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Crude Accountability presents a new report on environmental human rights in Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan’s Chairmanship in the OSCE Has Not Improved Environmental Rights in the Country

December 23, 2011

Contact:
Sergey Solyanik: 8-777-7011276
ss_grs@yahoo.com

Crude Accountability has published a new report, “Kazakhstan’s Implementation of its OSCE Obligations to Observe the Human Right to a Healthy Environment,” which was prepared in partnership with the Legal Policy Research Centere (Almaty, Kazakhstan).

In 2011, the Republic of Kazakhstan’s three year term as leader of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) came to a close.  However, there were no improvements in human rights protections, including the right to a healthy environment and access to natural resources, despite declarations by the country’s leadership that Kazakhstan would draw attention to solving environmental problems during its chairmanship of the OSCE.  Violation of environmental rights creates threats to life, health, and the well-being of the population of Kazakhstan and is one of the main reasons for poverty and the growth of social tensions in the country.

According to Sergey Solyanik, consultant to Crude Accountability and author of the report, “Unfortunately, monitoring the human right to a clean environment in Kazakhstan remains beyond of the criticism of well-known human rights organizations. A clear example is the fight of the residents of the village of Berezovka, who have been struggling since 2002 to be relocated from their dangerous proximity to the Karachaganak Oil and Gas Condensate Field, but the authorities and the company continue to violate their rights and remain deaf to the people’s appeal.”

Traditional monitoring of human rights and human freedoms in Kazakhstan reflects just the tip of the iceberg of the real situation with human rights violations in the country, which is enormous.  Massive human rights violations in the country, to a significant extent, are determined by the economic and political leadership of the country, which is based on a predatory exploitation of natural resources, a battle between bureaucrats and business men for their possession and redistribution, placing the environmental costs on the shoulders of ordinary taxpayers, the inability of state bodies to fulfill their functions, the failure to observe international and national law, the absence of access to justice, the flourishing of corruption and the arbitrariness of bureaucrats.

This report provides a general evaluation of the situation with environmental human rights in Kazakhstan and the existing mechanisms for their protection on the national and international levels.

The report is available on Crude Accountability’s website: http://www.crudeaccountability.org.


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Office of Compliance, Advisor/Ombudsman of the World Bank Must Greatly Expand Its Scope in Tackling Systemic Problems with Oil and Gas Projects Financed by the International Finance Corporation

November 30, 2011

Crude Accountability has published a new report, “Sufficient Recourse? : Controversial Oil and Gas Projects in the Former Soviet Union and Recommendations to Improve the Compliance Advisor/Ombudsman Function of the World Bank Group,” which highlights weaknesses in the CAO’s ability to improve oil and gas project outcomes in Georgia, Kazakhstan and Russia.  The report evaluates structural and procedural limitations of the CAO that prevent it from effectively mitigating large, systemic problems resulting from IFC financed projects in this sector of the economy.

Sarah Bedy, the author of the report, summed up her research: “CAO complainants expected the CAO to push the IFC and its clients to uphold social and environmental best practices, especially in countries with weak rule of law and social and environmental protections; however their experience was that CAO often interpreted its mandate and evaluated complaints too narrowly."

The report reviews the 31 complaints submitted to the Office of Compliance Advisor/Ombudsman from affected communities throughout the former Soviet Union.  All the complaints received were connected to three oil and gas projects: the Baku Tbilisi Ceyhan Pipeline project, which traverses Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey; Lukoil Overseas Operating, which provided financing to the Karachaganak Oil and Gas Condensate Field in western Kazakhstan; and the Russkiy Mir project, an oil terminal constructed on the Black Sea coast in the heart of a resort community on the Taman Peninsula.  Extensive interviews with the complainants and responses from the CAO staff comprise the bulk of the report, which also provides recommendations to improve the future operations of the CAO.

Recommendations to the CAO include limiting the terms of leadership for the head of the office, instituting institutional reforms that result in professional repercussions against IFC staff who violate the IFC’s environmental and social standards, addressing the inability of the CAO to adequately address violations of national law and corruption in host countries, and increasing the independence of the CAO from the IFC, including housing it outside of the IFC office building.

The CAO is the independent recourse mechanism of the International Finance Corporation, the private lending arm of the World Bank Group.  Local communities impacted by IFC-financed projects should be able to turn to the CAO for assistance in instances where they believe the social and environmental performance standards of the IFC have been violated, or in instances where their quality of life has been compromised by the projects.

Crude Accountability’s Sergey Solyanik, a complainant against the IFC’s $150 million investment at the Karachaganak Oil and Gas Condensate Field, stated, “The question for the leadership of IFC and the Bank in general is do they want the CAO to be a buffer zone to soften the hit from civil society and the public, or do they want a real mechanism to solve problems and answer questions?...[I]f there is not a real mechanism, sooner or later there will be a social upheaval or a tragedy that will result in the loss of life, which will sit directly on the shoulders of IFC.”

The report is available on Crude Accountability's website: http://www.crudeaccountability.org.


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Crude Accountability Issues a New Report on the Financial and Administrative Management of Turkmenistan's Oil and Gas Sector

THE PRIVATE POCKET OF THE PRESIDENT (BERDYMUKHAMEDOV):OIL, GAS AND THE LAW

October 12, 2011

Crude Accountability announces the publication of a new report, “The Private Pocket of the President (Berdymukhamedov): Oil, Gas and the Law, which examines the role of the State Agency for the Management and Use of Hydrocarbon Resources Under the President in the distribution of revenue from oil and gas sales in Turkmenistan.

