Porgera operations subject to shareholder concern in Canada: Ipili representatives travel from Porgera mine to seek justice

Tuesday 6th May 2008 10am Toronto Canada

Mineral Policy Institute in conjunction with
Friends of the Earth Australia
Akali Tange Association (Papua New Guinea)

Ipili leaders are raising concerns over the conduct of Barrick Gold's Porgera operation in the PNG Highlands in Canada at the companys' annual general meeting today after concerned shareholders provided them with proxies to attend the event.

They are  joining indigenous leaders from  countries including Australia and the United States who travelled to Canada this week to address long standing grievances against the company concerning its devestating human rights and environmental practices at mine sites across the globe.

Jethro Tulin, Executive Officer of the Akali Tange Association, a Porgeran based human rights organization that has documented the deaths of small scale miners at the hands of the mine's security forces  has travelled to Canada with executives of the Porgera Landowners Association and will be urging the company to address the urgent need for relocation for communities liviing directly adjacent to the mine pit and waste dumps, ensure compensation and prevent of further  killing, rape and arbitrary detention of local village people in Papua New Guinea by Barrick security,  and to take measures to prevent the ongoing impacts and threats of the mine's dumping of waste into local river systems. (see the statement made at the meeting  in full below)

According to Mr Tulin, Barrick’s Porgera Mine is a textbook case of what can go wrong when large-scale mining confronts indigenous peoples:
 "The company is ignoring the impacts of its projects and resorting to goon squads when people rebel against it. This outrages the conscience of local Indigenous communities, especially when the mine is right next to our homes; my people are exposed to dangerous chemicals like cyanide and mercury; some of our people drown in the tailings and waste during floods; and fishing stocks, flora and fauna are depleted down the river systems, leading to indigenous food sources being threatened,” 

 The Mineral Policy Institute has undertaken  investigations of allegations of extrajudicial killings and other human rights abuses at the Porgera mine site together  with a team from  the Harvard University Clinical Human Rights Program. "The appalling conditions, massive toxic waste dumping and  growing heath risks for people living around this mine site are inexcusable. The time is overdue for Barrick Gold to do what is necessary to establish meaningful and positive relations with the communities in which it operates, rather than allow them to be bystanders who live amongst the waste and pollution created by their operations." stated Techa Beaumont, Executive director of the Mineral Policy Institute who visited the mine site in 2007.

Other complaints to be put before the company include the destruction of spiritual sites in Australia and the United States, and the pollution of water resources at all of Barrick's mines. The delegation of affected community representatives  is heading to Ottawa after the shareholders' meeting where they have arranged meetings with members of the Canadian parliament. The Canadian government aknowledged the need to address these issues and recently undertook a roundtable  process to look at ways to address the irresponsible conduct by  the nation's mining companies in other parts of the world.

For more information contact:
Jethro Tulin  and members of the Porgera Landowners Association in Canada/the US on  1-310-848-7543 or 416-710-5430
Techa Beaumont Mineral Policy Institute:in Australia + 61 0409 318 406
Natalie Lowrey: Friends of the Earth, Australia :  in Canada/US  + 1  416 809 2755
detailed information available at : www.protestbarrick.net

Statement by Jethro Tullin to the Barrick Gold Board of Directors at the annual general meeting in Toronto, Tuesday 6th May 2008

