In a case involving the Karachaganak oil field in Kazakhstan, NGO campaigners from the US-based Crude Accountability and the Kazakhstan-based Ecological Society "Green Salvation" report that the villagers of Berezovka, Kazakhstan and their international environmental partners have won resettlement and compensation from the nearby toxic Karachaganak oil and gas field, after a five-year long struggle. On 25 April 2008, an official audit by the World Bank's International Finance Corporation (IFC), which provided $150 million in loans to the Karachaganak project, revealed that the IFC is out of compliance with its own safety standards for toxic emissions at the giant field in western Kazakhstan. This disclosure followed on the heels of a precedent setting decision in late March by Kazakhstan's Supreme Court, mandating that previously confidential environmental data from the Karachaganak Field be made public. The full audit report is available at www.cao-ombudsman.org. For additional information on the Karachaganak environmental and human rights campaign, see www.crudeaccountability.org or www.greensalvation.org.