The report focuses on the creation of the Agency, which carries full responsibility for management of petroleum operations in Turkmenistan, including receipt of monies, exploration, extraction, transport and warehousing of oil and gas by foreign investors. The Agency reports directly to the President of Turkmenistan and is responsible for oversight of all monitoring of petroleum operations, including environmental, financial and labor issues.

One of the main findings of the report is the fact that the Agency is required to place only twenty percent of the revenues it receives into the State Budget; the rest of the funds can be used at the Agency's discretion and are not taxable. In this way, eighty percent of the revenue from petroleum operations coming into the country is not accountable to the public and is under total and single control of the President.

“This report provides new information to international organizations, including petroleum companies and international finance institutions, about the complete control over hydrocarbon resources by the State Agency, and, more importantly, by President Berdymukhamedov,” stated Kate Watters, Executive Director of Crude Accountability. “Any company, government or IFI that engages in the oil and gas sector will be contributing directly to the theft of resources from the Turkmen people by the President and the State Agency.”

The report describes the legal transformation of previous government structures that governed petroleum operations under the oversight of the Cabinet of Ministers, to the current situation in which the Agency has usurped not only management and use, but sole financial and legal oversight of the oil and gas sector.

The report is available on Crude Accountability's website: http://www.crudeaccountability.org.

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Human rights website “Chronicles of Turkmenistan” hacked
Press release by the Turkmen Initiative for Human Rights

On 18 July in the morning the website of the Turkmen Initiative for Human Rights “Chronicles of Turkmenistan” was hacked.

The website has been operating for about six years. Throughout these years it has posted thousands of articles, news casts and photos from Turkmenistan – the country where it is extremely difficult to obtain unbiased information.

During the days when the arms depot explosions occurred near Ashgabat, our website remained the only source of information providing coverage of the developments. Despite the risks of repressions by the Turkmen special services, our correspondents gained information from Abadan and forwarded it along with photo and video materials, which were subsequently posted on the website “Chronicles of Turkmenistan”.

Under the circumstances where the Turkmen authorities did not give any coverage of the explosions, Russian, European, US and other foreign media published our materials referring to the information from our website.

The Turkmen Foreign Ministry made statements about “disseminating deliberately misleading information”, implying our materials. Special service agents paid daily visits to the house of the website editors’ mother, who lives in Turkmenistan,  exerting serious  psychological pressure on  the elderly woman.  Now the website has been hacked:

«Dear press,
I have 2 news for you, one good, one bad.
First bad:
You will no longer be able to access the chrono-tm.org website! OMG NOoo!! :-((
Good news is, we are releasing their database, including list of subscribers, email addresses of comment authors, unpublished comments, etc etc…
Here is the first part, enjoy!
http://————————–
Stay tuned, we’ll have more good and bad news for you!!»

If the Turkmen authorities had arguments, refuting our publications, they would need neither public statements, nor covert repressions and other actions designed to suppress freedom of speech.  They do not have any arguments, nor can they realize that one can fight against freedom of speech but cannot defeat it.

The TIHR is making all efforts to restore the website as soon as possible.

Turkmen Initiative for Human Rights
Dempschergasse 17/1/12, Vienna, Austria, A-1180
tel: +43 1 944 1327,  E-mail: Turkmen.initiative@gmail.com, Web-site: www.chrono-tm.org

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“Chronicles of Turkmenistan” Website Hacked after Publishing Information on the Consequences of the Explosions at Munitions Warehouses in Abadan
July 18, 2011
Gazeta.ru

The website “Chronicles of Turkmenistan,” the first to publish information about the explosions at military warehouses in the city of Abadan, was hacked after a statement from human rights activists that there were almost 1400 fatalities as a result of the explosions. This information is according to Yuri Dzhibladze, the President of the Center for the Development of Democracy and Human Rights, in a statement to Gazeta.ru.

The website (www.chrono-tm.org) is published by the Turkmenistan Initiative for Human Rights, which is located in Vienna and organized by dissident-human rights activists who were forced to emigrate.

“The site was hacked earlier after appeals by President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov to do away with ‘slanderous fabricators about our country,’ but the situation is more disturbing now—the site was not only hacked, but the hackers accessed data about subscribers and authors of commentary,” according to Dzhibladze’s statement.

“This is precisely the new kind of repression in Turkmenistan,” noted Dzhibladze.

He connected the hack with the incidents in Abadan because “Chronicles of Turkmenistan” was the only source providing information about the explosions, on the number of victims and the fact that the authorities were silent about the scale of the tragedy.  The site also published rare photos—and video—by local residents who witnessed the event.

“The site is currently not accessible,” added Dzhibladze.

He also added that the addresses of subscribershas already been published on the Internet.

Translation by Crude Accountability

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July 12, 2011

Crude Accountability expresses its deep condolences to the people of Turkmenistan who lost family and friends in the explosion of military provisions that took place in the town of Abadan.  We grieve together with you in your time of loss.

We appeal to the Turkmen authorities to provide all necessary medical and other assistance to those who have suffered as a result of this terrible tragedy.

We ask the government of Turkmenistan to immediately investigate the incident, to publish a list of those who were wounded and killed, to calculate the losses to each person who was affected by the tragedy and to provide compensation to those who have suffered.

We appeal to the government of Turkmenistan to rebuild the city quickly and allow the citizens of Abadan to return so they can begin to rebuild their lives.

Sincerely,

Kate Watters, on behalf of Crude Accountability

 

More information on the Abadan explosion and the aftermath can be found at these sites:

http://www.eurasianet.org/node/63870

http://www.rferl.org/content/turkmenistan_blasts_depot_ammunition_mystery/24263654.html





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