Sciency Thoughts: Amnesty International

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Friday, 5 December 2014

Amnesty International report implicates Forrest Mining Group in forced evictions in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The human rights organization Amnesty International has published a report entitled BULLDOZED:How a mining company buried the truth about forced evictions in the DemocraticRepublic of Congo, on 24 November 2014, which implicates the Belgian Group Forrest International (Forrest Mining Group) in a series of forced evictions in November 2009, in which the homes of a large number of Congolese citizens were bulldozed in the village of Kawama, on the outskirts of Lubumbashi in Katanga Province, an action for which the villagers have yet to receive compensation.

The incidents occurred on 25-26 November 2009, following a confrontation by police from the Mine Police (a section of the Congolese National Police responsible for security at mines) and a group of artisanal miners, known locally as ‘creuseurs’ (diggers) who had been extracting minerals from within land covered by a mining concession operated by the Compagnie Minière du Sud Katanga, which at the time of the incident was jointly owned by Entreprise Générale Malta Forrest, a subsidiary of Group Forrest International, and La Générale des Carrières et des Mines (Gécamines), with Entreprise Générale Malta Forrest owning 60% of the shares and being responsible for running the mine.

The mine has operated in the area since 1923, and the village of Kawama has existed since at least the 1950s (when the area was part of the Belgian Congo). The village has an economy based upon agriculture and charcoal burning, but also includes shops, restaurants, hotels, a small cinema and other businesses. In October and November 2009 a large number of creuseurs had moved into the village, which lies partially within the Compagnie Minière concession, and began to extract minerals (copper and cobalt) illegally. The creuseurs were not from the village, and many constructed temporary cabanes (shacks), though some villagers have admitted renting rooms to them.

On 2 November 2009 the Compagnie Minière du Sud Katanga made a complaint to the Provincial Governor of Katanga, and from 17 to 22 November the Mine Police made a series of visits to the village, warning (via megaphone) that the creuseurs should leave the area and that they would be forcibly removed if they did not. No threats were made against the villagers of Kawama at any point.

At dawn on 24 November 2009 the Mine Police again returned to Kawama, apparently to attempt to move on the creuseurs, also demanding to search the homes of permanent villagers for stolen minerals, which was refused as the police did not have warrants (some of the villagers have since admitted that minerals were stored within their homes). The confrontation appears to have become increasingly violent, with a truck belonging to Entreprise Générale Malta Forrest being set on fire, mine workers being attacked as they arrived at the concession and some reports of shots being fired.

The Mine Police requested support from the national police and army, with about 300 additional personnel reaching the scene by about 8.00 am. They also requisitioned a number of bulldozers and a mechanical digger from Entreprise Générale Malta Forrest. At about 9.00 am the police re-entered the village, observed by senior officials the Provincial Ministry of the Interior and Entreprise Générale Malta Forrest, and began to demolish both cabanes belonging to the creuseurs and permanent (brick-built) homes belonging to the villagers.

A bulldozer demolishes a house during the forced eviction of hundreds of residents at Kawama, DRC on 24 November 2009. Picture taken from a video of the events. Jeff Mbiya/Amnesty International.

Demolitions were carried out in three neighbourhoods of the village, Lukuni-Gare, Bikwano and Sampasa. No warning was given before the demolitions began, and the pattern of demolitions was apparently random. The police and Entreprise Générale Malta Forrest have since claimed that only shacks belonging to creuseurs were demolished, and not the brick-built homes of the villagers, but photographs and film taken by a local non-governmental organisation (Action contrel’impunitépour les droits humains) and subsequently shown on a Congolese TV station (Radio Television Wantashi) and uploaded to YouTube clearly shows brick-built structures being demolished; nor is it clear how it would be possible to demolish only one type of structure with the equipment used, given that the shacks were closely intermixed with the houses.

Security forces in the village of Kawama, DRC during the forced eviction of hundreds of residents on 24 November 2009. Picture taken from a video of the events. Jeff Mbiya/Amnesty International.

A number of villagers report being approached by members of the police and asked to make payments to avoid having their homes demolished. Several villagers allegedly made such payments but still had properties demolished.

