Wolfowitz cracking the whip in Chad (oil, oil, oil, oil , )

[donsu]

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=1478198


Wolfowitz suspends World Bank loans to Chad


World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz on Friday suspended all loans to Chad, including support for a high-profile oil pipeline project, saying the government had breached an agreement with the bank by altering an oil revenue law.

His decision is one of the most drastic steps the World Bank can take against a member country and shows Wolfowitz, nominated by President George W. Bush last year to head the development lender, is willing to wield the stick against governments who don't play by the rules.

-snip-

The bank agreed to finance 4 percent of the $3.7 billion pipeline developed by an Exxon Mobil-led consortium in exchange for the oil revenue law. Its backing mobilized over $3.5 billion in funding by private oil companies, commercial banks and export credit agencies for the project.
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what's really happening is deeper then this article. maybe another article will pop up telling Chad's side of the story. Wolfowitz being Wolfowitz is always suspect.

[sasha031]

1. the worst thing a country can do

is accept anything from the world bank, you are selling your country. the WB pays the select few American Corps to pillage their resources, the country is left with the bill.

[donsu]

2. true

nt

[Igel]

3. This is been simmering for a few months, and the story's

been remarkably consistent. The bank funded an oil project; they didn't want the money spent as most other oil-producing countries have spent it, beefing up the bank accounts of those already in power or on the government's payroll.

The story that's been reported from the other side is that they need the money to pay for existing governmental programs, not new programs (education, health-care, anti-poverty programs) in part because they either didn't consider their needs properly, in part because circumstances on the ground have changed. If nothing else, Darfur's made a mess of things in eastern Chad.

I find their arguments plausible in principle, but suspect they're overstating their case. It may be that what we're seeing is a nice dialect unfolding: Chad wants complete autonomy, PW wants complete obedience to the existing agreement. There may be middle ground, and this may be the way the players involved have chosen to approach it. In any event, the agreement precedes any public hint of PW's appointment.

If there's something else lurking in the background, it certainly hasn't emitted a peep that I've heard. It may be that somebody in the West would benefit from how the programs were to be set up--after all, details on how the Chadian programs were to be implemented were sparse in the media.

[donsu]

4. thanks for this info - to stop work on a pipeline seems surprising

over a simple disagreement. huge piles of money are surely in the mix