Honouring the dead by continuing to demand justice

17^th Phulbari Day Statement

Yesterday marked 17^th Phulbari Massacre Day. On 26 August 2006 three children were shot dead by paramilitary force and more than 200 people were injured during a protest against plans by a London-listed mining company (then Asia Energy, now renamed GCM Resources) for a huge opencast coal mine which would forcefully displace 130, 000 people from the area. The three murdered children are namely Al Amin, Mohammad Saleqin and Tarikul Islam. The children are aged 11,13 and 18 respectively. The day is nationally known as Phulbari Day. People of Phulbari are still waiting for justice in Bangladesh. Hundreds of people in Phulbari, Dinajpur, and Dhaka have honoured the dead by commemorating and rallying in Phulbari martyrs’ monument and at Dhaka Shahid Minar earlier today. The organisers of the events have called upon Bangladesh government to oust GCM from Bangladesh and ban open cast coal mine.  

We, Phulbari Solidarity Group and London Mining Network, stand in solidarity with the families of the victims and the protesters in Phulbari as ever. Echoing Phulbari protesters, we call on both the Bangladesh and the UK government to take immediate action to ban coal mining, take legal action against GCM Resources, demand justice for Phulbari people. We have organised protests and commemoration rally in London Stock Exchange and Bangladesh High Commission in the past. Our demand are yet to be implemented. This year we did not hold in person event but we want to reaffirm our original demand.  Phulbari Solidarity Group together with London Mining Network, XR Youth Solidarity,  Christian Climate Action and others have many times rallied to commemorate the event and called for GCM to be delisted from the London Stock Exchange and abandon its Phulbari project in the past . But the government in Bangladesh and the UK are yet to take action to ensure justice for victims in Phulbari.    

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On 26 August in 2021 and 2022, transnational and Bangladeshi climate justice activists gathered outside the Bangladesh High Commission in London to pay tribute to the victims of the Phulbari Massacre in 2006. Anti-mining activists held Remembrance rallies to mark the 15th and 16^th anniversary of the Phulbari Massacre, and we have called on the High Commissioner to push for the delisting of GCM Resources from the London Stock Exchange and the banning of new coal projects in Bangladesh. The High Commissioner did not meet us and did not receive our memorandum.  Likewise, we have held  three vigils to commemorate the Phulbari victims in front of London Stock Exchange on 10^th, 13^th and 14^th anniversary of Phulbari Massacre, and handed over three memorandums to the CEOs of London Stock Exchange. But they did no take action.  Shame on them.

Bangladesh High Commission is fully aware that the London Stock Exchange is hosting a company that is responsible for gross human rights violations and that does not have a valid license for business in Bangladesh. But they are not taking action to prevent this crime. 17 years on, the company GCM Resources, continues to grab money by selling deceitful shares on Phulbari’s name. The company does not hold any valid asset to operate in Phulbari and does not have permission for mining anywhere in the world. Bangladesh’s state minister stated in 2019 that the government will take legal action against GCM. Its’ been four years since. We have written to LSE’s Chief Financial Officer and Chief Executive Officers three times, and submitted evidence showing that GCM is involved in fraudulent business at LSE. The London Stock Exchange did not de-list GCM. The Bangladesh government is yet to take legal action against the company.

We are outraged by the delay in banning coal mining in Bangladesh, and we are enraged by the inaction of London Stock Exchange, Financial Conduct Authority, and Alternative Investment Market who failed to de-list GCM from London Stock Exchange.

The Phulbari Solidarity Group’s Founder and Co-ordinator, Rumana Hashem, said:

“We remember and respect Al Amin, Mohammad Saleqin and Tarikul Islam. These three children were killed on 26 August 2006 when a paramilitary force opened fire, in favour of the British mining company, during a nonviolent demonstration of an estimated 80,000 people against the eviction of 130,000 people in Phulbari to make for a 572-million ton open cast coal mine. We will continue to call on the UK government and Bangladesh government to take legal action against GCM Resources, to de-list GCM from London Stock Exchange, and ban mining in Bangladesh.”

Of the campaign to de-list GCM, Richard Solly (Network Coordinator of London Mining Network) said:

“Since LMN was launched in 2007, we have supported the struggle against the Phulbari project. It is utter madness for GCM to keep pressing on with a new opencast coal project which would displace tens of thousands of people dependent on rural occupations, with no guarantee that they could find alternative work, and at a time when we know we have to stop burning coal anyway. UK authorities should not allow London share markets to be used to finance this kind of destructive project. GCM should be delisted.”

Extinction Rebellion Youth Solidarity spokesperson, Sara Cordovez, said:

“As XR Youth Solidarity, we stand with the Phulbari Solidarity Group in marking the 15th anniversary of the Phulbari Day shooting. For us at XR Youth Solidarity, Phulbari Day represents the undeniable link between people and planet: our global fossil-fuel addicted economy is killing people, directly and indirectly, and driving us towards the ecological and climate collapse, while leaving communities like Phulbari to mourn for the youth that stood against this fate. We stand united against GCM and emphatically condemn their continued listing in the London Stock Exchange.”

Speaking from Bangladesh, Professor Anu Muhammad , Member Secretary of the central National Committee to Protect Natural Resources said:

“ This is unbelievable that a fraud company like GCM which has no credibility even as a business house, rather it has blood in its hands, lies in their leaps, falsehood in their papers, poison in their activities- still enjoying support from British establishment to continue with these. This company has been cheating people in share business to make money in the name of Phulbari where they were behind killing people, on which they have no valid license, where they tried to implement a disastrous project, from where they were driven out in 2006 by a mass uprising and never allowed to enter.

Since 2006, in all these years they have been trying to incite violence in the area, tried to mobilize criminals against community leaders, made false cases against them, but could not enter into the area. People’s resistance remains strong. These frauds should also be driven out by British institutions including LSE. We are looking forward to seeing the trial of these criminals in Dhaka and London .”

Sara Caldwell of Women of Colour GWS & International Global Women’s Strike (UK, India, Ireland, Peru, Thailand, USA), said:

“The determined resistance of women in particular halted plans for a devastating coal mine. People of Phulbari — women, men and children, are acting also for us and we must act with them. Our thoughts are with the families of the children shot dead by paramilitaries, and those injured. These brutal attacks did not to stop protests. Women, as often happens, were central — on marches, road blocks, and even courageously chasing away paramilitaries with brooms and cooking utensils to protect lives. Your strength is an inspiration to us all. We will publicise your struggle especially during the weeks of climate action to end polluters – we must abolish multi-national polluters to save the planet and ourselves. Grassroots women are the carers everywhere. They and all carers for people and planet deserve a income to strengthen our struggle and win. Power to Phulbari, India’s farmers, Haiti, Burma, Marikana and all organising for justice and to save our planet!”

Contact Information

Phulbari Solidarity Group is a collective of anti-mining and climate justice activists from Bangladesh and Europe. We work to prevent coal mine and challenge multi-national extractive companies in Bangladesh and the UK.

London Mining Network (LMN) is an alliance of human rights, environmental and solidarity groups. We work together to support communities harmed by London-based and financed mining companies.

Joint Statement on GCM Resources.

Statement on GCM Resources’ AGM, 18 January 2023

GCM Resources plc will hold its AGM (Annual General Meeting, or shareholders’ meeting) on Wednesday 18 January 2023.

GCM Resources wants to extract 572 million tons of coal at Phulbari in Bangladesh. If it is allowed to proceed with its plans, up to 130,000 people would be displaced from their lands. Coal would be extracted for 30 years from Bangladesh’s only flood protected location.

The Government of Bangladesh remains officially opposed to further open pit coal mining. Critics of the Phulbari project note that the relevant government minister has stated that there is no contract with GCM for the project. This suggests that investing in GCM is financially risky.

GCM’s Annual Report for 2022 presents the Phulbari project as a ‘Green’ mine. It says that opening the Phulbari mine would reduce Bangladesh’s CO2 emissions by up to 30% because it would reduce the need for importation of lower quality coal from elsewhere. The company aims to use electrically powered mining equipment, develop a large-scale solar power park within the project area to provide power to the grid and to power the mine itself, and provide extra carbon offsetting through progressive development of an extensive forest plantation as part of the land rehabilitation plant. It would end up, says GCM, being a net zero mine.

