colombian mining

Facts about the mining in colombia

The trade unions of Asoingeominas, Sintraminercol, Sintracarbón, Sindeingeominas, Sintramin, Funtraenergética, Fenaltrase and Fenasintrap, have announced that due to World Bank commitments and through the New Mining Code created by lawyers from the multinational companies Cemex, Holcim Group of Switzerland and Ladrillera Santafé, the national government has decided to reconstruct the state mining sector of Colombia. The intention is to eliminate the National Mining Company, MINERCOL Ltd, to "reconstruct" the National Geographical and Mining Institute (INGEOMINAS), and to create a new organisation that takes responsibility for all the functions of the sector, finishing with the state control of mining production, annulling the possibility of evaluating and quantifying our reserves, debilitating the state Science and Technology sector, and the state Institute of the Prevention and Attention of Disasters and giving the main mining resources to Angloamerican, BHP Billiton, Glencor A.G. and to other transnational companies.

FACTS

1. The World Bank ordered a change of all Latin American mining legislation and in Colombia created a New Mining Code that was consulted on by lawyers who represent multinationals in Colombia; this code, in Article 317 transfers the mining authority of MINERCOL Ltd to the Mining
   Ministry; Article 358 orders the reconstruction of the company, and now the Uribe Vélez government has decided to liquidate MINERCOL Ltd and to "reconstruct" INGEOMINAS, ending any control that social organizations have had to avoid dangerous mining contracts.
2. The rationalisation of all this from the Uribe Vélez government is "the saving" of $18 million dollars which complies with the International Monetary Fund. However, "a saving" does not have to come at the expense of the Colombian civil society, but should come from the profits from the mining operations of multinationals, which in 17 years have obtained enormous profits, at the expense of the loss that our country and its people assume. Examples of these losses are as follows: more than $10,500 million dollars from the sale of the mine in Cerrejón Zone Norte; $800,000 dollars in a tribunal of arbitration where the company Drummond was taken to court and won, $17 million dollars that Drummond owe MINERCOL Ltd, $3 million dollars lost in the Department of Guajira (on the eastern Caribbean coast of Colombia), more than $400 million lost dollars through state administration corruption (the administration appointed by the current President) and with a $14 million dollars debt that has not been paid by the mining companies that operate in our territory.
3. On par with the legislative changes in respect to mining resources that are being given to multinationals, the state of Colombia has created a policy that permits serious violations of human rights in order to guarantee foreign investment. In the six mining departments, the incidences of homicide have risen by more than 450% (in relation to other similar demographic conditions), since 1995. In all the Colombian mining municipalities between 1995 and 2002 there was an average annual reporting of 828 homicides, 142 forced disappearances, 117 people wounded, 71 people tortured, 355 death threats, 150 arbitrary captures and 433 massacres. These, along with extra judicial executions add up to 6,626 homicides in the course of 8 years. Furthermore, 68% of the forced displacement in the country occurs in the zones of greater mining production (River Blanco and Ataco in Tolíma, La Gabarra, the bordering zones in Norte de Santander and the municipalities in the south of Bolivar) affecting poor and marginalised populations. Forty two percent of the human rights violations of unionists happen in the mining power sector where, on average, one union leader is assassinated every month.

REQUESTS

1. That the national government does not continue accepting crimes against humanity and military crimes against unarmed populations, only to guarantee foreign mining investment; that it conserves state institutions in the mining sector; that it does not liquidate MINERCOL Ltd; that it
   fortifies the technical functions of INGEOMINAS; and that it appoints deserved transparent administrations. In addition, that the government respects the rights of the workers, their organisations and their capacity to contribute to the construction of a better institution.
2. That the foreign companies of Cemex, Angloamerican, BHP Billiton, Glencor A.G., Holcim Group, Ladrillera Santafé Brickmaker and the State, who benefit from enormous profits and from the repression of the social sector, are to implement concrete actions to stop these acts of violence and that they stop operating in a manner that is against the interests and the sovereignty of our country. Further, that they are aware of the possibility that they will be affected by campaigns against them and their products.
3. To the international community, represented by High Commissioner of Human Rights in Colombia, the International Organisation of Work, the General Secretariat of the UN, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, the host embassies of the indicated foreign companies, Non-government Organisations, both international and national, we ask you to intervene in the processes of the State so that this policy that permits crimes to be perpetrated against members of social and union organisations is eradicated.
4. That the World Bank and the Multilateral Bank suspend all interference in national legislation and that they immediately generate processes to repair the impacts of their policies on the civil population here in Colombia.