2010

On 7 to 8 December 2010, the European Coalition on Oil in Sudan (ECOS)/Fatal Transactions and the Sudan Council of Churches held the conference “Sudan's Oil Industry after the Referendum” in Juba, Southern Sudan. One month before the Referendum for self-determination of Southern Sudan, at the time when the Government of Southern Sudan was finalizing its future Petroleum Policy, this conference took place at a suitable moment and gave the opportunity of a public debate about oil among a large group of stakeholders.

The conference adopted a final declaration that summarized the main shared concerns of the participants.

In addition, ECOS/Fatal Transactions published two reports on Post-Referendum Arrangements for Sudan’s Oil Industry.

The Kimberley Process (KP) rough diamond certification scheme must reach a credible agreement with the Government of Zimbabwe regarding the export of stones from the controversial Marange region, the KP Civil Society Coalition said today.
The Kimberley Process annual plenary meeting in Jerusalem ended without agreement on Marange following four days of negotiations.

Ahead of upcoming presidential elections in 2011, Uche Igwe urges President Goodluck Jonathan to step up efforts to end oil theft in the Niger Delta. Uche Igwe is the Civil Society Liaison Officer at the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) and Africa Policy Scholar Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Washington DC, USA.

In its submission, Fatal Transactions calls for coherence between EU development policy and the EU's need for undistorted access to raw materials in order to create win-win situations, referring to measures foreseen under the first of three pillars of the Raw Materials Initiative: (1) ensure access to raw materials from international markets under the same conditions as other industrial competitors.

The development of a concrete framework for how the trade dimension of the Raw Materials Initiative is to apply to developing countries should be treated as a priority. For that purpose, the European Commission should develop a more systematic approach, clearly defining the grounds on which the EU will refrain from imposing bans on restrictions on supply of raw materials. Dealing in raw materials sourced from parts of the world that are politically or economicaly unstable also implicates responsibilities and duties for the EU, which is not sufficiently reflected in the current version of the Raw Materials Initiative.

Fatal Transactions as part of a Civil society coalition has called for active measures to address oil spills and environmental degradation in the Niger Delta, which has been engulfed by violent conflict over the past decade. BP’s Gulf of Mexico disaster has heightened international concerns about the environmental dangers of offshore drilling around the world and led to President Obama declaring it America’s “environmental 9/11”. This oil spill has been correctly identified as a massive emergency and it is time to recognise that the ongoing oil spills, conflict and human rights abuses in the Niger Delta should also be acknowledged as an emergency demanding a concerted international response.

The lack of consensus among Kimberley Process (KP) certification scheme members over whether Zimbabwe can resume diamond exports from the troubled Marange area was welcomed by the KP civil society coalition today as the ‘least bad’ outcome. The scheme’s annual meeting in Tel Aviv broke up without agreement after through-the-night talks.

The Marange diamond fields have been plagued with violence over recent years. A joint work plan was agreed last year between the Kimberley Process and the Zimbabwean government, which aimed at bringing Zimbabwe back into line with the scheme’s minimum requirements. Almost no progress has been made on key aspects of this plan, including smuggling and demilitarisation of the diamond fields. Despite this, a number of governments supported a resumption of exports at this week’s meeting.

The Zimbabwe authorities should immediately release Farai Maguwu, a prominent activist who reported abuses in Zimbabwe's notorious Marange diamond fields, the Kimberley Process Civil Society Coalition said today.

The call coincided with a June 21 meeting in Tel Aviv of the Kimberley Process (KP), an international government-led certification scheme established to prevent the trade in blood diamonds.

ECOS calls for Oil Company Investigation Over Sudanese Human Rights Abuses Fatal Transactions member IKV/Pax Christi, as part of a group of aid agencies that worked in Sudan during the civil war, reporting together as the European Coalition on Oil in Sudan (ECOS), has called for an investigation into the role played by a consortium of oil companies in the conflict and their possible complicity in the commission of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

UPDATE (04/06/2010):
Farai Maguwu, director of the Centre for Research and Development (CRD) from Zimbabwe, has been detained by Zimbabwean police since June 3, 2010. Last September, we published his plea to suspend Zimbabwe from the Kimberley Process.

The state-sponsored harassment and intimidation of the Zimbabwean Centre for Research and Development (CRD), which has exposed ongoing human rights abuses in Zimbabwe’s Marange diamond fields, must stop. The monitoring arrangement of the Kimberley Process with Zimbabwe should be suspended.

D. Kopiński, A. Polus (eds.), 2010, Zgubne Transakcje. Fatal Transactions, Difin: Warszawa.