Drummond's Colombia rights trial begins in Alabama

[Judi Lynn]

Drummond's Colombia rights trial begins in Alabama
Mon 9 Jul 2007 22:18:33 BST
By Verna Gates

BIRMINGHAM, Ala., July 9 (Reuters) - U.S. coal company Drummond went on trial on Monday on charges it paid right-wing paramilitary gunmen to kill union leaders at a mine it operates in a war-torn corner of northern Colombia.

The trial began with jury selection in a case that could help set a precedent for U.S. companies accused of human rights violations abroad.
Privately-held and Alabama-based Drummond Company Inc. has denied involvement in the 2001 deaths of the three union leaders near the sprawling open pit mine it operates in Colombia.

The lawsuit was filed by the International Labor Rights Fund and Pittsburgh-based United Steelworkers union in March 2002 and seeks unspecified damages on behalf of the dead union leaders' families.
(snip)

Masked gunmen forced Colombian union leaders Valmore Locarno, Victor Orcasita and Gustavo Soler off buses and killed them in 2001. The three Drummond employees had argued with the mining company over wage and safety issues.

Four witnesses have come forward claiming Drummond gave cash and cars to paramilitary fighters in exchange for killing the men.

More:
http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/CrisesArticle.aspx?rpc=401&storyId=N79284915

[Judi Lynn]

1. Congressman William Delahunt is going to need to watch his back from now on!

Magnitude of Support from U.S. Frms in Past Years to Paramilitaries Concerns Congressman from that Country
So said democratic representative William Delahunt, after meeting with several former paramilitary bosses held in the Itagüí maximum security prison.

Delahunt, who spent four days in Colombia with his collegues James McGovern and George Miller, met with Salvatore Mancuso, Rodrigo Tovar (“Jorge 40”), Édgar Velosa (“HH”), Diego Fernando Murillo (“don Berna”) and Carlos Mario Jiménez (“Macaco”).

Although he added that he could not reveal the content of the interviews or the companies mentioned by the demobilized paramilitaries, Delahunt warned that “they were very specific and clear on the relationships between themselves and the American companies.”

Representative Delahunt heads the House International Relations Committee, which is investigating payments made to the AUC after the banana company Chiquita Brands was fined $25 million after it recognized having paid $1.7 million to paramilitary groups between 1997 and 2004.

“We are concerned by the magnitude of the participation of American companies in the payments they made to the AUC,” said Delahunt.

The congressman announced that now he will review the interviews with the former para bosses together with the researchers who accompany him, in order to move into the next phase of the investigation: corroborating what they said.

“I will return to Colombia in three or four months to interview other people who have important information on the issue. I will also meet with the executives of those companies in the United States that seem to be implicated,” he added.

Delahunt said that “it is worth seriously considering” that the money from fines placed on these companies could help to provide reparations to the victims of paramilitary violence.

He stated that the new results of these investigations would be not be released for a year or more. “This investigation is going to require considerable time and resources,” he emphasized.

http://narcosphere.narconews.com/story/2008/1/19/203538/370