Revealed - the new scramble for Africa

 

Revealed: the new scramble for AfricaDavid Leigh and David PallisterWednesday June 1, 2005The Guardian new "scramble for Africa" is taking place among the world's big powers, who are tapping into thecontinent for its oil and diamonds.Tony Blair is pushing hard for African debt relief agreements in the run-up to the G8 summit inScotland in July. But while sub-Saharan Africa is the object of the west's charitable concern,billions of pounds' worth of natural resources are being removed from it.A Guardian investigation beginning today reveals that instead of enriching often debt-riddencountries, some big corporations are accused by campaigners of facilitating corruption and provokinginstability - so much so that organisations such as Friends of the Earth talk of an "oil curse".Simon Taylor, director of Global Witness, which has been prominent in urging reform, said: "Westerncompanies and banks have colluded in stripping Africa's resources. We need to track revenues fromoil, mining and logging into national budgets to make sure that the money isn't siphoned off bycorrupt officials."Looting of state assets by corrupt leaders should become a crime under international law, he said."The G8 should take the lead in this."The original Scramble for Africa took place in the late 19th century, when Britain, France andGermany competed to carve Africa into colonies.Today corporations from the US, France, Britain and China are competing to profit from the rulers ofoften chaotic and corrupt regimes.Our investigations in three African countries rich in resources - Angola, Equatorial Guinea andLiberia - show how British-based companies have negotiated deals that critics say are against theinterests of some of the poorest and most traumatised people on earth.The Guardian's inquiries focus on a big gas project in Equatorial Guinea; plans to exploit Liberia'sdiamonds, and western banks' readiness to provide Angola with huge oil-backed loans.In Equatorial Guinea, BG plc (formerly the British Gas state company) has closed a deal with theregime of President Teodoro Obiang to buy up the country's production of liquefied natural gas forthe next 17 years.Britain's HSBC bank has been accused by a US Senate committee of helping Mr Obiang move cash fromthe country's oil revenues into financial "black holes" in Luxembourg and Cyprus. The country isthreatened with repeated coups by outsiders keen to get their hands on the oil wealth.In Liberia, which has been beset by civil war, LIB, a private London bank, was behind attempts tomonopolise alluvial diamond production and the country's telecommunications. The UN and the WorldBank have criticised the schemes as secretive and against the country's interests. LIB has nowwithdrawn.And in Angola, the victim of an even more destructive internal war, one of the UK's leadingdevelopment banks, Standard Chartered, has been accused of damaging the country's economy byproviding record multibillion dollar loans which give a stranglehold over future oil production.A succession of scandals has already revealed how oil wealth was looted in billions from the formerAbacha military regime in Nigeria with the assistance of western banks and bribes paid by US oilfirms.In Sudan and Chad, Chinese companies are moving in, backing and arming military rulers and buildingpipelines.And in France, the then state oil company Elf has been accused in corruption investigations ofhaving paid kickbacks and encouraged regimes to run up debts as part of a deliberate "Africanstrategy".Congo-Brazzaville, the fourth-largest sub-Saharan oil producer, was dominated by Elf, and now hasthe highest per capita debt in the world.Global Witness says in a 2004 report: "Oil wealth [there] has left a legacy of corruption, povertyand conflict."The British government is pushing an international plan for disclosure by companies of how much theypay African rulers for their natural resources. The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiativehas been praised by anti-corruption bodies.But campaigners say that on present evidence improvements in western behaviour so far appear slight.And they fear the chances of these issues being raised as priorities at the G8 summit at Gleneaglesin July remain bleak as EU countries quibble about levels of aid and the US balks at innovativeschemes for debt relief.Gareth Thomas, the international development minister, said Britain hoped to have 20 Africancountries signed up to the transparency code by the end of the year. "There is big political supportfor this programme and we will be addressing the issue in the G8 summit communique," he said.Special reportsG8 http://www.guardian.co.uk/g8/0,13365,967228,00.htmlGlobalisation http://www.guardian.co.uk/globalisation/0,7368,408592,00.htmlUseful linksOfficial Sea Island G8 summit 2004 site http://www.g8usa.gov/University of Toronto G8 information centre http://www.g7.utoronto.ca/SavannahG8summit.org http://www.savannahg8summit.org/Canadian government: G8 site http://www.g8.gc.ca/No G8 - anti-G8 site http://www.nog8.org/International Festival for Peace and Civil Liberties (anti-G8 site) http://www.freesavannah.com/Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005http://www.guardian.co.uk/hearafrica05/story/0,15756,1496561,00.html