>> =============================================
>> Many of the tortured and decapitated bodies
>> --community leaders, trade unionists, church
>> workers, peasant farmers and human rights
>> defenders-- are buried in the land around the
>> pipeline.
>>_________________________ =============================================
>>THE GUARDIAN [London]
>>
>>Saturday, 17 October 1998
>>
>> BP hands 'tarred in pipeline dirty war'
>> ---------------------------------------
>>
>> By Michael Gillard, Ignacio Gomez and Melissa Jones
>>
>>
>>The northern part of the Ocensa pipeline winds through Antioquia and the
>>Magdelena Medio -- the areas most savaged by Colombia's 33-year armed
>>conflict.
>>
>>Peasant farmers living near the pipeline are caught in the crossfire
>>between the Colombian army, its feared paramilitary allies and leftwing
>>guerrillas.
>>
>>In the past 10 years more than 30,000 unarmed civilians have been the
>>victims of politically motivated killings in Colombia. International human
>>rights groups hold the state security forces and paramilitaries
>>responsible for 70 per cent of these murders.
>>
>>Many of the tortured and decapitated bodies --community leaders, trade
>>unionists, church workers, peasant farmers and human rights defenders--
>>are buried in the land around the pipeline.
>>
>>Their families will never see those responsible prosecuted, because the
>>Colombian security forces implicated in this dirty war escape with almost
>>total impunity.
>>
>>BP is a major shareholder in the Ocensa consortium, along with the
>>Canadian firms TransCanada and IPL Enterprises and the French oil company
>>Total.
>>
>>Ocensa recently completed the 520 mile pipeline, which transports
>>high-quality crude from BP's huge oilfield in the eastern foothills of the
>>Andes to tankers off the Caribbean coast.
>>
>>The pipeline, which is a military target for the guerrillas, has two lines
>>of defence.
>>
>>First is an internal security department created and run by a secretive
>>Anglo-American company, Defence Systems Limited, which is based in London.
>>DSL and its former SAS soldiers were initially brought to Colombia by BP
>>to protect its pounds 25 billion oilfields.
>>
>>Second is a secret agreement with the Colombian defence ministry to
>>provide protection by counter-guerrilla brigades based near the pipeline.
>>
>>Ocensa's defence needs are worth millions to the private security industry
>>and the Colombian military. BP is also the country's biggest investor.
>>
>>With this in mind the Israeli security company Silver Shadow approached
>>Ocensa's security department in the summer of 1996. In July it sent a
>>two-page fax to Ocensa's security manager, Roger Brown, detailing what it
>>called "The Turn Key Project".
>>
>>The proposals for protecting the northern section of the pipeline included
>>armoured attack helicopters, the "direct supply of anti-guerrilla special
>>weaponry and ammo", night-vision goggles, small robotic spy planes
>>(drones) and secure communications equipment.
>>
>>Mr Brown is a former British army officer and veteran of the Oman war. In
>>civvy street he joined DSL and in 1992 was sent to Colombia to run
>>security for BP's oilfields. Three years later he was transferred to set
>>up and run Ocensa's pipeline security department. The two security
>>operations work closely together and handle security matters for the
>>consortium.
>>
>>The Guardian has obtained copies of the correspondence between Silver
>>Shadow and Ocensa, including other documents related to the arms deal.
>>
>>The Silver Shadow papers reveal that Mr Brown said he had received "verbal
>>agreement" from Ocensa's management to study pipeline protection plans,
>>including the Turn Key Project.
>>
>>Ocensa transferred an advance payment of $ 202,000 ( pounds 126,000) to
>>Silver Shadow's Tel Aviv account.
>>
>>And in May last year, when the US export licence was approved, 60 pairs of
>>restricted night-vision goggles were sent directly to the notorious 14th
>>Brigade, which operates in Segovia, through which the pipeline passes.
>>
>>This brigade has one of the worst human rights records in Colombia's dirty
>>war. Lawyers have proved the involvement of a brigade commander and
>>officers in one of Colombia's worst massacres in Segovia in 1988 when more
>>than 90 men, women and children were attacked and 43 of them killed.
