>>Subject: WORLD BANK HUMILIATED BY HELIUM BALLOON PRANK >>RAINFOREST ACTION NETWORK >> >>For immediate release: July 26, 1999 >>Press contacts: >>Erick Brownstein -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] >>Mark Westlund -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] >>Telephone -- 415/398-4404 >> >>WORLD BANK HUMILIATED BY >>HELIUM BALLOON PRANK >> >>BANNER PROTESTING RAINFOREST OIL PIPELINE >>FLOATS FREE IN THIRTEEN-STORY ATRIUM >> >>WASHINGTON, DC -- An unidentified rainforest activist today set free a cluster >>of helium balloons into the thirteen-story-high atrium of the World Bank >>building. Attached to the balloons was a 40' banner reading: "Wolfensohn >>Stop the Pipeline." James Wolfensohn is the President of the World Bank, and >>he alone has final call whether or not the controversial Central African oil >>project gets funding. >> >>"On behalf of our colleagues in Chad and Cameroon who have spoken out against >>the pipeline project at great personal risk," said Erick Brownstein, RAN's >>African Rainforest campaigner, "we sincerely hope the World Bank will not >>contribute to serious violations of human rights, and the further destruction >>of nature in central Africa." >> >>The Chad/Cameroon Rainforest Pipeline project will slice through the heart of >>pristine rainforests, and will put millions of dollars into the pockets of >>two corrupt governments. Transparency International -- a business coalition >>that fights corruption world-wide -- recently rated Cameroon the world's most >>corrupt government. Southern Chad is so dangerous and politically unstable >>that neither Amnesty International nor the US State Department were able to >>visit and confirm the massacre of hundreds of people. >> >>If the World Bank approves the loan, hundreds of millions of dollars will >>also go to oil giants Exxon, Shell and Elf, which comprise the Rainforest >>Pipeline consortium. In neighboring Nigeria, Shell has contaminated local >>water supplies with petroleum hydrocarbons that are 360 times higher than >>levels allowed in the European Community. The project's proposed oil fields >>are in the heart of Chad's fertile food-producing region, where even an >>incidental spill would be devastating. >> >>Rainforest Action Network works to protect the Earth's rainforests and >>support the rights of their inhabitants through education, grassroots >>organizing and non-violent direct action. RAN's Africa Campaign is funded as >>part of a $1-million grant from the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund. >> >>### >> >>___________________________________________ >> >>Rainforest Action Network >>221 Pine Stret #500 >>San Francisco, CA 94014 >> >>Telephone: 415/398-4404; fax: 415/398-2732 >>Website: http://www.ran.org >> >> >> >>100 % Recycled Electrons >> > > ------------------------------- Robert Naiman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Preamble Center 1737 21st NW Washington, DC 20009 phone: 202-265-3263 fax: 202-265-3647 http://www.preamble.org/ -------------------------------
