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News :: Miscellaneous |
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Alert: British paper faces suit over Palast investigation |
Current rating: 0 |
by Gregory Palast
(No verified email address) |
29 Jun 2001
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Bush family sugar daddy seeks revenge for damning expose of international lawlessness and corruption |
Friday, June 29, 2001
In retaliation for the investigative story about the finances of the George W. Bush campaign, Barrick Gold Mining of Canada has sued my paper, the Observer of London, for libel. The company, which hired the elder Bush after his leaving the White House, is charging the newspaper with libel for quoting an Amnesty International report, which alleged that 50 miners might have been buried alive in Tanzania by a company now owned by Barrick.
The company has also demanded the Observer and its parent, Guardian Newspapers, force me to remove the article from my US website, a frightening extension of Britain’s punitive libel laws into the World Wide Web. The company has also issued legal threats against Tanzanian human rights lawyer Tundu Lissu, one of the Observer’s independent sources and an investigator of the mine-site allegations.
The attack by Barrick and its controversial Chairman, Peter Munk, one of the wealthiest men in Canada, who boasts of his propensity to sue, also aims to gag my reporting on his company’s purchase of rights to a gold mine in Nevada - containing $10 billion in gold - for a payment of under $10,000 to the US Treasury.
My Observer story, Best Democracy Money Can Buy, looked into the activities of several corporations linked to the Bushes. It was in that article I first disclosed that over 50,000 Florida voters, most of them Black, were wrongly tagged as ‘felons,’ and targeted for removal from the voter rolls. My follow-up reports in Salon.com, The Nation, and the Washington Post as well as on BBC-TV’s Newsnight provided the basis for the US Civil Rights Commission finding of massive, wrongful voter disenfranchisement in Florida.
My entire continuing investigation is in jeopardy. It is difficult to imagine how my paper, owned by the non-profit Scott Trust, myself and human rights lawyer Lissu can withstand the financial punishment of litigation by the centi-millionaire Munk and his corporation.
In its latest Annual report, Amnesty says it cannot verify the allegations of the mine killings because the government continues to resist an independent investigation. Yet Barrick wants our paper to state what we know to be untrue: that independent investigation found the charges completely baseless. Yet our quoting Amnesty is no defense. Americans cannot conceive of the medieval operation of British libel law. It does not permit the defense of \"repetition\" - straightforward reporting on the statements of human rights groups are banned, a gag nearly as effective as Burmese law.
Independently of Amnesty, attorney Lissu went to the mine site and provided our paper with witness statements. Tanzanians have offered their services to help defend against censorship in Britain, a poignant reversal for our paper which, with imperial pomp, has launched a ‘Press Freedom Campaign’ to excoriate developing nations over gagging journalists.
‘10 Little Piggies,’ Adnan Khashoggi, and The Greatest Gold Heist Since Butch Cassidy
Peter Munk’s reputation precedes him. Last year, Mother Jones named him one of America’s ‘Ten Little Piggies’ for his US gold mine’s literally ‘poisoning the water’ through what environmentalists consider polluting extraction practices.
How Barrick got the gold mine is something they would rather we not report.
First, Munk was set up in the gold business by funds from Saudi arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi. We are being sued for discussing this connection although the information comes from Peter Munk himself, quoted in his biography.
Second, Barrick struck it rich when the company used (or misused, say many) an old Gold Rush law to claim rights on a Nevada mine containing $10 billion in gold by paying the US Treasury less than $10,000. They are suing my paper for publicizing this extraordinary transaction, which US Interior Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt called, \"the biggest gold heist since the days of Butch Cassidy,\" and \"a form of legalized extortion.\"
Barrick’s suit claims the Observer libeled them by failing to state that Barrick had to spend money to buy other rights and equipment to dig the gold out of the ground. What an odd misreading of our words. We never said the US government mailed the gold bars to Barrick in Canada. We only said that Barrick got the gold mine and the public got the shaft.
The company’s CEO has also demanded his lawyers slice a pound of our journalistic flesh for mentioning that he, \"made his name in Canada in the 1960s as the figure in an infamous insider stock-trading scandal.\" Yet, we read this in the Canadian magazine Macleans: \"The failure of [Clairetone Corporation] cost Munk his business and his reputation. Most damning were allegations of insider trading that were made after it was discovered that he and [his partner] had sold shares in 1967 just before some of Clairetone’s most serious problems became known.\"
Lynching by Libel Law
The clear purpose of the suit is, as Barrick says, to force the Observer to say the investigation \"should never have been published\" – an inquiry into those who purchase the favor and influence of the Bush family, not just Barrick. The article was about the blizzard of money whirling around a family of Presidents and their associations. Among other paid favors for Barrick, the former President wrote the dictator Suharto to convince him, successfully, to grant another gold concession to Barrick.