>>
>>In 1996, while Ocensa and Silver Shadow were discussing arming the brigade
>>with attack helicopters and guns, the brigade was once again under
>>investigation for its role in the execution of 14 civilians in Segovia
>>that April. The incidents were unconnected with oilfield protection.
>>
>>Numbed by the latest massacre, officials of the government ombudsman wrote
>>to Ocensa in November 1996 to express concern at the social and
>>environmental impact of its operation on the community in the region.
>>
>>"The people asked us if the 14th Brigade has the right to kill you when
>>you are detained. They feel very unprotected," said Beatriz Londono, who
>>visited Segovia for the ombudsman's office.
>>
>>She added: "We are very worried about the large number of police and army
>>protecting the pipeline. The unequal investment (by oil companies) in
>>security over community projects generates more conflict."
>>
>>Ocensa refuses to comment on its relationship with the 14th Brigade and
>>DSL. But BP's chief spin doctor, John O'Reilly, told the Guardian the sale
>>of military equipment and the general relationship with the brigade were
>>"unavoidable" under Ocensa's secret agreement with the defence ministry.
>>
>>Mr O'Reilly also denied that any attack helicopters were bought for the
>>army, but justified Ocensa's involvement by citing the "terrible security
>>situation at the time" caused by guerrilla attacks on the pipeline.
>>
>>But it was not the only target. So too were communities living near it.
>>Amnesty International points out that the Turn Key Project was negotiated
>>when paramilitary death squads, with 14th Brigade support, had intensified
>>political cleansing operations against government critics and perceived
>>subversives in the region. More than 140 people were killed last year
>>alone.
>>
>>An Amnesty researcher, Susan Lee, also questions another aspect of
>>Ocensa's relationship with the brigade.
>>
>>"In the past this brigade brought in an Israeli security company to
>>provide mercenary training for paramilitaries operating under its
>>control," she said. "These death squads went on to commit widespread
>>atrocities against the civilian population."
>>
>>Silver Shadow was not involved in that operation. Its director, Asaf
>>Nadel, is a former Israeli army officer who once worked at the embassy in
>>Colombia. The Turn Key Project was his first commercial venture there.
>>
>>Mr Nadel would not discuss the Ocensa deal, other than to say: "They got
>>everything they paid for."
>>
>>The Silver Shadow papers also reveal a disturbing plan to give Ocensa and
>>BP top management "a state-of-the-art investigation-intelligence and
>>psychological warfare 18-day seminar". It would be tailored "to suit
>>Ocensa/BP special requirements" along the pipeline.
>>
>>According to one confidential fax, Mr Brown and Silver Shadow discussed
>>using former Israeli intelligence officers - "whose method are (sic) known
>>worldwide" - to train Ocensa security staff in interrogation, intelligence
>>collection, targeting and running informants in the field, preparation of
>>intelligence files and investigating private individuals.
>>
>>The discussions took place between July 1996 and February last year and,
>>according to Mr Brown's correspondence, had the approval of senior Ocensa
>>management.
>>
>>The spying plan fits perfectly with BP's confidential security review,
>>which said: "In order to have peace, we must train for war." But it
>>contradicted BP's public policy that its "best security lies in the
>>support of local communities".
>>
>>Amnesty is concerned that the target of the psychological warfare could
>>have been civilians.
>>
>>BP said the "psy-ops" training did not proceed for "budgetary reasons".
>>Anyway, insisted Mr O'Reilly, the intelligence course was about community
>>relations training, not spying.
>>
>>Last year the Guardian revealed how DSL had written a proposal for BP to
>>create "intelligence cells" of local informants around its oilfields. BP
>>has consistently denied that it would ever have implemented this option.
>>But it appears that Ocensa did.
>>
>>We have spoken to a former Colombian army officer who worked for DSL at
>>the Ocensa security department for two years. He revealed his own
>>involvement in a spying operation targeting perceived guerrillas and
>>"subversives" in communities around the pipeline.
