to come clean: “There has long been speculation, bolstered by reports from defectors, that Myanmar, also known as Burma, may be secretly developing a nuclear program of some sort with the help of North Korea.”
“The reformist government of President Thein Sein last month announced it would sign an international agreement that would require it to declare all nuclear facilities and materials. Although it would be up to Myanmar to decide what to declare, it could provide some answers concerning its acquisition of dual-use machinery and its military cooperation with Pyongyang that the U.S. and other nations regard as suspect.”
By June 2012, it was declared “Myanmar has formally abandoned its pursuit of nuclear power and has also scaled back its military and political ties with North Korea.” In mid-May, the president of Myanmar, Thein Sein, assured his South Korean counterpart, Lee Myung-bak, that his country would no longer purchase weapons from North Korea. Sein took pains to emphasize that Myanmar had only bought conventional weapons, not atomic arms, from North Korea over the past two decades.”
http://www.ibtimes.com/myanmar-abandons-nuclear-program-defense-minister-701322
The 2010 report-
Energy Insecurity: How Total, Chevron, and PTTEP Contribute to Human Rights Violations, Financial Secrecy, and Nuclear Proliferation in Burma (Myanmar)
http://www.burmapartnership.org/2010/07/energy-insecurity-how-total-chevron-and-pttep-contribute-to-human-rights-violations-financial-secrecy-and-nuclear-proliferation-in-burma/
This report also revealed on-going, serious human rights abuses associated with the Yadana project, including the recent extra-judicial killing of two ethnic Mon villagers in the pipeline area confirmed by EarthRights International in February of this year. The report goes on to analyzes how both Total and Chevron remain liable for these and other serious human rights abuse in their home countries.
English
http://d2zyt4oqqla0dw.cloudfront.net/sites/default/files/publications/total-impact.pdf
French
http://d2zyt4oqqla0dw.cloudfront.net/sites/default/files/publications/total-impact-french.pdf
EarthRights International had previously sued Unocal Corporation (now Chevron) for complicity in murder, rape, torture, and forced labor in connection to the same gas pipeline. In 2005, Unocal paid Burmese plaintiffs a confidential settlement before the company was acquired by Chevron. Download the full report here:
http://www.burmapartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/energy-insecurity.pdf
“A group of Myanmar residents filed a lawsuit against Unocal in US federal court in 1996. The plaintiffs alleged they had suffered human rights abuses such as forced labour, murder, rape and torture at the hands of the Myanmar military during construction of a gas pipeline, and that Unocal was complicit in these abuses. Unocal and Myanmar’s military government were in a consortium for the pipeline’s construction. The parties reached an out-of-court settlement in which Unocal agreed to compensate the plaintiffs and provide funds for programmes in Myanmar to improve living conditions and protect the rights of people from the pipeline region (the exact terms of the settlement are confidential). This settlement was accepted by the court, and the case was closed on April 13, 2005.”
Just 5 years had passed, and as the report “Energy Insecurity: How Total, Chevron, and PTTEP Contribute to Human Rights Violations, Financial Secrecy, and Nuclear Proliferation in Burma (Myanmar)” was being presented in Paris, international headlines began telling the story of how “Energy Giants Were Funding Burma’s Nuclear Drive.”
http://www.burmapartnership.org/2010/07/energy-giants-fund-burmas-nuclear-drive/
“Burma’s Yadana gas pipeline, run by the two companies along with Thai firm PTTEP, made billions of dollars for the military leaders, the Paris-based group EarthRights International said, citing data from the firms. The Thailand based NGO also branded the companies complicit in human rights abuses such as targeted killings and forced labor at the pipeline.”
It said Chevron, Total and PTTEP had generated US$9 billion dollars from Burma’s Yadana gas pipeline since 1998, more than half of which had gone straight to the ruling junta.
“These companies are financing the world’s newest nuclear threat with multi-billion dollar payments,” EarthRights said in a statement. “The funds have enabled the country’s autocratic junta to maintain power and pursue an expensive, illegal nuclear weapons program.”
In the 1990s, the French oil giant Total and its corporate partners moved into the remote and ethnically diverse Tenasserim region in southern Burma to construct a pipeline to export Burmese natural gas to Thailand, which today generates electricity for the Bangkok metropolitan area. A business as usual approach ensued,.
