Contact: Mark T. Ekepa: emarktony@gmail.com, Phone: +(675) 5479428, cell: +(675) 71234467
Jethro Tulin: jctulin@gmail.com +(675) 72817336

The Porgera Land Owners Association (PLOA), in partnership with the Porgera Alliance released a report today detailing the case for the urgent resettlement of their people away from Barrick’s Porgera mine. The report covers the health hazards associated with living close to the mine, as well as enumerating the human rights abuses caused by mine security. The report also recounts the history of the mine’s agreements with the local community, revealing a pattern of neglect of the community’s free, prior and informed consent at nearly every stage of the mine’s development.

This report follows investigations and reports published by Amnesty International, Harvard Law, Human Rights Watch, and the Norwegian Government all detailing the dangerous conditions near the Porgera mine. However, this report stands out as a comprehensive look at the history of the Porgera mine, from the perspective of the landowners who have led negotiations with the company.

download report here: http://www.porgeraalliance.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Urgent-Resettlement-Porgera-web.pdf

for background, see:

Norwegian Pension Fund Full Report on Divestment Decision: http://www.protestbarrick.net/downloads/recommendation_barrick.pdf
Harvard Law Report on Porgera: http://www.reports-and-materials.org/Harvard-testimony-re-Porgera-Main.pdf
Amnesty International Report on Forced Evictions: http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/ASA34/001/2010/en/2a498f9d-39f7-47df-b5eb-5eaf586fc472/asa340012010eng.pdf
Human Rights Watch report confirming gang rapes by Barrick Security Forces: http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/png0211webwcover.pdf

###

The Asia Pacific caucus statement at the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues urged the Special Rapporteur to investigate the human rights crisis near Barrick’s Porgera mine.

Whilst the Special Rapporteur has not yet visited the Indigenous peoples of Papua New Guinea for a country report, on 19 August 2008 a special communication was made by the Special Rapporteur regarding the situation concerning Mr. JethroTulin, the CEO of a NGO based in Porgera that has been documenting human rights violations associated with a Gold Mine there. Mr. Tulin had travelled to Canada to express concerns about the mine and on his return in August 2008 was attacked, told not to return to Canada and received further anonymous threats. The Special Rapporteur wrote to the Government of Papua New Guinea, but there was no reply. A formal complaint on other human rights violations was also filed with the Human Rights Commission by Barrick Gold of Canada who also the sought ordinance with the Special Rapporteur last year. Despite these actions, reports of gross human rights violations at the mine continue.

Read full Asia Pacific Caucus statement here.

A recent landmark decision of the National Court that gives Porgera Joint Venture Company exclusive rights of occupancy to its Special Mining Lease (SML) could affect thousands of landowners living in major resource development project areas throughout the country. Meanwhile, landowners from Porgera have traveled to the United Nations to advocate for the humane resettlement of the people still living within the SML.

The lawsuit, against the Wapini sub-clan living in the SML area of Barrick Gold’s Porgera mine, sought permanent injunctions against the landowners who were continually tearing down a fence that the company was building around the SML.

Danny Gonol, the lawyer representing the Wapini landowners, submitted on behalf of the landowners that the company was constructing the fence through their village and this would result in their displacement, as well as destruction to their homes, food gardens and economic trees.

The resettlement of people still living inside the SML area of the Porgera Mine has been a key demand brought by the landowners association for many years.

“We are forced to live like squatters in our own land. The company’s mining activity, through the mine waste and now this giant fence, has overtaken all of the land that we once used to live in and grow food,” said Mark Ekepa, chairman of the Porgera Landowners Association. “With this legal decision, the national government is legitimizing Barrick’s use of force in evicting indigenous landowners from their own land. We have no where to go, so we are taking our struggle to international bodies”

In 2008, the Porgera Landowners Association joined forces with other Porgera-based groups to form the Porgera Alliance. Since that time, the Alliance has made annual trips to Barrick’s Annual Shareholders meeting, the Canadian Parliament, and the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Peoples (UNPFII) to advocate for resettlement of landowners who live inside the SML.

“Our government is weak and depends on companies like Barrick to provide revenues from resource extraction,” said Jethro Tulin of the Porgera Alliance. “While we try to work with our government in PNG, we have found that the government speaks like the company and the company speaks like the government. Meanwhile, there is a human rights crisis on the ground that neither body wants to acknowledge.”

Mr Gonol said that his lawfirm is contemplating lodging a Supreme Court appeal against the National Court decision.

