BP hit by human rights charges
15 Jan 2000
Investigations by Amnesty International and the Guardian newspaper have thrown a shadow over BP's activities in Colombia. A security organisation, contracted by BP to safeguard its interests in Colombia, appears to have supplied equipment to a Colombian army brigade accused of human rights abuses.
The security organisation, Defense Systems Colombia, is under contract both to BP and to Ocensa, the consortium which owns the pipeline from the Colombian oilfields. According to Amnesty, `DSC/Ocensa has purchased military equipment for the Colombian army's XIV Brigade which has an atrocious record of human rights abuses.' In a House of Commons committee meeting, BP policies and regions director Chris Gibson Smith admitted that Ocensa had supplied night-vision goggles to the XIV Brigade; BP has sacked its security adviser for the Colombian region.
Amnesty notes that foreign oil companies are considered as military targets by armed opposition groups; it also acknowledges that `BP has made important progress... to protect human rights.' However, it warns, `through its contract with DSC in Colombia, BP runs the risk of being charged with complicity in human rights violations by virtue of association.'
