Human Rights Watch today disputed statements by the Enron Corporation that no human rights abuses currently plague its majority-owned power plant in Maharashtra, India. On January 25, 1999, when Human Rights Watch published a 166-page book exposing Enron's complicity in human rights abuse connected with the Dabhol Power Corporation, a company spokesperson was quoted in the press as saying that all the problems there had been "put to rest."
"This isn't a problem of the past - it's a problem right now," said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, an international monitoring organization based in New York. "Villagers who protested against the project are still facing imprisonment, because police have trumped up charges against them. Enron isn't helping solve this problem by denying responsibility once again."
Roth noted that protests are no longer taking place outside the front gates of the power plant, where police forces paid by the company repeatedly quelled peaceful demonstrations by attacking the protesters, beating them with canes and arresting them. But he said the protests have fallen silent because the local police have outlawed any kind of demonstration in the area around the plant, thereby depriving people of their right to free speech.
Since December 1996, the police have issued a continuous series of orders banning the "public utterance of cries, singing of songs, playing of music"and the "delivery of harangues, the use of gestures or mimetic representations, and the preparation, exhibition or dissemination of pictures, symbols, placards or any other object or thing which may in the opinion of such authority offend against decency or morality...." These provisions have been used as the justification for criminalizing demonstrations against the company. The orders expire every fifteen days and are routinely renewed.
Many energy companies have invested in closed, repressive countries -- and made the argument that their investment would help develop the local economy and thereby improve the human rights situation, said Human Rights Watch. But in this case, Enron has invested in a democratic country, in a region with no significant strife -- and human rights abuses there have increased. "Enron hasn't made things better for human rights; it has made things worse," said Roth. "Through misuse of laws and abuse of power, the police have crushed open and organized dissent against the company."
Spokespeople for Enron have complained that company officials were not interviewed for the report and did not receive advance copies of it. Human Rights Watch used the company's public statements to the Indian press and to Amnesty International, as well as internal company documents, in preparing the section of the report on Enron's response to charges of human rights abuse.
Human Rights Watch provided copies of the report to company officials five days before the release date of January 25, 1999 and invited the company's response. However, Human Rights Watch has not received any direct response from the company.
Roth noted that the plant will become operational in March 1999, and Enron is planning major new investments in India. He urged Enron to take steps to ensure the company's operations do not contribute to violations of human rights in the future.
