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(publicado por: cokenve)
Reversing the Resource Curse:
The Need for Transparency in the Oil,
Gas and Mining Sector
Submission by anonymous NGO
representative from Equatorial Guinea
2007
On behalf of all the Equatoguinean
activists and their international allies working to
promote transparency and accountability in the
extractive industries, I thank the offices of
Congresswoman Diane Watson and Congressman Ed Royce for
helping to organize this briefing.
Although I would have preferred to
travel to Washington to discuss with you the devastating
effects of irresponsible resource extraction in
Equatorial Guinea, I am deterred from joining you in
person by the harsh consequences that would beset me and
my family. The military regime of President Teodoro
Obiang Nguema has harassed, incarcerated, and tortured
advocates of human rights, transparency and
accountability with little restraint. I am, therefore,
thankful to you for allowing me to participate
anonymously.
It is no longer news to most of you
here today that the small West-Central African nation of
Equatorial Guinea has achieved international prominence
thanks to robust economic growth fueled by the discovery
of vast oil and gas reserves and a multi-billion dollar
investment by the United States. According to the IMF
and the U.S. Department of Energy, Equatorial Guinea
holds between 1.77 and 2.5 billon barrels of oil
equivalent (BOE) and between 1.3 and 4.4 trillion cubic
feet of gas reserves. U.S. multinational oil companies,
such as ExxonMobil, Amerada Hess, Chevron-Texaco, and
Marathon are the main producers. Just three months ago,
Daniel Flynn, a Reuters newswire reporter, quoted a U.S.
government official saying that oil production in
Equatorial Guinea will increase to “around 415,000
barrels in about 2007.” This nation of almost 500,000
people has suddenly become one of the world’s largest
per capita oil producers and one of Sub-Saharan Africa’s
largest beneficiaries of U.S. foreign direct investment.
Despite this astonishing economic
potential, most people in Equatorial Guinea live in
abject poverty and are ruled by one of the most opaque
and corrupt dictatorships in the world. The U.S. State
Department asserted in its last annual country report on
Equatorial Guinea that “poor fiscal management and a
lack of transparency in public accounting of national
finances have undermined the country’s economic
potential.” Similarly, the U.S. Department of Energy
affirmed in its 2005 report that “despite rapid growth
in real GDP, allegations that oil revenues have been
misappropriated by the government abound. Furthermore,
the government´s failure to direct oil revenues toward
development has undermined economic and social progress
in the country.” More recently, in March of this year
the Department of Energy stated that “[w]hile the
government [of Equatorial Guinea] has made some
infrastructure improvements to bolster the oil industry,
the average Equatoguinean has yet to experience a higher
standard of living from the oil revenues.”
Equatorial Guinea has become what
Thomas Friedman termed a “petrolist state”— one that is
“corrupt, antidemocratic, uses oil income to buy off its
citizens with subsidies and government jobs, uses oil
and gas exports to intimidate or buy off its enemies,
and uses oil profits to build up its internal security
forces and army to keep itself ensconced in power,
without any transparency or checks and balances.”
In 2004, the U.S. Senate
investigation of the Riggs Bank uncovered that
Equatorial Guinea’s oil revenues flow directly into the
pockets and foreign bank accounts of President Obiang,
his relatives, and a few government officials. The
misappropriation of oil revenues has allowed one of the
world’s most corrupt and nepotistic governments to
monopolize all the internal security forces, including
the police, the military and private security.
Consequently, the government has also been able to
control all the services that the oil and gas industries
demand; including property rentals and sales, local
employment, and the marketing of oil and gas inside the
country.
There is no independent judiciary in
Equatorial Guinea, as judges are handpicked and
appointed by President Obiang, the First Magistrate of
the Nation. The government rules by decrees which are
not published in an official gazette or bulletin for
public display or knowledge. Similarly, the Parliament
lacks independence; ninety eight per cent of the members
of Parliament belong to President Obiang’s political
party, the Partido Democratico de Guinea Ecuantorial
(PDGE), and serve at the behest of the President.
By all accounts, the discovery of oil
in Equatorial Guinea has accentuated the inequitable
distribution of power and resources. The intermarriage
of political and economic power in Equatorial Guinea,
concentrated in the hands of President Obiang and his
family, is severe. Consider these facts:
· President Obiang owns and controls
the two national electricity companies, SEGESA and
ENERGE, the national telecommunication company, GETESA,
and a construction company, ABAYAC. He has a monopoly on
the construction industry, the hospitality industry and
the retail grocery industry. Additionally, he and his
wife, Constancia Mangue, have misappropriated vast
tracts of private land and property which they rent or
sell to multinational companies operating in the
country.
· The only private security company
allowed to operate inside the country, SONAVI, is owned
and controlled by Army General Armengol Ondo Nguema,
President Obiang’s brother and National Security
Advisor.
· Teodoro Nguema Obiang, President
Obiang’s son, has a monopoly in the timber industry,
where he owns Grupo SOFANA and SOMAGUI Forestal, and
also owns the country’s only private radio and TV
stations.
· A consortium formed by, among
others, President Obiang, the Minister of Foreign
Affairs, and the Minister of Justice, owns Nusiteles,
G.E., the country’s only private telecommunication
company.
· The oil and gas marketing company,
GEOGAM is 75% owned by President Obiang and 25% owned by
the state.
· The state oil and gas management
companies, GEPETROL and SONAGAS are partially owned by
private, unidentified, high-ranking members of the
government, including President Obiang and his
relatives.
