(Sadly, it's so damned familiar, and always so evil.) The workers are saddened but not surprised at the measures they are forced to take to try to reach agreements with BP. The mobilisation started in February of this year. Workers were forced to take direct action and block access roads to BP's installations after the oil corporation refused to recognise the workers rights to a union and to a collective bargaining agreement. The blockades were violently attacked by ESMAD, the notorious Colombian riot police, in an operation to end the protest.
This is not the first time that civil society movements against BP have been met with violence. In 2003, communities protested against BP, demanding action on ecological, social and labour issues. BP refused to negotiate. In the months following community leaders involved in the mobilisation were assassinated (2004 Oswaldo Vargas, 2005 Parmenio Parra). Furthermore, a preliminary public hearing held in 2007 in the UK on BP's activities in Colombia confirmed that there is sufficient evidence to conclude that BP has a case to answer that it is complicit in the extermination of social organisations in Casanare as part of direct strategy to maximise profits.”
Despite the history of repression, the response to the ESMAD attack in February was overwhelming. Two thousand people marched in support, fifteen more road blockades spontaneously sprung up, community members and local businesses joined the strike and the Movement for the Dignity of Casanare was born. BP was forced to listen and agreed to participate in the five commissions. Popular assemblies where held to decide on the bargaining demands which were later presented to BP on March 23. However, after two months of dialogue, the labour commission had made no advances and the current strike began.
Casanare is a region characterised by extreme levels of poverty, in spite of the oil that flows out of the region to the United States. This poverty has been worsened by the environmental degradation caused by the oil exploration and extraction, and the susbequent contamination and loss of water sources, according to local farmers whose livelihoods depend on water.
“We have heard about the BP incident in the USA. We send our condolences to the families and fellow workers of those who died due to the failure of BP to take the necessary measures to ensure safe operations and protect the lives of people working for them," said Garcia of the National Oil Workers Union. "Here in Colombia, BP has also shown their lack of respect for life. They have brought about a war that has left over 9000 people dead.”
He added, “We categorically hold BP to blame for this latest catastrophe in the USA and we demand that BP repairs to the extent possible the damage they have caused. We extend our solidarity to the Northamerican people affected and we ask for your solidarity with the Casanarean people and you are welcome to visit and see how things are here.”
BP continues to provide support to the 16th Brigade, which was created in 1991 in order to provide security to the oilfields in Casanare. They have a long, cruel and documented history of human rights violations, including: extrajudicial executions, disappearances, murders, torture, rape and the forced displacement of campesino communities. However the grave humanitarian crisis in Casanare and its relationship to the oil industry - in particular to BP - is not deterring the Movement for the Dignity of Casanare.
Felt the need to take a very rapid glance to see if more information came up on this subject, instantly found the following:
Colombian workers in occupation of BP plants
Colombia Solidarity Campaign | 02.06.2010 17:26
http://www.indymedia.org.uk.nyud.net:8090/images/2010/06/452673.jpg
Workers in occupation in Casanare
http://www.indymedia.org.uk.nyud.net:8090/images/2010/06/452674.jpg
~snip~
Andy Higginbottom, Secretary
of the UK based Colombia Solidarity Campaign said today,
"There has been a wave of death in Casanare ever since oil production began in the early 1990s. Some six thousand people have been assassinated and three thousand people disappeared in the department. Every time there have been complaints or protests in opposition to BP's interests, the community leaders concerned have been killed. This indicates an elimination strategy of violent social control. The agents have been the military and paramilitary groups."
"We have grave concern for the lives of the courageous workers in the occupation, and for the leaders and members of the Movement in Casanare community. We hold BP responsible for their well being, by commission or omission."
The Colombia Solidarity Campaign demands that BP recognises the workers just demands and that it sits down with them immediately and the Movement for the Dignity of Casanare to restart the talks process. It promises
"We will continue to mobilise and protest against BP in London and wherever else until there is an agreement made in free will between the Corporation and the Movement for the Dignity of Casanare".
Andy Higginbottom adds "We consider the social movement in Casanare and its counterparts in other regions to be the true ‘Green Wave' of Colombia"
Issued by Colombia Solidarity Campaign
London, 2 June 2010
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2010/06/452672.html~~~~~BP hands 'tarred in pipeline dirty war'
Colombia's military have been blamed for the murder of thousands of civilians. New claims link the British oil company to a security campaign supplying equipment to a notorious army unit and running a spy network of former troops.
Michael Gillard, Ignacio Gomez and Melissa Jones
guardian.co.uk, Saturday 17 October 1998 12.03 BST
The northern part of the Ocensa pipeline winds through Antioquia and the Magdelena Medio - the areas most savaged by Colombia's 33-year armed conflict.
Peasant farmers living near the pipeline are caught in the crossfire between the Colombian army, its feared paramilitary allies and leftwing guerrillas.
