Activist Scales World Bank to Protest African Pipeline
9/27/99
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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Title: Activist scales World Bank
Source: Rainforest Action Network
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: September 27, 1999
RAINFOREST ACTION NETWORK
For immediate release: September 27, 1999 Press contacts: Mark
Westlund - ranmedia@ran.org;
Erick Brownstein - osani@ran.org
SEVEN STORIES ABOVE D.C. STREETS, DARING ACTIVIST HANGS GIANT BANNER
ON WORLD BANK HEADQUARTERS ENVIRO, HUMAN RIGHTS LEADERS CALL ON WORLD
BANK'S JAMES WOLFENSOHN TO STOP AFRICA RAINFOREST OIL PIPELINE WHERE:
1818 H Street NW, Washington, DC.
WHEN: RIGHT NOW! Photo Opportunity!
WHY: World Bank President James Wolfensohn must decide if he will
fund an oil pipeline that will cut through the heart of Africa's
endangered rainforests, which will also fund two of the most corrupt
governments on the planet. He has previously spoken out against such
projects, but now seems hesitant to insist on the high standards he
has demanded in the past.
WASHINGTON, DC - Just one day before the World Bank's annual meeting,
an activist from Rainforest Action Network has climbed seven stories
up the faŘade of the World Bank building and unfurled a giant banner
urging bank president James Wolfensohn to pull the plug on a
destructive oil project slated for Chad and Cameroon. The banner
shows a gigantic photograph of Wolfensohn over the message: "Tax
Dollars and Corruption Buy Murder and Destruction. Stop the African
Oil Pipeline." The African Rainforest Pipeline project will slice
through the heart of pristine rainforests, and will put millions of
dollars into the pockets of two corrupt governments. Transparency
International recently rated Cameroon the world's most corrupt
government, and southern Chad is so dangerous and politically
unstable that neither Amnesty International nor the US State
Department were able to visit and confirm the reported massacre of
hundreds of people. A 1999 US State Department report on Chad shows
a government engaged in indiscriminate human rights abuses (Report
available on site).
"Wolfensohn has stated repeatedly that the World Bank should fight
corruption, and this is his chance to live up to his words," said RAN
Africa campaigner Erick Brownstein. "Everyone knows it's hard for
him to stay true to his ideals when oil giants like Exxon and Shell
are turning up the heat, but right now the whole world is watching.
James Wolfensohn alone has the power to stop the African Rainforest
Pipeline." If the project is approved, hundreds of millions of
dollars will go to Exxon, Shell and Elf, which are leading the
Rainforest Pipeline project. In neighboring Nigeria, Shell has
contaminated local water supplies with petroleum hydrocarbons that
are 360 times higher than levels allowed in the European Community.
The Rainforest Pipeline project's proposed oil fields are in the
heart of Chad's fertile food-producing region, where even an
incidental spill would be devastating.
Internal World Bank memos recently given to RAN show that the World
Bank has every intention of going ahead with the pipeline project,
even though officials acknowledge it may be catastrophic for the
region. The World Bank seeks public relations indemnity from Exxon,
and plans a bad faith "listening tour" to "mollify" government agents
and NGOs in the US and Europe who oppose the project. (Complete text
of these memos is available upon request.)
Rainforest Action Network works to protect the Earth's rainforests
and support the rights of their inhabitants through education,
grassroots organizing and non-violent direct action. RAN's Africa
Campaign is funded as part of a $1-million grant from the Richard and
Rhoda Goldman Fund.