| ‘Economy
transformed!’
'Out of the estimated profits of $8 billion, Cameroon will receive
7%, Chad 22% and the [oil
corporations] consortium 71%. The project's economic benefits are all the more
reduced inCameroon as the construction phase was tax free.'
London-based NGO, the Bretton Woods Project.
‘Poverty
eradicated!’
'Critics fear that little of the income will reach thepoorest populations [and
that] much will be lostthrough incompetence and corruption. The concern that
oil money will be used to purchase weapons to
strengthen the [Chad] Government's force against rebel opposition movements proved
valid in November 2000, when the Government used $4.5 million of a $25-million
oil contract bonus to purchase weapons from Taiwan. The Presidentjustified this
action by stating that "development
must be protected".'
JP Martin, ‘Chad Cameroon Oil Pipeline Project: a Study Tool
andCase Study’, http://www.columbia.edu
‘Jobs
provided!’
'Most jobs provided to the local population were limited to unskilled positions
for a short period, with the better-paying positions reserved for workers from
the cities or even abroad. Permanent employment positions after thecompletion
of the construction phase are said tobe about 350 in Chad and negligible in Cameroon.'
Center
for Environment and Development/Friends of the EarthCameroon, Friends of the
Earth International and Milieudefensie.
‘The
people want it!’
'Serious disputes were recorded on the amounts of compensation. In several villages,
springs were destroyed, thereby depriving people of access todrinking water.
Rural people have had to grapplewith severe food insecurity and an outbreak of
health problems, especially HIV.'
London-based NGO, the Bretton Woods Project
‘A
better deal for indigenous people!’
'During the construction of the pipeline, small game fled deeper into the bush,
communal fruit trees were cut down, and medicinal plants were lost. The oil consortium
sent
representatives several times and promised new housing as
compensation. "They have been making promises for two
years. It's like a tree that dies and falls in the forest. You can wait and wait,
but it will never rise."'
Edited extract of Los Angeles
Times
writer Ken Silverstein's June 2003 report ofhis conversation with the chief of
the Cameroon village of Maboula - one of 60villages scattered on or about the
pipeline where 1,000 Bakola 'Pygmies' live.
Further reading:
Friends of the Earth Cameroon
et al Broken Promises: The
Chad-Cameroon Oil and
Pipeline Project (2001) and
Traversing People's Lives
(2002), both of which can be
obtained at
www.foei.org/publications |
New
Internationalist 361
