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2大米企業がイラクの反乱で操業をほとんど停止し抑制を余儀なくされた。
やはり武装闘争しかないか、となるのが、困ったことだが。
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/22/international/middleeast/22REBU.html?th
April 22, 2004
Violence in Iraq Forces 2 Big Contractors to Curb Work
By JAMES GLANZ
The insurgency in Iraq has driven two major contractors, General Electric and Siemens, to suspend most of their operations there, raising new doubts about the American-led effort to rebuild the country as hostilities continue.
Spokesmen for the contractors declined to discuss their operations in Iraq, citing security concerns, but the shutdowns were confirmed by officials at the Iraqi Ministry of Electricity, the Coalition Provisional Authority and other companies working directly with G.E. and Siemens in Iraq.
"Between the G.E. lockdown and the inability to get materials moved up the major supply routes, about everything is being affected in one way or another," said Jim Hicks, a senior adviser for electricity at the provisional authority.
The suspensions and travel restrictions are delaying work on about two dozen power plants as occupying forces press to meet an expected surge in demand for electricity before the summer. Mr. Hicks said plants that had been expected to produce power by late April or early May might not be operating until June 1.
"While it's being affected, it's not shutting down," he said of the work. "I think we're still in good shape as far as getting our equipment back up before the summer really hits us."
Several government and company officials said reconstruction work had rebounded recently after the intense violence of the past few weeks, but experts said they were concerned the delays might affect ordinary Iraqis.
"What worries me is that, are the insurgents, the terrorists, are they winning the battle this way?" asked Isam al Khafaji, an Iraqi who is director of Iraq Revenue Watch, an initiative of the Open Society Institute, an organization backed by the billionaire George Soros.
Electricity, he added, "is the most important sector for the Iraqis after security."
"This will be affecting, really, people's everyday lives," he said.
The Coalition Provisional Authority regards the rehabilitation of the Iraq's water, sewage, transportation, oil and electrical infrastructure as a linchpin in the effort to create a functioning democracy and convince Iraqis of America's good will.
A spokeswoman for the authority said discussions involving security issues with General Electric had led to an agreement that could result in a resumption of operations. The spokeswoman said Siemens and the authority were "working out their differences," but she said she had no information about whether the company would resume work.
General Electric booked $450 million in orders in 2003 in Iraq, mostly for subcontracts to the large primary contractors in Iraq, said Gary Sheffer, a company spokesman.
Neither General Electric nor other companies working in Iraq would say how many employees they had in the country, citing security concerns.
Mr. Sheffer said that the company intended to fulfill its contractual obligations and was committed to rebuilding the country. "We are working with our customers to mitigate the impacts of the security measures that have been implemented recently," he wrote in an e-mail message.
Paula Davis, a Siemens spokeswoman, said her company also was committed to the reconstruction but declined to provide further information on work in Iraq.
Two companies with much larger contracts in Iraq, Bechtel and Halliburton, said they had curtailed travel by their employees but were not considering halting their work or pulling out of the country.
"While some travel has been temporarily limited to mission-critical tasks, we are in constant communication with the military, and these restricted movements and increased security measures will not impact getting supplies to soldiers," said Wendy Hall, a spokeswoman for Halliburton, which delivers drinking water, food and fuel used by the American occupation force.
Halliburton said in a statement on Tuesday that three of four bodies found near an attack on a fuel convoy in Iraq this month were its employees. A captive Halliburton employee, Thomas Hamill, has been shown in a video distributed by his captors.
A major private security provider in Iraq with access to intelligence information said that Halliburton had "been slowed down in terms of the number of routes and convoys they can run" and said the firm was having a difficult time hiring truck drivers to work in Iraq. He estimated that the overall number of Halliburton convoys was down by 35 percent.
Despite the delays, several government and private officials in Iraq remained optimistic about the long term.
"Yes, you have to be careful, take prudent measures to reduce your risk," said Tom Wheelock, director of infrastructure programs for the United States Agency for International Development, which oversees some $3 billion in rebuilding contracts. "And with that context, with those kinds of guidelines, you can have success."
Admiral David J. Nash is the director of the Coalition Provisional Authority's program management office, which is awarding $9 billion in new rebuilding contracts. "What they all understand this to be is a gift from the people of the United States to the people of Iraq," he said. "I think it's vital."
He estimated that during the most intense days of the insurgency in early April, about 25 percent of Iraqi workers hired for his office's projects actually arrived for work. Last week, attendance was back up to about 50 percent, or an average of 3,517 workers, said Steven Susens, a spokesman for the authority.
Several major companies said that despite the insurgency, they had been able to continue with nearly all of their projects. In some cases, the work continued within secure perimeters, where non-Iraqi workers remained outside Baghdad until their companies decided that travel was safe. In other cases, projects were left to Iraqi subcontractors, who communicated with managers in Baghdad by phone and e-mail.
"We are still working in all the sectors in which we have active work orders," said Howard Menaker, a spokesman for Bechtel, which has nearly $3 billion in contracts in Iraq. "Overall we think we will stay on schedule and complete the contracts."
But the lockdowns by General Electric in particular have led to delays on power projects that involved its huge turbine power generators, in some cases forcing other companies to slow or stop work.
The delays are slowing work on a $50 million project to refurbish a large power plant north of Baghdad, said Robert Spaulding, an operations vice president for Fluor, a major contractor in Iraq.
About 70 Iraqis and a dozen non-Iraqi managers are taking apart three General Electric turbines, but G.E. has declined to send technical advisers and has been slow to ship new parts, Mr. Spaulding said. He said he might be forced to seek technical help from other companies that have experience with the G.E. units.
"Tell me what's different about having an American construction superintendent at this site," Mr. Spaulding said, referring to his own employees there, "but G.E. won't send an American tech guy?"
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