LA BREA CONCERNED CITIZENS UNITED – PRESS STATEMENT 16th June, 2009

On the significance of the judgment of the Judicial Review Case, June 16, 2009

1. The judgment today is about whether EMA followed the rules for the granting of a CEC to NEC/Alutrint. It is not about whether Alutrint is good or bad for the communities. Alutrint has misled and withheld information from us for years. It has proven that it cannot be trusted. The company consistently fails to address complaints about dust, noise and has proven that it does not care about the suffering it is already causing the community. From Alutrint’s behavior and its own Medical Monitoring plan, we know that it is bad for us. What we want to make clear today is that those of us in the villages downwind of the smelter, in Union, Vance River, Sobo, and Vessigny and Square Deal and other villages are continuing our fight for justice.

We cannot accept a smelter that puts us at such risk that we would have to be tested every two years for a range of diseases including cancer. We are not lab rats. The smelter must go. No amount of public relations by Alutrint will convince us that this medical testing is a “service” to the community. Bringing a risk that makes us have to take our babies to the doctor to find out if they are getting sick is not a service. It is inhuman, cruel, and against our rights as citizens. All of this has been planned without any consultation with us whatsoever. The lack of regard for us and injustice in this whole affair is glaring. We will continue to fight for justice. We will continue as well to fight for fair relocation practice for those being made worse off by involuntarily relocation from the buffer zone of the Union Industrial Estate and well as those who are suffering the dust and noise. We are united across villages, ethnicity and political parties and will not back down.

2. La Brea wants jobs, but we are not dying for jobs. We want alternative development that actually builds human lives and communities. From the inception, this smelter has been shoved down our throats without any consideration of alternative uses of that site. No community in Trinidad wants smelters. The conditions in La Brea allowed people to prey on us and make us believe that this is the only way to get jobs. This not the only way. Alternative uses for that site have never been considered, not even in the EIA. We have never discussed recycling aluminium instead, building other light manufacturing, or commercial farming – the kinds of industries that would be suited to the skills actually available in the community. Alutrint, the NEC, and the EMA behave as though we are animals on their farm. We are saying to you here today and we hope you are listening; we are not animals on a farm. We are citizens in a country. We are not accepting the lies, trickery, and public relations gimmicks any more. The members of the Board of these indecent organizations please take note you are all out of order. We do not want your death smelter.

3. The concerned citizens of La Brea continue to call on the rest of Trinidad and Tobago to stand with us for justice. There are some who want to paint this as a la Brea matter and draw a line between insiders and outsiders. There are no outsiders and insiders, this could be happening to your family next. We the citizens of Trinidad are all the inside this problem. The outsiders are the Chinese. Everyone knows that there are challenges in La Brea when it comes to standing up for our rights. People are afraid of losing their jobs or not getting their ten days work or they have other strong loyalities. Alutrint cannot claim the silence of some as agreement. This silence is a sign of oppression. We ask that the rest of Trinidad stand up and support and pray for the people of La Brea to find the courage to free their minds and mouths from the chains that are fastened across them now.

The test of freedom is the ability to choose one’s life and the lives of our children above all other loyalties. We the concerned citizens have stood united across ethnicity, villages, and party lines. We are calling on all of La Brea to get up. Stand Up. Stand up for your rights. That smelter does not exist. There is nothing on that site. God is not planning to build that smelter. Man is planning to build the smelter. Stand up defend your families.

Stand up together and you will see, no smelter will be built on that ground. Contacts:
A. Carter: 305 7254 and E. Gour – 648-7127