Crossing Interests

Capitalizing on the Wealth of the Poor: 
From Bolivia to Iraq

By Hwaa Irfan
Staff Writer - IslamOnline

28/5/2003

The Qur’an warns us against slanderers and defamers:

“Who amasses wealth and considers it a provision (against mishap); he thinks that his wealth will make him immortal.” (Humazah: 2-3).

Yet, when it comes to the precious resource of water, our realization of how precious it is leads us to assume that the politicians’ remedy of the privatization of this dwindling resource is a logical course of action.

Those who are at the forefront of defending their right to manage their resources in these times have been the poor of the South. They have been long made to feel powerless over their environment, whereas their politicians are more absorbed with their self-interest rather than the development of their respective countries for the benefit of the people.  

• Bechtel in The Bahamas

• Bechtel in Bolivia

• Bechtel in the Congo

• Bechtel in Iraq

Bechtel in The Bahamas

In a letter from Archie Carr III – Regional Coordinator for the Wildlife Conservation Society – to main stakeholder Riley Bechtel, Carr refers to a Bechtel Family project that would change the face of The Bahamas. There would be 200 acres of land submerged under water, with the rest of the land paved, and lawns put in place that would demand a lot of water in order to be maintained.¹ This is in contrast to Bechtel’s mission statement, which states: “We will continue to adhere to the highest standards of ethics and integrity” and to “do our work safely and consistent with responsible environmental principles”. Has this statement been exemplified in the case of Bolivia?²

Bechtel in Bolivia

Managing water systems in order to control future supplies is one of many roles  played by the Bechtel Corporation through the process of privatization. In partnership with Edison International, Bechtel builds, operates and maintains water systems, and wastes water in many countries including the Philippines, Scotland, Poland, Australia and Bulgaria.³

Oscar Olivera, a citizen who dared to say “No”

Bolivian community activist Oscar Olivera was one citizen who dared to say “No” and act against the engineering multinational Bechtel Corporation. Bechtel was awarded a 40-year lease by the Bolivian government on the recommendation of the World Bank. It was expounded that privatization could manage resources more efficiently. The World Bank denied its role in the process, but director James Wolfensohn commented that giving public services away leads to waste and that “… countries like Bolivia need to have a ‘proper system’ of charging.” In the Bolivia Public Expenditure Review, the World Bank wrote: “No subsidies should be given to ameliorate the increase in water tariffs in Cochabamba – [the location of the protests].” Bechtel, along with Edison (Italy) and Aguas del Tunari (a subsidiary of Bechtel) had increased the water supply by 35%, which resulted in low-income households paying 20-106% more.⁴

It is worth mentioning that Bechtel is the same company that has been awarded a contract exceeding $600mn to rebuild Iraq’s power generation, water and sewage facilities, and possibly schools, hospitals and government facilities as well (see below).⁵

Olivera helped lead the fight through a broad-based labor movement called Coordinadora de Defensa del Agua y de la Vida (Coordination in Defense of Life and Water) two years ago. One hundred thousand people, including women and children, blocked the streets and even caused factories to stop operating throughout 13 days of protest. There were 5,000 military and police troops who, after managing to break up the crowd, found the protesters regrouped and about to block the major road from east to west Bolivia. 

Olivera declared that “For the first time in the history of Bolivia we have told the government ‘no’ and made them back off of their destructive schemes for privatization of our resources.” The privatization process stopped in April 2000, and the water system was de-privatized. However, it came at a price: Hundreds of those involved in the protest were injured and several were killed by plain-clothed government snipers. The fact that the Coordinadora de Defense was so well organized and united prevented a worse backlash.

It is only the oppressed who can awaken the oppressor and retain his sense of humanity. Olivera stated, “I’d like to meet with Mr. Wolfensohn to educate him on how privatization has been a direct attack on Bolivia’s poor. Families with monthly incomes of around $100 have seen their water bills jump to $20 per month – more than they spend on food.”

The World Bank pressured the Bolivian government to institute new laws, one of which was to fix the cost of water to the dollar-rate. The effect would be that if the Bolivian currency lost value, the price of Bolivian water would increase. The Bolivians were not even allowed to collect water from wells or the rainwater that gathered on their own property.⁶ “I’d like to invite Mr. Wolfensohn to come to Cochabamba and see the reality that he apparently can’t see from his office in Washington DC,” Olivera said.⁷

Bechtel had been trying to sue the Bolivian government for their contract to the tune of $25mn. To some extent, they weaved in the truth of their mission statement: they did “remain privately owned, financially prudent and global, with ownership held by active senior management.”

Bechtel in the Congo

The Democratic Republic of Congo is rich in natural resources including water, diamonds, tin, copper, timber and coltan (used in making cell phones and microchips). It has the world’s second largest forest after the Amazon. Suspicions arose when the five wealthiest nations, the World Bank and logging companies formed the biggest partnership that came out of the World Summit for Sustainable Development in South Africa last year. Up until 10 years ago, the Congo Basin was virgin forest; however, intensive illegal logging by European-based companies took place - the majority of the wood was exported to Europe.

