“Every (year) over the past twenty years, the Ok Tedi mine in Papua New Guinea (PNG) has dumped 80,000 tons of waste into the Ok Tedi and Fly Rivers. The result has been an environmental disaster that has destroyed thousands of square kilometers of rainforest and caused terrible hardship for local people…
Australian mining giant BHP Billiton was the major shareholder in Ok Tedi Mining Ltd (OTML) and the mine operator until early 2002. At this time, the company handed over its majority stake in OTML to the newly formed and ironically named Sustainable Development Project Company.
This quiet revolution demonstrates the power of transnational corporations in PNG. With the transfer, BHP gained legal indemnity from PNG government action with respect to all the pollution and destruction it has already caused and will cause in the future. The government surrendered its sovereignty, failing to protect its citizens by setting environmental standards and monitoring corporate activities.” … Friends of the Earth International
BHP Billiton Destroyed A Country, Took The Profits And Then Transferred The Mess To Another Company To Limit Ongoing Liability – JUST LIKE SHELL DID IN BARBADOS
I don’t know whether to laugh or cry at this my friends.
Prime Minister David Thompson and the Democratic Labour Party have just awarded the first Barbados offshore oil exploration rights to a company that does hit and run environmental disasters.
No Rules: Thompson awarded oil contract to a company known to bribe government officials
You know the type of company that goes into a small country and rapes vast areas without a care about destroying the environment? That is BHP Billiton. A company that brings long-term sickness that injures thousands. A company that leaves malformed babies and miscarriages in its wake. Then after they make hundreds of millions, they “sell” the entire operation and leftover mess to some little nothing of a shell company so BHP Billiton can walk away without liability for the disaster.
Then they go to another little country like Barbados, pay lots of bribes and start all over again.
Oh… and here is the BEST PART….
BHP Billiton themselves started as a little company that SHELL OIL used to walk away from an environmental disaster! You know, the same SHELL OIL that walked away from the environmental damage they caused in Barbados with jet fuel. (see To HELL with SHELL – Barbados Boycotts Shell)
That is BHP Billiton.
Full story and many links at Keltruth Blog’s Barbados Awards Offshore Oil-Exploration Rights To Company Responsible For Worst Environmental Disaster
Barbados Free Press 