Amnesty International accused U.S. oil giant ExxonMobil of putting profits over human rights with its involvement in a multibillion dollar oil pipeline that runs from Chad to a seaport in the West African nation of Cameroon.
DAKAR, Senegal — Amnesty International accused U.S. oil giant ExxonMobil of putting profits over human rights with its involvement in a multibillion dollar oil pipeline that runs from Chad to a seaport in the West African nation of Cameroon.
A spokeswoman for ExxonMobil said the company had no immediate comment on the accusations but "condemns human rights violations in any form." Chad said it had taken steps to protect the rights of those affected by the project. Government officials Cameroon could not immediately be reached.
The 1,070-kilometer (665-mile) pipeline, which stretches from the landlocked desert oil fields of Chad to an Atlantic Ocean seaport in Cameroon, first began operating in 2003 and now pumps about 200,000 barrels of crude a day. The pipeline is operated by an oil consortium led by ExxonMobil.
Amnesty said in a statement there was "a prevailing climate of fear and intimidation around the pipeline, some of whose critics have already been arrested and intimidated."
"The US$4.2 (euro3.37) billion Chad-Cameroon oil pipeline risks freezing human rights protection for decades to come for the thousands of people who live in its path," Amnesty said.
!ADVERTISEMENT!
The project is one the largest private investments ever in sub-Saharan Africa. ExxonMobil, Chevron and Malaysia's Petronas financed the project, with the World Bank providing 4 percent of the funding.
Opponents say the pipeline threatens to pollute farmlands and has disrupted local communities, who were given cash compensation for moving out of its path. Supporters say the project has employed tens of thousands of people on a continent where most get by on less than a dollar (euro) a day.
Some impoverished farmers in the region claim they've been denied access to water supplies and their land, which ExxonMobil refused either to compensate them for or to return to them," Amnesty said.
"The project's contracts open the door for further abuses such as these," the rights group said.
Susan Reeves, a spokeswoman for ExxonMobil, said in an e-mail that "ExxonMobil condemns human rights violations in any form and has actively expressed these views to governments and others around the world."
Reeves said Amnesty "elected to neither consult with us during the report preparation nor share the report prior to its release. We have not yet had the opportunity to study the report and have no immediate comment."
Amnesty said the legal agreements under which the project is run, signed by Chad, Cameroon and the consortium, weren't made public before being passed into law.
Chad's communications minister, Hourmadji Moussa Doumgor, said Chad had nothing to hide.
"The environment should be protected, the rights of the population and the workers should be protected so that those who have seen their land taken up by the project be compensated, which has been done," Doumgor said.
Amnesty said the deal discourages local governments from protecting human rights and could force them to pay financial penalties if they cease pumping for any reason -- "even when making an intervention to protect rights and enforce laws that apply elsewhere in their countries."
The agreements "risk seriously undermining the ability and willingness of Chad and Cameroon to protect their citizens' human rights, making the oil companies de facto unaccountable in the pipeline zone," Amnesty said.
Andrea Shemberg, a legal adviser for Amnesty, said the agreements should be amended.
"This project must not continue without changes that guarantee that human rights will be upheld. Human rights are not negotiable items that companies and governments are permitted to eliminate by contract," Shemberg said.
Human rights activists have long argued that oil, far from being a boon to citizens of developing countries, can exacerbate official corruption, weaken democracy and widen the gulf between rich and poor.
West Africa is one of the world's fastest increasing oil-producing regions, with production projected to provide 25 percent of U.S. oil imports alone by 2015.
Source: Associated Press