Violence Perpetrated by the Security Forces of the Porgera Joint Venture Mine

Allegations of rapes, beatings and killings of community members by Porgera Joint Venture (PJV) security forces have been prevalent for at least a decade. In a news article in 2005 then-mine operator Canada’s Placer Dome admitted to eight killings of community members by PJV security guards. ¹ Early in 2006 Barrick Gold took over the mine when it acquired Placer Dome. There have been further allegations of killings and rapes by PJV security forces since 2006. Most of these cases have never been investigated.

In October 2009, Tyler Giannini from Harvard University’s International Human Rights Clinic and Sarah Knuckey of the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice at New York University testified before the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development about the serious human rights abuses associated with the mine’s security forces including rapes, gang rapes, physical assault and killings. (see

http://www2.parl.gc.ca/committeebusiness/CommitteeMeetings.aspx?Cmte=FAAE&Language=E&Mode=1&Parl=40&Ses=2 )

In February of this year Human Rights Watch released a report that further confirmed the prevalence of allegations of rape by the Porgera mine’s security guards. Human Rights Watch found that “Barrick has responded to legitimate human rights and environmental criticisms of the Porgera mine with a “shoot the messenger” approach, attacking the company’s critics while failing to address important substantive concerns” (p. 62). After years of denial, this preponderance of evidence has caused Barrick to start to respond.

However, while the company now acknowledges the occurrence of rapes by its security forces, we remain concerned about the attitude the company has taken to these events. In February Chairman peter Munk told the Globe and Mail that in Papua New Guinea “gang rape is a cultural habit.”

Barrick has yet to acknowledge any responsibility to remedy the harm that has been caused to numerous individuals and families as a result of violence by mine security guards in Porgera.

Forced Evictions and House Burnings in 2009

In April 2009 more than 200 troops including 4 mobile units, an air tactical unit and intelligence officials from the PNG Defence Force were deployed in Porgera in an operation named “Operation Ipili ’09.”In this operation people were forcibly evicted from their homes and more than 300 houses of villagers living in Barrick Gold’s mine lease area were burned down. Barrick Gold’s PJV mine hosted these military forces and provided food for them and is thus complicit in these gross violations of human rights. This has been written up in a report by Amnesty International (for a copy of the report see http://www.amnesty.ca/amnestynews/uplod/ASA340012010.pdf ).

Two years after Amnesty International’s report, Barrick is still housing, feeding, providing fuel and a stipend to the state forces that were involved in these forced evictions and house burnings, even as fresh allegations against these troops of violence and renewed house burnings continue to surface. Barrick needs to cut financial ties to these state forces or risk being complicit in their abuses.

1/2

Large Scale Environmental Degradation

The Porgera Joint Venture mine empties millions of tons of tailings and mountains of waste rock directly into the nearby 800 km-long river system. The waste enters the Porgera River, which drains into the Lagaip River then into the Strickland River and eventually into the Fly River before reaching the Gulf of Papua, 800 km from the mine site. Dumping into this major river system began in 1992 and has continued unabated ever since. This practice would not be permitted in Canada and is having a severe impact on the river system and on the food security of downstream communities.

In 2009, Norway’s Government Pension Fund dropped its shares in Canada’s Barrick Gold as a result of Barrick’s waste disposal practices at the Porgera Mine. Based on an in-depth assessment of Barrick’s operations in Porgera, the pension fund’s Council of Ethics concluded that investment in Barrick amounted to “an unacceptable risk of the Fund contributing to serious environmental damage.” The Council added that “the company’s assertions that its operations do not cause long-term and irreversible environmental damage carry little credibility. This is reinforced by the lack of openness and transparency in the company’s environmental reporting.” The Government Pension Fund had owned more than $229 million (Canadian) in Barrick shares. (For a copy of the report see: www.regjeringen.no/upload/FIN/etikk/recommendation_barrick.pdf.)

The Need for Resettlement

Given extreme environmental degradation around the mine, water contamination, loss of land for agriculture and food security, health concerns and the security concerns related to violence by the mine’s security forces, the landowners living within the mine lease area have been asking to be resettled elsewhere according to international standards. However, Barrick is refusing to undertake a full relocation. While it is known that Barrick hired consultants to review the relocation possibilities little information about the findings of these consultants is being shared by Barrick. Barrick is now seeking to relocate smaller groups of people only as their safety becomes directly affected by the mine’s operations. This is unacceptable to the landowners in the mine lease area.

