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IMMEDIATE ACTION NEEDED Niger Delta Coalition received the following message today on a troubling loan associated with Shell BP from the World Bank. It requires action to stop an authorizing vote for the loan on Tuesday 5, 2001. Even if it is late, you may still fax your objection to the address indicated below. In any case, it is important to be aware of the information in this email.
*** Dear Friends The World Bank has announced a plan to approve a US$15 million to a financial intermediary that would provide subcontracting service to Shell Oil Corporation in the Niger Delta of Nigeria. The loan would be provided by the International Financial Corporation the private sector lending arm of the World Bank. PLEASE TAKE ACTION: The loan is set to be voted on and approved on Tuesday June 5th. Please fax letters to your country representative on the World Bank Board of Executive Directors who will vote on the project. A directory of country Executive Directors can be found at: http://www.bicusa.org/mdbs/wbg/execdir.htm . More background on this issue can be found at: http://www.seen.org/nigshell052401/nig5-24-01.html
Press Release: Institute for Policy Studies Friends of the Earth (May 24 2001) ***Your faxes and letters are truly effective - please take a moment to do this***
May 30 2001 Jan Piercy Executive Director World Bank Group Fax: 202-477-2967
Re: Niger Delta Contractor Revolving Credit Facility Dear Ms. Piercy: We are writing to express our extreme dismay with the prospect of a $15 million IFC loan to financial intermediaries that would lend money to SMEs providing services to Shell Petroleum. Since Shell discovered oil in the Niger Delta in 1958 its oil production has devastated the Delta environment. The Niger Delta is one of the world's largest wetlands. Petroleum production and oil spills have resulted in severe water contamination with lethal effects to a variety of aquatic species and destruction of mangrove forests upon which the Ogoni, Ijaw, Urhobo, Egi and other fishers and farmers depend for their livelihood. The 43 years of oil spills in the Niger Delta are the equivalent of ten times the infamous Exxon Valdez spill. Lest you are taken in by Shell's recent efforts to greenwash itself please note that Shell's most recent spill was on May 9 2001. When the Ogoni people began speaking out against Shell in the early 1990s Shell colluded with the Nigerian government to brutally repress this movement. The repression which is ongoing culminated in the militarization of Ogoni territory and the hanging of nine Ogoni activists convicted by a military tribunal in a sham trial that has been internationally condemned. A wrongful death suit against Shell brought by families of the murdered environmentalists is moving forward in the U.S. federal court. It is appalling to think that the IFC under the guise of Nigerian financial sector/SME development would consider financing a project that would inevitably lead to further environmental degradation and human rights abuses. As noted in the IFC's project summary "[T]here is a perception among the local communities that the benefits of the oil wealth that is produced in the area have passed them by." The summary however gives no indication how this project would do anything other than worsen the already deplorable environmental economic and social conditions suffered by the indigenous peoples of the Niger Delta. The IFC and World Bank have a number of environmental and social safeguard policies purportedly designed to ensure the integrity of Bank projects. These policies include detailed guidelines for community consultation at every stage of project conception and implementation. The fact that this project provides indirect financing through an intermediary should in no way eliminate the need for full compliance with these policies. It is our understanding that neither the Ogoni nor any other Niger Delta communities have been consulted about their views on this project. We further understand that a number of Nigerian groups have called on the World Bank to abandon this project and to discontinue lending and strategic support to unsustainable oil and mining activities that destroy their environment and impoverish their peoples. We wholeheartedly join in this call and demand that the World Bank respect the vehement opposition of the community to Shell's deadly activities in the Niger Delta. Sincerely Friends of the Earth
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