>>
>>Senior human rights sources warned the Guardian that if this man is named
>>he could be killed, declared mentally insane or forced to retract his
>>statements by Colombian security agents determined, as in previous cases,
>>to destroy evidence of their clandestine operations.
>>
>>The security official was part of a 35-strong team of former Colombian
>>officers who reported to Mr Brown and a BP security manager, Alvaro Perez.
>>He described his own role as "the eyes of the state security forces".
>>
>>Ocensa security staff, he says, work as civilians in local communities.
>>They keep quiet about their military past but are chosen by DSL because of
>>previous experience in a particular region as serving officers.
>>
>>His job was to nurture informants in the local community. "They pass
>>intelligence on little bits of paper left in drop zones to be collected,"
>>he said. "The community is unaware they are passing information secretly."
>>
>>Informants are told to find out about union and community leaders or sent
>>to spy on a community meeting. They are paid from a secret fund at
>>Ocensa's security department, where security officials must register their
>>informant's name and payment. "Everthing is authorised and registered in
>>documents in Ocensa," he told the Guardian.
>>
>>Intelligence reports are written daily and passed to senior Ocensa
>>security officials. The information is regularly shared with the Colombian
>>defence ministry and local army brigade. Ocensa, he says, pays the
>>brigades for "intelligence", and registers the payments in the company's
>>security accounts.
>>
>>The security source denied that Ocensa or BP had any links with
>>paramilitary groups.
>>
>>Ocensa may argue that this intelligence arrangement is necessary to
>>protect its pipeline and staff.
>>
>>Even so, says Ms Lee: "It is disturbing that intelligence information is
>>passed by Ocensa to the Colombian military who, together with their
>>paramilitary allies, have frequently targeted those considered subversive
>>for extrajudicial execution and disappearance."
>>
>>BP told the Guardian: "We have absolutely no evidence of this intelligence
>>network."
>>
>>It is, however, the second time such explosive insider testimony has
>>emerged.
>>
>>In 1995 a Colombian military intelligence officer, Colonel Luis Garces,
>>then working for the 16th Brigade, which is paid by BP to protect its
>>oilfields, spoke to a government human rights commission. He told it that
>>oil companies, including BP, had shared intelligence, such as photographs
>>of the local communities, with his unit. Col Garces's testimony was made
>>in front of several lawyers, who still say he explicitly mentioned BP's
>>name.
>>
>>BP strongly denies the allegation and claims the colonel later wrote to
>>them denying he had named BP. But the oil company refuses to release this
>>letter.
>>
>>An official report on this and other allegations of BP's complicity in
>>human rights abuses was published this year by the Colombian government.
>>The authors did not interview Col Garces or those who heard his evidence.
>>
>>They did, however, find in the 16th Brigade's files 18 irregular payments
>>by BP totalling $ 312,000 between May 1996 and August last year. BP said
>>in the report that this was for "extras", including "intelligence work".
>>
>>Nevertheless, the Colombian government closed the investigation into BP
>>for lack of evidence. It is a move which has left British NGOs and Amnesty
>>International convinced that the allegations against BP were not
>>thoroughly investigated.
>>
>>However, the government kept open its investigation into DSL, following
>>the Guardian's revelations last year that former SAS soldiers working for
>>DSL were secretly training the Colombian police in counter-insurgency
>>tactics on BP oil rigs. BP say this training was defensive.
>>
>>As a result of this latest scandal, Ocensa and BP sacked Mr Brown and
>>asked DSL to conduct yet another internal inquiry while BP investigated
>>which managers authorised what.
>>
>>DSL, whose multi-million-pound contract with BP Colombia was renewed in
>>August, refuses to comment, as does Mr Brown.
>>
>>Today's exposure of the Silver Shadow papers will give the Foreign Office
>>minister Tony Lloyd much to discuss when he arrives in Colombia on
>>Wednesday.
>>
>> Copyright 1998 Guardian Newspapers Limited
>>_______________________________________________________________________
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************************************
* ENRIQUE CHACON ARIAS
* Education Policy Studies, U of A
http://www.ualberta.ca/~echacon/Wepa.htm
* [EMAIL PROTECTED]
* Edmonton, AB CANADA
********************************
