COLOMBIA: The CERREJON COAL MINE & SYSTEMATIC HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS

Rights Action recently joined an international delegation to Guajira, the
northern most province of Colombia, to investigate human rights violations
caused by the company in communities near the mine.

In Guajira, Colombia, the Cerrejon coal mine is systematically violating
rights of poor campesino, Indigenous and Afro-descendant communities as a
method of forcibly re-locating them, to enable the continuing expansion of
its open-pit coal mine.

BELOW, YOU WILL READ: A statement by the SINTRACARBON coal worker's union,
made to its November 4, 2006 plenary union meeting in Guajira, Colombia.
SINTRACARBON - along with the North Shore Colombia Solidarity Committee
[nscolombia@comcast.net] and Yanama (and indigenous wayuu organization in
Guajira, Colombia) - organized the delegation.

OWNERS: Cerrejon [www.cerrejon.com] is owned by BHP Billiton plc, Anglo
American plc, Glencore International AG and Xstrata plc.

BUYERS: Cerrejon sells most of its coal to European and North American
buyers. The governments of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, in Canada, and
municipal governments in the north-east USA,`are amongst its buyers.

INVESTORS: The CPP (Canadian Pension Plan) is a major investor, with
Cdn$5,145,000,000 shares in Anglo-American plc (United Kingdom),
Cdn$7,722,000,000 shares in BHP Billiton PLC (United Kingdom), and
Cdn$70,000 in Xstrata plc (United Kingdom).

Are your personal/ private investments profiting from these companies? While
the CPP must, by law, publicly divulge its investment portfolio, only you -
as an investor - can ask your fund manager (whether a private fund or a
pension fund) how they are investing your funds.

Please re-distribute this info far 'n' wide. If you want on-off this elist:
info@rightsaction.org.

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*** STATEMENT BY THE SINTRACARBON COAL WORKER'S UNION ***

IMPACT OF THE CERREJON MINE EXPANSION ON THE COMMUNITIES IN THE MINING AREA

REPORT BY THE INTERNATIONAL DELEGATION - YANAMA - SINTRACARBON, TO THE
SINTRACARBON PLENARY

During the week of October 30 to November 3, 2006, a delegation of the
National Union of Coal Workers (Sintracarbon), made up of Jose Arias, Freddy
Lozano, and Jairo Quiroz, worked together with several international NGOs
and the Wayuu indigenous rights organization Yanama to investigate the
living conditions and health conditions in the communities in the area of
the Cerrejon mine.

The delegation met with the communities of Patilla, Roche, Chancleta,
Tamaquito II, Albania, and Los Remedios, as well as the indigenous
reservation of Provincial and the displaced population of Tabaco. It
carried out health clinics, conducted a public health survey, and listened
to testimonies and life stories in all of these communities.

These communities are being systematically besieged by the Cerrejon company.

The company begins by buying up the productive lands in the region
surrounding the communities, encircling each community and destroying
inhabitants' sources of work. These communities have historically relied on
agriculture and herding (cattle and goats).

Another phenomenon we observed everywhere was that the rivers in the region
have also been swallowed up by the company's land acquisitions. Now the
communities' residents have also lost the ability to fish. Because the
rivers have become part of the company's private property, residents who
have tried to fish there have been harassed by the company's private
security forces and by the army. Some have been arrested and jailed.

The goal of these policies is to eliminate all sources of employment and the
only means that the communities have of supporting themselves. If the
United Nations had created such a category, we might say that these
communities are reduced to the conditions of the "living dead": they do not
have the minimal conditions necessary for survival. They are suffering from
constant attacks and violations of their human rights by the Cerrejon
company.

Another of the company's macabre tactics has been to cut off the
communities' electricity periodically. This is just another element in the
systematic process of annihilation of the communities, to create despair so
that they will negotiate from a position of weakness, desperation, and
hopelessness, and agree individually to the company's terms.

Each of these communities has been reduced to a zone of misery.

We invite all of the leaders and members of the union to consider this
issue. The activities of these multinational companies carry a very high
cost for the communities, which are uprooted from their lands and
livelihoods under inhuman conditions.

We also saw evidence of many cases of respiratory diseases, skin infections,
mental health problems, arthritis, and other illnesses.

If the Cerrejon company has a social responsibility towards these
communities, Sintracarbon also has a moral and political responsibility to
accompany the communities that are being affected by the expansion of
mining. We invite the entire plenary of our union to join with the struggle
of these communities for better conditions and quality of life. We invite
our union members to take on the communities' problems as our own problems,
in the defense of the people of the Guajira.

As a union committed to the struggle of these communities, we have
established the short-term goal of working to help unify the affected
communities, to participate in their meetings, to take a stand with the
local and national authorities regarding the absence of public services in
the communities, to begin a dialogue with the company about the reality we
are now aware of, and to take a public stand locally, nationally, and
internationally about the situation of the communities affected by the
Cerrejon mine and its expansion.

SINTRACARBON STANDS WITH THE STRUGGLE FOR JUSTICE FOR THE COMMUNITIES
AFFECTED AND DISPLACED BY THE CERREJON MINE!

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FUND-RAISING FOR GRASSROOTS COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
To support education and community development work of campesino, indigenous
and afro-descendant communities affected by Cerrejon, make check payable to
"Rights Action" and mail to: UNITED STATES: Box 50887, Washington DC,
20091-0887; CANADA: 509 St. Clair Ave W, box73527, Toronto ON, M6C-1C0.
CREDIT-CARD DONATIONS: www.rightsaction.org. PLEASE WRITE "Colombia -
Cerrejon" on the check memo line, and in a cover letter sent with the check.

www.rightsaction.org / info@rightsaction.org