| do we know someone in portland? |
[May. 24th, 2008|02:59 pm] |
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mo and abby and i are going to the beirut show and would like a place to bunk out afterwards. anyone? |
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| i don't ever need a tv. ever. |
[Sep. 16th, 2007|06:15 pm] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | desk | ] |
| [ | mood |
| |  pleased | ] |
you can go to the mclaughlin group website now and watch their shows online! :)
oh this makes me happy. it reminds me of watching the mcneil/leher news hour followed once a week by the mclaughlin group at my grandmas. oatmeal cookies and the chime of the clock.
here is this the show from 9-7-07 (there is some obvious delay, but it exists!):
http://www.fednet.net/asx/mg/MG090707.asx |
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| well compared to swaziland |
[Aug. 15th, 2007|12:05 am] |
US tumbles down the world ratings list for life expectancy
Ewen MacAskill in Washington and agencies
Monday August 13, 2007
The Guardian
A combination of expensive health insurance and an ever-increasing rate of obesity appear to be behind a startling fall by the US in the world rankings of life expectancy.
Despite being one of the richest countries in the world, America has dropped from 11th to 42nd place in 20 years, according to official US figures.
Dr Christopher Murray, head of the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, said: "Something's wrong here when one of the richest countries in the world, the one that spends the most on health care, is not able to keep up with other countries."
Article continues
The lack of health care available to many Americans - 45 million have no health insurance - is set to be one of the biggest issues in next year's presidential election campaign. The Democratic contenders all promise universal health care.
The decline reflects the disparity in wealth.The life expectancy of African Americans is 73.3 compared with 77.9 for whites. For African-American males, it is even shorter: 69.8.
Jim McDermott, a Democratic Congressman, said: "Health care coverage is the single biggest domestic crisis facing America. It threatens all but the wealthiest Americans. "If you aren't part of the richest 1%, then you know you are living one phone call, accident or illness away from financial ruin because of a medical crisis."
Obesity is frequently cited as among the causes of lower life expectancy. Almost a third of US adults are obese, according to the National Centre for Health Statistics, which compared US life expectancy with the rest of the world.
Paul Terry, an assistant professor of epidemiology at Emory University in Atlanta, said: "The US has the resources that allow people to get fat and lazy."
The drop is also due to improved health care, nutrition and lifestyle elsewhere in the world. Countries with longer life expectancy include most of Europe, Japan, Singapore and Jordan.
The US also has a higher infant mortality rate than many other countries: 6.8 deaths for every 1,000 live births. The worst life expectancy figures are in Africa, with Swaziland at the bottom, at 34.1 years. |
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| whew boy |
[Jul. 18th, 2007|04:50 pm] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | port townsend! | ] |
| [ | mood |
| | gettin er done | ] |
| [ | music |
| | dolly | ] |
this summer is speeding by. portland twice. eugene twice. port townsend seattle. carmie. oregon country fair. got into walnut st. coop in eugene. got into hastings (prestige!) on my birthday. too late for them methinks, as financial aid looks pretty grim. and i can't help but doubt the robustness of the american economy. i don't want to join the leagues drowning in debt. if university of oregon though does not shine my shoes or put stars in my eyes, i figure i can transfer to hastings my 2nd year.
but i got into walnut st. with a yes yes yes!!!!!!!!!! and i think it will be a warm good place for me to settle in my first year of law school. it is almost perfect. which is perfect in my wabi sabi book.
they knew wabi sabi. and i think it got me in. (thank you coincidence)
it was built in 1906 and has old wavy glass windows. it is the crap house in a nice neighborhood situated at the foot of hendrickson park and a five minute walk from school. inside are nice older people considering various familial arrangements. intimate partners. going to panama to concieve and bringing back the baby types.
my favorite are the hippies from children of men. but karen is before the world made her crazy. she has wiry silver hair and keeps a timer to track her conversations. we delight in each other. :) and tom signs his name with coheartedly. ;)
next is my birthday and now is carmie in port townsend at the writer's conference. lov*e
p.s. here is a photo i love:
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| if you want to make yourself sick |
[Jun. 26th, 2007|04:10 pm] |
read: love in the time of cholera;
watch: walk the line; and then
fall asleep to: you are the only one i love - jaymay |
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| CIA to reveal decades of misdeeds (BBC news report) |
[Jun. 22nd, 2007|02:55 pm] |
The US Central Intelligence Agency is to declassify hundreds of documents detailing some of the agency's worst illegal abuses from the 1950s to 1970s.
The papers, to be released next week, will detail assassination plots, domestic spying and wiretapping, kidnapping and human experiments.
Many of the incidents are already known, but the documents are expected to give more comprehensive accounts.
It is "unflattering" but part of agency history, CIA chief Michael Hayden said.
"This is about telling the American people what we have done in their name," Gen Hayden told a conference of foreign policy historians.
The documents, dubbed the "Family Jewels", offer a "glimpse of a very different time and a very different agency".
The full 693-page file detailing CIA illegal activities was compiled on the orders of the then CIA director James Schlesinger in 1973.
He had been alarmed by accounts of CIA involvement in the Watergate scandal under his predecessor and asked CIA officials to inform him of all activities that fell outside the agency's legal charter.
'Skeletons'
Ahead of the documents' release by the CIA, the National Security Archive, an independent research body, on Thursday published related papers it had obtained.
These detail government discussions in 1975 of the CIA abuses and briefings by Mr Schlesinger's successor at the CIA, William Colby, who said the CIA had "done some things it shouldn't have".
Among the incidents that were said to "present legal questions" were:
* the confinement of a Soviet defector in the mid-1960s
* assassination plots of foreign leaders, including Cuba's Fidel Castro
* wiretapping and surveillance of journalists
* behaviour modification experiments on "unwitting" US citizens
* surveillance of dissident groups between 1967 and 1971
* opening from 1953 to 1973 of letters to and from the Soviet Union; from 1969 to 1972 of mail to and from China
The papers also convey mounting concern in President Gerald Ford's administration that what were dubbed the CIA's "skeletons" were surfacing in the media.
Henry Kissinger, then both secretary of state and national security adviser, was against Mr Colby's moves to investigate the CIA's past abuses and the fact that agency secrets were being divulged.
Accusations appearing in the media about the CIA were "worse than in the days of McCarthy", Mr Kissinger said. |
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| extraordinary rendition law suit. against boeing (subsidiary). |
[May. 30th, 2007|12:32 pm] |
NEW YORK: The American Civil Liberties Union plans to file a lawsuit Wednesday alleging that a subsidiary of Boeing aided the Central Intelligence Agency in the forced transportation of three plaintiffs who say they were captured and flown to overseas prisons and in some cases tortured.
The civil suit is to be filed in San Jose, California, under the Alien Tort Claims Act of 1789. This law specifies that U.S. government agencies and U.S. corporations can be held responsible for human rights abuses against foreigners resulting from activities in a foreign country.
The legal action against Jeppesen, a flight-support services unit of Boeing based in San Jose, will represent a fresh attempt to shed light on a practice known as extraordinary rendition, under which the CIA arrested, transported and interrogated terrorist suspects after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.
"Evidence points to Jeppesen as a major player in the extraordinary rendition program," said Steven Watt, staff lawyer for the ACLU.
"European flight logs identifying Jeppesen reveal that over a four-year period, the company was actively involved in the provision of flight and logistical support services to at least 15 aircraft which, European investigations confirm, were used by the CIA in its program of extraordinary rendition."
Watt added, "The evidence here also points to Jeppesen contracting to profit from torture."
Jeppesen referred any request for comments to Boeing. Tim Neale, director of communications at Boeing, declined to respond "because to do so would mean commenting on the work Jeppesen does for clients under contracts that call for confidentiality."
"It seems to me you are asking a question about an issue that involves the U.S. government," Neale said. "Jeppesen, as with the rest of the Boeing company, operates in accordance with the laws."
Asked about Jeppesen's role in the rendition program, Mark Mansfield, CIA director of communications, said, "We don't comment on such matters."
Companies like Jeppesen typically provide flight-support services like weather forecasts, flight plans, landing permits, overflight exemptions, refueling, ground handling of the aircraft, catering arrangements, hotel accommodations and payment of airport fees.
An investigation conducted by an Italian business daily, Il Sole 24 Ore, also independently found evidence that two of the three plaintiffs in the ACLU lawsuit and another individual who was also a victim of an extraordinary rendition were transported aboard a Gulfstream V and a Boeing 737 with the logistical support from Jeppesen.
The four men were Kassim Britel, a Moroccan-born Italian citizen; Khaled el-Masri, a German citizen of Lebanese origin who was mistaken for a terrorist and abducted from Macedonia; an Egyptian who had asked for asylum in Sweden; and an Ethiopian citizen with resident status in Britain.
"Without Jeppesen's services, the planes would never have been able to make those flights," said Francesca Longhi, the Italian lawyer for Britel, one of the plaintiffs in the ACLU lawsuit. "If Jeppesen hadn't serviced the CIA's Gulfstream V, my client would never have been illegally deported to Morocco, where he has endured months of torture and years of illegal detention that is still going on."
Longhi said Jeppesen was involved in what many legal experts, the British Foreign Office and a special European Parliament commission consider an illegal act under international law.
Britel was arrested in 2002 in Pakistan, where the authorities claimed that he was traveling on a false Italian passport, according to Longhi. Britel was handed over to about six men, Americans he presumes were CIA operatives, who forced him onto of a Gulfstream V jet, Longhi said.
During the nine-hour flight to Morocco, Longhi said, Britel was kept hooded, with his hands and feet bound. After landing in Rabat, he was taken to a special jail run by local intelligence. Eighteen months later, he was tried and convicted on charges of being a member of a local terrorist cell and for "participating in unauthorized meetings" - although he had not been in Morocco for five years.
Britel, 39, is in Aïn Borja prison, in Casablanca, serving a nine-year sentence. Longhi said his conviction was based on a confession that followed weeks of torture.
Neither the Moroccan Ministry of Justice nor the Ministry of Communications, contacted by Il Sole 24 Ore, answered a request for comment.
In Italy, Britel fell under suspicion in 2001 when a booklet containing a transcript of an Osama Bin Laden's interview on Al Jazeera television and an electronic file with a statement of support for the Taliban's destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas were found in his home near Milan. But last September, the Italian authorities cleared him of any terrorism charges. |
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| capturing the imagination of J.D. |
[May. 21st, 2007|08:52 pm] |
dear gentle readers,
if you were to visit J.D. Salinger (and that is our intention), what would you bring him? or what would you ask of him?
subject to change is going up to NH June 9th-10th to introduce ourselves, and hopefully not get shot in the process.
any ideas, thoughts, concerns are welcome. |
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| backdraft |
[May. 14th, 2007|11:06 am] |
well yesterday i managed to burn off the ends of my eyelashes, bangs, and eyebrows. i just wanted to put my sausage on the grill, lifted the lid, and whoosh. there it went. really scary to have flames engulf your face. unfortunately i was surrounded by hipsters who seemed embarassed by my brush with death. one gross consequence of their vanity, was that they could only reach out to assure my own. you'll look ok after you go to the barber. thx.
i went dancing again last night. 12-4. it's good to do insane things sometimes. makes you feel like you are really living. :) |
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| .. and i'm here to say |
[May. 11th, 2007|11:45 am] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | work! | ] |
Some news really gets me excited.
COLOMBIA: Chiquita case puts big firms on notice
by Sibylla Brodzinsky, Christian Science Monitor
April 11th, 2007
Rows of stout trees hang heavy with bright green bananas on plantations near Colombia's border with Panama. Workers slice off each bunch and package the fruit in boxes with a label recognized worldwide for its fresh bananas: Chiquita.
In Colombia, however, the Chiquita name has recently come to symbolize the confirmation of a long-suspected relationship between multinational firms and illegal armies fighting in the nation's four-decade-old war.
Chiquita Brands International admitted in US court last month that it paid $1.7 million to Colombia's brutal right-wing militias over the course of eight years. The company said it did so to protect its employees and agreed to pay a $25 million fine. The case is sparking outrage in the capital, Bogotá, where officials want to see company executives on trial.
Many in Urabá, Colombia's banana growing region, shrug off the payments as normal. Chiquita pulled out of Colombia in 2004 by selling its Banadex subsidiary to a local company for $43.5 million. But the case could have implications for other companies doing business here or in other conflict areas around the world, analysts say.
"It's one of the first – if not the first – times that a [US-based] company is indicted and pleads guilty to providing material support to an organization known to commit widespread human rights abuses," says Arvind Ganesan, director of the Business and Human Rights program at the New York-based Human Rights Watch.
"But it's actually not a case about human rights," he says. "It's a unique case where terrorism is the crux of the whole thing." The single-count indictment against Chiquita was for "engaging in transactions with a specially designated global terrorist."
The right-wing United Self Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) joined the ranks of Al Qaeda and Hamas on the State Department's list of terrorist organizations in September 2001. Colombia's two main leftist rebel groups, known as FARC and ELN are also on the list.
Companies across the globe should be looking at the Chiquita case as a cautionary tale, says Mr. Ganesan. "Even if [the security providers] are not on a terrorist list, [the Chiquita case] should provoke a real rethinking of security arrangements," he says. The AUC was not on the US terrorist list when Chiquita began making its payments.
At least three multinationals operating in Colombia – coal mining giant Drummond, Nestle, and Coca-Cola – have been targeted in civil lawsuits in the US that claimed these companies paid paramilitaries to kill or intimidate union workers. The Chiquita case could pave the way for investigations into other companies, as well. "Corporations are on notice that they cannot make protection payments to terrorists," said Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Wainstein on announcing the plea agreement. A Justice Department spokesman declined to say whether probes into those firms are under way.
Chiquita case could be a precursor
"If Chiquita can be prosecuted, then Drummond can," says Terry Collingsworth, an attorney with the International Labor Rights Fund which supports civil lawsuits against Drummond, Nestle, and Coca-Cola.
Chiquita is "now a sitting duck" for legal action by families who believe the company may be liable for their loved ones' deaths, Mr. Collingsworth says.
Colombia's chief prosecutor Mario Iguarán said Colombia may ask for the extradition of the eight Chiquita executives who according to court papers authorized or knew of the payments. "This was not payment of extortion money. It was support for an illegal armed group whose methods included murder," Mr. Iguarán said.
In 2001, more than 3,000 Central American rifles and millions of rounds of ammunition were unloaded at a Colombian port by Banadex and eventually ended up in the hands of paramilitary forces, according to an investigation by the Organization of American States. As part of an ongoing investigation into the shipment, Iguarán's office recently sent a formal request to the US Justice Department asking for all court documents relating to the plea agreement and all information the department may have that may pertain to the Colombian investigation. Chiquita spokesman Michael Mitchell told the Associated Press in an e-mail regarding the shipment that 'there is no information that would lead us to believe that Banadex did anything improper.' "
Iguarán also said his office has opened a criminal investigation against Drummond.
Revelations of details about Chiquita's payments to the AUC has coincided with a widening political scandal in Colombia as ties between the paramilitaries and some of the country's top politicians and government officials come to light. Eight lawmakers and a governor are currently in jail on charges they colluded with the militias. Last week, arrest warrants were issued for six mayors.
Today, workers on what used to be one of Chiquita's farms lower their voices to talk about the case and are curious about why the company felt compelled to admit to making the payments. "Don't they all do it?" asked one supervisor at the packing plant that still supplies Chiquita.
'No secret' that firms paid militias
"It was no secret that the multinationals, especially in Urabá, paid that money," said Freddy Rendón, alias "the German," the head of a paramilitary bloc that operated in the banana region. Mr. Rendón is one of 57 paramilitary leaders who demobilized along with some 30,000 fighters as part of a deal with the government.
Chiquita did not just pay the AUC. It also admitted to – but was not prosecuted by the Justice Department for – paying the FARC and ELN rebel armies before the paramilitaries took control of the region.
Despite the nature of the AUC – blamed by human rights groups for some of Colombia's most gruesome crimes – Chiquita is only accused of breaking US law beginning in October 2001 when the AUC was officially named a "foreign terrorist organization" by the US State Department.
Mr. Mitchell said in a telephone interview from the company's US headquarters in Cincinnati that the motive behind the payments was to protect its employees. "We believe they saved people's lives," he said.
However, during the time Chiquita was paying the paramilitaries, thousands of people across Colombia died at the hands of the right-wing militias, which expanded from Urabá. In the banana belt alone between 1997 and 2004, paramilitary forces are blamed for 22 massacres in which 137 people were killed, according to government figures.
On one particularly bloody day in January 1999, 14 people were murdered in a killing spree that spread throughout the banana belt's four municipalities, after then AUC chief Carlos Castaño called off a Christmas-time truce. Hundreds more died in individual killings.
Alberto is a tall, self-assured man in his early 40s. But his voice drops to a whisper when he says he personally witnessed at least 10 murders on one of Chiquita's 26 plantations where he worked for 11 years.
He vividly remembers the last murder he saw on the Banafinca farm in 1999. When Alberto and his coworkers arrived on the plantation they saw two men known to be paramilitary henchmen standing menacingly near the packing plant. The thugs waited until everyone took up their workstations and then went into the field where one of Alberto's coworkers was climbing a ladder to bag a banana stem. "No one knew who they had come for that day," Alberto says.
The thugs waited until everyone took up their workstations then went into the field where one of Alberto's coworkers was climbing a ladder to bag a banana stem. "They cut off his head with a machete, dumped the weapon, then calmly walked to their motorcycle and drove off, without saying a word," says Alberto, who asked that his real name not be used.
Alberto cannot say whether the murder had anything to do with Chiquita's payments. But he says that the company's contributions to the paramilitary groups helped strengthen them and allowed them to expand throughout the country. "The money Chiquita paid helped finance the paramilitaries. Their coffers grew, and they were able to buy more weapons.
José Benítez, a leader of the banana workers' trade union, said Chiquita and the other firms that have paid paramilitaries must be held accountable.
"It's like they are trying to erase all those deaths with money that the victims here will never see. If there is justice, the Chiquita executives will see the inside of a Colombian prison," says Mr. Benítez.
Yolanda Rúa, a member of a women's peace organization in Urabá, says however that it serves little purpose to lock up company executives. Instead, she says, the $25 million that Chiquita will pay to settle the Justice Department's investigation should go to the victims of the paramilitaries that Chiquita supported. "We don't need a long prison sentence for them. We need to see some sort of reparation." |
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| i am the son, i am the heir, of a shyness that is criminally vulgar |
[May. 7th, 2007|10:56 pm] |
when i was in the eighth grade and i would come home. and the house would ring of a gray silence. and it would be hours and hours before my parents arrived from their long commute and i could unburden myself from my day. i would turn on our cd player (new!) (with speakers throughout the house!), play music, and dance my heart out.
this pure form of expression squeezed the pain out and breathed in life! it was a kind of salvation.
last sunday i finally made it to the smiths/morrisey dance night at sway. and i'm happy to say that i found my place. when morrisey belts it out, those scenesters have nothing on me. i'm right there with him. coming out of the speakers, i am. :) kind of wrecked me for today. up until 4 am! my head felt like non-absorptive cotton. -> wool.
update on schools: found out today that i'm on hasting's wait list. hey, that's a good school! i doubt i'll make it iN. but word is official in june. i did get a fairly prestigious fellowship at u of or ontop of my merit scholarship, so that felt good.
update on background: i would be asleep, but my asshole loftmate is playing music. i'm so tired at this point i feel like throwing up.
update on heart: i miss my sister. |
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| (no subject) |
[Apr. 29th, 2007|11:21 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  nervous | ] |
| [ | music |
| | red apple falls | ] |
i solicited matt's opinion on where i should go to law school. then decided on my own, and wrote him, explaining why. now he wants to meet me for coffee. i'm nervous he's going to turn me upside down and give me a good shake. and all of my loose change will fall out.
