No funds for Libya's central bank! Oil companies should pay into a blocked account

The Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) has called for massive tightening of the sanctions against the Qaddafi regime. "The UN Security Council and the European Union (EU) must drastically intensify their financial sanctions if they want to have a tangible effect on the Qaddafi regime," asserted the head of the Africa section at the STP, Ulrich Delius, on Monday in Göttingen. "All payments to the Central Bank of Libya must be frozen. Furthermore, the financial sanctions on Libyan companies operating abroad and on the Libyan Investment Authority (LIA) must be expanded." The LIA manages most of the 800 investments that the Qaddafi clan has in other countries, worth roughly 152 billion US dollars.

"Oil companies that still buy from Libya should be stopped from paying into Libya's central bank, and instead pay into a blocked account to which the new leadership in Libya will have access following the fall of regime," demanded Delius. A similar arrangement is already in place for US companies, according to information from the US Department of the Treasury.

Attempts by the Austrian company OMV to justify making payments to the Libyan central bank for oil from Libya were called "morally bankrupt" by the STP. "Anyone who is aware of the tight connections between the Qaddafi clan and the Central Bank of Libyan is in violation of ethics by accepting the fact that Qaddafi is using this money to finance his murderous fight for survival," said Delius. "It certainly has nothing to do with 'fairness, responsibility and respect,' no matter what the OMV claims in its advertisements."

An OMV spokesperson confirmed on the weekend that the company is still purchasing oil from Libya and that this is not prohibited by UN or EU sanctions. Austria's Industrieholding AG, a state-owned industry-holding stock corporation, owns 31.5% of OMV, Austria's most important commercial firm. Due to controversial oil trading practices in the Sudan and Iraq, the ethical commitment of the OMV has been repeatedly criticized since 2002. Besides OMV, primarily Indian and Chinese oil companies are still paying into the Central Bank of Libya for oil. Approximately 12 million USD in oil income flows into the Qaddafi-controlled bank every day.