And more than Barrick came into our investigative cross hairs. There was Chevron Corporation, and ChoicePoint, the firm at the center of the racially charged voter purge in Florida. This suit with malicious tone attempts to besmirch our entire investigation and to undermine ours and others further investigations into Bush and Barrick.
The Observer’s official history quotes a media critic’s statement that the papers new editor, \"... is expected to continue the paper’s tradition of crusading reporting as in the Lobbygate investigate investigation.\"
In that ‘Lobbygate’ story, well known in the UK, I went undercover with my partner Antony Barnett to expose corruption at the heart of the Blair cabinet.
But the wrath of a Prime Minister is easy to dismiss - and our awards were a pleasant salve. The withering, costly pounding of an enraged corporate power with too much money to spend has chilled reporters’ and British newspapers’ will to take on the tougher investigative matters. Amnesty is, \"silent on the advice of lawyers.\" And so, the witness statements of those who watched the bodies exhumed, and one who dug his way from the mass grave, will now also remain entombed in legal silence.
How much longer I can hold the line if abandoned by the Guardian’s Scott Trust - which is cracking under the weight of legal bills - I cannot say. And the consequences of capitulation to our source and defender, Tundu Lissu and his Tanzanian human rights organization, we cannot imagine. |
See also:
http://www.gregpalast.com/detail.cfm?artid=15&row=1
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WITNESS STATEMENTS OF DEATHS AT BULYANHULU |
by via Cryptome
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
05 Jul 2001
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First, 'How the Government Conducted the Exhumation Exercise,' by Ayoub Mabula Salum, sworn on August 28, 1996:
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From Personal Testimony on the Bulyanhulu Incident and Allegations That 52 People Were Buried and How the Government Conducted the Exhumation Exercise, by Ayoub Mabula Salum, sworn before Mr. Hamid Nassoro, Advocate and Commissioner for Oaths on August 28, 1996:
"My name is Ayoub Mabula Salum of the Sukuma ethnic group. I am a Moslem and I am 36 years old. I am a peasant farmer from Kakola village, Bugarama Ward, Kahama District of Shinyanga Region. I am also the Village Government Chairman and the Bugarama Ward Councillor. Kakola Village surrounds the Bulyanhulu mines. I have been living in Kakola with my parents since 1966. Kakola is a legally recognized village having been registered as such by the Registrar of Villages in November 1993 and was given registration No. SHY/KHM/K/715. The present boundaries of Kakola village were set under Operation Vijiji in 1977 people who were living in different areas were forcibly moved to Kakola by the government.
"On the Alleged Incident of 52 People Being Buried: The government announced through the media, an operation to remove small-scale miners from the Bulyanhulu mines on 30th July 1996. This announcement was made by Hon. Minister for Minerals and Energy. On July 30, 1996 the (Shinyanga) Regional Commissioner General Kiwelu arrived at Kakola village at around 5 o'clock and issued a 7 day notice for miners who had heavy equipment to remove the equipment and that from the next day July 31, 1996 mining should stop and further that no one should be seen in the mining area digging.
"This act of removing people who had invested heavily in mining and over a long period time under such a short notice led to a sharp increase in armed robbery and violent crimes as people who did not have the means to leave the area resorted to crime. There are so many cases of violent crime that were reported at the Kahama police station immediately after this exercise started. The position taken by the regional administration was not in line with that of the Ministry (of Minerals and Energy) as the Minster for Minerals Hon. Shija in his announcement had given a 30 days notice. That time would have been sufficient for people to get fares and return where they came from.
"The police continued to implement the removals of the miners as directed by the Regional Commissioner. On August 3, 1996 at 8 o'clock in the evening, Radio Tanzania announced through its news program that Mr. Justice Mchome of the High Court of Tanzania at Tabora had issued an order for the government to stop the exercise because the suit between the small scale miners and Kahama Mining Corporation Ltd. was still pending in the court. Following news that the High Court had allowed them to continue their mining operations, on August 4, 1996, the miners returned to the mine pits they had been working.
"On August 5, 1996, around 9 o'clock in the morning, the Regional Police Commander for Shinyanga Region found me at a coffee bar and asked to leave with him in his car. I did so and when we reached their (police) camp he told me had unsuccessfully looked for the Justices of the Peace (Ward and Village Executive Officers), so he wanted me as the Village Government Chairman to accompany him to the mining areas to tell the miners to vacate the mine pits because the police had not yet received notification that there was a suit in court, and that the police do not operate by radio or newspaper edicts but need documentary proof. He showed me a notice signed by (then) Chief Justice Nyalali which stated that the appeal filed by KMCL had been withdrawn.
"I went with him up to Reef #1 and Reef #2 and I asked people to stop their operations until a copy of the High Court ruling is delivered to the regional leaders. Some agreed by others refused. I was surprised to see that even after the copy of the ruling was delivered to the leaders of that operation (to evict the miners), the evictions continued. It is thought that this is what caused people to be buried alive. People believed the court but the government maintained its position.
