Employees of British owned mine in Peru confirm company coordinated attacks on protesters in 2005

[Derechos]

Servindi, 5 de agosto, 2010.- Trabajadores de la empresa minera Río Blanco confirmaron que las veintiocho personas, entre campesinos y periodistas, que participaron en la protesta del año 2005 fueron víctimas de secuestro y torturas por orden emanadas de la propia empresa.

La información fue proporcionada por la Jueza Gloster de la Alta Corte Británica quién recibió los testimonios de trabajadores de la empresa en octubre de 2009, cuando terminaba de redactar el proyecto de sentencia.

Los ingenieros José Saavedra y Darwin Palacios, así como los trabajadores Eugenio Castro y Román Tirado Villar, confirmaron que la empresa coordinó la operación de represalia contra los manifestantes.

Román Tirado, administrador del campamento Río Blanco, mantuvo comunicación constante con Andrew Bristow Bevege, Director y Gerente General adjunto de la empresa, quién ordenó a la empresa de seguridad Forza y a la policía abusar y torturar a los manifestantes.

José Saavedra afirma que “Román Tirado daba charlas a la policía, a los trabajadores y a la gente de Forza respecto a los ronderos, Afirmaba que eran terroristas y tenían que ser tratados como tales y también se encargó de tomar las fotografías”.

Las declaraciones fueron obtenidas por Louis Mc Gregor, jurista para-jurídico empleado por el estudio Leigh Day & Co. que defiende a las víctimas.

http://www.servindi.org/actualidad/29525

For background info in English see "British mining company faces damages claim after allegations of torture in Peru" http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/oct/18/peru-monterrico-metals-mining-protest (contains video and article)

[Judi Lynn]

1. Unbelievable. I looked around for info. after seeing your post,

and caught bits and pieces in a hurry, enough to paint a very ugly picture of this situation.

There's a photo of the man's remains who was left to bleed to death for 36 hours after they tortured him. These people apparently spared no expense in making total jackasses of themselves as they tortured, and flaunted their power over these people who came to protest what was happening there.

It's amazing how LITTLE we hear of deeply criminal actions perpetrated in service of greedy people, isn't it?

And then the journalist who was himself tortured who wrote about this started receiving death threats on his cell phone. I've heard of this in Colombia, apparently it goes on in Peru, too.

http://incakolanews.blogspot.com/search/label/rio%20blanco

~~~~~
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
British Company Sued for Torture and Killings of Indigenous Peoples was Supported by Peru's Government and Paramilitary Group in Mining Project

http://cache.daylife.com.nyud.net:8090/imageserve/06JZdRk9an2E5/610x.jpg

Journalist Julio Vasquez describes his torture at a press conference in Lima by January 2009
Photo by Reuters
British mining company Monterrico Metals Plc is being sued at a court in London for the torture and killing of dozens of Indigenous peoples in Peru, after a violent repression of a peaceful protest of farmers against the Majaz mining project.

To commit these crimes, Monterrico Metals had the support of a former British ambassador and a private security company in Peru, acting as a paramilitary group. Also Monterrico Metal have the strong support of the Peruvian government authorities, during the administrations of presidents Alejandro Toledo and currently with Alan Garcia.

The assassination, torture and sexual abuses of Peruvian citizens were committed in 2005 by a squadron of special agents of the Peruvian police (DINOES) and private security agents of the private company Forza Peru, under the request of the Monterrico Metals Plc management run by Andrew Bristow.

The armed forces attacked with guns and tear gas bombs unarmed Indigenous farmers and civilians who were arrested, tortured and killed after protesting the mining project Minera Majaz SA, subsidiary of Monterrico Metals –now known as Rio Blanco Copper SA- located in northern Peru next to the border with Ecuador. Local farmer Melanio Garcia died as a result of these abuses.

These crimes remained ignored and denied by the Peruvian government. Presidents Toledo and Garcia, the Peruvian Judiciary remained silent and most Peruvian media were paid to discredit the Indigenous protesters as “terrorists” sponsored by Hugo Chavez and even Al Qaeda.

Until early this year when photos taken by the torturers were exposed. Peruvian journalist Julio Cesar Vasquez –one of the victims of torture- along with human rights organizations held on a press conference in the capital, Lima by January 6, 2009 and showed these shocking photography shared by an anonymous source. These photos -very graphic images- are being used as evidence by attorney Richard Meeran of Leigh Day law offices in London:



A month after the press conference, Julio Cesar Vasquez and other witnesses received threatening phone calls:

"Since when is your job to help terrorists? We are going to make sure you rot in jail if you do not withdraw the accusations, if you don’t do it then you will arrive at the jail in pieces."

More:
http://peruanista.blogspot.com/2009/10/british-company-supported-by-perus.html

There's a handfull of images at the second link.

Jeez.

Now that people OUTSIDE Peru know about this, maybe something (let's not hold our breath, as a safety precaution) might be done to bring at least some degree of shame and misfortune on the mining company, the security company, and government officials responsible for this situation, and the cover up.

Thanks, derechos.

[Judi Lynn]

2. Recommending. Thanks.

:kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: