Last week, Monterrico Metals settled out of court with torture survivors in Peru. The company insisted that details of the settlement be kept secret. (See http://www.leighday.co.uk/news/news-archive-2011/peruvian-torture-victims-compensated-by-uk-miner.)
CAFOD’s senior analyst on the extractives industry, Karen Luyckx said: “Monterrico cannot hide behind gagging orders and out of court settlements. They must not simply buy their way out of this case; they must change the way they operate in future. The truth is that – welcome as it is for the farmers – this settlement does not address the fact that the criminalisation of protest, and threats and violence against activists are on the increase around the world, and that in more and more cases, we are seeing collusion between the police and military authorities and the multinational mining companies. For every case like this, there are dozens more examples of abuse and violence which are going unnoticed and unpunished, and hundreds more communities whose livelihoods hang in the balance. Even in this case, despite the settlement, Monterrico’s mine is still going ahead without adequate
consultation with the community.”
See http://www.indcatholicnews.com/news.php?viewStory=18644.