Demolitions ceased on 24 November 2009 when a Battalion Commander with the Congolese Police Militaire (Military Police) arrived at the scene to investigate reports of shots being fired, and ordered that the action was halted, as they were illegal, unjust and being carried out without an order from the Public Prosecutor (a requirement under Congolese law). However the police returned to the village the next morning (25 November 2009), and demolished a number of properties in the neighbourhood of Lukuni-Gare. Again villagers were given no warning of the action, and the buildings were apparently targeted at random.

A bulldozer demolishes a brick structure during the forced eviction of hundreds of residents at Kawama, DRC on 24 November 2009. Picture taken from a video of events. Jeff Mbiya/Amnesty International.

Following the events of November 2009 the Procureur Général (Public Prosecutor) of Lubumbashi opened an investigation into the demolitions, with a view to bringing a criminal prosecution. The Avocat Général (Assistant Public Prosecutor), Augustin Nzey, carried out an investigation in which the sites of the incidents were visited and villagers, police personnel, representatives of the mining companies and other witnesses were interviewed. Nzey established that 421 buildings were demolished during the evictions, and that the action was taken on the order of an official of the Provincial Ministry of the Interior (who was present during the operation), and that senior police officers present were aware this did not constitute proper authority for the action, but were unable or unwilling to oppose the ministry official.

Corrugated sheet metal and piles of brick and rubble lie on the ground two days after the forced eviction of hundreds of people in Kawama, Democratic Republic ofCongo, 26 November 2009.Action contrel’impunité pour les droitshumains/Amnesty International.

Following his investigation Nzey prepared a prosecution under Article 110 of the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Penal Code for malicious destruction of property, against the ministry official, the senior commander of the Mine Police present and the drivers of the Entreprise Générale Malta Forrest vehicles. Under this article a person who malicious damages buildings belonging to another can face fines or even a prison sentence. However having prepared this case he was ordered by officials in both the central and provincial governments not to proceed, as the case had political implications, and instead the Governor of the Province of Katanga would provide compensation for victims based upon the evidence gathered.

Bricks and rubble and partially demolished structures lie where homes once stood in Kawama, DRC. Some residents constructedtemporary shelters out of the rubble and plastic sheeting, 26 November 2009. Action contrel’impunité pour les droits humains/Amnesty International.

In June 2013 the Procureur Général announced the retirement of Augustin Nzey, under the terms of the Congolese Magistrates’ Statute, which states that a magistrate must retire when he reaches 65 or has completed 35 years of continuous public service. At the time of the announcement Nzey was only 62 years old, and while he had first been appointed a magistrate 35 years previously, he had not completed 35 years of service, continuous or otherwise, as he had, along with over 300 other magistrates, been dismissed by former President Laurent-Désiré Kabila on 6 November 1998, being reinstated by the current President, Joseph Kabila in November 2003. Nzey maintains that his dismissal was politically motivated, as he had been too thorough in his investigation of the Kawama evictions.

A red cross flag hangs on a wall left standing in the remains of a medical centre following the demolition of hundreds of homes and structures in Kawama, DRC, 26 November 2009. Action contrel’impunité pour les droits humains/Amnesty International.

Representatives of Amnesty International have visited Kawama on a number of occasions since 2009, and inspected the damage to properties in the neighbourhoods of Bikwano and Sampasa. They were unable to visit Lukuni-Gare as it can only be reached by a road controlled by the Compagnie Minière du Sud Katanga, who refused entry, but were able to talk with residents of this neighbourhood elsewhere in the village. They discovered that the demolitions had had a mixed impact upon the victims in Kawama. Some people had been able to rebuild their homes quite quickly, some completing the task within a few months. Others lacked the financial resources to do this, and spent a long time living either in temporary structures or partially rebuilt homes; some were still living in tents made from plastic sheeting in September 2014, the date of the most recent visit to the site.

Alexandre Kamara used to run a small business out of his house, butboth the house and the businesswere destroyed in the demolition in November 2009. When Amnesty International researchers visited Kawama in 2014, he was still living in a tent made of plastic sheeting and had been unable to restart his business or rebuild his house due to a lack of resources. Photograph taken 22 September 2014. Amnesty International.

