May 22, 2003	Thursday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 19,1424

LONDON: The terms of laying a new oil pipeline from the Caspian Sea to the Mediterranean violate the human rights of people living along the line, Amnesty International warned on Tuesday.

Two new pipelines, one for oil and one for gas, have been planned from Baku in Azerbaijan on the Caspian Sea to the Mediterranean port Ceyhan in Turkey after passing through Tbilisi in Georgia. A consortium led by British Petroleum (BP) is planning to build the pipelines.

The proposed 1,750-kilometre Baku-Tbilsi-Ceyhan pipeline is likely to be among the world’s longest. It will have a capacity to supply some one million barrels of oil per day.

Construction is due to begin within a few weeks and is expected to last two years. The pipeline project is expected to cost about five billion dollars, and have a lifespan of 40 to 60 years.

In its report ‘Human Rights on the Line’, Amnesty has objected to the legal agreements covering construction of the pipeline within the Turkish section on the ground that the agreements will lead to a denial of human rights to people living along the pipeline.

Amnesty says it has similar concerns for people in Georgia and Azerbaijan. “But we have not had the resources to investigate further,” Chris Marsden, chair of the Amnesty International UK Business Group said on Tuesday.

Amnesty has particular concerns over environmental degradation, loss of livelihood to local people and loss of grazing land, Andrea Stemberg from Amnesty told media representatives

“BP says about 30,000 people will be affected in Turkey,” she said. “The local population will be at the mercy of the oil consortium. Many of the local people do not even speak Turkish as the first language, and they have no way of going to a court or anywhere else to seek redress.”

BP is making offers to local people that look good on paper, she said.

Amnesty also expressed concern about inadequate enforcement of health and safety legislation to protect workers and local people, serious risk to human rights of any individuals who protest against the pipeline, and of reduced access to water to local people, in an area of water shortage.—Dawn/The InterPress News Service.