Indigenous Leaders confront Barrick Gold II: Official Statements

Indigenous leaders Jethro Tulin, from Papua New Guinea, and Sergio Campusano, from Chile, traveled to Canada this month to attend the April 29 shareholders’ meeting of Barrick Gold.  Once inside the meeting they confronted Barrick about human rights abuses and environmental degradation on their lands.

Complaints included killings, rapes and the arbitrary detentions of local village people in the Papua New Guinea highlands by Barrick security guards, and  the failure to consult the Diaguita Huascoaltinos Indigenous community, who hold title to the land of that proposed mine, as well as other areas that Barrick is exploring.

The following are the full statements prepared by Jethro Tulin and Sergio Campusano, which they read out to the shareholders at Barrick’s annual general meeting:

Jethro Tulin, Executive Officer of the Akali Tange Association, a volunteer-run human rights organization in Papua New Guinea, “Barrick’s Porgera Mine is a textbook case of what can go wrong when large-scale mining confronts indigenous peoples, ignoring the impacts of its projects and resorting to goon squads when people rebel against it. This outrages the conscience of local Indigenous communities, especially when the mine is right next to our homes; my people are exposed to dangerous chemicals like cyanide and mercury; some of our people drown in the tailings and waste during floods; and fishing stocks, flora and fauna are depleted down the river systems, leading to indigenous food sources being threatened.”

STATEMENT: Jethro Tulin’s testimony read to Barrick shareholders at their 2009 Annual General Meeting
April 29th, 2009

My name is Jethro Tulin and I hold a proxy from Mr. David Wurfel.

Mr. Munk, I am an indigenous Ipili from the Highlands of Papua New Guinea. I have traveled half way across the world to speak out against the grave human rights and environmental conditions my people face because of your Porgera mine. I came to this meeting last year as well, telling your shareholders and Barrick’s Board of Directors about the situation in Porgera, but all questions from shareholders were censored from Barrick’s webcast of the meeting.

Since I spoke at this meeting last year, there have been 5 more killings of indigenous community members by your security guards and more women have been raped by your security guards. These issues are now being investigated by the Special Rapporteur on extra-judicial killings at the United Nations.

The toxic waste you continue to dump into our 800 kilometer long river system (which would be illegal in Canada) has caused the Norwegian Government to divest its pension fund from more than 230 million Canadian dollars worth of shares in Barrick Gold and to report that its decision was based on its “assessment that investing in the company entails an unacceptable risk of the Fund contributing to serious environmental damage.”

Now, under the influence of your company, the Papua New Guinea government has imposed a virtual State of Emergency in Porgera. When I came to Canada last week I received reports from Porgera that landowners who have spoken out against your mine are now being targeted. This week, and while I am standing here before you, their houses are being burnt down and they are fleeing for fear of their life.

"When I came to Canada last week I received reports from Porgera that landowners who have spoken out against your mine are now being targeted. This week, and while I am standing here before you, their houses are being burnt down and they are fleeing for fear of their life." - Jethro Tulin

Days after your Annual Meeting last year I met with your Senior executives Peter Sinclair and Vince Borg, and a commitment was made to establish dialogue and find a way to address the issues. But this dialogue has never taken place. Instead the human rights and environmental abuses we have been suffering for many years have continued.

Mr. Munk, your mine has destroyed our land, our water, our safety and our ability to feed ourselves. We know that we can no longer live on our ancestral land. We know that we must leave our place so that our children can have a future. But rather than offer us fair terms for our relocation you are calling for military action and our houses and lands are being torched.

My questions for you, Mr. Munk, are on behalf of the Porgera Alliance, a coalition of human rights activists and Porgera landowners:

1. Will Barrick immediately call on the government of Papua New Guinea to stop the burning of houses and the threats against landowners being perpetrated by its mobile forces and platoons against Porgerans on your mine’s Special Mine Lease Area?

2. Will Barrick agree to move the more than 5,000 families who live within your mine lease area in a way that is fair and will provide us an opportunity to be healthy, to feed our families, and to educate our children?

3. Will Barrick finally pay fair compensation to the families who have lost their loved ones to the guns of your security forces, to the rape victims, to the families who have lost members in your open pit and in the waste dumps and who have drowned in your river of tailings?

4. Will Barrick finally carry out the recommendations of the 1996 CSIRO report and stop dumping mine waste into our river?

Jethro pumps his fist as he walks out of Barrick Gold's AGM where he addressed all the shareholders.