But the coal being imported from elsewhere will still be mined, sold and burned. The climate arguments against the Phulbari mine are the same as against any new coal mine: the very fact of constructing a new coal mine will increase the amount of coal mined, and all that coal will be burned. Coal burned anywhere affects the climate everywhere, and low-lying Bangladesh will suffer more than most countries from the consequent rises in sea level. It is in Bangladesh’s interests to move away from coal use, not to mine more coal.

The Annual Report says that GCM’s Resettlement Action Plan “was prepared as part of the coal mine’s comprehensive Environmental and Social Impact Assessment and involved several rounds of surveys covering families within and immediately adjacent to the Project Area. A demographic survey was also carried out in 2019 to update the population and household trends. GCM is committed to lift the amenity of its local community and will ensure the RAP will deliver:

    Full and fair compensation

    Full compensation prior to displacement

    Fairness, transparency and choice

    Higher living standards (town/village sites improved amenities)

    Financial grants to enhance livelihoods

    Training and preferential employment

    Support of farmers to enhance agricultural production.”

We are aware of no mining project anywhere in the world which has been able to deliver benefits such as these, including projects run by enormous multinationals with huge amounts of cash and long experience. What makes GCM confident that it can deliver all this despite its small size and lack of experience?

The Annual Report also claims that the majority of the people at Phulbari want development of their area (rated as one of the poorest in Bangladesh); they want job opportunities; and above all they want a better life for their children. It says that the mine would deliver over 17,000 jobs directly and indirectly and more jobs would come from having an expansive reliable power supply enabling new industrial development.

It does not mention the catastrophic loss of tens of thousands of agricultural livelihoods through destruction of fields, surface and underground water systems and forced relocation of farming families, the negative impacts of sudden and total social dislocation and imposed cultural change.

Nor does it mention the fact that, from the beginning, huge numbers of local people have made known their implacable opposition to the development of a mine. On 26 August, 2006, the Phulbari Massacre took place. More than two hundred people were injured in a non-violent demonstration of 80,000 people who protested against the proposal. Three young people, Al Amin (11), Mohammad Saleqin (13), and Tarikul Islam (18) were shot dead by police.

Critics of the project deny that there has been any significant survey of public opinion in the area since 2006.

Anu Muhammad, former Member Secretary of the Bangladesh National Committee, points out:

“Any project for mining or importing coal is not welcome in Bangladesh. After the Phulbari uprising people’s protests continued against Rampal Coal Fired Plant for more than a decade. In Banshkhali twelve people were killed by police when they protested different irregularities and repression. With this national spirit the Bangladesh National Committee submitted an alternative master plan in 2017 that definitively showed that Bangladesh does not need coal mining and/or coal power plants, these are not at all financially and environmentally viable, there are much better alternatives, mostly by renewables. … In recent months people in the project area have made renewed demands to implement Phulbari agreement that includes expulsion of GCM from the country, ban open pit mining and trial of the officials of Asia Energy (GCM) for killing people in 2006, for continuing illegal business in the name of Phulbari mine and for continuing conspiracy against people.”

GCM remains, as it has always been, a model of poor corporate practice. We call on the London Stock Exchange to delist the company from the Alternative Investment Market. We call upon the Bangladesh government to take legal action against GCM and to implement the 5-point Phulbari Verdict, which the government signed with community representatives on 30 August, 2006. We call on the company to get out of Phulbari; to get out of Bangladesh; and to get out of London. We call on the company’s Board to do something more constructive with their time than pursuing a project which would wreck the lives and livelihoods of tens of thousands of people in Phulbari and contribute to the climate catastrophe which threatens to wreck life for everyone on this planet.

London Mining Network

Phulbari Solidarity Group.

GCM Resources Must Be Brought to Justice and Delisted from London Stock Exchange

Joint Statement by Phulbari Solidarity, London Mining Network, and Women of Colour

Today Friday 26 August marks the 16th anniversary of Phulbari Massacre where three young people Al Amin (11), Mohammad Saleqin (13), and Tarikul Islam (18) were shot dead for protesting against an open cast coal mine in 2006. More than two hundred people were injured in a non-violent demonstration of 80,000 people who marched against a London-listed mining company, Asia Energy, now known as GCM Resources Plc. GCM Resources wants to extract 572million tons coal to build a 600MW coal mine by forcibly displacing 130,000 people. Coal would be extracted for 30 years from Bangladesh’s only flood protected location in Phulbari, Dinajpur. The day is nationally known as Phulbari Day since the murders of Amin, Saleqin and Tarikul.

File photo: Phulbari outburst after the shooting in August 2006 . Photo credit: Anonymous, Phulbari Solidarity,

We remember Phulbari Day. We should call out the London-listed company GCM Resources plc, which inflicted violence in pursuit of coal in Phulbari. Powerful resistance by the communities in the aftermath of the shooting have put a 16-year long halt to the mining project. The Bangladesh government has declined all contracts with GCM since 2007. But the company is still selling shares in the London share market in the name of the Phulbari coal mine. Despite having no valid contract with Bangladesh, they are moving ahead with their devastating plans together with Polo Resources, another British corporation which bought into GCM in 2010. GCM and Polo Resources are hosted by the London Stock Exchange’s Alternative Investment Market (AIM). They recruited a local agency called the DG Infratech Pte Ltd, a Bangladesh based agency, to lobby the government. We should call out them, and the London Stock Exchange (LSE), too. We should also call on the UK and Bangladesh governments to take legal action against GCM Resources and Polo Resources.   

GCM’s CEO Gary Lye continues to harass anti-mining community activists on the ground. Lye filed two cases against 19 community leaders who are facing trial in Dinajpur Magistrate court because of their leading roles in the resistance movement.  Gary Lye demand £1billion from the community leaders for damaging his company’s reputation through their resistance movement. Earlier in August the 19 Phulbari community leaders had their hearing in the Dinajpur court, where Lye’s lawyer appeared “aggressive”. During the delayed hearing on 4 August 2022, the plaintiff’s witness Saydur Rahman was asked by the defendants’ lawyer whether he knew the defendants, who are all respected community representatives. The plaintiff’s witness got angry with the lawyer and said, “no”. He was asked again how did he file cases against the defendants then? The plaintiff refused to answer the question, and instead argued with the defendants’ advocate and replied aggressively: “why are you bringing in history of the case in the court? This is an old case. These are old questions. I am not here to answer your questions about the past.”  The court was shocked by the plaintiffs, a GCM staff member, raising his voice in the court. The Judge warned him to “not be aggressive” and to engage with the simple questions of the lawyers.

The 19 defendants are innocent community members who deserve state protection from harassment and aggression by GCM and its CEO Gary Lye.  We ask the Bangladesh government to take legal action against GCM and the London Stock Exchange to de-list GCM Resources immediately. The London Stock Exchange has the power to suspend or expel a company from AIM for breach of the AIM rules. Despite our repeated calls to investigate GCM’s right to do business, the LSE is reluctant to do so. Likewise, the Bangladesh government has the authority to take legal action against GCM and asking LSE to de-list GCM. Neither of them have done anything to de-list GCM so far.

The London-listed coal mining company, GCM Resources plc, formerly known as Asia Energy, held its AGM behind closed doors earlier this year on 20 January.  They did not put a notice online on their website despite the fact that most such activities across the world were being held online. At a time of high Omicron infection rates in the UK, they sent the notice of AGM to their shareholders by post only 13 days before the AGM. This restricted access to information by shareholders, and made it impossible for critics to raise issues in the AGM or to hold protests. Holding an AGM without an online announcement seemed a cowardly policy to avoid protests.

In 2021 GCM held a closed doors AGM, after three postponements. That excluded their own shareholders. GCM are pressing forward with a pernicious policy that excludes their own shareholders and prevents people from attending the AGM. GCM said that ‘due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the AGM will be held virtually as a closed meeting with a minimum number of directors and shareholders present, such that the legal requirement to hold a quorate meeting will be satisfied; and no other shareholders will be permitted to access, attend or participate either in person or virtually.’ They have not given a justification for such a policy.

