Construction of the pipeline will cause an influx of Chinese gas workers into Tibet, accelerating China s decades-long population transfer efforts that have made Tibetans a minority in much of their own nation. According to SFT BP has failed to provide adequate assurances that the pipeline will not be built with prison labor, the use of which is extremely common in the region. Despite BP s endorsement of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the corporation has found itself in direct opposition with human rights organizations for its refusal to divest from PetroChina. After a year of excuses, denials, and the finest spin control that money can buy, people have had enough. BP s refusal to divest from PetroChina will cause them headaches in their boardrooms, hassles at their Annual General Meeting, and lost business at their gas pumps.
China is currently under fire for their human rights abuses in China and Tibet.
A report issued by Amnesty International this week cited widespread and spreading use of torture and ill-treatment of prisoners in China. This report reaffirms recent findings by Human Rights Watch and the U.S. State Department that the human rights situation is getting worse in Tibet and China. Tibetans describe a second cultural revolution in Lhasa where the current crackdown on Buddhist practice has seen children banned from religious activities and vigorous house to house searches and confiscation of photos of the Dalai Lama. BP is the largest foreign investor in PetroChina, and one of the largest investors in China of any kind, said Thupten Tsering, SFT s Grassroots Coordinator. BP s involvement in the exploitation of occupied Tibet for financial gain while claiming to have no influence in the company is corporate greed and irresponsibility at its worst.