British mining company faces damages claim after allegations of torture in Peru

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Guardian

British mining company faces damages claim after allegations of torture in Peru
Ian Cobain guardian.co.uk,
Sunday 18 October 2009 22.18 BST

A British mining corporation is facing a multimillion-pound claim for damages after protesters were detained and allegedly tortured at an opencast copper plant that the firm is seeking to develop in the mountains of northern Peru.

In a case that will highlight growing tensions between powerful mining interests in Peru and alliances of poor subsistence farmers and environmentalists, the high court in London is to hear harrowing accounts of people held for three days at the remote mine near the border with Ecuador.

When the protesters marched to the mine they found armed police waiting for them. They say the police were being directed by the mine's managers – although its owner, Monterrico Metals, disputes this. After firing teargas at the protesters, the police detained 28 people and bound their hands behind their backs.

The detainees say noxious substances were sprayed in their faces before they were hooded, beaten with sticks and whipped. Two of the protesters were women who say they were sexually assaulted and threatened with rape.

A further three protesters were shot and wounded by police, and while there is no suggestion the mining company was responsible for this, the protesters claim one of those shot was left to bleed to death at the mine site. A postmortem examination found that he took about 36 hours to die.



Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/oct/18/peru-monterrico-metals-mining-protest

[Judi Lynn]

1. Claims police tortured Peruvian protesters outside British-owned mine

Claims police tortured Peruvian protesters outside British-owned mine

A British mining corporation is being taken to court by a group of Peruvian farmers who claim the company did nothing to help injured protesters when they were allegedly attacked and tortured by security guards and police outside the mining complex.

Published: 7:00AM BST 19 Oct 2009

Monterrico, the mining company, wanted to create Peru's second largest mine at Rio Blanco in the country's northwest, but found itself in conflict with local farmers soon after it arrived in 2001.

The locals feared the region's rivers would become polluted as a result of the copper mining and that the fragile eco-systems would be severely damaged, the Guardian reports.

In August 2005 a large group of protesters travelled to the mine to voice their objections. They were greeted by police and claim that 28 demonstrators were detained, hooded, beaten with sticks and whipped.

Other protesters claim to have been attacked by the mine's security guards and by members of the Peruvian federal police.

During the encounter, two protesters were shot in the leg, one man was shot in the eye and a farmer called Melanio Garcia, 41, suffered a fatal gunshot, the paper said.

Photographs allegedly taken by a Monterrico supervisor, which the protesters say support their allegations of abuse by the police, show Mr Garcia lying on the ground, apparently alive but badly injured.

Several other pictures taken 30 hours later, according to their time and date stamps, clearly show Mr Garcia to be dead.

More:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/southamerica/peru/6369624/Claims-police-tortured-Peruvian-protesters-outside-British-owned-mine.html

[Peace Patriot]

2. I hope they win zillions in damages and shut this global corporate predator down!

There is no reason whatever why corporations cannot make a fair profit by operating legally, humanely--without thugs and death squad enforcers--and with care for the environment and decent wages and working conditions for labor. US-dominated countries like Peru instead permit excessive greed to rule--because that's what rules here! A hundred thousand innocent people slaughtered in Iraq, in the first weeks of bombing alone, to steal their oil! Torture and mayhem, born of GREED, is now "the American way." And good luck trying to stop this kind of horror in US courts. That's another thing that strikes me about this. The victims have a chance in English courts. They have none here--for far worse crimes. Chiquita International paid millions on dollars to rightwing death squads in Colombia, who murdered thousands of union leaders and members on Chiquita farms, and when the victims' families tried to get justice in US courts, Chiquita execs promised $25 million* to the Bushwhack government--in "fines"--to avoid the precedent of victim compensation and get Chiquita executives off the hook. And guess who brokered that deal? Our very own Obama administration Attorney General!

This may be a British corporation, but it is a corporation that has ridden down a road paved by the US and our global corporate mayhem-creators in Peru! The corrupt "free trade for the rich" government--a US puppet--just recently open fired on indigenous protestors with helicopter gunships and assault rifles, slaughtering dozens of people, who were protesting the rape of the Amazon by mining and logging corporations. The brutality and carnage are on-going.

-----------------------

*(I'd sure like to know what happened to that money.)

[Blue_Tires]

3. ttt

[Judi Lynn]

4. Peru Will Hold Torturers Accountable: Why Can't the U.S. Do the Same?

Peru Will Hold Torturers Accountable: Why Can't the U.S. Do the Same?
Posted by Allison Kilkenny, True/Slant at 8:00 AM on October 20, 2009.

The door will be left open for future abuses as long as the U.S. skirts the issue.

A British mining corporation is facing a multimillion-pound claim for damages after protesters were detained and allegedly tortured at an opencast copper plant that the firm is seeking to develop in the mountains of northern Peru.

via British mining company faces damages claim after allegations of torture in Peru | World news | The Guardian

This story is interesting for two reasons. First, it’s a disturbing example of "corporate torture" where a powerful corporation, in this case a mining company called Monterrico Metals, operates under such a wide umbrella of immunity that the corporation’s managers feel they can justifiably torture workers without fear of one day being forced to pay restitution to their victims.

Peruvian protesters say police, who they claim were being directed by the mine’s managers, sprayed noxious substances in their faces before they were hooded, beaten with sticks, and whipped. Two female protesters say they were sexually assaulted and threatened with rape. Certainly, Monterrico Metals deserves to be held accountable for its managers’ actions if these allegations are true.

Second, this story is important because it shows a willingness on Peru’s part to seek accountability for this example of corporate torture, while the U.S. government continues to skirt, and in some cases avoid, prosecuting high-level officials responsible for torture at Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib.

Interrogation and detentions implemented by the U.S. resulted in the deaths of at least 100 detainees, and while some of those deaths were caused by “bad apple” interrogators, many deaths were caused by torture methods authorized at the highest levels of George W. Bush’s White House. Attorney General Eric Holder’s myopic method of limiting investigations to the grunts responsible for the brawn side of torture is as pointless as if Peru limited its torture accountability to the cops responsible for the physical aspects of the assaults on workers. Yes, the police must be held accountable, but so too must the managers who passed along the orders, and the corporate masters who have permitted such a reckless culture to ferment under their watch.

More:
http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/143389/peru_will_hold_torturers_accountable%3A_why_can%27t_the_u.s._do_the_same/