We believe GCM Resources to be a toxic company, causing human rights violations across Phulbari and Dinajpur. They should be delisted without delay. We are calling on the London Stock Exchange to de-list GCM on this Phulbari Day. AIM has been silent on this matter. The last time we have heard from AIM was in September 2020. The email from AIM addressed to Phulbari Solidarity Group’s Founder, Dr Rumana Hashem, said that AIM would take action if GCM is breaching the law. AIM requested evidence that GCM does not have any license to conduct business in Bangladesh. Phulbari Solidarity Group has sent adequate evidence twice through email and through Royal Mail posts in 2019 and 2020. AIM is yet to acknowledge the receipt of Rumana’s emails. We have not heard from AIM since 2 September 2020. Two years since there is no progress in the investigation.

We call upon the London Stock Exchange and the UK government to de-list GCM Resources plc immediately. In adding our voices to those of the communities in resistance in Phulbari and Bangladesh, we also call upon the Bangladesh government to take legal action against GCM and to implement the 5-point Phulbari Verdict, which the government signed with community representatives on 30 August, 2006. It is the government’s responsibility to investigate what the London Stock Exchange is doing to stop GCM from selling shares on the London share market.  It is also the government’s responsibility to ensure that the 19 community leaders in Phulbari are protected from GCM’s CEO, Gary Lye. It is GCM and Gary Lye who should go on trial and be compelled to pay compensation to the affected communities for their loss.

We Call on the Bangladesh Government to Implement Phulbari Verdict, Take Legal Actions Against GCM Resources, and End Coal Power Now!

Memorandum of 15th Phulbari Day Remembrance Rally, 26 August 2021

Bangladesh High Commission, London

28 Queens Gate, SW7 5JA.

We are here as transnational climate justice campaigners, representatives of Phulbari communities from Northwest Bangladesh, and anti-racist and anti-mining activists, to express our concern about the delay in implementation of the Phulbari Verdict, the banning of coal mining and coal-power in Bangladesh.

This 26^th August marks the 15^th anniversary of the Phulbari killings when three young people were shot dead and more than two hundred injured during a non-violent demonstration of 80,000 people who marched against coal mining in Phulbari and the displacement of 130,000 people from the region by London-listed Asia Energy, thereafter GCM Resources. The day has nationally been called Phulbari Day since. Powerful resistance in the aftermath of the shooting in Phulbari has put a 15-year long halt to the project. Following the killing of the three young people the Bangladesh government signed a contract with the people in Phulbari on 30th August, 2006. The contract, nationally known as the Phulbari Verdict, suggested that the government would ban coal mining in Bangladesh. The government thus overturned GCM’s right to operate in Bangladesh.

Despite lacking a valid contract for mining, GCM Resources plc (GCM) is selling shares on the UK’s share market. The company is currently listed as a mining company on the London Stock Exchange’s Alternative Investment Market (AIM). They have extended mining contracts with two China based companies and they are selling shares in London in the name of a “Phulbari coal project”, a project which does not exist. This is an insult to the affected communities who lost their children in the violence in Phulbari. Selling these shares is also unfair to all Bangladeshi and transnational climate justice campaigners.  

GCM does not hold any valid licence to operate in Phulbari and does not have permission for mining anywhere else in the world. The Bangladesh government is fully aware of GCM’s fraudulent activities. Speaking in August 2019 to the Prothom Alo newspaper, Nasrul Hamid, the Deputy State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources in Bangladesh said:

“Even in the absence of an agreement, GCM or Asia Energy is trading shares in London by providing information that coal would be extracted from Phulbari, which is false. The government has taken this into notice. The government is proceeding to take legal action against them.”

We have previously written about this to the Chief Executive of London Stock Exchange and we proposed a meeting to discuss the matter in 2016, 2019, and 2020. The London Stock Exchange wrote to Phulbari Solidarity Group on 1 September 2020 that AIM was looking into the matter. But there has been no progress since.

It is time for the Bangladesh High Commission to act on this. The High Commissioner of Bangladesh in the UK should take action and write to the London Stock Exchange, telling them to de-list GCM immediately. The government of Bangladesh overturned GCM’s right to operate in Bangladesh more than a decade ago, and wanted to take legal action in August 2019. It has been two years since. Government delay in taking legal action against the company allows GCM to sell shares on the basis of a fake project, Phulbari coal mine, in London’s share market. The Bangladesh government should take urgent action to prevent this from happening. The government should implement the Phulbari Day Verdict urgently.

Instead of implementing the Phulbari Verdict, the government is implementing four destructive coal-fired projects across the country. Despite nationwide and international outrages and outreach to the government to save the Sundarbans, the government is moving ahead with the 1,320 MW Rampal coal–power–plant planned for construction near the Sundarbans in Bangladesh. We understand that Bangladesh-India Friendship Power Company Ltd (BIFPCL) is planning this project and a joint venture between National Thermal Power Company (NTPC) of India and the Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) is going ahead, enabling an additional 154 industrial constructions to be built in southwest Bangladesh near the Sundarbans.

Likewise, the government is failing people across Cox’s Bazar coastal area in Southeast Bangladesh. The plans for the construction of a Japan-financed coal-power-plant, Matarbari Phase 2, in Matarbari will ruin livelihoods of communities, destroy three-cops land, pollute water resources, and harm ecosystems essential for farmers and fishermen and women in villages across the Cox’s Bazar. The government is also letting another China-funded coal-power-plant, a 1,224 MW coal-power-plant (currently under construction), in Bashkhali in Chittagong near Cox’s Bazar where seven plant workers were killed for protesting to receive their due wages earlier this year. Two Chinese firms – SEPCOIII Electric Power and HTG – are financing US$1.75 billion of the plants’ estimated $2.4 billion cost. This is happening via a US$1.739 billion loan from the Exim Bank of China. Previously five more people were killed for protesting against the same coal-power-plant in 2016 and 2017. Several companies are involved in the Bashkhali coal-power-plant constructions and killings. These include S Alam Group, PowerChina, and S.S. Power I Ltd. The latest incident of violence and murders on the premises of S.S. Power I Ltd. happened on 17 April. This cannot go on.

The government is also looking into other coal mining options in other regions in Bangladesh. In between, the government has allowed police to torture people in Parbatipur, for protesting against the Barapukuria shaft mining, within the neighbourhood of Phulbari. The mine workers in Barapukuria were protesting a pay gap by a Chinese company in 2011. Currently the government is looking into options for reopening Barapukuria mine through open cast mining. This is a complete violation of the Phulbari Verdict 2006.

We demand the Bangladesh government implement the Phulbari Verdict fully, immediately,  take legal action against GCM, and ban coal-power.

We call on the Bangladeshi government to urgently:

1.  Ban coal mining and fully implement the Phulbari Verdict.

2.  Take legal action against GCM Resources, urgently.

3.  Write to London Stock Exchange Plc. and the UK government informing them that the Phulbari coal project does not exist, and that GCM is cheating on the share market.

4.   Withdraw from the move to build coal-power plants near the Sundarbans and Bashkhali, and all coal projects in Matarbari and anywhere in Bangladesh.

5.  Stop plans to build Barapukuria open cast coal mine, stop the Barapukuria Coal Mine Company Ltd.  Corporate, and compensate Barapukuria coal mine workers who were tortured in  2013 and 2014.

6.  Consult the Alternative Power and Energy Plan for Bangladesh as a way forward for meeting energy needs of the country.

We ask the High Commissioner to convey our demand to the Prime Minister of Bangladesh, and demand that the government respond to our call immediately.

Sincerely,

We the undersigned:*

1.   Rumana Hashem, Coordinator, Phulbari Solidarity Group.

2.   Richard Solly, Coordinator, London Mining Network.

3.   Kofi Mawuli Klu, External Coordinator, Extinction Rebellion Internationalist Solidarity Network.

4.   Sanjit Prasad Jitu, Spokesman, Phulbari Chapter of National Committee of Bangladesh.

5.   Mafizur Rahman Laltu, Coordinator, Biborton, Dhaka.

6.   Sumana Nandi, International Coordinator, XR Affinity Network of Asia (XRANA).

7.   Aminul Haque, Spokesperson, Phulbari Krishak Mukti Songram.

8.   Abdul Razzak, Convenor, National Democratic Workers Federation.

9.   Alfredo Quarto, Program & Policy Director/ Co-founder, Mangrove Action Project, USA.

10.  Alauddin, President, Phulbari Construction Workers Union.

11.  Alejandra Piazzolla, Spokesperson, Extinction Rebellion Youth.

12.   Angela Ditchfield, Director, Christian Climate Action.

13.  Anne Harris, Campaigner, Coal Action Network (UK).

14.  Alex Burton, Spokesperson, Global Justice Bloc.

15.  Baccu Islam, President,  Phulbari Upazilla Garments Workers Union.

16.  Bappy Das, Tabla Teacher of Surobani Songgit School.

17.  Danielle DeLuca, Advocacy and Development Manager, Gerente,  Recaudación de Fondos y Programa de Defensa, Cultural Survival, USA.