People who ran businesses from their homes were particularly badly hit, as they lost both their homes and their incomes in the demolitions, and subsequently lacked the means to rebuild, and several of these were among those still living in temporary structures in 2014. This loss of income had a variety of knock-on effects, such as children being withdrawn from school due to loss of the ability to pay school fees.

Rubble and brick lie amongst the remains of a partially demolished hotel after the forced eviction in Kawama, DRC. The hotel is listed in the census of victims and their losses compiled by the Assistant Public Prosecutor. 26 November 2006. Action contrel’impunité pour les droits humains/Amnesty International.

Despite the promise that villagers would be compensated fully for their loss by the provincial government, the local community group Association de Défense des Intérêts de Kawama informed Amnesty International that the Governor’s office had found it necessary to simplify the process by sorting the villagers into four bands which each receive a fixed amount based upon the size of their losses, with bands set at US$20 000, US$15 000, US$10 000 and US$6000, though they were only able to obtain this information orally, not gain a written account of the settlement or how it would be paid. They were later informed that these sums would not be paid as they were considered to be too high, and a revised scheme was proposed with three bands, at US$6000, US$3000 and US$1500. The villagers felt obliged to accept this proposal, as they had no prospect of gaining other compensation, but have still yet to be paid anything.

The rubble has been removed, but the walls of the partially demolished structures visible in the above picture still standin front of the Luisiwishi mine in Kawama, DRC almost five years after the demolition of hundreds of homes and structures in November 2009. This photograph was taken in September 2014. Amnesty International.

The Forrest Group has repeatedly claimed that only shacks occupied by creuseurs were demolished, and not the homes of permanent villagers. Amnesty International asserts that demolishing the shacks of the creuseurs would in itself be an illegal action, but in order to gain further evidence of the incident (i.e. independent of eye-witness statements or the investigation of the Avocat Général), asked the American Association for the Advancement of Science to assess the number of buildings destroyed from satellite data. The American Association for the Advancement of Science used two sets of photographs, from May 2009 and May 2010 (the first six months before the demolitions and before the arrival of the creuseurs, the second six months after the incident), and found that 162 buildings were destroyed in Lukuni-Gare, 152 in Sampasa and 185 in Bikwano, for a total of 387 structures demolished out of 617 present in the three neighbourhoods in May 2009. This is slightly smaller than the figure reached by the Avocat Général, but this is roughly what would be expected, as smaller structures might not appear in satellite images, some structures would be obscured by cloud cover, and some had been rebuilt on the same spot within six months. The observed losses were consistent with video and photographs taken at the time of the incident and provided to Amnesty International.

The Forrest Group has further repeatedly stated that its employees were acting under duress when they took part in the demolitions, stating that the drivers of the equipment feared for their lives due to the emotional state of the police during the incident. However it has never lodged a complaint with the Congolese authorities about the requisitioning of its equipment for use in illegal activities, nor for threats being made against its personnel, and neither has it acknowledged that it bears responsibility for having initially requested the operation which resulted in the demolitions.

In Lukuni-Gare, between 31 May 2009 (A) and 15 May 2010(B), 162 structures were removed (red dots) and 76 structures were added (blue dots), while 50 structures appear in both images (greendots). Coordinates 27.431 E, 11.511 S. Digital Globe/American Association for the Advancement of Science/Amnesty International.

In Bikwano and Sampasa, between 31 May 2009 (A) and 15 May 2010 (B), 152 structures were removed (red dots) and 128structures were added (blue dots) to Sampasa. During the same time period, 73 structures were removed and 173 structures were added to Bikwano. Green dot represent structures present on both dates.Coordinates 27.445 E, 11.505 S. Digital Globe/American Association for the Advancement of Science/Amnesty International.