In the past 10 years more than 30,000 unarmed civilians have been the victims of politically motivated killings in Colombia. International human rights groups hold the state security forces and paramilitaries responsible for 70 per cent of these murders.
Many of the tortured and decapitated bodies - community leaders, trade unionists, church workers, peasant farmers and human rights defenders - are buried in the land around the pipeline.
Their families will never see those responsible prosecuted, because the Colombian security forces implicated in this dirty war escape with almost total impunity.
BP is a major shareholder in the Ocensa consortium, along with the Canadian firms TransCanada and IPL Enterprises and the French oil company Total.
Ocensa recently completed the 520 mile pipeline, which transports high-quality crude from BP 's huge oilfield in the eastern foothills of the Andes to tankers off the Caribbean coast.
The pipeline, which is a military target for the guerrillas, has two lines of defence.
First is an internal security department created and run by a secretive Anglo-American company, Defence Systems Limited, which is based in London. DSL and its former SAS soldiers were initially brought to Colombia by BP to protect its £25 billion oilfields.
Second is a secret agreement with the Colombian defence ministry to provide protection by counter-guerrilla brigades based near the pipeline.
Ocensa's defence needs are worth millions to the private security industry and the Colombian military. BP is also the country's biggest investor.
With this in mind the Israeli security company Silver Shadow approached Ocensa's department in the summer of 1996. In July it sent a two-page fax to Ocensa's security manager, Roger Brown, detailing what it called 'The Turn Key Project'.
The proposals for protecting the northern section of the pipeline included armoured attack helicopters, the 'direct supply of anti-guerrilla special weaponry and ammo', night-vision goggles, small robotic spy planes (drones) and secure communications equipment.
Mr Brown is a former British army officer and veteran of the Oman war. After leaving the army he joined DSL and in 1992 was sent to Colombia to run security for BP 's oilfields. Three years later he was transferred to set up and run Ocensa's pipeline security department. The two security operations work closely together and handle security matters for the consortium.
The Guardian has obtained copies of the correspondence between Silver Shadow and Ocensa, including other documents related to the arms deal.
The Silver Shadow papers reveal that Mr Brown said he had received 'verbal agreement' from Ocensa's management to study pipeline protection plans, including the Turn Key Project.
Ocensa transferred an advance payment of $202,000 (£126,000) to Silver Shadow's Tel Aviv account.
And in May last year, when the US export licence was approved, 60 pairs of restricted night-vision goggles were sent directly to the notorious 14th Brigade, which operates in Segovia, through which the pipeline passes.
This brigade has one of the worst human rights records in Colombia's dirty war. Lawyers have proved the involvement of a brigade commander and officers in one of Colombia's worst massacres in Segovia in 1988 when more than 90 men, women and children were attacked and 43 of them killed.
In 1996, while Ocensa and Silver Shadow were discussing arming the brigade with attack helicopters and guns, the brigade was once again under investigation for its role in the execution of 14 civilians in Segovia that April. The incidents were unconnected with oilfield protection.
Numbed by the latest massacre, officials of the government ombudsman wrote to Ocensa in November 1996 to express concern at the social and environmental impact of its operation on the community in the region.
'The people asked us if the 14th Brigade has the right to kill you when you are detained. They feel very unprotected,' said Beatriz Londono, who visited Segovia for the ombudsman's office.
She added: 'We are very worried about the large number of police and army protecting the pipeline The unequal investment (by oil companies) in security over community projects generates more conflict.'
Ocensa refuses to comment on its relationship with the 14th Brigade and DSL. But John O'Reilly, public relations adviser to BP in Colombia, told the Guardian the sale of military equipment and the general relationship with the brigade were 'unavoidable' under Ocensa's secret agreement with the defence ministry.
Mr O'Reilly also denied that any attack helicopters were bought for the army, but justified Ocensa's involvement by citing the 'terrible security situation at the time' caused by guerrilla attacks on the pipeline.
But it was not the only target. So too were communities living near it. Amnesty International points out that the Turn Key Project was negotiated when paramilitary death squads, with 14th Brigade support, had intensified political cleansing operations against government critics and perceived subversives in the region. More than 140 people were killed last year alone.
An Amnesty researcher, Susan Lee, also questions another aspect of Ocensa's relationship with the brigade.
'In the past this brigade brought in an Israeli security company to provide mercenary training for paramilitaries operating under its control,' she said. 'These death squads went on to commit widespread atrocities against the civilian population.'
Silver Shadow was not involved in that operation. Its director, Asaf Nadel, is a former Israeli army officer who once worked at the embassy in Colombia. The Turn Key Project was his first commercial venture there.
Mr Nadel would not discuss the Ocensa deal, other than to say: 'They got everything they paid for.'
The Silver Shadow papers also reveal a disturbing plan to give Ocensa and BP top management 'a state-of-the-art investigation-intelligence and psychological warfare 18-day seminar'. It would be tailored 'to suit Ocensa/ BP special requirements' along the pipeline.
More:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/1998/oct/17/1
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