18.  Dr Samina Luthfa, Spokesperson, Sarbajan Katha, Dhaka.

19.  Esther Stanford-Xosei, Coordinator General,  Stop the Maangamizi: We Charge Genocide/Ecocide

20.  Fe Haslam, Co-Principal Organising Secretary, Global Justice Forum.

21.  Hamidul Haque, President, Phulbari Kuli (day Labourers) Workers Union.

22.  Hasan Mehedi, Member Secretary, Bangladesh Working Group on External Debt (BWGED).

23.  Himel Mondal, Coordinator, National Gonofront.

24.  Jargis Ahamed, President, Cable Operators Association, Phulbari.

25.  Joy Prokash Gupta, Phulbari Kali Mondir Committee.

26.  Julie Begum, Chair, Swadhinata Trust, UK.

27.  Mahamud Alam Liton, Mayor of Phulbari Municipal. Dinajpur.

28.  Manik Sarkar, Mayor of Municipal (Former), Phulbari Municipal.

29.  Nils Agger, Co-founder, Extinction Rebellion

30.  Nicholas Garica, Coordinator, Extinction Rebellion Slough.

31.  Nurul Islam Fokir, General Secretary,  Phulbari Rickshaw Van Workers Union.

32.  Peter Burgess, PhD Candidate, King’s College London.

33. Rowan McLaughlin, South Tees Green Party, UK.

34.  Sara Callaway, Coordinator, Women of Colour and Global Women Strike.

35.  Sara Cordovez, Co-founder, Extinction Rebellion Youth Solidarity.

36.  Samarendra Das, Chair, Foil Vedanta.

37. Saiful Islam Jewel, Convenor, Phulbari Chapter of National Committee of Bangladesh.

38.  Shakoat Hossain, General Secretary, Phulbari Dokam Employees Union (Local Business and Entrepreneurs Association in Phulbari).

39.  Shafiul Islam, President, Phulbari  Upazilla Decorator Workers Union.

40.  SM Nuruzzaman, General Secretary, Trade Union Center Of Dinajpur.

41.  Syed Samiul Islam Shohel, Councillor of Phulbari Municipal.

42. Syed Enamul Islam, Co-ordinator, European Action Group on Climate Change in Bangladesh.

*Note: Names of signatories do not follow alphabetical order. Signatures are added as and when signatories signed the letter online.

Press Release: Protest Held at Bangladesh High Commission on 15th Phulbari Day

Protest outside of Bangladesh High Commission in London on 26 August 2021. Photocredit: Fe Haslam

41 Climate Justice Organisations Called on the Bangladesh Government to Implement Phulbari Verdict, Take Legal Actions Against GCM Resources, and End Coal Power.

Some XR Youth Solidarity activists make placards outside the Bangladesh High Commission for Phulbari Solidarity. Photo credit: London Mining Network

On Thursday 26 August, a large number of transnational anti-mining and climate justice campaigners held a 2-hour long protest outside the Bangladesh High Commission in London, where they honoured the victims of the Phulbari Massacre, where three young people were killed and hundreds injured protesting British financed coal mine. From the Remembrance rally, marking the 15th anniversary of the Phulbari Day, 41 climate justice organisations called on the High Commissioner to push for the delisting of GCM Resources from the London Stock Exchange and the banning of new coal projects in Bangladesh.  Despite advance email request for an appointment with the High Commissioner, the High Commissioner refused to meet the London Mining Network, Phulbari Solidarity Group and Extinction Rebellion Internationalist Network activists.

The rally in London was organised by the Phulbari Solidarity Group and London Mining Network, with support from Foil Vedanta, Fossil Free London, Bibortan, Extinction Rebellion Internationalist Solidarity Network, Global Justice Bloc, Extinction Rebellion Youth Solidarity,  and Women of Colour in the Global Women’s Strike.

Activists from XR Youth UK, Global Justice Bloc, and Fossil Free London joined the Phulbari Solidarity Group and London Mining Network, and occupied the entrance of the Bangladesh High Commission for two hours from 10:30AM to 12:35PM. The rally marked the 15th anniversary of the Phulbari Massacre. The gathered activists laid sunflowers, candles, and held banners outside the High Commission, accompanied by mournful cello music by XR Youth Solidarity artist, Clary. The memorandum to Bangladesh High Commissioner was shared and read out loudly by seven activists, led by Rumana Hashem, the coordinator of the Phulbari Solidarity Group and eyewitness to the 2006 massacre. A three minute silence was held in memory of  Al Amin, Mohammad Saleqin and Tarikul Islam. These three, aged 11,13 and 18 respectively were killed on 26 August 2006 when a paramilitary force opened fire during a  nonviolent demonstration of an estimated 80,000 people against the eviction of 130,000 people in Phulbari  to make way for a 572-million ton open cast coal mine. More than 200 other demonstrators were injured.

A handpainted balck banner with sunflowers and candles on either side laid on the ground outside the Bangladesh High Commission by PSGBD in memory of Al Amin, Salekin and Tariqul, who were killed in 2006. Photocredit: Saul Jones.

Extinction Rebellion Youth Solidarity activists held a placard making session outside the High Commission building, stressing the link between young activists and climate justice struggles. A delegation of 5 organisers of the rally requested to meet with MS Saida Muna Tasneem, the High Commissioner for Bangladesh, in order to deliver a memorandum signed by 41 climate justice organisations. This memorandum demand that the High Commissioner put pressure on the London Stock Exchange to de-list GCM Resources, and stress the importance of implementing the Phulbari Verdict, which would ban new coal projects in Bangladesh, to the Bangladeshi Prime Minister. The delegation was denied access to the building as the High Commissioner refused to meet.

First Officer to the High Commissioner receives the memorandum from the protesters. Photocredit: Saul Jones

While activists were disappointed that the High Commissioner did not have time to meet with them, her First Officer has come to the steps of the office to accept the letter on behalf of Ms Tasneem. The First Officer appeared apologetic and repeatedly emphasised that he will make sure a meeting with the representatives of the organising groups and the High Commissioner will be arranged at a later date. Activists said that they were hurt by the fact that High Commissioner did not have interest in meeting with global climate activists on Phulbari Day. Short speeches were given by Richard Solly, network coordinator of London Mining Network, Sara Cordovez of Extinction Rebellion Youth Solidarity, and placards were read loudly by XR YouthUK activists. Activists said that they will come back to this venue until the day the Phulbari Verdict is implemented.

 Rumana Hashem , the co-ordinator of Phulbari Solidarity Group  and an

eye-witness to Phulbari shooting said:

“I am sad that the High Commissioner did not make time for us on  a sensitive issue on Phulbari Day. Bangladesh High Commission is fully aware that the London Stock Exchange is hosting a company that is responsible for gross human rights violations and that does not have a valid license for business in Bangladesh. But they are not taking action to prevent this crime. I have witnessed GCM’s violence in Phulbari. 15 years on, the company continues to grab money by selling deceitful shares on Phulbari’s name. The company does not hold any valid asset to operate in Phulbari and does not have permission for mining anywhere in the world. The Bangladesh’s state minister stated that the government will take legal action against GCM. That was in 2019. Its’ been two years since.  We have written to LSE’s Chief Financial Officer and Chief Executive Officers twice, and submitted evidence showing that GCM is involved in fraudulent business at LSE. It is now the High Commission and Bangladesh Government who should take action.”

Rumana Hashem of PSGBD holds a poster made by the Youths of Phulbari Public Library showing women are shouting at para-military men during curfew after the shooting in the evening of 26 August 2006. Photocredit: Fe Haslam.

Of the campaign to de-list GCM, Richard Solly, Network Coordinator of London Mining Network, said:

“Since LMN was launched in 2007, we have supported the struggle against the Phulbari project. It is utter madness for GCM to keep pressing on with a new opencast coal project which would displace tens of thousands of people dependent on rural occupations, with no guarantee that they could find alternative work, and at a time when we know we have to stop burning coal anyway. UK authorities should not allow London share markets to be used to finance this kind of destructive project. GCM should be delisted.”