[[matt was my TA in south africa and shortly after went to law school at Seattle U. he has good values and knows how to carve out a life. (he's currently working at a job that intersects his love of travel, technological and legal know-how with public interest law.) so i look up to him in a way. what he says matters.]]
so yes. i'm nervous! |
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| favorite lawsuit of the day |
[Apr. 26th, 2007|03:32 pm] |
U.S. Court of Appeals Again Sides with Plaintiffs in Rio Tinto Alien Tort Claims Case
April 16, 2007
SEATTLE - Today the United States Court of Appeals again rejected arguments brought by mining giant Rio Tinto [NYSE:RTP] in a massive human rights claim brought by South Pacific islanders claiming Rio conspired with the government of Papua New Guinea (PNG) to savagely quell civil resistance over an environmentally devastating mining operation, actions that led to the deaths of thousands.
The case, originally filed in 2000 in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, seeks to represent Bougainville island residents who were exposed to toxins resulting from mine operations, lost property due to environmental contamination, as well as those injured or killed during the conflict which began in 1989 and raged until 1999.
Under the Alien Tort Claims Act, foreign nationals can bring suit in the United States against companies that violate international law. Rio Tinto is the parent company of subsidiary U.S. Borax Inc., headquartered in Los Angeles.
The case also alleges that Rio Tinto violated international law, including prohibitions against destruction of the right to life and health, and prohibitions against racial discrimination and war crimes.
The same court issued a similar decision in 2006, but reheard the case at the request of Rio Tinto.
According to Steve W. Berman, managing partner of Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro, the firm representing the plaintiffs, this decision again affirms the court's belief that the case should be heard in U.S. courts.
"We thought the court's original decision was clear, cogent and thoughtful, and had hoped that it would help us give our clients their day in court, something our clients have been fighting to reach for years," said Berman. "Now that the court has rejected Rio's arguments for a second time in a similarly unambiguous way, we hope this case can move forward."
The court also ruled that war crimes, crimes against humanity and racial discrimination are such universally recognized norms that they can be heard under the Alien Tort Claims Act.
In the most recent ruling, the court again dismissed concerns voiced by the U.S. State Department that the case would hamper ongoing peace negotiations in the region, and could hobble the State Department's ability to conduct foreign policy.
According to Berman, he hopes the ruling will finally give his plaintiffs the ability to seek redress for loss of life and injuries from the war, and to pursue claims that will force Rio Tinto to clean up the island from the massive environmental destruction caused by the mining operations.
"So far, Rio Tinto has exploited every possible tactic to delay this case," Berman noted. "If its past actions are any indication, we expect that its attorneys will file another set of appeals."
The court sided with the plaintiffs in a two-to-one majority, as it did in its 2006 decision.
Environmental Events Leading to the Lawsuit
The Panguna copper mine and the political events that erupted since the mine was established are at the core of the case. Bougainville Island, located northeast of Australia, is part of the Independent State of Papua New Guinea.
Between 1969 and 1972, the Australian Colonial Administration leased land on the island to Bougainville Copper Limited (BCL), a mining subsidiary of Rio Tinto. The suit claims that landowners unsuccessfully resisted intrusion onto their land, and many Bougainvilleans were forced to relocate or flee the island. Three principal villages were relocated.
According to the suit, Rio Tinto then destroyed entire villages, razed the rain forest, sluiced off a hillside and established the world's largest open-cut mine, spanning two kilometers wide and half a kilometer deep. The mine excavated 300,000 tons of ore and water every day during its operation between 1972 and 1988.
The Panguna mine, located on the Island of Bougainville just off Papua New Guinea, was once the world's largest copper mine during the 1980s.
The suit alleges that Rio Tinto improperly dumped waste rock and tailings, emitting chemical and air pollutants without regard for the villagers. Those tailings destroyed local fish stock, a major food source for the islanders.
The Bougainville people -- especially children -- began dying more frequently from upper respiratory infections, asthma and tuberculosis, the suit states.