In April 2012 a group of NGOs (Action contrel’impunité pour les droits humains, Rights and Accountability in Development, LaFédération internationale des ligues des droits de l’homme, Ligue des droits del’homme, Ligue des Electeurs and Groupe Lotus) lodged a complaint with the Belgian National Contact Point, which is linked to the Ministry of Economic Affairs and which is responsible for examining claims that Belgian companies have breached OECD Guidelines overseas. The National Contact Point initially agreed to mediate in the dispute, but claimed to lack the authority to carry out an investigation into the incident. Since this time the Forrest Group has claimed that the National Contact Point carried out a thorough investigation, and was unable to apportion blame, while the National Contact Point has stated that it does not have enough information to determine who was responsible for the events.

Almost five years after the demolition of homes and forced eviction of hundreds of residents in Kawama, DRC some people have been unable to fully rebuild their houses and still live in the partially demolished structures. Photograph taken 22 September 2014. Amnesty International.

The Forrest Group sold its share in the Compagnie Minière du Sud Katanga in September 2012, before the mediation process set up by the Belgian National Contact Point was due to start. On this basis the National Contact Point announced that it would not make a decision on responsibility for the matter. Instead the Forrest Group offered to carry out some work in the village via its charitable trust, renovating a water processing plant, improving maternity facilities and building a new pharmacy. This was rejected by the NGOs on the basis that (1) it did not represent adequate compensation for the damage caused, and (2) that it should not be possible for a company to claim charitable status for work carried out in response to damage caused by the company.

Itala Marguerite and Jeanne Mujinga stand near theirhomes and explain the effect of the demolition on them.Photograph taken 22 April 2012. Amnesty International.

Amnesty International further report that on 30 May 2014 a delegation including the Provincial Minister of Interior and the Provincial Minister of Mines and including representatives of the Compagnie Minière du Sud Katanga, the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in theDemocratic Republic of the Congo, and several local NGOs and members of the media visited the Lukuni-Gare neighbourhood in response to claims by NGOs that security forces had been using excessive force in their on-going dispute with the creuseurs, resulting in a number of incidents in which both creuseurs and villagers had been severely injured or even killed. On this occasion government officials threatened to demolish the entire neighbourhood, as it contained temporary structures that they believed indicated the presence of creuseurs.

On 26 June a second delegation, comprising the Provincial Minister of Interior, the District Police Commissioner, the Territorial Administrator, the secretary of the District du haut Katanga, and a police colonel, again visited the neighbourhood and threatened to demolish the entire settlement unless all tents were removed, despite protests that many such tents were occupied by long-term residents of the village who had lost their homes in the initial demolitions, and many of whom were both living in and operating businesses from the tents. The tents have subsequently been removed by the villagers out of fear of further action.

Those who lost their homes made a variety of temporary living arrangements in the immediate aftermath of the demolitions. Some constructed temporary shelters out of the rubble, corrugated iron sheets and plastic sheeting, 26 November 2009. Action contrel’impunité pour les droits humains/Amnesty International.

Based upon the data collected Amnesty International makes the following recommendations:

Authorities in the Democratic Republic of Congo should seek to find an appropriate remedy for the problems of the people of Kawama, including adequate recompense for all losses made during the 2009 evictions.The Democratic Republic of Congo should also seek to bring legal prosecutions against all those found to have violated human rights or committed criminal offences during the evictions.Authorities in the Democratic Republic of Congo should refrain from any further evictions, or threats of evictions, as a way of controlling the problems with creuseurs. Nor should the carry out any form of forced evictions, nor any evictions which are not performed in a way consistent with the rule of law.

The Forrest Mining Group should acknowledge that the incident represented an abuse of human rights, and acknowledge its role in contributing to these abuses. Furthermore the company should take action to ensure that the villagers are adequately compensated for all losses sustained during the demolitions. The company should also seek to set up due diligence systems to ensure that it is not involved in, or responsible for, human rights abuses wherever it operates.

Gécamines should seek to publicly oppose the use of demolitions or threats of demolitions as a way to control creuseurs, and when requesting action from the authorities should require that this is done in a way that conforms with human rights laws. As the current owner and operator of the CompagnieMinière du Sud Katanga, Gécamines should seek to ensure that villagers in Kawama receive adequate compensation for all previous abuses, including all losses brought about by the evictions. Furthermore the company should make a public commitment to human rights, an take steps to ensure that these rights are respected at all the companies opperations.

