Holding Foreign Mining Companies To Account For Acts in Africa

By George Esunge Fominyen (culled fromFlame of Africa)

The British based poverty alleviation organisation War on Want is campaigning for legislation to enable local communities in Africa and other Third World countries hold trans-national mining companies to account in their home countries for human rights abuses perpetrated in countries where they operate.

According to Ruth Tanner of War on Want, if Anglo-America Gold  is involved in human rights abuse or “doing something against a community in Ghana, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) or South Africa, that community should be able to have redress”. This, she thinks should be possible even in the UK where the company has stocks in the London Stock Exchange. Current legislation does not allow communities whose resources are extracted by multinational companies to seek compensation.

Often individuals and community groups cannot seek redress at their local level due to the close, and sometimes corrupt, relations between these mining companies and authorities in their countries. An example of this dilemma is presented in the Alternative Report on the activities of the AngloAmerican Mineral Company whose subsidiary AngloGold Ashanti operates in six African countries.

It is reported that the company’s activities in Ghana have had a devastating impact on communities around Obuasi where new pollution is occurring as a result of the company’s “cyanide containment lakes”. Villagers claim that after heavy rain in November 2005 the company opened its containment lake, flooding several houses and a large school in Abenpekrom with water believed to contain cynanide.

The report suggests that although AngloGold Ashanti claimed to have provided “appropriate compensation” for the spillage, villagers insisted many months after that they had still not been given compensation. In addition police and company security officials have adopted brutal security methods to protect the company’s interests leaving the community without help. (Hear about this story here)

Privilege Manandu of the Jesuit Centre for Theological Reflection in Zambia that campaigns on fair trade issues told Flame of Africa that foreign investors in the mining industry neglect human rights and environmental concerns. They abide to rules of conduct, sustainable development, community protection and workers rights in their countries but are completely oblivious of these facets in their countries operation.

According to Ruth Tanner, curiously these same companies present themselves as supporting wealth creation and fighting against poverty in the communities where they operate through social responsibility activities. They sign up to voluntary initiatives and claim to respect human rights. She said, “small examples of doing something good are just hiding the bigger picture of disruption caused in communities”.

 She explained that the seminar on mining and conflicts organised by War On Want at the 2009 World Social Forum in Belem, attempts to raise awareness among activists about these disparities which are often kept out of public view in the European and American countries where these companies have their base and hope to have support for the change of legislation to hold these companies accountable. 

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