Your private placement dollars in junior mining companies at work
Remember the story of the tortures and death at the Monterrico Metals Majaz (now called Rio Blanco) copper project in northern Peru? Yeah, sure you do, cos IKN ran this post with the scandalous photos when the story hit in January and followed it up with a dozen or so reports about the aftermath, including how diplo douchebag Richard Ralph was profiting from the threats and torture tactics used by the mining world and in cahoots with the Toledo government of the time.
So today The UK Guardian reports that the company is getting its ass sued in a British court of law for multimillions. Here's the link (got a video embedded) and here's an extract:
Richard Meeran, of Leigh Day, the London law firm bringing the high court case, said the evidence of torture was incontrovertible and that it was inconceivable the company could have been unaware of what was happening on its site.
"The company must have been aware of the inhuman treatment of the victims during their three-day ordeal at the Rio Blanco mine," he said. "Yet there is no evidence of it taking any steps to prevent the harm. On the contrary, it would appear that the company was working in cahoots with the police. It is vital that multinationals are held legally accountable for human rights violations occurring at their overseas operations."
Check out the following, kindly sent along earlier by reader MH. Straight pastes of the two reports about how Sweden's Securitas are investigating the torture of locals in Peru. They're coming at you from all sides now, Bristow. Run and hide and don't tell anyone! Great PR tactics so far, idiot!
The Peruvian company Forza, owned by Swedish Securitas, is accused of having tied and beaten demonstrators – one to death. The abuses are said to have occurred at a demonstration against a mining operation in Rio Blanco, in Peru, 2005. According to Reuters, photographs representing the alleged incident have been published by a Peruvian human rights association.
- If this is true we have to take action, says Gisela Lindstrand, [Senior Vice President for Corporate Communications] at Securitas AB to Expressen.se.
The photographs, distributed by an anonymous source, show men covered in blood with their hands tied behind their backs and plastic bags over their heads. One of the men is later seen dead in another photograph. In the photographs one can also see men wearing vests with the text Forza.
The photos clearly show that personnel of Forza played an active role in the repression and torture, said Javier Jahncke at the human rights organisation Fedepaz to Reuters.
The tortured men are said to be demonstrators against the mining operation which was about to start in Rio Blanco in 2005.
Local police accused
The company Forza was responsible for the mining venture’s security.
Also local police are accused of having helped put down the demonstration.
After receiving the allegations, Peru’s congress is initiating an investigation of the incident.
-We have contacted our subsidiary and we are investigating this in peace and quiet, says Gisela Lindstrand [Senior Vice President for Corporate Communications] at the international section of Securitas AB.
According to her, Securitas bought Forza in 2007, two years after the alleged events.
-If this is true and these persons remain at the company we have to take action.
Distancing itself
Gisela Lindstrand explains that Securitas asked Forza if they comply with laws and regulations when it bought the company.
Securitas distances itself from the behavior shown in the photographs.
-It is not conceivable that we would act this way. We are a serious security company, says Gisela Lindstrand.
Reuters have been in touch with Forza, but they decline to comment.
A company which is today owned by the Swedish security group Securitas will be investigated in Peru concerning suspected torture and abuse of the local population in relation to surveillance of mines in the country.
-We are trying to find out what has happened. It will take a while to investigate, says Gisela Lindstrand, Securitas Group [Senior Vice President for Corporate Communications], to TT [Tidningarnas Telegrambyrå].
Peru’s congress has said that suspected crimes by police and private security firms in 2005 will be investigated. Prosecutors are allegedly already working on it.
Last month, a human rights organization published photographs of men and women protesting against mining in Rio Blanco, in Peru.
The victims bled heavily and some had their hands tied behind their backs and plastic bags over their heads. One photograph shows a man bleeding heavily from his neck, and another photograph shows the same man dead one day later, according to Reuters.
“Want to investigate”
In one photograph, an armed guard from the company Forza, can be seen. Forza was bought by the multinational Securitas in 2007.
