Paramilitaries to testify against Drummond: Report

[gbscar]

Paramilitaries to testify against Drummond: Report
Tuesday, 06 September 2011 11:56
Toni Peters


A U.S. court has allowed three Colombian former paramilitaries to testify against Alabama-based coal company Drummond for the company's alleged links to paramilitary organization AUC, Noticias Uno reported Tuesday.

The ex-paramilitaries, who were part of the paramilitary organization's Northern Bloc under the command of alias "Jorge 40," are due to appear in court next week after the Alabama court allowed their appearance.

The former paramilitaries claim the AUC ordered the assassination of at least 600 people between 1995 and 2005 in the northern department of Cesar for the benefit of Drummond.

The United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama ordered that the former paramilitaries alias "Bam Bam," "El tigre," "El samario," and Jesus Charris are to give testimony before representatives of the victims who claim that the multinational is responsible for the 600 murders.

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http://www.colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/18800-paramilitaries-to-testify-against-drummond-report.html

[Judi Lynn]

1. What are the chances justice will be be allowed? Drummond is powerful,

their friends going all the way to the former Colombian President's office.

The Drummond brothers have been creatures from the black lagoon for years and years, sending so many innocent working men, all mens doing work these parasites could NEVER accomplish, to their hideous death, after the men were warned they were marked for murder, some of them going directly to Drummond to beg for minimal protection, at least, from the assassins.

Filthy ####s destroyed the lives of many U.S. workers first, before oozing their slimy way to Colombia to start life all over, raping that labor pool, and sending their ill-gotten product back to Alabama, to be bought by their old customers they already exploited while exploiting US coal workers mercilessly.

I hope the sky falls on the Drummond brothers.



Gary Drummond (left), the owner of Drummond Corporation, is a close friend of
former Colombian president Alvaro Uribe (right)

Drummond Accused of Killing Trade Unionists, Former Colombian President Uribe Called to Testify
News from Colombia | on: Thursday, 11 November 2010

A paramilitary death squad commander has revealed how executives of the US mining multinational Drummond ‘congratulated’ paramilitary commanders for arranging the assassination of two union leaders at Drummond’s Colombian coal mines. The court room admission, by now jailed paramilitary leader Alcides Mattos Tabares, comes just days after former Colombian president Alvaro Uribe was subpoenaed to testify in a civil case against Alabama-based Drummond for their alleged links to paramilitaries.

Mr Mattos Tabares explained how following the 2001 assassinations of Valmore Locarno and Victor Hugo Orcasita (the President and Vice-President respectively of the trade union representing workers at Drummond), two senior members of the Drummond management team met with the paramilitary commanders responsible for the murders to thank them for a successful operation.

Although one of Drummond’s former contractors in Colombia, Jaime Blanco Maya – the brother of the current Colombian Inspector General Edgardo Maya – has been arrested and charged in connection with the killings, so far no senior Drummond officials have been detained. But human right groups insist that both Gary Drummond, the US owner of the multinational, and Jean Jakim, Drummond’s head of security, were implicated in the murders and point to additional testimony from a former member of the DAS secret police who claims to have seen Drummond’s president in Colombia, Augusto Jimenez, handing over a bag full of cash to notorious paramilitary commander ‘Jorge 40’.

More:
http://www.justiceforcolombia.org/news/article/834/drummond-accused-of-killing-trade-unionists-former-colombian-president-uribe-cal

[Judi Lynn]

2. Uribe does not have to tesify in Drummond case

Uribe does not have to tesify in Drummond case
Friday, 09 September 2011 06:51
Toni Peters

A Washington D.C. federal judge decided former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe does not have to testify in the case against coal giant Drummond, Colombian media reported Thursday.

Judge John Bate recognized the immunity Uribe had requested from the U.S. State Department. Therefore it was ruled that he could not be called as a witness in the trial against the coal giant.

~snip~
According to the judge, the plaintiffs are seeking "information related to illegal activity" from Uribe. As Uribe is not a defendant in the case, he can not be forced to testify, the judge ruled.

Victims of paramilitary violence accuse Drummond of having paid the AUC between 1999 and 2005, a period during which 116 civilians were killed, in the northern Colombian department of Cesar where the coal giant operates. According to the victims, Uribe has knowledge about the alleged relations between the coal company and the paramilitaries.

http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/18877-uribe-does-not-have-to-tesify-in-drummond-case.html