The government of Belgium should seek to immediately engage with the Forrest Group, and ensure that a remedy is found to the human rights abuses that took place at Kawama in November 2014. The government should further engage with the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo and urge them to properly investigate the human rights abuses at Kawama and act upon these investigations, and furthermore provide the Democratic Republic of Congo with technical assistance to improve conditions in the mining areas of Katanga Province. Finally Belgium should unertake sufficient legal and policy reforms to ensure that companies domiciled in the country carry out due diligence with regard to human rights throughout global operations, and ensure that state support is only given to companies which put in place such due diligence procedures.

Wednesday, 19 June 2013

Amnesty International reports on the mining industry in Katanga Province, Democratic Republic of Congo.

The Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly Zaïre), has extensive deposits of a number of valuable metals, including gold, copper, tantalum, tungsten, niobium and cobalt. The country has derived much of its income from these minerals since independence from Belgium in 1960, but has profited little from them due to corruption, instability and civil conflict, with most of the country's 70 million population living on less than US$1.25 per day and having little access to education, health provision, clean water, sanitation or public transport. Since the most recent round of civil conflict, between 1996 and 2003, much of the mining activity in the Congo has been carried out by artisanal miners, with larger economic concerns concentrating on buying ores from these miners. While on the surface free agents, these artisanal miners are often the subject of exploitation and abuse by more powerful players in the region, including corrupt politicians and government officials, a variety of militia groups and foreign companies which may be allied to either or both.

In a report published on 19 June 2013 the Human rights organization Amnesty International investigates the mining industry in Katanga Province in the southeast of the Congo, and the role of large companies in human rights abuses associated with the mining industry.

The report concentrates on two sites, the Tilwezembe Mine site, near Kolwezi in the south of the country and Luisha township in the southeast.

The Tilwezembe Mine is officially owned by the Canadian owned Katanga Mining Limited, however there has been no industrial mining at the site since 2008, since when the site has been taken over by artisanal miners. Initially these miners were able to sell ore on the open market, but in 2010 local authorities granted management rights at the site to a company called Misa Mining, who effectively became the sole market for ores worked at the site.

Improvised ventilation for an artisanal mine shaft at Tilwezembe. Amnesty International/Action Contre l'Impunité pour les Droits Humains.

Mining at the Tilwezembe mine appears to be more-or-less completely unregulated, with frequent fatalities due to landslides, falling boulders and poor ventilation in deep shafts, and no meaningful way to record such incidents. A significant proportion of the work carried out at the site is done by child labourers (defined as workers aged 18 or younger); again there seems to be no formal system for monitoring or recording this.

However while Misa Mining appear to take no responsibility for working conditions at the site, they do appear to be very proactive in enforcing control over ores produced at the site. Miners are no longer able to sell ore on the open market, but are forced to sell to Misa at considerably bellow market rates. Miners caught attempting to remove ore from the site face the prospect of having their ore confiscated, or of being fined. Other punishments are also administered, including beatings and detention in a 'cachot' (holding cell made from a converted shipping container) for days at a time. There are rumors of extra-judicial executions being carried out at the site.

Luisha is a village in the southeast of Katanga Province that has grown rapidly due to the expansion of artisanal mining since the late 1990s, and is now home to around 32 000 people. As sites have been developed by artisanal miners in the area they have often been taken over by larger companies, often linked to politicians. In 2011 around 300 households were forcibly relocated from the township after the land they were living on was awarded to the Congo International Mining Corporation, a subsidiary of the China Railway Engineering Corporation.

The relocated people had no formal legal claim to the land they were living on, though many of them had paid fees to local traditional leaders and erected brick-built structures. The community were relocated with two weeks notice to a new site with no housing or facilities. This happened shortly before the onset of the rainy season, so that people did not have any time to plant crops at the new location. The Congo International Mining Corporation installed a water cistern at the site, but the water quality is reportedly very poor. It is not clear if the translocated people have any security of tenure at the new site.