Similarly, all the employment
agencies authorized to employ local workers for the oil
industry are in the hands of government officials, most
from President Obiang’s family:
· In addition to acting as National
Security Advisor and owning the only private security
company in the country, President Obiang’s brother, Army
General Armengol Ondo Nguema, also owns the employment
agency AMLOCASER.
· Gabriel M. Obiang Lima, another son
of President Obiang and Vice Minister of Mines and
Energy, owns NOMEX.
· Army General, Antonio Mba Nguema,
President Obiang’s brother and Minister of Defense, owns
Multi Service Systems (MSS).
· Army General Manuel Nguema Mba,
President Obiang’s uncle and Minister of National
Security, owns ATSIGE.
· Juan Olo Mba Nseng, President
Obiang’s father-in-law and former Minister of Mines, and
Atanasio Ela Ntugu Nsa, the current Minister of Mines,
own APEGESA.
· Army Colonel Julian Ondo Nkumu,
President Obiang’s son-in-law and Director of
Presidential Security owns BOMDEN.
These employment agencies work
directly with the Equatoguinean oil companies and
provide the manpower necessary for their operation. They
only hire workers loyal to the President’s party. Each
month, the agencies retain 20% of the workers’ wages as
an income tax, 21% as a treasury charge, 0.4% for social
security, $3 to support the political party, and $3.50
for unemployment taxes. Workers know that these
deductions do not entitle them to any benefits or
rights, as they are for the direct and sole profit of
President Obiang and his family.
Over the last decade, despite the
increase of oil revenues, the abysmal human rights
record of Equatorial Guinea has not improved. Just last
year, the U.S. State Department’s country report on
Equatorial Guinea stated that:
The Government´s human rights record
remained poor, and the Government continued to commit
serious abuses. Citizens did not have the ability to
change their government peacefully. Security forces
committed numerous abuses, including torture, beating,
and other physical abuse of prisoners and suspects,
which at times resulted in deaths. Prisoners often were
tortured to coerce confessions. Prison conditions
remained harsh and life threatening. Members of the
security forces generally committed abuses with
impunity. Security forces used arbitrary arrest,
detention, and incommunicado detention. Foreigners with
legal standing were arbitrarily harassed, detained, and
deported. The judicial system repeatedly failed to
ensure due process. The Government restricted the right
to privacy and severely restricted freedom of speech and
of the press. The Government continued to restrict the
rights of assembly and association and limit freedom of
movement. Corruption remained a problem. There were no
effective domestic human rights nongovernmental
organizations (NGOs).
These massive human rights violations
are possible because of the monopolization of total
political and military power by one corrupt despot and
his family. In the absence of an independent judiciary,
a functioning legislative branch, and civil society
organizations to check its power, the regime has
perpetuated a record of systematic abuses against its
people.
In the summer of 2004, when news and
reports from the U.S. Senate investigations into the
activities of the Riggs Bank were translated into
Spanish and published over the Internet, the government
of Equatorial Guinea swiftly moved to issue arrest
warrants and convict in absentia two exiled
Equatoguineans, Fernando Abaga and Celestino Okenve, for
allegedly publishing “treasonable materials against the
government.” Coincidentally, Mr. Okenve is the President
of the Madrid-based NGO Equatorial Guinea’s Solidarity
Forum (Foro Solidario de Guinea Ecuatorial), a member of
the Publish What You Pay campaign.
Another pertinent
example involves Placido Mico, leader of an opposition
political party and a fervent pro-democracy and
transparency advocate. In April of 2005, Mr. Mico
attended a conference organized by International Alert
in Sao Tome en Principe entitled “Living With Oil: The
Experiences of African Oil Producing Countries.” On his
return to Equatorial Guinea from Sao Tome, Mr. Mico was
detained for several hours at the airport in Malabo,
interrogated, and some of his personal belongings were
destroyed andɔr
confiscated. The government of Equatorial Guinea accused
him of having traveled to Sao Tome with the aim of
contacting mercenaries.
Similarly, in May 2005, military
officials detained a group of students on their way to
Madrid, Spain to attend a human rights seminar organized
by a Spanish NGO. The students were publicly undressed,
humiliated, and beaten at the Malabo airport. The
military police refused to allow them to leave the
country and incarcerated them for several days. They
were later released without charges.
Widespread government-sponsored
harassment, incarceration, torture and assassination of
independent and outspoken journalists, lawyers,
opposition politicians and other individuals has
silenced dissenting voices inside the country and driven
many people into exile. Concurrently, the government has
stepped up its kidnapping and assassination efforts of
opposition leaders and sympathizers in neighboring
African countries—Benin, Gabon, Nigeria, and the Ivory
Coast, to name a few—and in Spain.
Amnesty International has widely
reported on this growing phenomenon.
In conclusion, creating and demanding
a system of transparency in the extractive industry is
crucial because it offers the best hope of reducing
corruption, establishing democracy, and fueling
sustainable economic development in “petrolist” states
like Equatorial Guinea. If we, collectively, can expose
the actions of corrupt government officials and hold
them accountable for the revenues generated by the
country’s shared resources, we can begin to eradicate
corruption and advance good governance and sustainable
economic development.
Thank you.
http://www.guinea-ecuatorial.net/ms/main.asp?cd=ni5653
Fuente: representante anónimo Fecha: 14/12/2007 14:39:31
Autor: cokenve Palabras: 1796 |
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