According to the complaint, in 1990, villagers started an uprising which closed the mine, and in response, Rio Tinto and the Papua New Guinea (PNG) government brought troops in to reopen the mine.
The complaint alleges that Rio Tinto provided transport for these troops and played a role in instituting a military blockade of the island that lasted for almost 10 years, created to coerce the Bougainville people into surrendering so that the mine could be reopened.
The blockade prevented medicine, clothing and other essential items from reaching the people of Bougainville, closing hospitals and other vital services.
According to the Red Cross, the blockade killed more than 2,000 children in its first two years of operation. By the time the war ended in 1999, 10 percent of the population of Bougainville, approximately 15,000 civilians, were killed.
Copies of the ruling and other court documents are available at www.hbsslaw.com.
Oceanic Islanders use Federal Law to Sue British Mining Giant Rio Tinto for Alleged Ecocide and Human Rights Crimes
Class-action suit filed against Rio Tinto PLC and Rio Tinto Limited seeks justice for Bougainville villagers and families harmed by Rio Tinto mine
September 18, 2000
SAN FRANCISCO – In an era where political leaders, corporations and consumers are debating the environmental costs of doing business globally, a new lawsuit by a group of landowners is challenging the role and liability of corporations in developing countries.
Using a Federal law that allows such civil actions, residents of Bougainville Island in Papua New Guinea (PNG) filed a class-action lawsuit today in the United States against London-based Rio Tinto, one of the world’s largest mining companies. The suit claims the company engaged in a joint venture with the PNG government to maintain a copper mine on the island, which resulted in international environmental violations and crimes against humanity stemming from a military blockade motivated by civilian resistance to the mine.
The Rio Tinto lawsuit could have broad implications for other groups seeking redress from crimes committed during wartime by private companies acting in concert with local governments.
The lawsuit was filed in the United States District Court in San Francisco. The suit seeks to represent Bougainvilleans who continue to be exposed to toxins resulting from the Panguna mine, individuals who lost property due to ongoing environmental contamination, and people injured or killed during the Bougainville conflict between 1989 and 1999.
Under the Alien Tort Claims Act, foreign nationals can bring suit in the United States against companies that violate international law. Rio Tinto is the parent company of subsidiary U.S. Borax Inc., headquartered in Los Angeles. The plaintiffs are seeking damages for massive environmental destruction, human rights violation and for discrimination against the islanders.
Environmental Events Leading to the Lawsuit
At the core of the lawsuit is the Panguna copper mine and the political events that erupted since the mine was established. Bougainville Island, located northeast of Australia, is part of the Independent State of Papua New Guinea. The people of Bougainville had lived on their rain-forested land continuously for thousands of years.
Between 1969 and 1972, the Australian Colonial Administration leased land on the island to Bougainville Copper Limited (BCL), a mining subsidiary of Rio Tinto. The suit claims that landowners unsuccessfully resisted intrusion onto their land, and many Bougainvilleans were forced to relocate or flee the island. Three principal villages were relocated.
According to the suit, Rio Tinto then destroyed entire villages, razed the rain forest, sluiced off a hillside and established the world’s largest open-cut mine, two kilometers across and half a kilometer deep. The mine excavated 300,000 tons of ore and water every day during its operation between 1972 and 1988.
The suit alleges that Rio Tinto laid the groundwork for environmental disaster by improperly dumping waste rock and tailings and emitting chemical and air pollutants without regard for the villagers. The tailings turned the fertile Jaba and Kawerong river valleys into wasteland, according to the suit. Fish and whole forests died and water became non-potable, turning 30 kilometers of the river system into a moonscape. As tailings made their way down the Jaba River to drain into Empress Augusta Bay, the Bougainvilleans major food source of fish was also destroyed in the bay.
According to the suit, Rio Tinto’s mine operators also dumped chemicals directly into the Kawerong River, leaving the river alkaline and copper green. The mine also emitted dust clouds that created upper respiratory infections and asthma in villagers.
