Australian mining companies accused of human rights abuses
canberra.yourguide.com.au
By DANIELLE CRONIN and AAP
Australian mining companies had violated basic human rights and caused environmental problems in Indonesia, PNG and Peru, it is claimed in a report issued today.
Oxfam Community Aid Abroad produced the first Mining Ombudsman report after investigating "serious" complaints made against seven Australian companies including Rio Tinto, BHP and Aurora Gold. Mining Ombudsman Jeff Atkinson said aggrieved landowners and affected communities alleged that Australian mining operations had polluted rivers, forced people off their land without proper compensation, cost them their livelihoods and led to human rights abuses by police or security forces acting in the mining companies' interests. "Several of the cases brought to the Ombudsman suggest that local people are living in fear of intimidation, particularly when they show resistance to a company's presence and operations," he said.
The organisation called on the Minerals Council of Australia to set up an independent forum or Mining Ombudsman to investigate communities' complaints. Also, Australian mining companies should adopt a human rights framework for their policies and overseas operations. "We also call on the Australian Government to introduce legislation requiring Australian mining companies operating overseas to comply with internationally-accepted standards, and to impose sanctions when they fail to meet those standards," Mr Atkinson said.
Minerals Council of Australia executive director Dick Wells said the ombudsman proposal was flawed because it intruded on states' sovereignty and presumed other countries' laws were second-rate. "Community Aid Abroad assumes we can rule the world from Australia but we can't," he said yesterday. But United Nations programs teamed with local laws and the Australian mining industry's code of conduct would help deal with community concerns, Mr Wells said.
Resources Minister Nick Minchin said Australian companies were "good corporate citizens" which obeyed laws, created jobs and generated wealth in countries where they operated. It was absurd to suggest Australian laws should apply abroad. The Federal Government rejected yesterday calls from Papua New Guinean landowners for Australia to pay for the clean-up of the Ok Tedi River, saying it was an issue for PNG and BHP. BHP is expected to exit the Ok Tedi copper mine before the end of this year and the clean-up is expected to cost millions of dollars.
Landowners in the area, who claim their traditional lifestyles have been destroyed by mine effluent, are concerned BHP will leave without cleaning up the environmental damage to the river system. But Environment Minister Robert Hill believes BHP and the PNG Government should handle the issue. |
