Letter to Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkendende
more than 500 organizations around the world - 05.01.2008 16:27
Re: urgent request for intervention in the case of the fraudulent use of the Bilateral Investment Treaty between Holland and Bolivia by ETI-ENTEL relating to the conflict with ENTEL and the state of Bolivia.
Letter to Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkendende
Re: urgent request for intervention in the case of the fraudulent use of the Bilateral Investment Treaty between Holland and Bolivia by ETI-ENTEL relating to the conflict with ENTEL and the state of Bolivia.
Dear Mr Balkendende,
In your function as leader of the Dutch Government we are writing to you to condemn the fraudulent use of the “Agreement for the Promotion and Reciprocal Protection of investments between the Republic of Bolivia and the Kingdom of the Netherlands” by Euro Telecom International. (See attached documentation)
To give you an idea of the situation that we are condemning, we give a summary here.
As you may know, on the 29th April 2007 Bolivia announced their withdrawal from ICSID (International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes), a branch of the World Bank, and on the 8th of May the Ambassador for Foreign Affairs and Integration, Pablo Solon, announced that the next step will be the revision and renegotiation of all of the 24 treaties for the protection of investments that Bolivia has signed with the same number of countries.
In April 2007 the transnational company Eurotelecom Italia, owner of Telecom ENTEL in Bolivia, sent a letter to the Bolivian Government in which they advised that they had notified ICSID that there was a dispute with the Bolivian State about alleged damages to their investments. On the 12th October 2007 the Italian telecomm company officially took their case against Bolivia to ICSID.
In order to defend their investments in ENTEL, Eurotelecom International NV (ETI), with their headquarters in Holland, made use of the “Agreement for the Promotion and Reciprocal Protection of Investments between the Republic of Bolivia and the Kingdom of the Netherlands”, signed by our countries.
ETI is a shell company that employs no Dutch citizens, and supposedly holds 50% of the shares of ENTEL, but in reality another Dutch company, International Communication Holdings (ICH), is the 100% owner of ETI. ICH, in turn, is 100% owned by Telecom Italia International NV, also a Dutch company, that in turn is 100% owned by Telecom Italia s.p.a, an Italian Company.
ETI, ICH and Telecom Italia International strangely have the same address in Holland: Stravinskylaan 1627, 1077XX, Amsterdam.
The twisted figure of ETI-ENTEL is being fraudulently and misleadingly used by Telecom Italia s.p.a for legal reasons to take the case of ENTEL and the Bolivian State to ICSID.
This action is a real fraud because here we are not dealing with protecting Dutch investments in Bolivia. All of these supposed investments in ENTEL came directly from Telecom Italia s.p.a, or rather, from Italy.
We categorically condemn this fraud and ask you, Prime Minister, and the Dutch government to intervene and stop this fraudulent use of the Bilateral Treaty between Holland and Bolivian with all the measures at your disposition.
We also want to express our great concern abut the defamation campaign the Bolivian oligarchy, the same people who have oppressed the indigenous peoples for 500 years, is waging against President Evo Morales Ayma in the mass media they and their associates control.
In Bolivia a profound process of transformation is happening, nonviolently set in motion by President Evo Morales Ayma, with a mandate given by the majority of Bolivian people: a process of political, economic, social and legal transformation that will be ratified by means of a referendum for a new Bolivian constitution. This new constitution will end more than 500 years of oppression of the 80% of the population—the indigenous peoples—and their status as people without rights.
The UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples, the Mexican Rodolfo Stavenhagen, said on the 7th December in La Paz, after a 12 day visit, that the Bolivian President, Evo Morales, is like Nelson Mandela because he is trying to change an unfair society. He pointed out that Mandela was the first black President of South Africa and that Morales is the first indigenous President of Bolivia.
Evo Morales is trying to end the system of apartheid that has ruled de facto for centuries in Bolivia. Regarding the bilateral agreements he wants a relationship of equality and not foreign bosses. He wants ICSID to disappear because it was formed to guarantee the usurious profits of transnational companies at the expense of the people of poor countries. Of the 232 cases brought to ICSID, 230 were cases by multinational companies against states, in which the multinationals won.
A president that defends the rights and well-being of his people, a people who have rightly elected him, merits our solidarity, admiration and support.
Evo Morales is a brave Humanist and the first democratically elected Bolivian who is calling on the world to abandon the path of wars, violence, economic oppression and human humiliation and to build a truly just world where people coexist in equality.
Therefore we ask you and your government to openly support the President of Bolivia and stop the fraudulent use of the Bilateral Investment Treaty between Holland and Bolivia by ETI-ENTEL and defend him in front of the slanderous attacks by economic interests whose only objective is to undermine the new democratic process of Bolivia.
Please act on this matter urgently !!
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PRESS RELEASE
ETI abuses Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT)
between the Netherlands and Bolivia
- Why is the Netherlands doing Telecom Italia's ‘dirty work’?
- Why are Telecom Italia and Spanish Telefonica abusing the Bilateral Investment Treaty between the Netherlands and the Bolivian State?
- Who profits from this in the Netherlands?
Three questions which the Dutch government must answer!
Telecom Italia, the owner of ETI (Euro Telecom International NV), a shell company with an address in Amsterdam, is pushing ETI to sue Bolivia through a fraudulent use of the Bilateral Investment Treaty between the Netherlands and the Bolivian State. Using the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) of the World Bank for its purpose, ETI seeks compensation for so-called investment losses in ENTEL, a Bolivian telecom company of which ETI supposedly owns a 50% interest.
Telecom Italia, the true owner of ENTEL, wants to win millions of US dollars from the Bolivian State through ICSID, a non-juridical investment arbitration court of the World Bank that protects the interests of multinationals, especially in poor countries.
Telecom Italia and Spanish Telefonica, recently merged into one of the biggest telecom multinationals, are not using the bilateral investment treaties that Italy and Spain have with Bolivia. The question is why they want to abuse the Dutch Treaty with Bolivia to achieve their goal.
The Dutch government was informed about this "foul play", but has not acted.
ETI cannot use the Bilateral Investment Treaty without the permission of the Dutch government. Therefore we accuse ETI and the Dutch government of fraud and demand that the Dutch government stop the fraudulent actions of ETI immediately.
The document “ICSID / ETI TI, hands off Bolivia” contains extensive information about the conflict between the Bolivian government and ETI-ENTEL-Telecom Italia and the misuse of the Dutch Treaty with Bolivia.
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