NEWS: ABROAD

EUROPEAN NGO's IN HUGE CORPORATE PROTEST
In an open letter published by the Corporate Europe Observatory last month, over 50 NGOs from more than a dozen EU countries called upon EU Commission President Barroso 'to act immediately to curb the excessive influence of corporate lobby groups over EU policymaking'.
Over fifteen thousand full-time lobbyists now operate in Brussels, a large majority representing business interests. Lobby groups succeed all too frequently in postponing, weakening or blocking sorely needed progress in EU social, environmental and consumer protections.

WEST PAPUA: ROLLING OVER THE PEOPLE
In the Indonesian capital Jakarta, November's three-day 'military expo' was an opportunity for 250 international arms companies to try and sell their wares to the notorious Indonesian military. One of the companies there was Britain's own Rolls-Royce, the world's second-largest manufacturer of engines for military aircraft.
According to Rolls Royce:
'We aim to meet society's expectations by setting a high standard of business conduct and personal behaviour ... Rolls-Royce has come 10th in the top 100 companies in Business in the Community's Corporate Responsibility Index for 2003.'

Here is what the Indonesia Human Rights Network says about how Indonesia uses its military hardware to commit an ongoing genocide on the people of West Papua, which it illegally invaded in the 1960s and still controls:
'Violent military campaigns and extrajudicial killings have claimed the lives of thousands of West Papuans. Thousands more have been subjected to torture, disappearance, arbitrary detention, rape, or other forms of serious mental and bodily harm ... the historical and contemporary evidence ... strongly suggests that the Indonesian government has committed proscribed acts with the intent to destroy the West Papuans as such, in violation of the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.'

And here is what the Indonesian military, armed by companies like Rolls Royce, are doing in West Papua right now, according to the Jakarta Post newspaper:
'Eight people, including a church minister and a police officer, were killed in a series of attacks by unidentified gunmen between Aug. 17 and Nov. 12, 2004. Some 15 others, mostly children, died when more than 5,000 residents of 27 villages had to flee and take refuge in remote areas after they felt their lives were in danger due to the continued presence of the gunmen ... reliable sources in the province told The Jakarta Post that the local unit of the Army's Special Forces was involved in the incidents.'

Perhaps you can see some curious contradiction between Rolls-Royce's claims of 'social responsibility' and the fact that its products are being sold, openly, to this regime, for direct military use? If so, you might like to take it up with the company. You can phone Rolls Royce on 020 7222 9020. Ask to speak to the CEO, Sir John Rose. Perhaps he can explain how his company squares this ethical circle? Or you could email him on john.rose@rolls-royce.com.

If you get a response, please let the Free West Papua Campaign know by emailing paul@paulkingsnorth.net

www.freewestpapua.org
PO Box 1409, Oxford, OX4 1UN.

IRAQ - PIMPING FOR PROFITS

On September 19th the occupying Coalition Provisional Authority issued Order 39, ‘a blueprint for transforming Iraq into a market economy’ according to the Financial Times. This has been explained to British corporations by Windrush Communications in mouth-watering terms: 'The reconstruction of Iraq’s infrastructure is planned to begin in earnest over the next five years at a cost of more than $100 billion. At least half of this figure will account for projects to be sub-contracted to outside companies.'

Windrush themselves plan to be safely seated on this gravy train - by acting as middle-men between the US occupation (plus their Iraqi elite bureaucrats) and various companies that seek to take over the infrastructure of Iraq. Their recent 'Iraq Procurement Conference: Meet the Buyers' was billed as bringing together

'Over 200 companies and organisations from around the world … to discuss the wide range of economic opportunities available. The event was open to interested businesses and organisations from all countries, immediately following the awarding of up to $18.4 billion in contracts from the US Congress and prior to the handover from the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) to the new Iraqi government on 30 June.' (see Babylonian Times for further details of the 'handover')

The scale of contracts available is also described in a breathless list by Windrush as: 'housing and construction, oil and gas, energy and power, automotive and transport, railways and roads, telecommunications, information technology, water and wastewater, agriculture, finance, insurance, healthcare, education and culture, tourism and security. Other industrial sectors include petrochemicals, minerals, cement, paper, consumer goods, light manufacturing, electronics, machinery and transport equipment, food processing and packaging, and textiles and leather.'