In a separate incident in April 2012, workers from the Compagnie Minière de Luisha, another subsidiary of the China Railway Engineering Corporation, dug a three meter wide trench across an established road to prevent artisanal miners gaining access to a site they had acquired, cutting villagers off from fields and water supplies. The villagers responded by trying to fill in the trench, but were fired at by police, resulting in one fatality.

The trench in Luisha dug by Compagnie Minière de Luisha (COMILU), 20 April 2012. Amnesty International.

A representative of Amnesty International met with the Managing Director of the site and suggested that a fenced passageway could be constructed to allow villagers to cross the site, but this was refused.

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Sunday, 12 August 2012

Amnesty International reports on the 2012 Bodo Oil Spill.

On 21 June 2012 a leak was discovered on a Shell-owned oil pipeline in the Bodo Creek area of the Niger Delta; this was subsequently stopped on 30 June 2012. It is unclear how long the leek had been undetected. In August 2012 human rights organization Amnesty International published a report highlighting concerns about how this (and previous) leeks on Shell pipelines in the Niger Delta were investigated.

Oil leaking into Bodo Creek on 26 June 2012. Amnesty International/Centre for Environment, Human Rights and Development.

Oil spill investigations in Nigeria are (in theory) carried out by a joint team comprising representatives of the regulatory agencies, the oil company involved, the local community and the security forces. If the investigation finds that the spill was the result of sabotage, then the local community is entitled to no compensation. This provides the oil companies with a powerful incentive to establish sabotage as the result of any spills in the country, and there have been numerous allegations from both local and international agencies that oil companies, particularly Shell (the largest operator in Nigeria's oil industry), have sought to use their role as part of the investigatory body (invariably the oil company will be the best funded agency involved) to influence the outcome of investigations in favor of sabotage as an explanation.

A preliminary investigation into the oil spill on 30 June concluded that the most likely explanation is sabotage, on the basis that the leak was in the 'twelve o clock position' (i.e. at the top of the pipeline), which Shell claims is associated with sabotage. This is despite the fact that the leaking pipeline had to be excavated mechanically, and there being no sign of any previous excavations at the site, and claims by the local population that the pipeline showed clear signs of corrosion. A second investigation took place on 3 July, where Osita Kenneth, an independent engineer with more than 10 years in the pipeline industry, who was appointed by the local community to represent them in the investigation, also concluded that the leak was due to corrosion. Amnesty International has subsequently shared photographs of the pipeline with AccuFacts, a US company with over 40 years experience of inspecting oil infrastructure, who also concluded that the leak was most probably caused by erosion to the pipeline. They also noted that it was not unusual for pipes to develop leaks in the 'twelve o clock position' due to corrosion.

The joint investigation team at the site of the 2012 Bodo Oil Spill. The pipeline has been excavated using a mechanical digger. Centre for Environment, Human Rights and Development.

The pipeline after the leak had been stopped (by hammering a stick into the hole), showing apparent corrosion around the leak site. Centre for Environment, Human Rights and Development.

Amnesty International also observed that an investigation into a leak at Bodo Creek in August 2008 concluded that only 1640 barrels of oil were spilled, despite independent estimates that 1440 to 4320 barrels of oil were leaking per day, and the leak having lasted for 72 days, for a total of between 103,000 and 311,000 barrels of oil.. Amnesty has asked Shell for an explanation of this discrepancy, but to date has received no answer.

Amnesty also report on a leak at a Shell site in Batan in Delta State in 2002. On this occasion Shell initially claimed the leak was due to sabotage two days prior to the initial investigation of the site, despite the leak being under 4 m of water. An investigation of the site representatives of the company, the Nigerian military and the regulatory bodies, which included a trained diver, then concluded that the leak was the result of equipment failure, however the explanation for the leak was subsequently changed back to sabotage without explanation.

Amnesty International maintain that it is the responsibility of Shell both to maintain their pipelines and to protect them against sabotage. The network of pipelines used by the company is extremely old, with almost all of the pipelines in use past their normal expected lifetimes, often by several decades. These pipelines often run close to homes, farms and fisheries, and many people in the Niger Delta have had both their lives and their economic prospects severely blighted by leaks.

Fishermen on the Bodo Creek in 2011. The fishery has been severely depleted by repeated oil spills. Amnesty International.