multinational corporations

Peru's rainforest: oil and gas run through it

Submitted by rains on Sun, 04/06/2008 - 20:05
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Indigenous groups are threatened as Peru gears up for an energy boom.

POROTOBANGO, PERU

Raised in palm huts deep in the Peruvian Amazon, Gregorio Torres never imagined that below his home was something called natural gas.

Now his Machiguengua Indian settlement in this rain-forest river clearing has solar-powered radio gifted by an international oil company, corrugated tin roofs, T-shirts with company logos, and a shelf of Western medicine.

But this incipient natural-gas boom is bringing new worries, too.

WORLD’S BIGGEST GOLDMINE SHUT DOWN AS SOLDIERS GO ON THE RAMPAGE

Submitted by rains on Sun, 04/06/2008 - 19:01
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‘My people urgently need the world’s help’ says Papuan tribal leader.

The Freeport Mine in West Papua – the biggest gold and copper mine in the world – is today in a state of chaos, as Indonesia soldiers reportedly use tear gas and live rounds to attack protesting tribal people. Reports from inside West Papua suggest that at least one person may have been killed.

Last month, West Papua made the news when a ‘lost valley’ containing numerous new species was discovered. This week, its people are suffering brutally – it needs to make the news again.

British Petrolium in bed with the killers

Submitted by FdN on Sun, 04/06/2008 - 13:04
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BP has a legal right to get a licence from Indonesia to extract gas in West Papua. Its moral case is less clearcut.

It all seems a very long way away. But what is happening in an obscure island nation in the south Pacific has now become our business. A few weeks ago BP, the British company that has invested most in "corporate social responsibility", received final approval to start developing a gas field in West Papua, the western half of the island of New Guinea.