-Caveat Lector-
From
http://www.guardian.co.uk/zimbabwe/article/0,2763,640125,00.html
}}}>Begin
Rainforest plundered by Murdoch's ex son-in-law
Fortune-hunting businessman has struck lucrative deal with Mugabe.
Jason Burke and Antony Barnett report
Jason Burke and Antony Barnett
Sunday January 27, 2002
The Observer
He was the ambitious son-in-law of media mogul Rupert Murdoch. Elkin
Pianim's marriage to Elisabeth Murdoch helped him to establish
contacts with businessmen and politicians worldwide.
When he separated from his wife in 1998, Pianim continued to build
his business empire, having made money from selling two American TV
stations. He launched Britain's New Nation newspaper, aimed at black
readers, which failed to achieve financial success.
Now Pianim has struck up a highly controversial partnership with President Robert
Mugabe's Zimbabwean regime in which both sides stand to make millions selling precious
tropical hardwoods plundered from rain forest in the
Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
An Observer investigation has established that a firm run by Pianim from London has
links with Mugabe and his Zanu-PF party. It has long been suspected that Mugabe has
profited from ventures with UK-based businesses, but
this is the first time hard evidence has emerged.
Investigators in Britain, southern Africa and the US have recently launched a major
effort to track assets held by the Zimbabwean president and his closest allies. They
believe that Mugabe and senior Zanu-PF figures, who
are facing international sanctions for human rights abuses, have made fortunes through
their political positions and have invested widely overseas. There is no suggestion
that Pianim is in any way connected with such inve
stments or is involved with any illegal activity.
The Observer has traced a complex web of companies in London, the Isle of Man,
Zimbabwe and the DRC that have been set up to exploit natural resources, including
diamonds and timber, in the war-ravaged central African sta
te. The DRC conflict has cost an estimated three million lives.
By logging one of the planet's most important rainforests, Pianim, 32, hopes to make a
fortune. For Mugabe and his political allies, who have been given the logging
concession in exchange for military support for the Cong
olese government in their battle against rebels, the operation will be just as
lucrative. It will help swell the war chest of the Zanu-PF, which has led the recent
violent crackdown on Zimbabwe's growing democratic opposi
tion.
In July last year Pianim formed a joint venture, SAB Congo, with a company called
Socebo, part-owned by senior figures in the Zanu-PF and Zimbabwean military.
The deal was simple: SAB-Congo would cut down thousands of irreplaceable hardwood
trees, such as teak and mahogany, from the Katanga region of the Congolese rainforest.
The trees would be converted into planks and exporte
d by road and rail to ports in South Africa and Tanzania. From there they would be
sold to buyers across the globe.
SAB-Congo's sales arm is a British firm run by Pianim called African Hardwood
Marketing. Its offices are located at his Notting Hill home in west London. His 60 per
cent stake in SAB-Congo has been channelled through a co
mpany registered in the Isle of Man called Western Hemisphere Capital Management. It
has an office in Harare, the Zimbabwean capital, employing up to 50 people.
In November the UN published a report on the 'exploitation of natural resources in the
DRC'. It concluded that Zimbabwe's armed forces have made huge sums from exploiting
timber, copper, diamonds and other natural resourc
es. Pianim told The Observer yesterday that a second Isle of Man-registered company,
Western Hemisphere Resources, formed a diamond mining venture with another part of the
Mugabe regime's business empire - a company calle
d Cosleg.
According to the UN, Cosleg has made senior members of the Zimbabwean military
extremely rich through its activities in the DRC.
Environmentalists are horrified by the logging of hardwoods in DRC's tropical
rainforests. They fear the effect of such a huge operation will be devastating. Congo
has nearly half of Africa's, and 6 per cent of the world'
s, tropical rainforest. Until recently poor communications and the conflict had
largely spared the area from the attention of commercial tropical timber firms.
'The long-term impact on local people's livelihoods and on rare wildlife such as the
gorilla will be devastating,' Patrick Alley, director of the human rights and
environmental campaign group Global Witness, said. 'This i
s forest the world can ill afford to lose. There is no way that this is sustainable.
It risks the whole environmental and economic future of the Congo.'
Last week Pianim played down the role of the Zanu-PF in his joint venture and denied
his company was causing environmental damage.
'We have not spoken to a single Zanu-PF or Zimbabwean military official in all of our
dealings,' he said. 'We just deal with companies.'
But he did not deny that Mugabe would benefit from the logging operation in the Congo
or that Zanu-PF had directors on the board of his joint venture partner, Socebo.
'Given the affiliation with the Zimbabwean government,
it would make sense if there were Zanu-PF directors on the board of Socebo,' he said.
Pianim, who studied Marxist economics at Vassar College in New York, where he met
Elisabeth Murdoch, defended Mugabe's government. 'I wouldn't do business with a regime
like Mugabe's if it was the regime which was being p
ortrayed in the Western media,' he said. 'I grew up in Ghana under a regime that was
the most murderous and thieving on the African continent. I know how these people work
and what it is to live under them and wouldn't wa
nt to contribute to that kind of regime.'
Pianim, whose father spent 10 years as a political prisoner in Ghana,
also defended his company's environmental record. He said: 'We have a
corporate reputation and it is in our best interests to log in the
most environmentally friendly manner possible.'
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2002
End<{{{
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Forwarded as information only; no endorsement to be presumed
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material
is distributed without charge or profit to those who have
expressed a prior interest in receiving this type of information
for non-profit research and educational purposes only.
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
The only real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking
new landscapes but in having new eyes. -Marcel Proust
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
"Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe
simply because it has been handed down for many generations. Do not
believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do
not believe in anything simply because it is written in Holy Scriptures. Do not
believe in anything merely on the authority of Teachers, elders or wise men.
Believe only after careful observation and analysis, when you find that it
agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all.
Then accept it and live up to it."
The Buddha on Belief, from the Kalama Sutta
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
A merely fallen enemy may rise again, but the reconciled
one is truly vanquished. -Johann Christoph Schiller,
German Writer (1759-1805)
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
It is preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else, that
prevents us from living freely and nobly. -Bertrand Russell
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
"Everyone has the right...to seek, receive and impart
information and ideas through any media and regardless
of frontiers."
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
"Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk. That will
teach you to keep your mouth shut."
--- Ernest Hemingway
<A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A>
DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER
==========
CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic
screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are
sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis-
directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with
major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought.
That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and
always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no
credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply.
Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.
========================================================================
Archives Available at:
http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html
<A HREF="http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html";>Archives of
[EMAIL PROTECTED]</A>
http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
<A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/";>ctrl</A>
========================================================================
To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Om
