HTML Preview Bank Loan Complaint Letter page number 1.
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January 22, 2014
Submitted via electronic mail
Ms. Elizabeth Littlefield
President & CEO
Overseas Private Investment Corporation
1100 New York Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20527
Email: [email protected]
Re: Complaint Related to OPIC’s Buchanan Renewables Project in Liberia
Dear President Littlefield:
Farmers, charcoal producers and workers (the “Complainants”)
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hereby submit this
complaint regarding human rights, labor and environmental abuses caused by the operations of
Overseas Private Investment Corporation (“OPIC”)-supported Buchanan Renewables (“BR”) in
Liberia. Because OPIC was a key investor in BR and was responsible for oversight of the
project’s inadequate due diligence, OPIC now has the responsibility to investigate, address and
provide remedy for harm. Complainants therefore urge OPIC to convene a transparent and
independent process to secure appropriate remedy for project-affected communities.
Complainants also ask OPIC to critically evaluate its role in financing BR’s Liberian operations
by launching an independent investigation of the project’s serious human rights and
environmental abuses.
Between 2008 and 2011, OPIC approved three loans to BR totaling US$216.7 million,
which represented nearly 70% of total project costs. OPIC claimed that its support for BR would
have a strong development impact in Liberia by cutting down rubber trees for biofuel to be used
in a BR-constructed power plant, rejuvenating family farms and creating sustainable energy for
Liberia. Instead, the project was characterized by serious abuses and drove impacted
communities further into poverty. The project ultimately failed, and BR abruptly withdrew from
the project area in early 2013, devastating local communities.
Hundreds of Liberians are now worse off then they were prior to OPIC’s investment in
BR. For example:
• Indigenous, smallholder farmers who had subsisted on income from their rubber trees
had their trees cut down and have been left without critical income and struggling to
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Each group of Complainants has selected the undersigned individuals to represent them in this matter. This
Complaint explicitly excludes and does not cover affected individuals who have credible allegations against them of
harming other members of the affected communities because of the BR Project. Complainants are also represented
by Liberia-based Green Advocates International and U.S.-based Accountability Counsel. Contact information for
these Legal Representatives and the Complainants’ Representation Agreement are attached as Annex 1.
Complainants ask that communication with them be through email sent to each email address on the contact
information list. This Complaint also benefits from research conducted by Netherlands-based SOMO and Sweden-
based Swedwatch.