"On August 7, 1996, the filling in of the mine pits started at around 3 o'clock in the afternoon. Two persons came to my home and told me that two of their colleagues had been buried in the pits, but they did not tell me their names or the names of those buried. We made an appointment to meet at the village office around 4 o'clock for them to report the incident officially. When I came near the village office I found it filled with a crowd of angry people so I did not go inside. They started looking for me all over Kakola and, out of fear, I escaped to Kahama where I stayed until August 14, 1996.
"On August 13, 1996 newspapers published reports citing the miners' spokesman, Maalim Mmanga Kadau, that 52 people had been buried in the pits. To dispel doubts, the government brought officials from the headquarters of the Ministry of Home Affairs and it was decided that the pits alleged to contain those buried should excavated and bodies exhumed. That exercise started on August 17, 1996, but shortly afterwards it was stopped without it ever being completed. The exercise was stopped on August 20, 1996. I personally am not sure that there are 52 dead bodies inside the pits that were filled in but in order to remove suspicions, the exercise to exhume the bodies would have dispelled all doubts. Now what does the government mean by objecting to it!
"So, as a representative from that area, I am totally opposed to the government action to stop the exhumation exercise! It does not do justice for those who believe that people have been buried nor for those who deny (the government). To chase people away from an area the government claims was invaded by the miners is one thing, killing them brutally is a completely different thing altogether! So my recommendation is that an independent commission should be formed and not just people from the Ministry of Home Affairs which supervised the operation in the first place. Covering and even detaining those who have been providing information (of the killings) is amounts to a violation of rights.
"The commission most appropriate to establish the truth is a commission consisting of political leaders and independent lawyers. Therefore, all Members of Parliament from Shinyanga region should be in that commission. Exhumation should start anew so that we all see where the truth is instead of the government trying to silence the miners' spokesmen through intimidation and threats of arrest. This is my own personal and voluntary testimony and I believe that if the recommendations are implemented they will settle the present controversy." |
See also:
http://cryptome.org/palast.htm
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Second Witness Statement |
by via Cryptome
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
05 Jul 2001
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From the Personal Testimony of Hamis Mayunga Mrisho, undated (but most likely taken before Ayoub's testimony) .
"I am Hamis Mayunga Mrisho and I'm a resident of Kakola village in Kahama District, Shinyanga Region. As a miner at the mine pits of Bulyanhulu area, I and my fellow miners were notified on 30.9.96 (he probably means July 30 as all the following testimony refers to this date) that the government had announced that we were required to leave the mine pits at the expiry of thirty days from the day of the notice. We started preparing plans to do so. However, on that same day the Regional Commissioner for Shinyanga Region General Tumainieli Kiwelu announced at a public meeting at Kakola that we had twelve hours from the evening of July 30, 1996, within which to leave the area.
"So we stopped what we were doing and I personally started preparations to crush the ores in order to leave. On August 3, 1996 I heard Radio Tanzania that the High Court of Tanzania had overturned the government decision to evict the miners from the Bulyanhulu mines and that the miners should continue with their activities without harassment. So on August 4, 1996, I and my people went to the pits in order to continue with the mining work. Notwithstanding threats from the Shinyanga Regional Police Commander I continued working in compliance with the order of the High Court. The police continued to harass us and sometimes they would ask for money from us to let us continue with our work.
"On August 7, 1996, I was supervising work in pit #86C at Reef #1 which I owned with one Nyembe Msobi. I descended into the pit with four other colleagues namely Ntemi Nyanda, Turo Masanja, Abdu Mussa and Juma Shabani and we started breaking the rock containing gold ores. At around 9 o'clock from the watch I had with me, I started noticing a cloud of dust and lots of sand descending into the pit. Things got difficult but with God's help we started digging our way out from one opening in our pit.
"This went on very slowly and by August 8, 1996, two of my colleagues (Ntemi Nyanda and Juma Shabani) were unable to continue digging and they died right there., thus leaving me together with Turo Masanja and Abdu Mussa. At around 10 o'clock on the night of August 9, 1996, I managed to get an opening which had wood poles tied on the sides of the hole and I clambered on the poles and started ascending. At the same time my other colleagues were following behind and sand and dust continued to come in from high above. Unfortunately my two colleagues died after Turo Masanja slipped and tumbled down taking Abdu Mussa with him.
"I continued to climb up until I managed to get out, only to find that a bulldozer had levelled the entire area. With much difficulty and with help from other miners I managed to reach Kakola village. On August 16, 1996 police commissioners came to visit the area and asked us to go and make statements in their camp, which we did, and after we went to show them the pits where people were buried. They asked us to return the following day August 17, 1996 in order to begin the exercise to exhume the bodies which they directed should start at Reef #2. This is what I know from what I saw." |
See also:
http://cryptome.org/palast.htm
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