STATEMENT: Testimony of Sergio Campusano, prepared for Barrick Gold’s 2009 Annual General Meeting

“Barrick Gold says that they want to help the poor, but we don't want their helping hand, we want their hands off our mountains,” says Sergio Campusano, president of the Diaguita Huascoaltinos Indigenous and Agricultural community who are struggling against Barrick Gold’s Pascua Lama mine and other exploration in the area. Barrick recognized Campusano as the legitimate leader of the Huascoaltino community until he asked Barrick to leave the area. Now the corporation is promoting Diaguita from other areas as legitimate leaders who will provide consent to the project.

I am the elected president of the Diaguita Huascoaltinos in my second term. I am holding the proxy from Louise Constantine.

The Chilean part of the Pascua Lama gold mining mega-project is located on our ancestral land to which we have title. This was not taken into consideration in the series of negociations that approved this project in 2001.

This mega project initially included the removal of 3 glaciers that are part of the principle
fresh water reserves that feed the Huasco river. This generated strong public opposition opinion and a supposed change in the design of the project. In the latest assesment of the Chilean Environmental Authority the exectution of the project is conditioned on not affecting direct changes to the Toro I, Toro II, and Esperanza glaciers that are found on the Pascua Lama gold deposit. Despite having made this commitment, in 2005 the Chilean General Directorate of Water tested and proved that these three glaciers have shrunk by 50 to 70% as a direct result of Barrick’s actions. Barrick Gold has not been sanctioned as a result of this and continues to work in this zone.

Barrick Gold is preventing access to our community members their traditional land. Even when there is a public policy that prevents keeping the main road closed, this road is kept closed and permanently  monitored by security guards.

After exhausting all the legal avenues in our country to oppose this project and prevent the usurpation of our lands and the consequent pollution of the Huasco Valley, in 2006 we decided to sue the State of Chile for the Pascua Lama project in the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

Now, Barrick Gold seeks to extend facilities to other parts of our territories including the top of the Chollay and Pachuy mountains, sectors which is currently conducting mining explorations.

"The Chilean part of the Pascua Lama gold mining mega-project is located on our ancestral land to which we have title. This was not taken into consideration in the series of negociations that approved this project in 2001." - Sergio Campusano

The image of this company has been tarnished by the harmful impacts on the environment and communities that it has generated around the world. As a way to improve its public image, it has the public face of Corporate Social Responsibility and Community Relations. According to these policies, Barrick Gold requires the approval of local communities, but our community, which are the legal owners of the land where the projects are located have not authorized the company to
perform their work because they do not respect the natural balance of our lands and the maintenance of our culture. This is why we have repeatedly expressed our rejection of the development of mega-mining in our territory.

As a result of this, the mining company Barrick Gold has for several years conducted a process of reinvention of ethnic Diaguita which is intended to make the public believe that they have the support of the Diaguita Huascoaltinos. In this process the company has brought outside professionals to conduct training on the Diaguita’s own ancestral traditions and has manipulated these teachings for their own convenience, inventing a nonexistent Diaguita culture and denying the ethnicity of our community. They have raised false leaders, who are now attending meetings with the company and appearing in Barrick’s newsletters, and have discredited our real leaders, creating irreconcilable divisions among our people and weakening our neighbors and community’s identity.

Questions:

1. How is it possible that Barrick claims to be environmentally responsible despite the study conducted by the Chilean Water Direction showing the glaciers were reduced by 70% as a result of your actions?

2. How can Barrick claim to be accountable to the Diaguita if the representatives that Barrick chooses to negotiate with are not the Senior elected Leaders of the Diaguita Community?

3. At what cost to humanity and our mother earth will Barrick Gold Corporation continue to destroy our culture and heritage for only one objective: making money

4. Have you ever asked yourself about what kind of damage are you doing to humanity and mother earth to be part of Barrick Gold Corporation?

Sergio Campusano holds up a copy of "Beyond Borders: A Barrick Gold Quarterly Report on Responsible Mining" which was handed out to shareholders at Barrick's AGM. "For several years", Sergio explains, "Barrick Gold has conducted the process of reinventing the Diaguita culture, which is intended to make the public believe that they have the support of the Diaguita Huascoaltinos. To this end, the company has brought in professionals from other parts of the country to conduct workshops on the 'traditional' Diaguita crafts, essentially inventing a nonexistent Diaguita culture and denying the ethnicity of our community. They have raised false leaders, who are now attending meetings with the company and the media, discrediting the real leaders of the community and creating irreconcilable divisions between community members and their neighbors.

For more information:  www.ProtestBarrick.net