However, they do not seem to be totally happy with people in the UK knowing about this sell-off process. On the 23rd of November 2004, the Crown Prosecution Service dropped the charges against two protestors who had disrupted Windrush’s ‘Iraq Procurement Conference’ in April 2004. The prosecution depended on the protestors having interfered with a ‘lawful activity’; yet there is plenty of evidence that the corporate buy-out of Iraq is not lawful at all. In a leaked memo dated March 26th 2003, UK Attorney General Lord Peter Goldsmith advised Prime Minister Blair that in his view, 'the imposition of major structural economic reforms would not be authorised under international law'. In another report Juliet Blanch, a partner at the London-based international law firm Norton Rose, had stated that when it came to the CPA selling off Iraqi assets 'Most [experts] believe that their actions are not legal', and could be in breach of the 1907 Hague Regulations and the Fourth Geneva Convention. These regulations and conventions were brought in to prevent plunder - in the past this meant the stripping of crops from fields by invading armies, the rounding up of animals for slaughter and the looting of banks and houses. Nowadays, the control and exploitation of services and industries represents a far more lucrative form of plunder; loot that keeps on giving.

Most of Iraq's industry, services and communications are in a state of disarray after ten years of sanctions and off-on bombing. Pro-corporate voices state that only the companies have the economic muscle to get Iraq going again, and that business are simply picking up the pieces created by the Ba’athist dictatorship. This ignores the fact that the governments of Saddam and the US occupation authorities both had a common interest - in preventing the public taking control of the economy. Corporate control of the Iraqi infrastructure is attractive to the US and UK occupiers, not only because it will mean an influx of cash for their friends and backers, but also because it is a good way to keep the levers of power in as few hands as possible. One example of this process can be found in Southern Iraq. The Mitsubishi Company built power generators in the town of Hartha twenty years ago. Now the area suffers from blackouts, and the desalination plants are often out of action, which means undrinkable water and a damaged system. Although the local power plant workers have managed to get 25% power back, while Mitsubishi hold the blueprints and the spare parts nothing more can be done. The Mitsubishi Company has the contract to rebuild Hartha’s power, but is staying out of Iraq for another two years and refuses to release the plans to the plant workers. In this case, but not only in this case, the promise by a corporation to ‘rebuild’ Iraq has actually resulted in a brake on reconstruction.

IRAQ 2 - FARMERS GET MODIFIED
Iraq is a breadbasket of the Middle East and the genetic origin of wheat. Is the US putting legislation in place in preparation for
commercialising GM wheat there in order to get a foothold in Asia? You bet it is.

A new report [1] by GRAIN and Focus on the Global South has found that new legislation in Iraq has been carefully put in place by the US that prevents farmers from saving their seeds and effectively hands over the seed market to transnational corporations. This, say the writers, is a disastrous turn of events for Iraqi farmers, biodiversity and the country's food security. While political sovereignty remains an illusion, food sovereignty for the Iraqi people has been made near impossible by these new regulations.

"The US has been imposing patents on life around the world through trade
deals. In this case, they invaded the country first, then imposed their
patents. This is both immoral and unacceptable", said Shalini Bhutani, oneof the report's authors.

The new law in question [2] heralds the entry into Iraqi law of patents on life forms - this first one affecting plants and seeds. This law fits in neatly into the US vision of Iraqi agriculture in the future - that of an industrial agricultural system dependent on large corporations providing inputs and seeds.

In 2002, the Food And Agriculture Orgainsation (FAO) estimated that 97 percent of Iraqi farmers used saved seed from their own stocks from last year's harvest or purchased from local markets. When the new law - on plant variety protection (PVP) - is put into effect, seed saving will be illegal.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT:

From GRAIN: Shalini Bhutani in India [Tel: +91 11 243 15 168 (work) or +91 98 104 33 076 (cell)] or Alexis Vaughan in United Kingdom [Tel: +44 79 74 39 34 87 (mobile)]

From Focus on the Global South: Herbert Docena in Philippines [Tel:+63 2 972 382 3804]

NOTES [1] Visit
http://www.grain.org/articles/?id=6.
GRAIN and Focus' report is entitled "Iraq's new patent law: a declaration of war against farmers".

[2] Patent, Industrial Design, Undisclosed Information, Integrated Circuits and Plant Variety Law of 2004, CPA Order No. 81, 26 April 2004,
http://www.iraqcoalition.org/regulations/20040426_CPAORD_81_Patents_Law.pdf