From Colombia: Multinational mining company 'hired paramilitaries'

[Judi Lynn]

From Colombia: Multinational mining company 'hired paramilitaries'
on July 21, 2009 4:11 AM

Over two hundred Colombians have placed a lawsuit at an Alabama district court against a Birmingham-based Drummond coal company for financing right wing death squads in Colombia.
Drummond runs an open pit coal mine in the northern Cesar department, where paramilitary groups assassinated hundreds of civilians from 2000 to 2006.

The lawyers who presented the lawsuit claim that between 2000 and 2006 Drummond paid paramilitary squads millions of dollars to protect its coal mine from attacks by left wing guerrillas. But according to them, the paramilitaries also used the money to wage a broader campaign against left wing guerrillas in the department.

A woman who did not want to be named for security reasons tells of how her brother was killed by the “paracos” – as such groups are known in Colombia.

“The paralimitaries abducted my brother around 7 pm… They tortured him and broke his arm. They took out one of his eyes and pulled out his nails before finishing him off with five shots”.

She says her brother was a taxi driver who had no connection to guerrilla groups. But according to her a few weeks before his death, her brother had a dispute with his former boss. She suspects this man accused her brother of having links with the FARC guerrillas.

More:
http://frontlineclub.com/blogs/nataliaviana/2009/07/from-colombia-multinational-mining-company-hired-paramilitaries.html