Monday, July 27, 2009

SOLIDARITY STATEMENT FROM TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO ON DAY OF GLOBAL ACTION TO STOP VEDANTA MINING BAUXITE IN ORISSA INDIA

17th July, 2009, Union Village, La Brea

We the La Brea Concerned Citizens United are actively engaged in a struggle against the introduction of Alutrint - a 125,000 MT/year State owned aluminium smelter, into our communities in South West Trinidad & Tobago. This smelter is being financed and built by the Chinese government at an estimated cost of $US 1.3B.

A fragmented, flawed and deceptive approvals process began more than five years ago to make way for Alutrint to gain permission to commence construction. Permission was granted on 2nd April, 2007. However, in June 2009, in a land mark decision, we were successful in halting construction when our high courts ruled through a ‘judicial review’ process, that the decision by our Environmental Management Authority (EMA) to grant approval to Alutrint, when considering disposal of hazardous wastes and cumulative impacts, was: “outrageous…irrational…procedurally irregular…and shrouded in secrecy”. The appeals process begins next month. Irrespective of outcome, the case will end up in the London based Privy Council.

Some 10,000 persons live within 2.5 miles of the proposed smelter. Already 1000 acres of our most valuable forests, animals and freshwater dams are destroyed. This was carried out in 2004 without our knowledge or consent. Since then we have been living next to a dust bowl. Our river is now a mud hole. Recently, medical monitoring documents concealed by Alutrint and the EMA were brought to our communities which show they plan to test some 4000 residents who live within a mile of the proposed smelter for cancer every two years. Workers on the smelter are to be tested every 6 months.

Our government declares aliminium and steel smelting in our small island to be “sustainable development”. Recent attempts by Essar Steel in collusion with our Government, to destroy the Claxton Bay mangoves in the mid-West of our island were met with great resistance by local fishermen, farmers and residents. Unfortunately some 500 acres of prime agricultural lands were clear cut for Essar before they decided to withdraw.

Trinidad & Tobago has natural gas which is fast being depleted. We have about twelve years left at present extraction rates. Foreign demand comes first. The State has no inclination towards future energy security far less concern for global warming and consequent breakdown of climate. Our struggle to make our people conscious of the imperative to recover and wisely use sovereign gas assets continues.

The La Brea Concerns Citizens United have been receiving information on the battles over bauxite mining in the Mountains of Khondistan in south Orissa and north Andhra Pradesh. We understand that the people who inhabit the Niyamgiri range, the most densely forested of these mountains, are in the midst of a life or death battle. We recognize and deeply respect the spiritual and material value of the Khondistan Mountains to their people and the profound value to them of keeping these mountains intact and productive for generations to come. We strongly oppose ‘Vedanta’ destroying them to capture alumina.

We wish to note the absurdity of Vedanta’s claims to a “greenfield aluminium refinery” and the vulgar abuse of the meaning of the word “Vedanta”, to name a company responsible for ending the spiritual and material experience of the indigenous peoples of Orissa.

The La Brea Concerned Citizens United of South-West Trinidad in the Caribbean and the Dongria Konds of the Niyamgiri Range of Orissa, India, despite our differences, share a common enemy - greed and short-sightedness of our leaders.

Today, on this 27th July, 2009, we wish to declare our solidarity with you on your Day of Global Action against ‘Vedanta Aluminium Limited’, a subsidiary of Vedanta Resources PLC, which is responsible for catastrophic actions against the material nature and spiritual values of the people of Orissa.

Great is the solidarity of collective humanity. May it always prevail!

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