“Suraphol Duangkhae, deputy secretary general of the Wildlife Fund of Thailand, said PTT should not have been allowed to start construction before the environmental impact assessment has been completed to everybody’s satisfaction.”
“The initial EIA completed in 1996 by an engineering consultancy firm was been rejected twice by Thailand’s Office of Environmental Policy and Planning during the past few months due to incomplete information on the impact of the 26 km long, and 20 to 80 meter wide project route on the forest and on key wildlife species in the area.”
“The pipeline route will cut across a large area of some of the most diverse forest ecosystems in the region, which includes national parks and world heritage sites. The affected forest area boasts of 120 species of land mammals, 45 percent of Thailand’s total and 33 percent of mainland South-east Asia’s species.”
A third route was finally chosen.
“According to a report on the project prepared by a Bangkok based NGO, Towards Ecological Recovery and Regional Alliance (TERRA), the proposed route of the Thai section of the Yadana Gas Pipeline also falls within the Tennaserim Range seismic zone.”
http://www.ipsnews.net/1997/04/burma-thailand-burmese-pipeline-under-fire/
The evidence shows that human rights abuses are still a terrible reality of project security in Burma’s extractive industries, despite Total and Chevron’s claims otherwise. Based on more than two years of research, “Total Impact” included photographs and hundreds of interviews with local villagers in the pipeline area that reveal widespread and systematic forced labor, extrajudicial killings and torture, and violations of the rights to property and freedom of movement, all committed by Total and Chevron’s pipeline security battalions.
http://d2zyt4oqqla0dw.cloudfront.net/sites/default/files/publications/total-impact.pdf
Chevron Awards Quality Decisions, The Chevron Way
Corporate Social Irresponsibility and Misrepresentations Surrounding Total and Chevron’s Yadana Gas Pipeline in Military-Ruled Burma (Myanmar)
September 10, 2009
http://www.bnionline.net/news/mizzima/7015-burmese-generals-siphon-off-about-usd-5-billion-from-sale-of-gas.html
In the case of Total’s whitewashing, five favorable assessments of the company’s impacts in Burma, were published by a US-based organization called CDA Collaborative Learning Projects.
Based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and purporting “to help corporate managers better understand the impacts of corporate activities on the contexts in which they work” CDA was commissioned by Total in 2002 to assess the companies’ impacts in Burma.
The assessments were the subject of a second report released by ERI, entitled ”Getting it Wrong: Flawed ‘Corporate Social Responsibility’ and Misrepresentations Surrounding Total and Chevron’s Yadana Gas Pipeline in Military-Ruled Burma (Myanmar)”.
The 84 page report, based on seven years of research and hundreds of interviews with local villagers, details the myriad problems with CDA’s work for Total in Burma. Since 2002, the organization visited Total’s “as-defined pipeline villages” on five separate occasions with escorts from the oil company, at times using interpreters provided by Total. Regarded as experts on Total’s impacts in Burma, CDA’s methodology provided for a grand total of 20 days in the Yadana pipeline corridor over a period of seven years.
Problems stem from CDA interviewing villagers in groups and in the presence of Total staff and military intelligence, which alone contravenes international best practice as well as every effective strategy for safely maneuvering through the repression, smoke and mirrors that are common under Burma’s dictatorship.
Despite the controversy surrounding the Yadana project, Total has never come clean.
The Thailand based ‘Earth Rights International’ (ENI) issued a 101-page report entitled ‘Total Impact: The Human Rights, Environmental and Financial Impacts of Total and Chevron’s Yadana Gas Project in Military-Ruled Burma (Myanmar)’.
“In the policy world, the irony is palpable. While the United States and France have consistently enacted ”tough” economic policies toward the Burmese military regime, Total of France and Chevron of the US have generated the multi-billion dollar revenues through the Yadana project that effectively undermine the policies of their home governments, ensuring their ineffectiveness. Policymakers have grappled with this for years.”
“While reasonable minds will still differ about the best ways to promote development in Burma, perhaps everyone can agree that misappropriating multi-billion dollar natural gas revenues generated from the peoples’ natural heritage, and at the cost of their basic human rights, is unacceptable, particularly when the country suffers beneath the lowest social spending in Asia.”
http://bigozine2.com/feature/?p=278
“In May 2011 at Chevron’s annual shareholder meeting, 22 indigenous, First Nation, and other impacted community members and supporters who had traveled to the company’s headquarters from locations around the globe and across the state confronted CEO John Watson with the brutal human and environmental abuses caused by the oil giants operations.