Mr. Munk, I am an indigenous Ipili from the Highlands of Papua New Guinea. I have travelled half way across the world, together with Mark Ekepa, Chairman of the
Porgera Landowners Association and Anga Atalu, Secretary of the Porgera Landowners Association to speak out against the grave conditions my people face because of your Porgera mine.
When you came to our place you offered us cash-for-land deals that have turned our traditions upside-down. Your mine has destroyed our ancestral land, our sacred places, and our gardens, which we need to feed ourselves. You dump your mine waste directly into our river system contaminating 600 km of river all the way to the sea. You do this, even though you know that it is illegal to dump your waste into rivers in Canada. As you know, our people have been pushed to living on the very edges of your open pit and very close to your massive piles of waste rock. Our houses are so close to the mine pit and to your mountainous waste dumps that our people, especially our children, are always in grave danger of falling into the pit. As you know, many of my people have already lost their lives this way. Others have been swept away and drowned when they have tried to cross the river of mine waste because there are no safe bridges across. Finally, as you know, your security guards have been shooting and killing our people and raping, even gang-raping, our women with impunity for years now. This issue has now been raised with the Special Rapporteur on extra-judicial killings at the United Nations.
Mr. Munk, you have destroyed our land, our water, our safety and our ability to feed ourselves. We know that we can no longer live on our ancestral land. We know that we must leave our place so that our children can have a future. But now your company - Barrick - is refusing to offer us fair terms for our relocation.My questions for you, Mr. Munk, are:
1. When will Barrick agree to move the more than 5,000 families who live within your mine lease in a way that is fair and will provide us an opportunity to be healthy, to feed our families, and to educate our children?
2. When will Barrick finally pay fair compensation to the families who have lost their loved ones to the guns of your security forces, to the rape victims, to the families who have lost members in your open pit and in the waste dumps and who have drowned in your river of tailings?
3. When will Barrick finally carry out the recommendations of the 1996 CSIRO report that was commissioned by the mine management that recommended an end to the dumping of mine waste into our river? And when will Barrick agree to an independent assessment of the metal levels in the river and the accumulation of metals in soils and biota in the river and surrounding areas downstream from the mine? And when will Barrick provide compensation to the people who have been damaged by your mine waste in the river?

For more information contact: Jethro Tulin – 1-310-848-7543 or 416-710-5430
www.porgeraalliance.net
A Press conference will be held at 3:30pm Toronto time  on 6th May, immediately following the Barrick Gold Annual general meeting at 10am.
at
Hart House Board room, University of Toronto Campus
7 Hart House Circle  (off Harboard near University)  with
Larson R. Bill, Community Planner, Western Shoshone Defense Project, USA
Neville Williams, Mooka/Kalara United Families within the Wiradjuri Nation, Lake Cowal, Australia
Jethro Tulin, Executive Officer, Akali Tange Association, Papua New Guinea
Mark Ekepa, Chairman, Porgera Landowners Association, Papua New Guinea
Anga Atalu, Secretary, Porgera Landowners Association, Papua New Guinea

Further Information:

Barrick Gold's conduct has also been under fire on both sides of the Australian contintent at their Lake Cowal Gold mine in NSW and the Kalgoorlie Superpit jointly owned by Newmont which has failed to sign any formal agreement with the region's traditional owners. Aboriginal communities at the Kalgoorlie superpit are surrounded by the companies expanding open pit operation and mine dumps with no tangible evidence of benefit from an operation.

The Lake Cowal mine proceeded despite being initiallly rejected by government and oppposed by the traditional owners and environmental groups.
“Barrick Gold has absolutely no respect for our cultural heritage and the very essence of our cultural being is at stake,” stated Neville “Chappy” Williams, Wiradjuri elder and spokesperson for Mooka and Kalara United Families, the traditional owners of the Lake Cowal area. In addition to creating an open-pit mine in the “Sacred Heartland of the Wiradjuri Nation,” Barrick has confiscated thousands of Wiradjuri cultural objects from the mine site and refuses to return them to the traditional owners.
According to a 2005 parliamentary standing committee report, “Canada does not yet have laws to ensure that the activities of Canadian mining companies in developing countries conform to human rights standards, including the rights of workers and of indigenous people.” As of 2008, these regulatory issues have yetto be resolved.

"The international community has spoken quite clearly on these matters.  The United States has been told on two separate occasions to cease and desist the destructive activities on Shoshone lands and Canada has been told to rein in its corporate giants like Barrick,” stated Larson Bill, Western Shoshone Community Planner, referencing the UN Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (UNCERD) in their review of Canada last year.

supported by:

ProtestBarrick.net
Western Shoshone Defence Project (USA)
Mining Watch Canada (Canada) 
SaveLakeCowal.org (Australia)
Mineral Policy Institute (Australia)
Friends of the Earth (Australia)
Porgera Land Owners Association (Papua New Guinea)
Akali Tange Association (Papua New Guinea)

For more information, please contact:

Techa Beaumont


Workphone: +61 2 9557 9019
Mobile: +61 409 318 406

Created: 08 May 2008 | Last updated: 08 May 2008

This page: http://www.mpi.org.au/ campaigns/indigenous/barrick_agm/

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