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Letter
to SEIC:"Planning meetings in September in Tokyo and Sapporo" |
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September 16, 2003
Mr. Gerry Matthews
General Manager External Affairs
Sakhalin Energy Investment Company, Ltd.
Re: Planning meetings in September in Tokyo and Sapporo
Dear Mr. Matthews
It was nice to see you in Tokyo on September 5. FoEJ discussed your proposal with the colleagues for the meeting that SEIC is planning to hold in Tokyo on September 24. We concluded that it is impossible for us to accept the proposed meeting at this moment because of the following reasons. We judged that constructive consultations would not be readily achievable under the present conditions. We request that SEIC reconsiders the planning meetings to be held in an appropriate way.
a. We have not received any responses to the letters that we had sent to SEIC; "Concerned Japanese Citizens' Demands for Consultations on ESHIA (June 12, 2003)" and "Concerned Japanese Citizens' Demands regarding Sakhalin-2 Oil and Gas Project in Russia (July 10, 2003)". We have heard that SEIC hasn't responded the questions and requests which were sent by other group, Wildlife Preservation Bureau of Hokkaido, either.
b. SEIC hasn't prepared the complete documents in Japanese yet. SEIC translated only 30 pages summaries of OSRP for phase 2 and ESHIA into Japanese. It is obviously inadequate to discuss on that basis because there is no detailed information in the summaries. We request SEIC to translate at least OSPR for phase 2 and documents related to wildlife and fishery into Japanese.
c. You clearly stated that SEIC will not consider any changes of the project through the consultations in Japan. You agreed to take mitigation measures, however SEIC must understand that there would be cases that changing the project could be only mitigation to avoid serious impacts.
d. SEIC listed the staff who will come to Japan for the series of meetings in September. It seems very strange to us that there are no wildlife experts included in the list, because SEIC stated the impacts to wildlife will be one of the major issues to be discussed in Japan.
e. We don't understand that SEIC is not planning to have any public consultations for general citizens in Hokkaido. The citizens in Hokkaido, especially people living along the coast will be highly affected when accidents happen. We request SEIC to takes accountability to the people even if the company doesn't have any legal requirements to do so.
In addition, we don't understand what SEIC plans for the Hokkaido meeting. SEIC should change the plan as well for the following reasons.
f. SEIC limited the participants for the meeting in Sapporo. For example, SEIC limited the number of participants from Hokkaido University to two people despite there are different fields of experts in the University. SEIC must not limit the participants arbitrarily.
g. There are no opportunities to participate in the meetings/consultations for general Hokkaido citizens, NGOs and experts, just for limited participants such as several government officials invited by SEIC.
In addition, we really wonder what kind of meetings they are suppose to be. We believe that you manipulate the word of so-called meeting in each occasion. When we meet you on September 5, you have never told us the meetings are only 'explanation' by SEIC. However, we found the one in Sapporo will be 'an explanatory meeting' in the invitation letter. It is really incomprehensible for us.
We are looking forward to your response soon.
Best Regards,
Naomi Kanzaki
Friends of the Earth Japan
3-17-24-2F Mejiro, Toshima-ku, Tokyo 171-0031, Japan
TEL: +81-3-3951-1081 FAX: +81-3-3951-1084
E-mail: kankan@foejapan.org
CC:
Mr. Julian Burnes, Sakhalin Energy Investment Company, Ltd
Mr. Susumu Fujimoto, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development
Dr. Alister Clark, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development
Mr. Kazuhiko Amakawa, Japan Bank for International Cooperation
Ms. Naoko Ishii, Ministry of Finance, Japan
Mr. Noriaki Mizuno, Ministry of Finance, Japan
Mr. Shiro Takegami, Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry
Mr. Takayuki Iriya, Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Mr. Akira Suzuki, Ministry of Environment
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