Regarding the partnership, the US will take the lead by providing $60mn over five years, the Central African Republic committed $30mn, and Germany, France and the European Community will contribute.⁸

After a legacy of violent Belgian colonialism, where millions were killed and  dismembered, the Congo gained its independence in 1960. The honorable Head of State, Patrice Lumumba, was assassinated with US and European backing. The US installed dictator Mobutu, who led the country into a plunge of copper prices, mounting debt, corruption and internal conflict. This internal conflict has been fueled by US-backed dictators who use the army and security officials to protect foreign companies, foreign companies that extract the country’s valuable minerals.⁹

Bechtel cooperated with Laurent Kabila.

Bechtel developed relations with Laurent Kabila (as rebel leader, before he took control of the country in 1997). Bechtel supplied Kabila with intelligence, provided him with NASA satellite studies of the Congo, and offered to draw up a plan of the country’s natural wealth. In fact, Bechtel executive went as far as to become an advisor to Kabila.

The mineral coltan was discovered, and rebel groups made millions by selling it illegally to the US, Europe and Asia. Perpetuating dissension amongst the people provides an all clear for foreign companies to take what they want. In its Ba-n’Daw Report, the UN’s “Panel of Experts on the Illegal Exploitation of Natural Resources and Other Forms of Wealth of the Democratic Republic of Congo” concluded that US contractors, along with the US military and intelligence, support conflicts. The report also stated that the US, Germany, Belgium and Kazakhstan trade illegally in and exploit the natural resources of the Congo.¹⁰

Bechtel in Iraq

Protester Ahmed abdel-Zahra on the streets of Baghdad shouted, “We are against colonization and occupation; we have finished with one repressive regime and don’t want another.”¹¹ Protesters march for a true Islamic state, but Donald Rumsfeld says “No.” Whose country is it, and is this an apt description of the US abroad?

The corporation Kellogg Brown and Root was initially chosen by the Pentagon to extinguish the oil well fires in Iraq. It was also awarded, without competition, the Iraqi oil well contracts. KBR is a subsidiary of Halliburton, which was headed by the US Vice President Dick Cheney of the Enron scandal. Both KBR and Halliburton were charged with breaking US sanctions and human rights abuses in a May 2001 Multinational Monitor report.¹²

Reporter Andreas Zumach announced on the US-sponsored radio and TV show Democracy Now that he had obtained a portion of the 12,000-page Iraqi weapons report. He stated, “We have 24 major US companies listed in the report who gave very substantial support especially to the biological weapons program, but also to the missile and nuclear weapons program… Very much everything was illegal in the case of nuclear and biological weapons. Every form of cooperation and supplies were outlawed in the 1970s.” The companies Zumach mentioned included Bechtel. The Bechtel Corporation was involved in providing the grounds for war, and, now, it is to clear up and re-build afterwards.

Amidst completing the destruction of Iraq from where the Coalition allies left off in 1991, the US Administration announced its plan to re-build Iraq. Early last April, Bechtel was awarded a contract worth $600mn by USAID to rebuild the infrastructure that the Anglo/American forces had destroyed.

In February, Chairman of Bechtel, Riley Bechtel, was appointed to President  Bush’s Export Council, and former Bechtel executive, Ross Connolly, became executive vice president and chief officer of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation that established US investments around the world.¹³

20 years ago, Rumsfeld went to Baghdad to convince Saddam Hussein to support Bechtel.

While the network spreads and sets its roots further into all that constitutes US interests at home and abroad, discussions between Tel Aviv, Washington and the US-sponsored Iraqi National Congress are being held, and a plan is being drawn to build a pipeline that would siphon off Iraqi oil and channel it to Israel. They are looking at an old pipeline that was built under the British occupation of Palestine in 1948 that used to pump oil from the northern Iraqi fields to Palestine.¹⁴

Twenty years ago, current US Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, accompanied by Jay Garner and Terry Valenzano, went to Baghdad on a mission to convince Saddam Hussein to support Bechtel in the construction of an oil pipeline from Iraq to Aqaba in Jordan.¹⁵

With Tel Aviv involved in the negotiations, there is a clearer picture being drawn. Last year, Eilat-Ashkelon Pipeline Co. (Israel’s Energy Storage and Transport Company) planned to transport crude oil from Russia and Central Asia, and exactly from the Mediterranean city of Ashkelon to Eilat harbor on the Red Sea, via 254 km of pipeline. They were expecting to go into operation by the middle of this year. It was known then that this was to be part of a lesser-known oil trafficking plan in cooperation with Turkey. The effect would be to reverse the current flow from Egypt’s Abu Rodeis oilfields in the Sinai desert to Israeli petrochemical plants in Haifa and Ashdod.¹⁶  

Currently, there is an assessment of the rebuilding of Iraq as Bechtel is looking for suppliers and subcontractors of materials. The companies that register will be added to Bechtel’s global suppliers and contracting database.¹⁷

While countries and companies fight over the spoils of war on Iraq, how long do they think that they can prolong a dying capitalism without eventually endangering their sovereignties; and for how long do they think the rest of the world will remain complacent to what has been going on?

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