In the afternoon, 200 protesters from across the world joined the campaigners at a Live streamed witness and solidarity event hosted by the Phulbari Solidarity Group, Bibortan Cultural Group, and London Mining Network on zoom, where speakers from Phulbari communities and Bangladesh National Committee were joined by Women of Colour, Foil Vedanta and London Mining Network. Artists and eco-feminists from Bibortan cultural group performed Bengali songs and music for Phulbari resistance, save the Sunderbans and ecological struggles. The event ended by reading the Phulbari Verdict 2006, the original agreement with the government and the communities in resistance, which was signed by Anu Muhammad and the Mayor of Dinajpur, Mizanur Rahman Minu on 30 August, 2006. Rumana Hashem read the agreement.

Placard made by XR Youth Solidarity activist in solidarity with Phulbari communities in resistance. Photocredit: Saul Jones

Sara Calaway, Co-founder of Women of Colour, said:

The determined resistance of women in particular halted plans for a devastating coal mine. People of Phulbari — women, men and children, are acting also for us and we must act with them.  Our thoughts are with the families of the children shot dead by paramilitaries, and those injured. These brutal attacks did not to stop protests.  Women, as often happens, were central — on marches, road blocks, and even courageously chasing away paramilitaries with brooms and cooking utensils to protect lives.  Your strength is an inspiration to us all.  We will publicise your struggle especially during the weeks of climate action to end polluters – we must abolish multi-national polluters to save the planet and ourselves. 

Grassroots women are the carers everywhere. They and all carers for people and planet deserve a income to strengthen our struggle and win.  Power to Phulbari, India’s farmers, Haiti, Burma, Marikana and all organising for justice and to save our planet! From Women of Colour GWS & International Global Women’s Strike: UK, India, Ireland, Peru, Thailand, USA.

Sara Cordovez of Extinction Rebellion Youth Solidarity said:

“As XR Youth Solidarity, we stand with the Phulbari Solidarity Group in marking the 15th anniversary of the Phulbari Day shooting. For us at XR Youth Solidarity, Phulbari Day represents the undeniable link between people and planet: our global fossil-fuel addicted economy is killing people, directly and indirectly, and driving us towards the ecological and climate collapse, while leaving communities like Phulbari to mourn for the youth that stood against this fate. We stand united against GCM and emphatically condemn their continued listing in the London Stock Exchange.”

Colombian mining activist Sara Cordovez of XR Youth Solidarity holds her third hand written placard outside of Bangladesh High Commission London on 26 August 2021. Photocredit: Rumana Hashem, PSG.

Speaking from Bangladesh, Professor Anu Muhammad , Member Secretary of the  central National Committee to Protect Natural Resources said:

“ This is unbelievable that a fraud company like GCM which has no credibility even as a business house, rather it has blood in its hands, lies in their leaps, falsehood in their papers, poison in their activities- still enjoying support from British establishment to continue with these. This company has been cheating people in share business to make money in the name of Phulbari where they were behind killing people, on which they have no valid license, where they tried to implement a disastrous project, from where they were driven out in 2006 by a mass uprising and never allowed to enter.

Since 2006, in all these years they have been trying to  incite violence in the area, tried to mobilize criminals against community leaders, made false cases against them, but could not enter into the area. Peoples resistance remains strong. These frauds should also be driven out by British institutions including LSE. We are looking forward to seeing the trial of these criminals in Dhaka and London .”

Extinction Rebellion Youth Solidarity activists hold their hadwritten placards wtih cello outside of Bangladesh High Commission in London on Phulbari Day on 26 August. Photocredit: Rumana Hashem

Join Remembrance Rally Mark the 15th anniversary of the Phulbari Massacre

Today, Thursday 26 August, marks the 15th anniversary of coal murders in Phulbari where three young people Al Amin (11), Mohammad Saleqin (13), and Tarikul Islam (18) were shot dead for protesting against a 600MW open cast coal mine in 2006. More than two hundred people were injured in a non-violent demonstration of 80,000 people who marched against London-listed mining company, GCM Resources Plc. GCM wants to build a massive open cast coal mine by forcibly displacing 130,000 people, to extract coals for 30 years from Bangladesh’s only flood protected location, Phulbari. The day is nationally known as Phulbari Day since the murders of Al Amin, Saleqin and Tarikul.

Powerful resistance by women, children, indigenous men, farmers, workers and teachers and students against the coal project has put 15-year long halt to the mining project in the aftermath of the shooting. The Bangladesh government has declined all contracts with GCM in 2007. But the company is selling shares in London share market in the name of Phulbari coal mine. Despite having no valid contract with Bangladesh, they are moving ahead with their devastating plans. GCM continues its dodgy deals for 15 years. They announced extensions of a joint venture agreement with PowerChina and the MoU with NFC by 12 months, and recruited a local agency called the DG Infratech Pte Ltd, a Bangladesh based agency to lobby with the government. GCM is hosted by the London Stock Exchange’s Alternative Investors Market (AIM).

Today we are going to the Bangladesh High Commission in London to report this and to pay tribute to the victims of Phulbari Day. We demand that the Bangladesh High Commissioner should tell the London Stock Exchange to de-list GCM immediately. The LSE has the power to suspend or expel a company from AIM for breach of the AIM rules. Despite our repeated calls to investigate GCM’s rights to business, the LSE is reluctant to do so.

JOIN US at 10:30AM on Thursday 26 August!

Wear A BLACK Mask!

Wear BLACK  clothes!

Bring along your own HAND WRITTEN placards!

The rally is organised by the Phulbari Solidarity Group and London Mining Network with support from Foil Vedanta, Fossil Free London, Extinction Rebellion Internationalist Solidarity Network UK, Global Justice Bloc, Women of Colour, and XR Affinity Network of Asia. In this Black August, we will pay tribute to Amin, Saleqin and Tarikul with sun flowers, candles, music. We will read our joint statement together to de-list GCM.

Join us!

• 

If the mine is built, 130,000 families of farmers in Phulbari would be displaced, 14,600 hectares of highly cultivable land would be destroyed (1 hectare =2.58 acres). Clean water resources be threatened. One of the world’s largest mangrove forests, the Sunderbans, would be damaged. In return GCM offers only 6 percent tax to the government. They plan to export 94 percent of 572 million tons high quality coal. They would enjoy 9-year tax holiday. After extracting coal for 36+ years, all of the remainder coal would be owned by the company and be exported.

Communities in Phulbari are holding silent vigils and commemorative rallies across the region. Civil societies in Dhaka, Dinajpur and Phulbari will be joined by the Phulbari Solidarity Group and London Mining Network in online protests and witness sessions, demanding the government bans coal mining and take legal action against GCM. We stand in solidarity with the affected communities in Phulbari and demand the London Stock Exchange must de-list GCM. We also demand that the Bangladesh Government bans mining and all coal power plant constructions, and takes urgent legal action against GCM.

Come with your friends and family to pay tribute together to the victims of the Phulbari massacre.


Contact for further information: +44 7309 555950, +447767757645.
Email: contact@londonminingnetwork.org, phulbarisolidaritygroup@gmail.com.

Gluing is NOT a Crime, Business Without License Is A CRIME

Statement on Crown Court Trial of Friends of Phulbari

Phulbari Solidarity Coalition’s Protest outside of London Stock Exchange, 26 August 2020. Photo credit: Bishwazit Baidya, Phulbari Solidarity Group.

On Thursday two of the three transnational friends of Phulbari resistance against coal-mining and a climate criminal corporation will appeal against their criminal charges for taking direct action against GCM Resources at the Southwark Crown Court in London at 10am on 6^th May, 2021. 

The three women climate activists, Angela Ditchfield, Shulamit Morris-Evans and Amy Pritchard, who took direct action were charged with aggravated trespassing and criminal damage-related offences for gluing themselves to the entrance doors of a building that hosted the criminal Annual General Meeting (AGM) of an AIM-listed fraudulent coal mining company GCM Resources, previously Asia Energy, on 28 December 2018. The activists had received conditional discharge on 22 October in 2019, and all were given a 12-month conditional discharge, ordered to pay £350 each in costs and a £20 surcharge by the Deputy district judge at the City of London Magistrate’s Court.  The judge at the City of London Magistrate’s Court decided not to charge activists for aggravated trespassing after he accepted they were motivated by the cause of “human rights”. The activists were then found guilty of criminal damage of £350 each. 

