Scenes from Tabaco 2001. Stop this from happening again
STOP THE FORCED EVICTION OF VILLAGERS IN ROCHE
TO MAKE WAY FOR A COAL MINE
Cerrejon Coal and the Colombian
courts are threatening to evict indigenous and afro-descendent villagers at
Roche, in the northern province of La Guajira, on Thursday 29 August. They want
to expand their massive opencast mine. Cerrejon Coal is owned by three mega
mining multinationals (Anglo American, BHP Billiton and Glencore Xstrata) and
exports most of its coal to power plants in the eastern United States,
including the Brayton Point plant in Somerset, MA.
The company has already bullied many
villagers into moving to an urban site which is no good for those who want to
carry on farming or keeping cattle. The families who remain in the old village
are holding out for an agreement that would compensate them for what they have
suffered over the past few years as mining has come ever closer to their homes,
and move them to a site big enough for them to carry on their agricultural way
of life.
In August, 2001, the company evicted
the afro-descendent inhabitants of another small farming village called Tabaco,
bulldozing homes to make way for mine expansion. The villagers had already said
they were willing to move - but they wanted a decent relocation agreement that
would enable them to live together and carry on farming. The company's response
was to flood the village with armed police and security guards and beat anyone
who resisted having their house destroyed. The three multinationals said this
would never happen again. It looks like it is about to happen again at Roche.
We demand that Cerrejon Coal, its
corporate owners, and the Colombian Government, STOP the eviction planned for
29 August and come to a just and decent agreement.
Two local organizations supporting
this event are: North Shore Colombia
Solidarity Committee, and Colombia Vive [colombiavive.org]. The original protest was organized by the
Colombia Solidarity Campaign in London.
No comments:
Post a Comment