Frank Timis, AML boss
By Aminata Phidelia Allie
The international campaign group, Human Rights Watch yesterday launched scathing report on the Sierra Leone iron ore miner, African Minerals and the Government of Sierra Leone.
The 96-page report titled “Whose Development?: Human Rights Abuses in Sierra Leone’s Mining Boom” alleges violations of the rights of natives of the belt of the dark red soil in Ferengbeya, Tonkolili District and some of its local staff.
It alleges that both the government and the mining company misled villagers about what would happen to them once they were moved to their new site some 15 miles away, with the government failing “to take actions in response to the AML’s violation of the country’s labour laws concerning employment [and] termination and benefits for its workers”. It also alleges the government’s “narrow reading of the national labour law, as well as political wrangling denied the company’s workers the ability to form a union of their choosing, rather than belong to an established union that they regarded as ineffectual”.
But at a symposium jointly organised by Human Rights Watch and the Open Governance Initiative, some participants criticised the report describing it as “highly flawed and not well investigated”.
Paramount Chief Alimamy Bockarie Yallah Koroma III of Kalla Songoya, the seat of the iron ore, said the report needed corrections which he said "will help not just me but my people, especially women”. He said none of the community land had been leased without the approval of his people, adding: “leasing the land without the people’s consent would have created a huge problem for me”. He said all documents of lease were signed by the people after negotiations.
PC Koroma said the allegation that AML was using bulldozers to “forcefully remove and relocate people is unimaginable”, adding that several consultative meetings were held and the people themselves chose the site they wished to be relocated to”.
He agreed that AML had problems with the community people but said he had had talks with the extractive company for them to be committed to the peaceful co-existence within the community.
Inspector General of Police, Francis Munu whose men the report accuses of brutality in dealing with aggrieved workers leading to the death of one, noted that investigation for the report was done without his knowledge. “If we had been contacted and our views sought, this report would have been different as we know how to get people’s views, no matter who they are” he said.
The IG went on that if not for the chaos that happened in Bumbuna then, they wouldn’t have gone there as their going there was to prevent unforeseen circumstances which he said turned out differently.
“We view the situation and take appropriate actions in our professional opinion. Anyone who goes against the law is mortgaging his human rights”, he said and advised Human Rights Watch to go back to the drawing board.
Abdulai Bayraytay from the ministry of information, pointed out that government had a responsibility to implement law and order “irrespective of you being an individual or a company". He said Sierra Leone and Rwanda were singled out “as doing exemplarily well in consolidating peace, adding that they take the report seriously.
(C) Politico 20/02/14
