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Action report 25/01: Stop ETI now!! (The Hague) Actiegroep Stop ETI Nederland - 31.01.2008 10:16
Friday the 25th of January a representative of the World Bank an a director of Telecom Italia were at Dutch ministry of economical affairs in The Hague to meet a representative of the Dutch government. They came together to talk about their joined interest in the Bolivian telecom sector and about the role the Dutch government could play in further exploitation of Bolivia, the poorest country of Latin America. Bolivian demonstrators in The Hague Ministry of Economic Affairs - The Hague The Netherlands is helping a multinational to rob Bolivia!! STOP ETI!! World Bank representative arrives at Ministry of Economic Affairs Cosy together: Telecom Italia, World Bank and the Dutch Goverment WE are friends of the Bolivian people!! Hmmm, it isn't working like this, so they open some presents so they try to to bribe the Bolivians with old phones to bad, they didn' t succeed... So the Bolivians are going to offer the petition at the Ministry of Econom. Affa Stop ETI NOW!! The Netherlands is helping a multinational to rob Bolivia!! The Dutch government offers Telecom Italia the possibility to use the favourable conditions of the Dutch investment treaty with Bolivia, through a so-called letter box company. Telecom Italia highly appreciates this possibility and as well the World Bank finds it important to declare its support to this type of contructions. In the nineties (since Latin America was turned over to neoliberale cut-price selling under the pressure of the World Bank and the IMF) the Italian multinational took over the Bolivian state telephony company ENTEL. This company has since then been turned into a heap of rubble and many of the appointments with the Bolivian state have not been met. For two years now Bolivia has had a progressive government in power. The domestic farmer activist Evo Morales won the elections, enforced by a strong people's movement. Morales is trying to reverse some of the privatizations initiated by his predecessors. Telecom Italia of course wants to prevent this from happening and has, in order to be able to use the favourable Dutch investment treaty, established a letter box company in Bolivia (Euro Telecom international (ETI)). Through this letter box company the Italian multinational has accused Bolivia before the ICSID, an obscure type of court of the World Bank, following an indication that Bolivia in the future wants to use part of textthe profit for the financing of social services for its own population. An interesting detail is that president Morales in May 2007 decided to annul the treaty between Bolivia and the ICSID, particularly because of the detrimental role played by that institution in former economic conflicts in the country. When the three parties arrived at the ministry of economic affairs last Friday, they were met by a demonstration by several Dutch organizations and members of the Bolivian community, demanding that the Dutch government must put pressure on the ICSID and the World Bank to dismiss the charge against the Bolivian state. The demonstrators also demand that the Netherlands puts an end to the possibility of multinationals abusing such investment treaties. The director of Telecom Italia has tried to bring the bolivians to a change of mind by offering them old telephones for free. The bolivians however did not fall for this trap, in spite of the binding attitude both by Telecom Italia and the World Bank. Instead they wanted to offer a petition to State Secretary Heemskerk of economic affairs. However, they had to be content with a press spokesperson of the ministry as State Secretary Heemskerk and his team all were in Saudi Arabia at the time. According to the press spokesperson, the State Secretary is informed of the matter. Nevertheless, the demonstrators were later that day contacted by an employee at the ministry with a request for further information. Whether or not the ICSID will proceed with the charge against the Bolivian state will be announced on January 31. More Information: http://stopeti.wordpress.com Dutch version: http://www.indymedia.nl/nl/2008/01/49859.shtml E-Mail: info@xminy.nl |
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