Good morning. I'm Mulenga Trish Katyoka, Africa Advocacy Director for Amnesty International USA.

The United States wants to ease its dependence on Middle East oil and that has meant unprecedented interest in oil production in Africa. In ten years, African oil may make up as much as 30 percent of US oil imports. New oil production may bring added revenues to African governments and added profits to investing corporations, but the human condition of people in oil-rich communities stands to suffer.

The pipeline project in Chad and Cameroon has presented a unique attempt to deal with the adverse impact on communities affected by oil production. This experiment at least requires further refinement that grants host governments an opportunity to reject oil contracts that contribute to the oppression of their citizens. Limited oil resources and the unlimited demand for oil in the West must not translate into further poverty for ordinary Chadians and Cameroonians. Their governments need a chance to realize their commitments to implementing their international human rights obligations. At present, State-Investor Agreements stand in the way of progress as they prevent governments from acting in the best interests of their citizens because corporate interests have the final word. As long as this fundamental problem remains unchallenged, the poorest of the poor will continue to dwell in a spin cycle of delusion and despair.

Chad and Cameroon have both ratified many of the major conventions and covenants for protecting human rights in their respective countries, demonstrating that they could begin to move toward more compliance with international human rights law. Foreign companies should be encouraging them to move in this direction, rather than hobbling their ability to do so. But, currently human rights are under grave threat in both countries.

The State Department and Amnesty International reported this year that the Chadian government's human rights record remained poor, and the organizations reported extensive concerns for the rights of Cameroonians.
The Chadian security forces commit extra-judicial killings and "disappearances," torture as a means of interrogation, death threats, rape, and arbitrary arrest and detentions against the government's political opponents and its neighbors and family members. The government continues to limit people's rights to express their views, to meet peacefully, to practice their religion, and to move freely.

Cameroonian security forces have committed numerous unlawful killings and are responsible for deaths in police custody, torture, beatings, and other abuses, with impunity. Security forces arrest and arbitrarily detain, often for long periods, opposition politicians, local human rights monitors, and other citizens. The government restricts freedom of speech and harasses and threatens journalists. The government of Cameroon refuses to allow Amnesty International investigators to visit the country.
In addition to government abuses, in both countries, human rights abuses associated with the pipeline project are of grave concern because they are serious and prevalent. World Bank-commissioned monitoring reports and local advocacy groups' findings have already reported adverse consequences to the people in communities around the pipeline. Exxon has occupied the land of many poor farmers in the Doba region of Chad, and Exxon refused either to compensate them for or restore it to them. Several villages have reportedly been denied access to their sole safe water supply and the Kribi fishermen who work off Cameroon's coast have had their livelihoods seriously threatened by the pipeline.

Problems stemming from the Consortium's compensation process have been widely reported by local groups in both countries. They include Cameroonian farmers who have seen financial ruin as a result of inadequate compensation for loss of farmland and fruit trees, the destruction of hundreds of sacred sites without compensation, and the inadequate recompense provided to individuals and communities in southern Chad that suffered losses due to the project. Specific compensation complaints include houses built that cannot withstand the climate, classrooms and community centers that were poorly built, not completed or not constructed at all, the digging of wells with poor water quality, and the receipt of defective farm implements, among others. Also troubling is the fact that all compensation claims for losses caused by the project are determined by the Consortium itself, and there is currently no right nor mechanism for Chadians or Cameroonians to appeal these decisions to any independent body. The pipeline agreements limit access to justice for these people.

The project's contracts open the door for further similar abuses for the duration of the project, which spans generations. For example, there is growing concern about new oil exploration by Exxon. As described in the most recent World Bank advisory group report, the comparatively high population density of this region has led to serious concerns about how to balance farming and herding activites with oil-related activities because a larger percentage of the population would be eligible for resettlement and compensation for losses associated with expropriated or destroyed property. Therefore, Amnesty International is concerned that this further oil development will lead to additional abuses that cannot be addressed because of the limits imposed by the State-Investor Agreements.

Amnesty International demands that the governments of Chad and Cameroon uphold their international obligations and protect the rights of their citizens. But today as we highlight in this report, those governments do not have complete freedom to make improvements, because they are constrained by State-Investor Agreements. The governments can now use these agreements as another excuse for dodging their responsibilities. The people of Chad and Cameroon could pay the price for 70 years if these agreements aren't revised to protect human rights.

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