Skip to main content
閱讀這支影片的文字描述

Uganda

"Nsubuga", Farmer

This is where  the pipeline will pass.I am very worried because it is so close to my house and I don’t know what will happen.

Narration

All along the route of the planned East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP), the echoes of communities voicing the same concerns. If built, the 1,443 kilometer pipeline would link the Tilenga and Kingfisher oil fields in western Uganda to the Tanzanian coast.

Diana Nabiruma, Africa Institute of Energy Governance

There is a lot of resistance against the EACOP because the Tilenga, Kingfisher, and EACOP oil projects are bad for people, are bad for nature, and are bad for climate change.

Maxwell Atuhura, Environmental Activist

I object the pipeline because it has displaced thousands and thousands of people without enabling them to regain their land elsewhere.

Narration

TotalEnergies and the Chinese company CNOOC acquired the rights to develop

the oil fields along with Ugandan and Tanzanian companies. Uganda has considerable renewable energy potential. It doesn’t need the pipeline.

"Nsubuga", Farmer

There were trees all over here but they were cut and the government isn’t saying

anything about this.

Narration

Like some 90% of farmers, Nsubuga accepted money in exchange for a plot of his land,but he described a process that was lengthy and confusing and many promises, including some assistance with the school fees, unkept.

"Nsubuga", Farmer

Over the years, the same coffee  plants our grandparents had farmed helped pay the children school fees throughout the school year,but now this is not the case anymore and the children’s school fees are always going up.

Narration

Problems around the relocation of the families’ graves, caused more resentment towards

TotalEnergies.The compensation offered at the time wasn’t always enough for the

traditional rituals to be conducted.

Not far from here, Lubega is one of the few farmers who refused compensation

from TotalEnergies.

"Lubega", Farmer

The first time they came they told us that a mature coffee tree will be valued at 33,000 Ugandan shillings (US$9). We told them that it takes a lot of  time to grow coffee until it’s this big.You have to dig the pit, buy the seedlings, plant the coffee, so their valuation was unfair.

That’s why I first refused to sign the contract. I don’t think the forms they brought were clear.

I didn’t notice certain words, couldn’t read them. A lot was not clear.

Narration

TotalEnergies promised farmers would not be worse off but those leaving their land have not

been fairly compensated. The money received didn’t allow  them to purchase land as fertile or as big in the same area. 100,000 people across Uganda and Tanzania will lose their land and livelihoods.

Maxwell Atuhura, Environmental Activist

People were dependent on their land for survival, schooling their children, medication and all sorts of income in their home. They lost it. And it was long-term, the families

grew up being supported by that land. But one project is coming and

taking it in just a few hours!

Narration

In a response to Human Rights Watch reporting about inadequate compensation, TotalEnergies said they continue to pay close attentionto respecting the rights of communities concerned

and added they believe the compensation paid met the standard of full replacement value.

"Lubega", Farmer

Once the pipeline starts working, I don’t know if I will still be able to grow

stuff like beans or coffee. I fear it will never be the same. Those who resist and those

who defend them, risk arrest and continuous threats from the Ugandan authorities.

Diana Nabiruma, Africa Institute of Energy Governance

If you’re campaigning to stop the expansion of the fossil fuel industry, it is very difficult.

More so if you’re working in a country such as Uganda where the civic space is repressed.

Now when they realize that arrest  can't stop you, then intimidation, threats,

delegitimization,and other types of activities that aim at stopping the work that we do

are perpetrated against us.

Maxwell Atuhura, Environmental Activist

The method of continuing has been silencing those who want to talk.  They [Ugandan authorities] create fear to talk about these dangers to see that nobody else should

talk about it.

Narration

Jealousy, a farmer and a pastor from the northern part of the country, decided to take the fight against EACOP and TotalEnergies to France.

Jealousy, pastor and farmer

Then when I was coming back to my motherland Uganda, I reached at Entebbe airport,

I was arrested, detained in jail for nine hours.  And after I came back, I got

intimidation calls from different people. They called me, I didn't know them,

saying you’re sabotaging government,you’re sabotaging the oil project.

Narration

And while the farmers wonder what the futureholds for them, activists hope international

financial backers will steer clear of supporting EACOP.

Diana Nabiruma, Africa Institute of Energy Governance

We would also like to see the international community ensuring that investments or money is flowing into the green economic sectors. It's not enough for them to take away funding from the fossil fuel sector. They must ensure that the funding that has been going to that sector flows to renewable energy and other green economic sectors so that Ugandans and people elsewhere,  can prosper  while conserving nature.

We can’t name the Ugandan filmmakers for security reasons. We would like to thank them and all the contributors who spoke with us.

