War on Want today urged ethical fund chiefs to review investment in British mining giant Rio Tinto after Norway excluded the multinational from its pension fund over controversial Indonesian operations.

Only 10 months ago the Norwegian finance ministry, with $13 million worth of shares in another UK mining corporation, Vedanta, dropped the firm from the fund over human rights violations and environmental abuse.

War on Want’s call followed the decision by Norway to sell off the £500 million stake held in Rio Tinto through its sovereign wealth fund because of problems concerning the company’s joint venture with Freeport McMoran.

The fund’s ethics council judged that Rio Tinto was directly connected with environmental contamination linked to operations at the Grasberg complex, the world’s biggest gold mine and the third largest for copper in West Papua.

War on Want, in its report Fanning the Flames last November, said Rio Tinto earned $122 million in 2006 from its Grasberg copper mine stake, amid local people suffering years of serious human rights and environmental abuse.

Norway has deemed other UK firms as too unethical, including arms maker BAE Systems and support services group Serco, which was removed from the fund last year due to its involvement in the UK's Atomic Weapons Establishment.

War on Want also questions Gordon Brown’s move to include Rio Tinto in a business anti-poverty coalition with other firms the charity has cited for dubious records, such as mining giant Anglo American, Wal-Mart and Coca-Cola.

These companies signed a declaration which will go to the UN Millennium Development Goals summit this month.

Ruth Tanner, Campaigns and Policy Director at War on Want, said: "After Norway’s decision to exclude Vedanta from its pension fund, we welcome the government’s move to eject Rio Tinto for similar reasons. The Norwegian government has again put its money where its mouth is to ensure a real ethical investment policy. More and more funds are withdrawing investment in notorious mining corporations. Now other funds should follow Norway’s example. It also underlines the need for the UK government to make all British firms accountable for their operations abroad."

NOTES TO EDITORS

* War on Want’s report Fanning the Flames can be downloaded here.
* The charity’s film on Anglo American profiting from abuse in Colombia can be viewed by clicking here.
* The Business Call to Action signatories can be seen here.

CONTACT: Paul Collins, War on Want media office (+44) (0)20 7549 0584 or (+44) (0)7983 550728

Miliband challenged on action delay.

British foreign secretary David Miliband today faces claims that the government is mounting a political block against moves to regulate UK private military companies amid reports of human rights abuse in Iraq.

This accusation comes from War on Want, which announced that a government document acquired under freedom of information laws reveals ministers went close to launching pre-legislative consultation earlier this year.

In a letter to Miliband, the charity has expressed concern that a political block delayed steps towards regulation.

The government document listed issues for public consultation with parliamentarians, industry, non-governmental organisations and academics on proposals for a "twin-track regulatory system" for private military firms. The system would combine a register of authorised companies with contract licences.

This revelation follows a new report by British MPs on the influential foreign affairs select committee that brands Miliband's failure to act "unacceptable".

In a response to the Foreign Office's annual human rights report, MPs expressed dismay that the government's draft legislative programme for next year made no reference to private security firms. The committee called on the government to use the forthcoming Queen?s Speech to announce plans to introduce legislation.

The MPs called for strict curbs on private security companies, with provision for firms to face prosecution in British courts for serious human rights abuse committed abroad.

War on Want is calling for legislation, including a ban on mercenaries' use in combat, and cites hundreds of incidents which have involved guards from US and UK companies in human rights abuse.

Ruth Tanner, senior campaigns officer at War on Want, said: "We are extremely concerned that the government has blocked moves towards regulation. We welcome the foreign affairs committee's call for action on private military companies. It is high time to get tough on firms making a killing in Iraq."

Last month a Panorama film on BBC television featured the incident last October in Iraq when mercenaries working for the British private security group Erinys International opened fire on a cab near Kirkuk. In the same month as the Erinys incident, mercenaries from the Australian company Unity Resources Group killed two Iraqi women. In September mercenaries from the American private military company Blackwater killed 17 Iraqi civilians. And in November an Iraqi taxi driver was shot dead by mercenaries with DynCorp International, hired to protect US diplomats.

In 2002 the UK government acknowledged the problems over private armies in a green paper which listed options for regulation. In its response to the paper later that year, the Commons foreign affairs committee recommended that "private companies be expressly prohibited from direct participation in armed combat operations, and that firearms should only be carried... by company employees for purposes of training or self-defence". The committee also proposed that the government consider "a complete ban on recruitment for such activities of United Kingdom citizens by overseas-based or offshore PMCs", while remaining activities be subject to licence.

But since then the British government has failed to move towards regulation despite the United Nations, the British parliament and the industry itself calling on it to take decisive action.

CONTACT: Paul Collins, War on Want media officer (+44) (0)7983 550728

WTO attacked over democracy, hunger claims. Ministers arrive in Geneva to prepare for crunch talks on global trade

The World Trade Organisation's last-minute push for a global trade deal threatens to throw millions more people into hunger and poverty in developing countries, the charity War on Want warns today. The warning comes as ministers gather at the WTO in Geneva in their final effort to clinch an agreement to end the controversial Doha Round of trade talks launched seven years ago.

G8 leaders, including British prime minister Gordon Brown, claimed earlier this month that a WTO trade deal could help solve the crisis sparked by soaring food prices, which has seen riots in over 30 developing countries. But, according to War on Want, forcing open the markets of such countries still further will deepen the crisis by handing greater control to multinational corporations which put their own profits before people's needs.

John Hilary, Executive Director of War on Want, said: "Developing countries are still being pressed to open up their markets, despite the risks involved, while rich countries fail to address their own farm subsidies. If the deal on the table goes through, millions of the world?s most vulnerable people stand to lose their jobs and fall into poverty. Ministers should abandon the talks before they cause long-term damage to the prospects of the world's poor."

War on Want points to the 100 million additional people left hungry by the food crisis in the first quarter of this year, bringing the world's total to one billion. It cites massive earnings in the same period for the world's largest agribusiness corporations, which are cashing in on the crisis: Grain giant Cargill, one of the USA's largest private firms, recorded $1.03 billion net earnings, up 86 per cent, in the three months to end February this year. US grain company Archer Daniels Midland reaped $913 million operating profit in the quarter to end March 2008, 54 per cent higher than for the same period last year. And agribusiness corporation Bunge International made $867 million gross profit, a rise of 189 per cent.

War on Want also criticises WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy for preventing participation by the broad base of developing countries in the trade talks. Under its own rules, the 152-member organisation was supposed to hold a full ministerial conference by the end of 2007, within two years of the 2005 ministerial held in Hong Kong. Instead, War on Want says that Lamy is pressing ahead with an anti-democratic summit involving just over 30 ministers in closed 'green room' sessions. Other ministers may still come to Geneva, according to the charity, but they will not be invited to take part in the key negotiations.

NOTES TO EDITORS:

1. The invitation-only 'green room' sessions are due to start at the WTO on Monday, 21 July 2008. But Pascal Lamy has called for trade ministers to arrive in Geneva from 18 July for bilateral talks.
2. EU ministers will also be meeting to prepare for the trade summit in Brussels from 18 July.

CONTACT: Paul Collins, War on Want media officer (+44) (0)20 7549 0584 or (+44) (0)7983 550728

War on Want targets flagship London store