MiningWatch and PNG partners File OECD Complaint

On March 1, 2011 the Porgera Landowners Association, the Akali Tange Association and MiningWatch Canada filed a complaint, called a request for review, with the Government of Canada’s National Contact Point for the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). For a copy of this document see

http://www.miningwatch.ca/en/request-review-operations-barrick-gold-corp-porgera-joint-venture-papua-new-guinea

For more information contact Catherine Coumans – MiningWatch Canada – 613-569-3439; Catherine@miningwatch.ca

The following is the Porgera Alliance’s response the official response of Barrick’s Gary Halverson to the outrage cause by Peter Munk’s insensitive comments.

Gary Halverson, Barrick Asia Pacific President’s response to public outcry over Peter Munk’s statement was short sighted and bad taste (Post Courier Monday 28 2011). The facts surrounding the rapes cases at the Porgera mine site reflects a pattern of continuous human rights violations at Porgera and it was not surprise for Mr. Halverson to say Mr. Munk’s comments taken out of context.

How can a man of Munks standing globally, a chairman of the world’s largest gold producer says “Gang Rape A Cultural habit” in PNG and yet, one of his deputies defend him saying he was taken out of context. We understand that Munk is a no nonsense man and he meant what he said.

Porgera Landowners Association through Porgera Alliance rang the bell on Barrick, exposing such in-humane activities in Porgera and demanding accountability for the crimes.

We stand with the Minister for Mining and the Government of Papua New Guinea in demanding an apology, but we deserve more than that from Peter Munk and Barrick. Rapes and other forms of human rights abuses are the culture of Munk and Barrick pattern of operations globally. The Government of Papua New Guinea must act now to hold Barrick accountable for the crimes instead of just an apology. Evidence of transnational crimes has surfaced and the government of PNG must not shy away with a shallow defensive apology from Halverson to save Munk’s ass.

Cash for land deals by transnational under pretext of social wages can be accepted but not with the kind of taste that we have experienced so far with Barrick in Porgera.

Ipilis, Engans and PNG in general were a civilized society before western civilization. We had rules and laws guiding our way of life, far better than Munks way of business and life. Rape or Gang rape is unheard until recent times around our so-called urban centers and we do not promote or tolerate such crimes in our rural society.

Mark Tony Ekepa
Chairman
PLOA

Regards

Mark Tony

Attention: Peter Munk

Subject: Gang Rape A “Cultural Habit”?

We write to seek clarification of the terminology you used in the Globe and Mail saying that Gang Rape is a ‘Cultural Habit’ in Papua New Guinea, and we urge you to prove with facts and evidence of your statement.

The indigenous population of Papua New Guinea is one of the most heterogeneous in the world having diverse culture. Papua New Guinea has several thousand separate communities, divided by language, customs, and tradition etc. Some 800 languages spoken in PNG reflect the diversity.

Porgera is an ancestral domain where indigenous people interact to sustain life and lived in good peace and harmony by solving problems and conflicts the customary way. Young women were kept pure to deserve a bride price while young man undergoes cultural initiation to mark strength for future challenges. We promote preserving our culture as a source of pride and prestige for our future generation.

Your Barick Gold Corporation extracting gold in Porgera in the Enga Province of Papua New Guinea is bringing wealth and luxury for your betterment alone at the expense of deaths, rapes and beatings of local indigenous people in the pretext of development. Your mining impacts have brought pain, disunity, poverty and cultural conflict induced by your way of operation.

You are aware that our plea for justice and relief was expressed broadly and was even presented annually by us at your AGM in Toronto since 2008, where you were present.

Rape is not tolerable in Porgera/Enga and PNG. It is subject to a high traditional penalty of compensation or the offender may be imprisoned for a maximum term of life through a court of law.

A Gang Rape is a new phenomenon to us since your mine arrived and is only practiced by criminals as in western cultures. The practice of gang rapes in the mine at Porgera is reflecting your criminal paramilitary type goon guard security operation system.

You have just violated the rule of law and our customary practices by introducing gang rape through the Porgera Joint Venture mining in Porgera in Papua New Guinea and you must know that gang rape is against our culture and is a serious offence with the highest penalty in the court of law in Papua New Guinea.

We anticipate receiving a favorable response from you soon.

Yours truly,

……………………………………………..

