Monday, August 11, 2008

Scottish government pensions prop up Mugabe

from Scotland on Sunday:

THE Scottish Parliament pension fund is helping to prop up the regime of Zimbabwean dictator Robert Mugabe, Scotland on Sunday can reveal.
More than £18m has been invested on behalf of MSPs, hundreds of thousands of which has gone into firms which have already been criticised for their close links to the failed African state. The companies involved include Anglo-American, the mining giant which is investing $400m (£208m) to develop a platinum mine in Zimbabwe....

But figures released by the Scottish Parliament show that MSPs have invested more than £100,000 in Anglo-American via the pension fund. There are also substantial investments in other companies heavily involved in the country, including Standard Chartered bank, Rio Tinto, Barclays and Royal Dutch Shell. On the back of these and other investments, the MSPs' fund grew by £700,000 last year.....


The MSPs' scheme requires them to pay in 6% of their £54,000 salary each year. In return they get back a generous one-50th of their final salary for each year at Holyrood....

Along with Anglo-American, Barclays has attracted the greatest controversy for its Zimbabwean operations. It owns two-thirds of Barclays Bank Zimbabwe, and contributes to a government loan scheme that is thought to have lent money to at least five ministers for farm improvements. Standard Chartered operates in a similar manner. Rio Tinto, another mining giant, has a diamond mine at Murowa...

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