The suit charges, that environmental damage destroyed the villagers’ food production and cash cropping systems. The Bougainville people began dying more frequently from upper respiratory infections, asthma and tuberculosis (TB). Coughs, colds and chronic ear infections became more common in children.
Political Events Leading Up to Lawsuit
When Panguna Mine originated in the late 1960s, Bougainville was an Australian colony. Australia granted independence to Papua New Guinea in 1975, insisting that Bougainville become part of the nation state.
In March 1988, the Bougainvilleans organized into the Panguna Land Owners Association and petitioned Rio Tinto for greater control of the land around the mine. By November 1988, when BCL ignored requests, individual Bougainville militants engaged in acts of sabotage that forced the mine to close. According to the suit, Rio Tinto stepped in and assisted PNG’s military actions that were designed to stop the rebels.
According to the suit, PNG coordinated with Rio Tinto to bring in troops to Bougainville, allegedly providing helicopters for troop transport, to crush the resistance. By April 1990, the PNG army imposed a military blockade of Bougainville.
“The men and women of Bougainville stood up for themselves and forced the open-pit mine that was ravaging their environment to close, but they paid a terrible price at the hands of the PNG army which was encouraged by Rio Tinto,” said Steve Berman, lead attorney for the plaintiffs. “The complaint alleges that Rio Tinto used their huge economic influence to effectively turn the PNG army into their private police force in the attempt to break the will and spirit of the Bougainvilleans, They didn’t, and the villagers want justice for the horrible pain and suffering they were forced to endure.
PNG’s blockade of Bougainville cut off medical supplies to pressure the people to submit to PNG control and reopen the mine, the suit claims. The siege resulted in deaths from preventable diseases such as TB and whooping cough, in more than 2,000 children in the first two years. Between 1990 and 1997, approximately 10,000 Bougainvilleans died as a result of the siege, the suit claims.
“We intend to prove that Rio Tinto treated Bougainvilleans with no respect and thought of them as inferior in every way: socially, economically, racially and politically. This lack of basic human compassion is one of the many reasons that Bougainvilleans are demanding justice,” said Steve Berman.
The suit also claims that approximately 15,000 civilians died as a result of armed acts by PNG troops. PNG military actions included aerial bombings, burning of houses and villages, wanton killing and acts of cruelty, rape and degrading treatment, alleges the suit.
“By exerting financial pressure, Rio Tinto played an active role in the demise of the Bougainville’s environment and people, as surely as if they’d pulled the trigger themselves,” said Paul Luvera, co-counsel for the plaintiffs. “This case seeks justice for those who are still struggling to recover a life for themselves on their own land.”
Headquartered in London, Rio Tinto operates more than 60 mines and processing plants in 40 countries. Claiming consolidated assets of US$12.8 billion in 1999, the company employs more than 34,000 workers worldwide.
Steve Berman is managing partner of Hagens Berman in Seattle. Recently cited as one of the nation’s top litigation attornies by The National Law Journal, Berman is a nationally recognized expert in class action litigation. Berman represented 13 states in lawsuits against the tobacco industry. He was the prime architect of the groundbreaking Liggett Tobacco settlement, which resulted in the release of thousands of previously privileged tobacco industry documents. Berman also served as lead or co-lead counsel in several other high-profile cases including the Washington Public Power Supply litigation, which resulted in a settlement exceeding $850 million. Other cases include litigation involving the Exxon Valdez oil spill; Louisiana Pacific Siding; The Boeing Company; Morrison Knudsen; Piper Jaffray; Nordstrom; Boston Chicken; and Noah’s Bagels.
Paul N. Luvera, partner at Luvera, Barnett, Brindley, Beninger and Cunningham in Seattle, is a leading trial lawyer in the United States. Luvera served as co-trial counsel in the State of Washington’s trial against the tobacco industry. Luvera is a member of the International Academy of Trial Lawyers.
Peter Gordon, managing partner of Slater & Gordon in Australia, is also working on the case. Gordon is one of Australia’s leading litigation lawyers. Gordon has conducted major class actions both within Australia and oversees on behalf of Australian consumers. |
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