Mark Tony Ekepa

Chairman – Porgera Alliance & Porgera Landowners Association

see: http://www.miningwatch.ca/en/human-rights-report-confirms-rapes-security-guards-barrick-mine-papua-new-guinea

Ottawa) A report released today by Human Rights Watch confirms allegations of gang rapes and other human rights abuses by security guards of Barrick Gold’s Porgera Joint Venture (PJV) mine in Papua New Guinea (PNG). This important report represents but the latest attempt to raise public awareness about these long standing abuses at the mine. Until now, Barrick and the personnel of the PJV mine have responded to numerous credible attempts to alert the company to the abuses of its security personnel with denial and, frequently, by attempting to discredit those who raised the issues.

“We already alerted Barrick in 2005 to serial killings being perpetrated by PJV’s security guards before Barrick took over the mine from Placer Dome” says Jethro Tulin of Akali Tange Association, a local human rights group. “We sent Vince Borg and Grey Wilkinson of Barrick Gold a letter and deposited our report called ‘The Killing Fields of Porgera Joint Venture’ in the office in Port Moresby so that Barrick would know what was going on.” Pressure by members of Akali Tange Association and Canadian media attention, among others, contributed to an investigation by the PNG government of the alleged killings in 2006, but that report has never been released.

Since 2008, Jethro Tulin has been travelling to Canada yearly to speak in front of Barrick’s board of directors and shareholders at the company’s annual general meeting. At these meetings Mr. Tulin has consistently raised the alleged killings and rapes by the mine’s security guards, only to hear Barrick’s directors assure shareholders that these allegations are false. Mr. Tulin has been accompanied in Canada by Mr. Mark Ekepa, the chairman of the Porgera Landowners Association for landowners living within the mine’s lease area. Mr Ekepa too has repeatedly challenged the local mine management and Barrick Gold to acknowledge abuses perpetrated by the mine’s security forces and take action on behalf of victims. Both men have met with senior Barrick executives in Toronto on two occasions.

In response to a letter in May 2008 from Mr. Ekepa to Barrick’s then-President and CEO Greg Wilkins, the Porgera mine manager responded to Mr. Ekepa saying, “we found your public allegations of our employees ‘gang raping’ Porgera Land Owners’ women to be most distasteful, to say the least, as you know these allegations to be untrue.”

“I have done what I could for many years to raise the abuses by the mine’s security forces with Barrick Gold executives, shareholders, and Canadian civil servants and members of parliament and my own government officials,” says Mark Ekepa, “As recently as June 5th 2010 I wrote to the mine manager about the rapes of three young girls by PJV engaged members of mobile squads.”

While Barrick denounced allegations by local Porgeran leaders, the company also declined to investigate the activities of its security forces, even in the face of a three year investigation into the alleged killings and rapes by senior researchers from human rights institutions at Harvard and New York Universities. These researchers testified about their findings before a Canadian parliamentary committee in 2009 and 2010, and filed a substantial report in 2009.

“Barrick has chosen for many years to ignore the urgent warnings the company has received in both written and verbal form about serious human rights problems associated with its security forces at the Porgera mine,” says Catherine Coumans of MiningWatch Canada. “This new report by Human Rights Watch appears to have finally moved Barrick to take some actions that may prevent abuses in the future.  We hope that Barrick is now also prepared to consider reparations for people who have been harmed by its security guards and will be more open to dealing with other environmental and human rights concerns at the Porgera mine.”

Coumans further notes, “The Canadian government has also ignored information it has received about the human rights and environmental concerns at Barrick’s operations in PNG. Porgerans have met with civil servants of CIDA, Foreign Affairs, and Trade a number of times starting in 2008 and raised these issues directly with them. Nonetheless, in 2010 CIDA provided $158,241 for a Barrick reforestation project in Peru, with more payments to come. With the defeat of Bill C-300 the Canadian government can continue to ignore complaints about human rights abuses and reward tax payer dollars to projects at the mine sites of Canadian companies against whom serious accusations have been made.”

- 30 -

For more information contact:
Catherine Coumans, MiningWatch Canada, catherine(at)miningwatch.ca tel: 613-569-3439
Jethro Tulin, Akali Tange Associaiton, Papua New Guinea, jctulin(at)gmail.com tel: 675 72817336
Mark Ekepa, Porgera Landowners Association, Papua New Guinea, emarktony(at)gmail.com tel: 675 71234467

For a copy of the Human Rights Watch report see: http://www.hrw.org/node/95776
For a copy of the Harvard and New York University report see: http://www.business-humanrights.org/Documents/CanadaParliamentarytestimonyreBarrickPJV/

Date of Incident: January 19, 2011

Name of Victim: Elssie Kumbi of Anawe village Porgera, Enga Province Papua New Guinea

Location of incident: Mines Lime plant site, Kumbipara,

Nature of Incident: Brutality and torture in an attempt to rape causing severe internal and external damage to body

Incident: In the evening of January 19, 2011, Helsy Kumbi aged 26 years went into the bush near the mines lime plant area to collect native vegetables that creep by the waters. All of a sudden a Barrick Security Guard on duty at the mines lime plant ran after her as she ran for help into an abandoned home. However there was no one there to help her. She was forced to have sex, and she refused and the offender kidnapped her and burnt her genital areas with hot rods repeatedly.

