07/07/2011

Energy partnership without human rights?

Chancellor Merkel travels to Africa (11.07 – 14.07.):

The Chancellors objective for her trip to Africa next week – an energy partnership with Angola and Nigeria – is questionable, because the German commitment towards human rights is not credible. "Obviously, Germany has not learned anything from the overthrow of the dictators in North Africa", the Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) criticized in Göttingen on Thursday. "While the German federal government praises democratic change in Tunisia, they court one of the most brutal African dictators in Angola, who's mismanagement is similar to what the the overthrown Ben Ali-Clan acted like in Tunisia", said the STP's expert on questions regarding Africa, Ulrich Delius. Dictator José Eduardo Dos Santos, who has now ruled for 32 years, is accused of the embezzlement of 32 billion U.S. dollars – earned by oil revenues, transferred to his private accounts and invested in real estate and bank accounts in Europe and the US. He is also known to let dissidents and minorities be beaten up randomly. Angela Merkel will visit Kenya, Angola and Nigeria from the 11th to 14th of July 2011.

Angola is on its way to become the largest African oil-supplying country in 2012. Over 90 percent of Angola's exports are oil-supplies. A large part of the oil is being produced in the exclave of Cabinda. The 400.000 inhabitants of the former Portuguese colony have been protesting against the serious ecological consequences of the oil production for years – but any aboriginal protest is violently suppressed by the 40.000 Angolan soldiers stationed in the exclave.

Not only armed rebels, but also human rights activists are systematically persecuted. Thus, the Angolan civil rights organization Mpalabanda was outlawed in 2006 after reporting on human rights violations in Cabinda – and members of the organization were arrested repeatedly. On 20th June 2011, Angola managed to have the former Director of Mpalabanda, Agostinho Chicaia, arrested in Congo – and is currently working on his extradition. The Angolan authorities also managed to convince the Vatican to call back three Catholic priests who were fighting for peace and human rights in Cabinda.

Even in Nigeria's most important oil-producing region, the Niger Delta, the human rights situation is disastrous. Oil production stirs environmental damage and health problems and is destroying the basis of existence for the indigenous people living in the delta. Frequent leaks in oil pipelines are contaminating the water and the flaring of natural gases pollutes the air. Although Nigeria has earned billions of Euros from oil exports, the delta is clearly underdeveloped. More than 70 percent of its residents are unemployed. Civil rights groups have often enough accused multinational oil companies to deliberately violate Nigerian laws and environmental regulations to satisfy their greed. "So far, the energy companies remain unpunished, because they know how to effectively bribe the authorities. Even the newly elected Nigerian President, Jonathan Goodluck – who himself comes from the Niger Delta – has not been able to change anything about the mismanagement."