The photos clearly show that personnel of Forza played an active role in the repression and torture, said Javier Jahncke at the human rights organization to Reuters.
Lindstrand reports that she contacted Peru on Tuesday.
-I have spoken with our country manager and said that I want an investigation into what happened.
In Rio Blanco, Forza is working for the mining company Moterrico, which was bought by the Chinese Group Zijin in 2007. The mining company states that the allegations are one in a sequence of “resistance activities” against mining activity.
The police force in Peru is under-funded. Security at the country’s remote mines is contracted out to private security companies, which in turn hire former policemen and soldiers. They often face local protests against the social and environmental downsides of mining.
Trained security guards
According to human rights organizations, private companies often go way beyond the limits of the law in their assignments.
Lindstrand points out that the company [Forza] was bought after the suspected abuse, and that all Securitas Group’s security guards are trained in human rights.
-If this has happened, it is something which could never happen today, because now Securitas’ rules apply.
-TT: Can you guarantee that even in remote locations in Peru?
Surprise surprise. Thugs is as thugs do and all that stuff, the guy who dared to tell the truth about the torture suffered at the hands of Monterrico Metals is now getting death threats on his private cellular phone. Thanks to a headsup from the nice people at the Peruvian National Coordinator for Human Rights (gracias chicos), here below is their story put through the Ottotrans™, the original of which you can find here.
This story is not going away, Andrew Bristow, Richard Ralph and all the other corporate liars attached to MNA.L: You guys give the mining industry a bad name and thanks to the efforts of people like Julio Vasquez who are not cowed by threats you'll never mine an ounce of Peru's soil. The sooner you're out of business the better.
The journalist from Radio Cutivalú, Julio Vásquez Calle, reports having receivec constant death threats via anonymous phone calls made to his cellular phone. This is due to him being one of the victims who made public photos that testify to the kidnapping and torture he suffered along with 28 other villagers from the provinces of Ayabaca and Huancabamba (Piura) and Jaén and San Ignacio (Cajamarca) in the installations of the mining company Majaz (now Rio Blanco Copper S.A. in 2005. The incident involved high-ranking officers of the Peru National Police Force, the security firm Forza and functionaries of the Majaz Mining.
Due to this serious allegation made by Vásquez Calle, the Ecumenical Foundation for Development and Peace (FEDEPAZ) manifests its concern for the risk that the life of said journalist faces.
Because of this, FEDEPAZ, the legal advisor of the journalist, has reported to diverse international organisms concerned with the protection of Human Rights in order that they intercede with the current national administration to offer necessary protection in light of the constant threats that put his life in danger.
At the same time, reports are being presented to the National Fiscal Office to demand an exhaustive investigation and to the Defender of the People's Office (ombudsman) so that they, in compliance with their function, intercede with the relevant organisms in order to protect and safeguard his personal intergrity.
Finally, it should be mentioned that the Vásquez case is a repeated one, as local Piura authorities as well as the Defenders of Human Rights and Environment that have taken up the defence of the communities of Ayabaca and Huancabamba, amongst then members of FEDEPAZ, have also been victims of threats, surveillance, phone-tapping and unfounded accusations.
Yesterday, security firm Forza (part of the Swiss Securitas Group) was highlighted in this report from Reuters as at least part of the band of thugs that tortured Peruvian locals at the Monterrico Metals (MNA.L) mining camp in North Peru. As regular readers will recall, the accusations against Monterrico are very serious and include murder on the list.
However, did you also know that Forza is used by a whole bunch of foreign companies in the length and breadth of Peru? The list is long and includes names such as
Newmont Mining Yanacocha Coca-Cola Standard Bank Duke Energy Repsol Eli Lilly
and surprise surprise Richard Ralph....The British Embassy in Peru!!
And plenty plenty others. In fact all the following all use Forza as security personnel, so if you think that the kind of brutality shown by this bunch of bastards is not right for your investment dollar, why not send a mail to your fave IR department and demand that they rescind their contract with Forza immediately?
Hit scum in the back pocket; it's where they feel it the most
Your private placement dollars in