Amy, Angela, and Shulamit outside of the City of London Magistrates Court on Tuesday 22 October 2019. Photo: Christian Climate Action.

Two activists, Angela Ditchfield, 43, and Shulamit Morris-Evans, 25, will appeal against the criminal damage convictions this Thursday because they believe that taking direct action in solidarity with Phulbari peoples is not a crime. It is rather the London-listed mining company, GCM, who should be prosecuted. GCM does not have a valid license for business with Bangladesh but they are selling shares in the name of a project that does not exist. GCM is doing wrong and is a criminal climate corporation. Activists took direct action in solidarity with Phulbari resistance and lent hands to Phulbari Solidarity Group outside the AGM of GCM at 33 Cavendish Road, where Bangladeshi and transnational climate activists were protesting against an immense open cast coal mine to be built in northwest Bangladesh, where GCM wants to construct a 4000 MW coal-power plant by immediately displacing as many as 130, 000 people from the region.  The company is also responsible for inflicting violence at protest of 80,000 people and the murder of three teenage boys who marched in Phulbari on 26 August in 2006. 

The direct action by Angela, Amy and Shulamit had helped disrupt the AGM of GCM. But the superglue damaged the metal where they glued on to their ‘speed gates’. The action inside the lavish building helped us block the entry to the building and disrupted the AGM successfully. Angela, Shulamit, and Amy glued themselves to the entrance of the AGM’s venue before it started in the early morning and continued disrupting the meeting for nearly four hours. Specialist police used solvents to detach them before making arrests. Outside the building 30 more protestors obstructed the entrance by holding banners and speaking out against the coal mine. All major shareholders including GCM’s Head of Corporate Affairs, Brian Mooney, were blocked from entering the building. The attendees waited outside of the venue for several hours, before eventually leaving to go home.

Amy, Angela and Shulamit glued to the entrance: The protest last year at the AGM of GCM Resources at 33 Cavendish Road, London. Photo credit: Paul Dudman, Phulbari Solidarity Group.

Angela Ditchfield is a mother-of-two teenage boys and a Kings Hedges Green Party candidate, Amy Pritchard is an activist at Extinction Rebellion Youth Solidarity, and Shulamit Morris-Evans is a school teacher and a member of Extinction Rebellion London. They all pleaded not guilty in 2019. They told the City of London magistrates that the protest was proportionate due to GCM’s plan to build a mine in Bangladesh that could displace thousands of vulnerable people. They joined a direct action alongside the Bangladeshi anti-coal campaigners at Phulbari Solidarity Group and Reclaim the Power that targeted the extractive company, GCM, at their AGM on 28 December in 2018. 

Protest outside of GCM’s AGM at 33 Cavendish Road in London on 28 December 2018. Photo credit: Golam Rabbani, Phulbari Solidarity Group.

Although GCM do not have any valid stake anywhere in the world, they are aggressively moving to build the coal project in Phulbari. They have announced a strategic partnership with two Chinese firms – China Nonferrous Metal Industry’s Foreign Engineering and Construction Company (NFC) and Power Construction Corporation of China (PowerChina) to develop the mine. On 4th September in 2019 GCM signed another agreement with DG Infratech Pte Ltd, a Dhaka-based agency to get a deal with Bangladesh government. During this pandemic, GCM’s CEO, Gary Lye has been harrassing frontline community activists in the ground in Phulbari and Dinajpur. Gary Lye has been pushing the arbitray cases he filed against 19 community leaders and farmers who have been undergoing trial in Dinajpur Magistrate’s Court this year when Bangladesh has been struggling in this testing time.

If the Phulbari coal mine is built, it would lead to forced-displacement of up to 220, 000 people over the 36 years life cycle of the project. The company would give only 6 percent of all extracted coal to Bangladesh and the remainder of high quality coal would be exported. Bangladesh government has declined the licence of GCM in 2007. We must resist!

A coalition of 12 climate organisations, under the banner of the Phulbari Solidarity Coalition, have asked London Stock Exchange to consider de-listing GCM and investigate the criminal activities of the company. The coalition echoing the demands in their letter said that allowing GCM to retail shares on the share market is to allow cheating on ordinary people. London Stock Exchange is yet to take action to de-list the company.   

Join the hearing and support the brave-green women activists at the Crown Court. 

Where? Southwark Crown Court 

When? 10am Thursday 6th May.

#CoalKills #EndClimateCrime #NoToCoalMining  #DelistGCMfromLondonStockExchange  EndClimateDisplacement #ClimateChangeIsAFeministIssue #StandWithPhulbariResistance #PhulbariSolidarity #Don’tUndermineBangladesh #NOToClimateRefugees #PhulbariResistance

GCM Resources is avoiding scrutiny

A Joint Statement by Phulbari Solidarity Group, London Mining Network, Foil Vedanta, Fossil Free UK, Urgewald and XR Asian Affinity Network

The London-listed coal mining company, GCM Resources plc, are holding their AGM this year on 25 February but they are pressing forward a pernicious policy that excludes their own shareholders and restrain people from attending the AGM. GCM said that ‘due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the AGM will be held virtually as a closed meeting with a minimum number of directors and shareholders present, such that the legal requirement to hold a quorate meeting will be satisfied; and no other shareholders will be permitted to access, attend or participate either in person or virtually.’ GCM goes on saying, ‘As a consequence of the current COVID-19 restrictions imposed by the UK Government, shareholders will not be permitted to attend the Annual General Meeting and will only be able to vote by proxy. This year, only the Chairman of the Meeting may be appointed as a proxy.’

Note this: the company is using COVID-19 restrictions to exclude shareholders from a virtual meeting, at which the risk of transmission is zero. It would be legal and practical to admit shareholders to the virtual meeting. In case GCM Resources’ video conferencing capacity is insufficient to allow more than their legal quorum of two shareholders to attend a virtual meeting, London Mining Network offered the possibility of hosting GCM’s AGM on their own Zoom account – but GCM did not respond to the suggestion. We assume, therefore, that GCM Resources is deliberately trying to evade engagement with, and accountability to, their own shareholders.

The UK Government’s Financial Reporting Council published a Corporate Governance report in October 2020 examining the varying practices of UK companies in responding to legislation limiting gatherings in the light of COVID-19. The report, AGMs: an opportunity for change, explicitly criticised this kind of arrangement: ‘The use of closed meetings without any additional opportunities for shareholders to engage – although legal – effectively disenfranchises retail shareholders from their right to hold boards to account, and such meetings are not aligned with the importance of shareholders engagement set out in the UK Corporate Governance Code.’ (see Page 9)

The Financial Reporting Council’s report goes on: ‘Shareholder rights are best served by companies that provide highly effective and clear communication before, during, and after the meeting, and allow full participation from those shareholders that wish to attend, either in person (when this is possible) or virtually.’ (see Page 11)

The board of GCM Resources certainly needs to be held to account. GCM’s shares were temporarily suspended from trading on the London Stock Exchange’s Alternative Investment Market (AIM) on 6 January 2021 after the company’s Nomad (Nominated Advisor), Strand Hanson Limited, has resigned on 4 December 2020, with no reason being given. But we are sure this is a result of our letter campaign 2020. All AIM-traded companies have to have a registered Nomad if they are to continue trading, and it took GCM over a month to lure another advisor, W.H. Ireland Limited, in to take on the role.

AIM has come in for serious specific criticism for regulatory weakness. The highly respected UK NGO Rights and Accountability in Development (RAID) made a submission to the London Stock Exchange during a 2017 review of AIM’s rules. That submission criticised the rules review itself for not being radical enough, and called for a wholesale, independent review of AIM, with terms of reference including the ability to consider the option of closing AIM down if it could not be significantly reformed. Citing numerous examples, and referring to a number of high-profile scandals and failures, RAID’s submission listed a number of short-comings. These included, among other things, limited due diligence on admission to the market; a lack of scrutiny making ongoing due diligence extremely weak; and the failure of AIM’s privatised system of regulation whereby day-to-day regulation is passed to fee-paying companies, the Nomads. In 2018 London Mining Network published a report examining the appalling human rights and environmental impacts of eight mining companies trading on AIM; one of them was GCM Resources.

