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This
is the Cerrejon mine, northern Colombia.
It
is huge. It covers an area 15km wide by 40 km long. But it was not always
a black desert. Until 2001 it was rich, fertile farmland and home to
a number of communities who made their
living farming animals and crops.
Two
representatives of communities displaced by British-owned mining companies
will be in Britain. Jose Julio Perez is President of the Relocation
Committee of the community of Tabaco in the northerly province of La
Guajira.
The
village was demolished in 2001 to make way for mine expansion and although
many inhabitants accepted the inadequate financial compensation on offer,
others are still holding out for community relocation so that they can
continue living as a community and farming the land as they did before.
We
were productive, herding, plant crops, like maize. It was a total way
of life. We used this fertile land 20km x 40km. Whatever you hear, the
company does NOT have good relations with the community. It is better
if the mine had never come.
The
land is now full of enormous holes to get the coal. There are over 20,000
dislaced and over 100,000 affected. The mine has a huge negative impact,
over 100,000are ill. The workers in the mine number 5,000. there is
no match between the benefits and the destruction. The mine had been
the cause of destruction, ruin, death, many illnesses, the assassination
of leaders and their persecution.
the
area of Tabaco was settled by Africans escaping slavery hundreds of
years ago. These are descendants of the slaves that MP William Wilberforce
fought so hard to free.
The
mine has affected health giving rise to respiratory problems, pollution,
fear, threats, murders.
International
observers would make a definite difference. The mine does not want to
be seen to threaten, force, or cajole people on the international scene.
medical assistance. We want the replacement of houses and replacement
of land to equal value. The local officials areno help; they are like
enemies of the people. We wanr xollective negotiation with the mine,
not the mine's way of working which os to divide us and rule, to pit
family against family and pick them off one by one with imiserly compesation.
The company's negotiations with individuals breaks families up. There
are killings. There is complicity.
Richard
- These acompanies aren't as well known as Esso, and so on, but they
ARe as powerful. We don't order 200,000 tonnes of coal but these companies
do. Wordlwider imingn comapnies have certain things in common: one is
violence. Mostly it hapens in this semi-judicial way. What tends to
happen is that: 1) Armed guards force people off 2) When protests happen
they offer money to buy people off threatening those that refuse they
will get nothing. People had no idea about the inadequacy of the money
on offer. The company would claim, after sme had accepted, that they
had established a "maerket price"! Of course, this was through
intimidation and the ordinary peopl involved had no representation.
In addition, deaths, that is, assassinations have happened.
Armando
Perez, legal representative for the Tabaco comomnuity, is himself
the subject of reprisals and persecution and was jailed for 37 days.
Now, the local judge is persecuting him for "slandering" her
by calling her corrupting the law on behalf of the company..
There
are 5 or so communities facing simliar exploitation and hardships. they
want to stay together as communities and continue farming a they once
did.
Colombia's
Minister of the Environment was brought to this area to see land restored
after being "heavily mined". In fact, that area had never
been mined. These are the lengths the comapny will go to: deliberately
deceiveing a minister of state.
The
country'
Johh
Browne of BPP picked up a £10 million bonus.
15%
of UK coal comes from Colombia.
The
huge Cerrejon coal mine in La Guajira was opened in the late 1970s.
Then, 50% was owned by the Colombian government and 50% by Intercor,
a subsidiary of Exxon. Intercor operated the mine.
For a while, one of the mining concessions at Cerrejon was owned
by British mining giant Rio Tinto (at that time known as RTZ).
In
the 1980's it was the guaranteed supply of cheap coal from Colombia
that helped Thatcher destroy British coal mining.
In early 2001, the Colombian 50% share of the Cerrejon mine was bought
up by a consortium of three companies: Anglo-American (British), BHPBilliton
(Australian, but listed on the London Stock Exchange) and Glencore (Swiss).
In
August 2001 most of the village of Tabaco was demolished without warning
and its inhabitants evicted to make way for mine expansion. The rest
of the village was demolished in January 2002. In February 2002 the
consortium bought out Intercor's 50% and took over operating the mine.
Demolishing Tabaco certainly made life easy for them when they took
over. In March 2006, Glencore's share of the mine was bought out by
another Swiss-based company, Xstrata (also listed on the London Stock
Exchange).
The
three companies involved raise much of their money in London, have important
offices there and Anglo American has its headquarters there. Many pension
funds invest in these companies. Many ordinary working people, without
knowing it, are benefiting from the destruction of farming communities
in La Guajira by the world's richest mining multinationals.
All
three companies have good reputations as socially and environmentally
responsible enterprises. Bu the reality is very different.
http://home.comcast.net/~nscolombia/
http://home.comcast.net/~nscolombia/delegation.htm
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