Watson struggled to defend his company’s record in the face of the devastating criticism from institutional investors, shareholders, and impacted community members and was instead forced to turn multiple times to pre-packed video and slideshows prepared prior to the meeting.”
“Outside the meeting, 150 supporters rallied in a colorful and creative protest against the company’s operations around the world and across their home state. In the video below, ERI’s Paul Donowitz speaks to the crowd about Chevron’s operations in Burma and their opposition to new transparency regulations in the US.”
“Community leaders from Angola, Ecuador, Nigeria, Indonesia, the tarsands of Canada, Alaska, Texas, and Richmond, and those representing communities in China, Australia, the Philippines, Kazakhstan, and more attended the meeting as share- and proxy-holders providing first-hand descriptions of their lives and environment in and around Chevron’s operations.”
“Half the meeting became a referendum on the company’s disastrous track record of supporting brutal dictators in Burma, decimating local livelihoods though its offshore operations in Alaska and Angola, and causing mass pollution and destruction of human health in locations as diverse as Ecuador, Richmond, California, Kazakhstan, Indonesia, and Nigeria.”
“Emem Okon of the Kebetkache Women Development and Resource Centre, who had come from Nigeria’s Niger Delta, challenged Watson’s assertions that the company had improved its record on flaring.”
“I am here to represent the women of the Niger Delta who live in communities near gas flares and who suffer health issues of infertility, early menopause, miscarriages, cancer, rashes; women who fish in waters polluted by Chevron.” Ms. Okon asked CEO Watson, “When will Chevron stop environmental violence against women? When will Chevron stop the toxic flares in the Niger Delta. When will Chevron management meet with the women of the Niger Delta and their international allies.”
“Gitz Crazyboy (Ryan) Deranger, of the First Nation Dene/Pikini (Blackfoot) people, came to the meeting from Alberta, Canada where Chevron is partner in extensive tarsands operations. Chevron’s pollution is killing our way of life. Our moose and caribou are dying. Our fish are dying. Chevron is destroying our culture, Chevron is committing cultural genocide.”
“Chevron’s understanding and definition of human rights is completely distorted. Their approach is to respond with charity work, but this does not address the long-term sustainable economic and social challenges facing the local fishing communities of Cabinda Province.”
Each speaker carried a copy of the True Cost of Chevron: An Alternative Annual Report, on which all had worked.
http://www.earthrights.org/publication/true-cost-chevron-may-2011
Speakers provided the report to eager shareholders, but when a Richmond, California resident (the Reverend Kenneth Davis) attempted to hand the report to Watson, he was stopped by private security guards. Watson threatened to stop the entire meeting if the Reverend insisted on handing the report directly to him.
http://www.burmapartnership.org/2011/05/chevron-withers-under-criticism-from-communities-suffering-human-rights-and-environmental-harms/
Chevron's role in propping up the brutal regime in Burma is clear. According to Marco Simons, U.S. legal director at EarthRights International: "Sanctions haven't worked because gas is the lifeline of the regime. Before Yadana went online, Burma's regime was facing severe shortages of currency. It's really Yadana and gas projects that kept the military regime afloat to buy arms and ammunition and pay its soldiers."
The U.S. government has had sanctions in place against Burma since 1997. A loophole exists, though, for companies grandfathered in. Unocal's exemption from the Burma sanctions has been passed on to its new owner, Chevron.
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi Speech at ILO – YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0w9IWh98gg
“Myanmar needs democracy-friendly development growth”, says Aung San Suu Kyi.
Tell the State Department: Don't honor Chevron for its "corporate excellence.
"http://act.credoaction.com/sign/chevron_state_department/
According to a State Department news release, "The U.S. Department of State Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs has announced the selection of nine finalists for the Secretary of State’s prestigious 2014 Award for Corporate Excellence (ACE)." The news release also states: “Chevron in Burma assisted local communities in 1,500 villages through its sustainable health improvement and empowerment program by providing funding to villagers for improvements in business, transmittable disease prevention (TB/malaria), agricultural practices, and infrastructure.”
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/12/08/1350387/-State-Department-selects-Chevron-as-finalist-for-corporate-excellence-award
SIGN THIS PETITION!
Tell the State Department: Don't honor Chevron for its "corporate excellence.
"http://act.credoaction.com/sign/chevron_state_department/
Tomas DiFIore
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