The offender is arrested and in jail, medical report obtained, police report yet to be obtained.

Information/evidence gathered by David Mandi – Chairman ATA and preliminary report by Jeffery Simon

This morning, the Porgera Mine Police arrested 45 local Porgerans
along the riverine tailings while they were panning gold. This local
landowners live in the Special mining Leased area (SML). Their homes
have not been relocated since the mine granting the Special Mining
Lease and the licence to mine. This people’s land ones used for food
gardening was taken by the mine, their traditional gold panning sites
were covered by the waste debris and sentiments from the mine, The
mine royalty obtained quarterly is insufficient amongst the growing
population. This people have no ways to cater wants and needs
especially food and drinking water. Thus this entire community is
obliged to go into the nearby mine waste tailing sites to obtain golds
to be redeemed for cash.

This morning as usual the entire villagers set to the tailing mouth to
find gold and suddenly group of mine machinery police fully harmed
arrested man women kids including school students along the waste
tailing river and are locked up in cell. The remaining tribesman are
demanding the mine management to release the 45 arrested. The
villagers are blaming the mine for creating an artificial environment
which is conditioning the people go panning gold in the mine and be
arrested, raped, tortured and even get killed by the mine security
force.

The situation is at tense and more shall be reported tomorrow.

Regards

Koyapal Napapen

by Joshua Arlo, Post Courier (PNG), January 18th, 2011

POLICE have begun arresting terminated employees of the Porgera Joint Venture (PJV) implicated in alleged sexual assaults against women and other serious crimes, with many more terminations and arrests expected in the coming weeks.

Acting Police Commissioner Tony Wagambie and PJV announced this yesterday, stating that this is a result of a three-month investigation by a special police team set up last year by then Police Commissioner Gari Baki in the Porgera District and an internal investigation conducted by the PJV in line with the mine’s zero tolerance policy regarding employee behaviour of any kind of violence or human rights abuse against women and men.

Those terminated also include employees who knew about the assaults but failed to report to authorities, as well as those who allegedly misled investigators.

PJV said it expected its employees who saw or heard about such acts to immediately report to the appropriate authorities.

Mr Wagambie has warned he will not tolerate any kind of violent and criminal behaviour against women “on his watch” and perpetrators will be brought to justice.

“Enough is enough. These arrests send a strong warning to those who would assault the most vulnerable members of our communities – women and young people – that their actions will not be tolerated,” he said.

“The warning is clear – respect the human rights of others and follow the laws of this land, otherwise we will find you and we will bring you to justice without fear or favour,” He said after receiving solid intelligence on these matters from the mine mangers of Barrick Gold and their independent investigators, the police moved in quickly to identify the alleged offenders.

“The mine took immediate actions after the disturbing results of an internal investigation into allegations of assaults and other serious crimes,” said Barrick executive general manager Mark Fisher in a joint statement from Barrick Gold Corporation and Mineral Resources Enga.

“We have terminated employees who were found to have breached out strict code of conduct regarding employee behaviour.”

He said PJV asked police to investigate when it received credible allegations in June last year. PJV also asked Ila Geno, the former Chief Ombudsman Commissioner and a former police commissioner to conduct an independent inquiry into alleged violence against women and report the findings directly to police.

Barrick also conducted a thorough internal investigation which involved a 15-member independent investigative team.

This team spent several months at the mine interviewing more than 650 employees and conducting a comprehensive investigation of staff and procedures.

“We have been working in close co-operation with the PNG police and we will continue to provide information and support to aid in their criminal investigation,” Mr Fisher said. “We condemn these alleged crimes in the strongest possible terms and wish to see anyone involved brought to justice under PNG law.”

Meanwhile, Mr Wagambie has revealed that investigations into other reported cases, including alleged abuses by police in the same area were continuing.

“No-one is above the law, even members for the Constabulary. Make no mistake – we are coming for them too. The best course of action for anyone who has information about these matters, or who has witnessed assaults or sexual assaults on women and young girls is to come forward now and report these matters to police.

“Don’t be afraid to report these things – staying silent helps nobody.”