So AIM itself is clearly a cesspit of poor practice; the system of Nomads is open to abuse amounting to corruption. Against this background, GCM Resources’ behaviour seems to have been so unacceptable that the company’s Nomad Strand Hanson Limited ditched them. We call on W H Ireland Limited to do likewise.

GCM’s only asset is a coal deposit in Phulbari, Bangladesh, where they have no licence to mine and where they face massive opposition from the tens of thousands of people who stand to be forcibly relocated if a mine should be constructed. GCM’s CEO Gary Lye has been abusing community leaders and peasants in Phulbari and Dinajpur, by filing false cases against 18 frontline organisers of Phulbari outburst 2006. On 4 February and 24 January the 18 community organisers have had to face trials in DInjpur in the midst of a pandemic.The company is currently relying on agreements with Chinese energy companies to remain in business.

GCM remain, as they always have been, a model of poor corporate practice. We call on the London Stock Exchange to delist the company from the Alternative Investment Market. We call on the company to get out of Phulbari; to get out of Bangladesh; and to get out of London. We call on the company’s Board to do something more constructive with their time than pursuing a project which would wreck the lives and livelihoods of tens of thousands of people in Phulbari and contribute to the climate catastrophe which threatens to wreck life for everyone on this planet.

Stop listing GCM on the London Stock Exchange

The green envelop contained a letter of complaint about GCM’s fraudulent business, demanding London Stock Exchange must delist GCM Resources. It was submitted to London Stock Stock Exchange on 26 August 2020.

This is the Phulbari Solidarity coaltion letter which was read out together by representatives of six organisations who have cohosted a powerful green vigil outside of London Stock Exchange on 14th Phulbari Day on 26 August , 2020. Co-authored by the coalition cooridnators, this letter is an updated version of our 2019 memorandum – which was authored by Rumana Hashem, the coordinator of the Phulbari Solidarity Group and an eye-witness to GCM’s violence in Phulbari in 2006, and was signed by a coalition of 12 international organisations.  The below letter has been signed by 30 organisations including 13 Bangadesh based and Phulbari community organisations, and 17 international climate and human rights organisations.  As London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) security staff had rejected the letter, we have, as last year, posted the letter along with neccessary documentations by Royal Mail to David Schwimmer at London Stock Exchange Group. 

The letter is published below with a full list of signatories. We await written reponse from David Schwimmer. We will not be fooled by any hoax and whitewashing emails from the AIM Regulation office. We would like to hear directly from the LSE communication office and David Schwimmer. Failure to reply in full to this letter would mean that the coalition will take legal action against LSEG for supporting fradulent business of GCM Resoruces.

Memorandum of Green Vigil to London Stock Exchange

Consider De-listing of GCM Resources from London Stock Exchange Immidiately!

Phulbari Solidarity Coalition. London, UK. 26 August, 2020.

 

 

David Schwimmer

Chief Executive Officer

London Stock Exchange Group.

10 Paternoster Square

London EC4M 7LS.

 

We write to you in regard to an urgent investigation and overdue de-listing of a company on the London Stock Exchange (LSE). The company is called the GCMResources plc. (GCM), formerly known as “Asia Energy”. GCM is listed as a mining company on the London Stock Exchange’s Alternative Investors Market (AIM). They are selling shares in London’s share market in the name of a project called “Phulbari coal project”, which does not exist. The company does not hold any valid asset to operate in Phulbari and does not have permission for mining anywhere in the world.

We would like to draw your attention to fraudulent activities of GCM, and would like to hand over some key documentation about the company’s unethical business, thereby asking you to undertake an urgent enquiry into GCM’s business and to consider de-listing GCM from LSE.

Under the banner of Phulbari Solidarity Coalition we are campaigning alongside groups in Bangladesh to raise awareness about the human rights abuse, ecocide, and fraudulent business of GCM, who want to build a massive open-cast coal mine in Phulbari, the only flood protected location in northwest Bangladesh. Due to severe level of human rights violation by GCM’s Bangladesh subsidiary, Asia Energy, in Phulbari in 2006 the government in Bangladesh declined to renew the company’s licence. We have written about this to you twice in the past (on 19 August 2019, and 26 August 2016). Yet the company, currently listed on AIM, continues to grab money by selling deceitful shares on Phulbari coal project’s name in London’s share market.

The Bangladesh government reiterated that the Phulbari project is unlikely to go ahead and that GCM will never be given permission to return to Phulbari or northwest Bangladesh for coal extraction. The government has overturned GCM’s right to operate in Bangladesh more than a decade ago.  Speaking in August 2019 to the Prothom Alo newspaper, Nasrul Hamid, the Deputy State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources in Bangladesh said:

“Even in the absence of an agreement, GCM or Asia Energy is trading shares in London by providing information that coal would be extracted from Phulbari, which is false. The government has taken this into notice. The government is proceeding to take legal action against them.”

Given the LSE’s remit in overseeing the conduct of the AIM-listed companies, we are asking that the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) undertakes an impartial enquiry into GCM’s unethical business and establish that the company holds any valid license for mining in Phulbari or abroad with a view to review the company’s listing within the London Stock Exchange.

We ask you to kindly respond to our call for investigation immediately and expel GCM Resources from London Stock Exchange .

GCM is one of a string of London listed mining companies linked to the murder and ‘massacre’ of protesters, including Lonmin, Glencore, Kazakhmys, ENRC, Essar, Vedanta, Anglo Gold Ashanti, African Barrick Gold and Monterrico Metals. We note the failure of the Financial Conduct Authority and the London Stock Exchange to investigate or penalise any London listed mining company on these grounds is bringing the LSE into disrepute.

The LSE has the power to suspend or expel a company from AIM for breach of the AIM rules . Despite our repeated calls to investigate GCM’s rights to business, the LSE is reluctant to do so. We had been at LSE with black vigil in 2019 and red vigil in 2016. But we have not been heard by you.  From this green vigil and a wider coalition that stand with the people in Phulbari, we demand the London Stock Exchange must de-list GCM.

The 26th August marks 14th anniversary of the Phulbari killing when three young people were shot dead and more than two hundreds injured in a non-violent demonstration of 80,000 people who marched against plans by GCM in Phulbari. The day has nationally been called the Phulbari Day since. Powerful resistance in the aftermath of the shooting in Phulbari has put a decade long halt to the project. Following the killing of three young people in Asia Energy’s incited violence Bangladesh government has declined to renew the company’s contract to operate in Phulbari.  Despite lacking a valid contract for mining, GCM is selling shares and cheating on the UK’s share market.

We have previously written about this to you, David Warren – the Chief Financial Officer at LSEG,  and to Mr Xavier Rolet KBE – the former Chief Executive of London Stock Exchange. We have previously proposed for a meeting to discuss the matter in 2016. Nevertheless there was no response.

We hope that you will hear us this time. This is for the third time that we are writing to you. We ask you to stop listing GCM on the London Stock Exchange. Mining companies must be held to account and the London Stock Exchange is responsible to ensure that.

In support of our concerns we have separately mailed you with some key documentary evidence:

1.   Published statement by the Deputy State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources in Bangladesh.
2.   OECD complaint about GCM-led human rights abuse and corruption in Bangladesh   submitted to and accepted by UK national Contact Point.
3.     Report on the cancellation of contract with Bangladesh government.
4.     Reports on GCM’s deceitful sales of their shares in the name of Phulbari Project.
5.     Evidence of GCM’s continuous violence and harassment of opponents to the project (see  Annex 1 & 2).

If you need further information, please feel free to contact us (as per below contact details). We look forward to hearing from you in due course.

With regards,

The undersigned:

 

Alauddin, President, Phulbari Construction Workers Union.

Aminul Haque, Spokesperson, Phulbari Krishak Mukti Sangram [the Peasants Liberation Struggle in Phulbari)

Aminul Islam Bablu, Chairman (former), Phulbari Upazila.

Alejandra Piazzolla, Spokesperson, Extinction Rebellion Youth.

Alfredo Quarto, Director, Mangrove Action Project, US.

Angela Ditchfield, Director, Christian Climate Action.

Anne Haris, Coal Action Network, UK.

Hasan Mehedi, Chief Executive, CLEAN (Coastal Livelihood and Environmental Action Network).

