The North Shore Colombia Solidarity Committee Blog
See our home page.(Our old blog on tripod.com is still active, but it is now also appended to the archives of this blog.)
Thursday, December 21, 2006
from Avi Chomsky
Yesterday, the International Commission in Support of Sintracarbon and the Communities Affected by Cerrejon (ICSSCAC) sent a letter to Cerrejon, the companies that make up the consortium that owns the mine, various Colombian government offices, the U.S. Embassy, and the three coal importing companies we have been working with (Nova Scotia Power, New Brunswick Power, and Dominion Energy) asking that they join us in condemning the threats made against union leaders and other social activists on the north coast, including specific threats against Sintracarbon and against Domingo Tovar, the CUT representative who is assisting with the current negotiations. We just received a reply from Cerrejon, which is below. I hope we can pressure our own governments and our power companies to follow the good example set by Cerrejon!
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With regards to an article published at the newspaper El Heraldo on December 16th, at which is quoted a pamphlet distributed at Universidad del Atlántico, where threats are issued against teachers, university students, lawyers, civic leaders and union organisations, amongst which is mentioned the National Union of Workers of the Coal Industry, Sintracarbón, the Company hereby wishes to state the following:
- Carbones del Cerrejón LLC, as in previous occasions, emphatically condemns and rejects this type of threat against its workers, unionised at Sintracarbón, and reiterates its commitment and defence of the right of free association, to the full exercise of democratic freedoms and to the respect of Human Rights.
- The Company has requested competent authorities to investigate the origin and authenticity of the threats and, based upon these facts, to provide the security that will be deemed relevant to the individuals eventually affected.
- We do reiterate our rejection to this type of facts, the purpose of which seems to be, amongst others, to create anxiety and generate uncertainty at the organisations and individuals mentioned in the pamphlet.
December 20th 2006
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