 

  • 烏干達反化石燃料運動人士和環境捍衛者因為抗議一項計劃中的原油管道,一再面臨包括任意逮捕在內的騷擾。
  • 該項摧毀烏干達成千上萬人的生計,並可能帶來數十年的溫室氣體排放,加劇全球氣候危機。
  • 烏干達政府應尊重所有社運人士的權利,撤銷對行使集會與言論自由人士的刑事控告。

(內羅比)-人權觀察今天發表報告指出,烏干達環境捍衛者和反化石燃料運動人士經常因為抗議東非原油管道計劃面臨任意逮捕、騷擾和威脅。

該報告篇幅22頁, 題為《「不准搞石油工作」:烏干達對環境捍衛者的鎮壓》,內容記錄烏干達政府限制與原油開發有關的言論、結社和集會自由,包括規劃中的東非原油管道。公民社會組織和環境捍衛者經常舉報被恐嚇騷擾、非法拘留或任意逮捕。

「這種鎮壓造成寒蟬效應,導致有關這個世界最具爭議化石燃料項目的言論自由遭到扼殺,」人權觀察環境問題高級研究員菲利克斯・宏恩(Felix Horne)說。「烏干達政府應立即停止任意逮捕反油管運動人士,遵循國際人權規範保障其行使言論自由的權利。」

人權觀察從2023年3月到10月訪問了31名烏干達人士,包括21名環境捍衛者。

該油管是全球最重要的化石燃料基礎建設開發項目之一,包括數百座鑽油井,數百公里的道路、營地和其他基礎建設,還有一條長達1,443公里的油管——世界最長的加熱原油管道——由烏干達西部油田直通坦桑尼亞東部的坦噶(Tanga)港。

法國化石燃料巨頭道達爾石油集團是該項目營運者和主要股東,其他股東包括中國海洋石油總公司(中海油)、烏干達國家石油公司和坦桑尼亞石油開發公司。但政府間氣候變化專門委員會(世界氣候變化問題主要專責單位)和其他機構均提出警告,如果全世界企圖達成《巴黎協定》目標俾能盡量避免氣候變化的最壞後果,就不能再進行任何新的化石燃料項目。

烏干達民眾走上街頭,支持歐洲議會通過停建東非原油管道的決議,其中一名示威者遭警方逮捕,烏干達康培拉,2022年10月4日。 © 2022 REUTERS/Abubaker Lubowa

社運人士正在抗議這項油管建設及其對沿途居民的處置。逾10萬名烏干達和坦桑尼亞民眾將因這項石油開發計劃而喪失土地。許多社運人士向人權觀察表示,因為持續遭到地方政府和治安官員威脅,他們支援失地民眾的工作日益艱難。

烏干達當局經常基於政治動機拘留和逮捕社運人士和人權捍衛者。環境捍衛者阿塔胡拉(Maxwell Atahura)描述2021年他在布利薩(Bullisa)被捕的情形:「[警察]當時正在問我有關原油的問題⋯才講到一半,他們說我是恐怖分子,破壞政府項目⋯。最後他們在警方保釋單寫上『非法集會』。」阿塔胡拉並說他曾遭到威脅,最後為安全起見遷居坎帕拉。

烏干達總統穆塞韋尼(Yoweri Museveni)是東非原油管道項目的堅定後盾。他曾發出警告說,他絕不「允許任何人搗亂⋯[他的]原油。」

自2021年10月至今,至少30名抗議或試圖解決石油項目惡果人士在坎帕拉和烏干達其他地區遭到政治動機的逮捕。2021年,烏干達政府引用2016年非政府組織法的含糊條文勒令54個組織停業,包括一些關注石油業和其他環境議題的機構。持續關注石油議題的當地組織面臨來自政府的極大壓力,並有安全官員通過電話和當面施壓以阻撓他們關於石油業的倡議活動。

由於影響政府政策的管道不多,有些烏干達非政府組織結合國際夥伴團體到法國去控告道達爾集團。兩名於2019年12月赴法國出庭人士回國後遭到安全單位和政府官員長期騷擾。

烏干達社運人士強烈質疑該項目對當地環境和社群帶來風險,並將助長氣候變化。社運人士批評烏干達政府批准這一石油項目,以及參與該項目融資、保險、營造或營運的烏干達公司與跨國企業。

人權觀察指出,在協助因石油開發被強徵土地民眾瞭解補償程序和各種確保補償公平的管道方面,當地公民社會團體的角色不可或缺。據人權觀察今年7月報導,與油管徵地項目有關的人權侵犯包括補償不足以及官員持續施壓、拒絕補償條件者被威脅提告並遭地方政府和安全官員威嚇。

道達爾集團於10月23日致函人權觀察表示,該集團承認「保護人權捍衛者,以及絕不容許針對以和平、合法方式促進其活動相關人權的人士施加攻擊或威脅,十分重要。」

人權觀察也致函烏干達全國非政府組織管理局(National Bureau for Nongovernmental Organisations,內政部下設的半自主機構)、內部安全組織(Internal Security Organisation)和烏干達警察部隊(Uganda Police Force),但無一回覆。

由於油管項目遭到烏干達和全世界公民社會組織及氣候社運人士的反對,許多金融機構和保險公司公開承諾不支持這條原油管道。油管融資至今尚未達標,不過道達爾集團於今年3月表示,該公司預期項目資金將於2023年年底前到位。

「東非原油管道的興建和營運將帶來巨大的環境風險和人權風險,並助長全球氣候危機,」宏恩說。「鑒於化石燃料對氣候變化的毀滅性影響,以及未來可能產生的嚴重人權影響,所有金融機構和保險公司均應避免支持這條烏干達石油管道。」

Your tax deductible gift can help stop human rights violations and save lives around the world.

區域/國家