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Date: April 29, 2024 Mon

Time: 11:30 pm

Results for coal mining

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Author: Moor, Marianne

Title: The Dark Side of Coal: Paramilitary Violence in the Mining Region of Cesar, Colombia

Summary: PAX Netherlands - the Dutch section of Pax Christi International - is calling on Essent, Nuon, E.ON, Delta and Electrabel to stop buying Colombian "blood coal" from the mining companies Drummond and Prodeco. These mining companies must first contribute to the acknowledgment and compensation of the thousands of victims of paramilitary violence around their mines in the 1996-2006 period, and actively oppose the current human rights abuses. Drummond and Prodeco paid the paramilitaries and exchanged strategic information with them, according to statements from perpetrators and witnesses in the investigation report "The Dark Side of Coal", which PAX presented today, 30 June 2014, to the Dutch Minister of Development Cooperation, Lilianne Ploumen. Between 1996 and 2006 paramilitaries murdered a total of 3100 people and drove 55,000 farmers from their land. The victims have never received compensation or acknowledgment. To this day the mining companies benefit from these gross human rights abuses. Some of the land that was seized is within the companies' territory. The trade union has been systematically weakened by lethal violence; any critics have been silenced by threats. Perpetrators and witnesses say the collaboration between the coal mining companies and the paramilitaries in the Colombian department of Cesar consisted of financial and material support and the exchange of strategic information. The main focus of the investigation "The Dark Side of Coal" is Drummond. There are fewer sources for Prodeco's involvement, but the information available warrants further investigation. "The Dark Side of Coal" presents previously unreported testimonies of perpetrators and victims, and is the first systematic investigation into the abuses surrounding the coal mines in Cesar.

Details: Utrecht: PAX, The Netherlands, 2014. 142p.

Source: Internet Resource: Accessed September 10, 2014 at: http://actie.paxvoorvrede.nl/actie/stop-bloedkolen/

Year: 2014

Country: Colombia

URL: http://actie.paxvoorvrede.nl/actie/stop-bloedkolen/

Shelf Number: 133255

Keywords:
Coal Mining
Homicides
Human Rights Abuses
Natural Resources (Colombia)
Paramilitary Groups
Violence