Bush Must Push for Africa Oil Transparency

[Nambe]

LONDON (Reuters)

U.S. President George W.Bush can best help Africa by urging U.S. firms active there to reveal oil and mining rights payments, a global campaign led by billionaire George Soros said on Wednesday.

Only transparency can effectively tackle Africa's quagmire of poverty and corruption, said Henry Parham, coordinator at Publish What You Pay.

"Here is a clear opportunity for the United States to show leadership on the transparency intiative and help African countries rich in oil to avoid the resource curse," Parham said.

He told Reuters that the U.S. government and companies had been the obstacle to the success of the campaign since its creation last June.

"Many companies give us public support and many investors give confidential support. Then there are the U.S. companies, which at the moment are a hindrance to the campaign's progress."

"They support testing at a pilot country level but they have expressed concern over agreeing to a series of commitments and actions, and that's their position at the moment," Parham said. ---

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[I AM SPARTACUS]

1. transparent...like the Energy Policy meetings...

Cheney Loses Ruling on Energy Panel Records
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A29486-2003Jul8.html
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A federal appeals court yesterday rejected Vice President Cheney's bid to keep secret all the workings of his energy task force, saying sufficient safeguards were already in place to prevent the disclosure of genuinely privileged information.

The 2 to 1 ruling, by a panel of judges from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, does not in itself order the release of specific information, but it affirms a lower court judge's order seeking documents that would shed light on the membership of the group Cheney assembled more than two years ago to help develop U.S. energy policy.
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