Hamidul Haque, President, Phulbari Kuli (day labourers) Workers Union, Phulbari.

Himel Mondal, National Democratic Workers Federation, Phulbari, Dinajpur.

Johan Frijns, Director, Bank Track.

Joy Prokash Gupta, President, Phulbari Kalimondir Committee, Dinajpur.

Kofi Mawuli Klu, External Co-ordinator, Extinction Rebellion Internationalist Solidarity Network.

Knud Voecking, Director, Urgewald e.V., Germany.

Manik Sarkar, Mayor of Municipal, Phulbari Municipality.

Md. Nurul Islam Fakir, General Secretary, Phulbari Rickshaw-Van Workers Union.

Nicholas Garica, Co-ordinator, Extinction Rebellion Slough.

Nick Bryer, Europe Campaign Manager, 350.org.

Nils Agger, Co-founder, Extinction Rebellion, UK.

Noga Levy-Rapoport, UK Student Climate Network (UKSCN).

Richard Roberts, Spokesperson, Reclaim the Power.

Richard Solly, Network Coordinator, London Mining Network.

Rumana Hashem, Co-ordinator, Phulbari Solidarity Group.

Samarendra Das, Chair, Foil Vedanta.

Sam Knights,  Spokesperson, Labour Campaign for Human Rights.

Sanjit Prasad Jitu, Spokesperson, Phulbari Chapter of National Committee of Bangladesh.

Sakhoyat Hossain, General Secretary, Phulbari Dokan Employees Union (Local Business and Entrepreneurs Association in Phulbari) .

Sara Cordovez Lopez, Spokesperson, Extinction Rebellion Youth Solidarity.

Shafiul Islam, President, Phulbari Upazila Decorator Workers Union.

SM Nuruzman, General Secretary, Trade Union Center of Dinajpur District, Dinajpur.

Syed Saiful Islam Jewel, Convener, National Committee for Protection of Oil, Gas, Mineral Resources and Power Ports. Phulbari.

 

 

Joint Press Release: Blood, Coal and the London Stock Exchange

Marking the 14th Phulbari Day, Campaigners Demand GCM Resources is De-listed from London Stock Exchange

 

• 26 August is Phulbari Day, marking the anniversary of the deaths of three young Bangladeshi protesters in 2006.
• A coalition of activists held a vigil in solidarity with those marking the day in Bangladesh.
• They presented a demand to the London Stock Exchange that GCM Resources be immediately de-listed.
• Security at the LSE refused to accept a formal letter to David Schwimmer, Chief Executive of the London Stock Exchange Group.

Yesterday transantional activists and climate campaigners gathered outside the London Stock Exchange in a somber vigil of remembrance and display of impassioned solidarity. Wearing green and laying white flowers, they observed the 14^th anniversary of the killing of three young protesters, Al Amin (11 years old), Salekin (13 years old), and Tarikul (18 years old), who were shot dead on 26 August in 2006 while non-violently protesting the planned construction of an open cast coal mine in Phulbari, Bangladesh.

26 August ‘Phulbari Day’ is recognised in Bangladesh and is observed with vigils and commemorations by indigenous communities and anti-mining activists across the country.

GCM Resources PLC (formerly Asia Energy) are the British-based company behind the proposed mine. They continue to trade shares in their ‘Phulbari Coal Project’ today, despite having no valid asset to operate in Phulbari and no permission to mine anywhere in the world. In their 2019 Annual Report, GCM reveled that they have signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Power China (the Chinese state owned power company) to construct a coal fire power station in Phulbari. The coalition of activists from a range of climate justice and human rights groups – led by the Phulbari Solidarity Group – London Mining Network, Labour Campaign for Human Rights, Extinction Rebellion Youth Solidarity, XR Slough, Foil Vedanta, and Reclaim the Power – demanded that GCM be de-listed from the stock exchange and no longer be allowed to trade shares.

 

 

Gathering to the sound of soft drumming outside the main entrance to the Stock Exchange, the campaigners proceeded to paint the names of the dead on a green banner in an act of commemoration. White flowers were laid and candles lit in their memory. The demands made of the LSE that GCM be de-listed were read aloud and, in keeping with the vigil also held today in Phulbari and across Bangladesh, a 3 minute silence was observed for Al Amin, Mohammad Salekin and Tarikul Islam.

 

The vigil was later joined by an elderly British-Bangladeshi group who were demonstrating outside of the London Stock Exchange after midday, under banner of the UK branch of the National Committee to Protect Oil, Gas, Mineral Resources, Power and Port in Bangladesh . Other groups attending the vigil include Extinction Rebellion Taunton, Global Justice Rebellion, and Extinction Rebellion Internationalist Solidarity Network.  The intergenrationl green vigil ended with soft drumming.

 

Representatives of the Phulbari Solidarity Coalition then attempted to deliver a formal letter (see Green Memorandum to London Stock Exchange) to the Stock Exchange, requesting that David Schwimmer, Chief Executive of the London Stock Exchange Group begin the process of de-listing GCM and launch an investigation into their activities. The letter presented in a green envelop was not accepted by the security present. A copy was left behind at the entrance to the building and another to be posted to the LSE Group.

In their letter, the  Phulbari Solidarity Coalition alleges that GCM have engaged in fraudulent activity in continuing to sell shares in London based on a project that has no legal permission to go ahead in Bangladesh. Further, the letter suggests that the plan to build an open cast coal mine in the only flood protected region of northwest Bangladesh constitutes ecocide. The LSE has not previously acted to penalise any London listed mining company for alleged involvement in the killing of protesters. The coalition says this is bringing the LSE into disrepute.

 

Dr Rumana Hashem, co-ordinator of Phulbari Solidarity Coalition and eye-witness to Phulbari shooting said:

“ London Stock Exchange has shown no respect to us. By rejecting our memo, and not letting the post room accept our letter the LSE has rather proved that they support unethical business of British companies who can incite violence overseas.

The LSE has the power to suspend or expel a company from AIM for breach of the AIM rules . Despite our repeated calls to investigate GCM’s business, the London Stock Exchange is reluctant to do so. The London Stock Exchange should de-list GCM immediately.

But I am inspired by the creatively powerful protest today, led by the coalition in which XR Youth Solidarity, XR Slough and London Mining Network played vital roles. This shows that Phulbari resistance will not die. Here on the 14th Phulbari Day, we are growing .  Our struggles will continue as a connected resistance against coal mining. We will come back to London Stock Exchange until the day this company has been delisted.”

Ian Byrne MP said,

“I fully support the protest outside the London Stock Exchange today and stand in solidarity with the Bangladeshi people. The United Kingdom cannot be complicit in human rights abuses abroad and we have a responsibility to better regulate our financial industries in a just transition to a more green and sustainable future.”

Sara Cordovez of Extinction Rebellion Youth Solidarity said:

“As XR Youth Solidarity, we stand with the Phulbari Solidarity Group in marking the 14th anniversary of the Phulbari Day shooting. The human beings who were murdered, Al Amin (11 yo), Mohammad Salekin (13 yo), and Tarikul Islam (18 yo), were all youth: their deaths represent the most violent manifestation a system that actively silences the youth’s ability to cause a radical shift from corporate neoliberal extractivist enterprise. As a united global youth community, we mourn for the futures that were taken away from them by the violence of the extractivist system we live in. For us at XR Youth Solidarity, Phulbari Day represents the undeniable link between people and planet: our global fossil-fuel addicted economy is killing people, directly and indirectly, and driving us towards the ecological and climate collapse, while leaving communities like Phulbari to mourn for the youth that stood against this fate. We stand united against GCM and emphatically condemn their continued listing in the London Stock Exchange.”

Speaking from the Labour Campaign for Human Rights, Mick Whitley MP said:

“The British-based coal company, GCM Resources, is showing complete disregard for the climate crisis that threatens our planet. Moreover it is trampling on the rights of the Bangladeshi people. I fully support the protest outside the London Stock Exchange today and stand in solidarity with the Bangladeshi people. The United Kingdom must not be complicit in human rights abuses anywhere in the world and we have a responsibility to properly regulate our industries in a transition to a more green and sustainable future, and that respects the lives and the rights of people everywhere.”

Of the campaign to de-list GCM, Richard Solly (Network Coordinator of London Mining Network) said:

“Since LMN was launched in 2007, we have supported the struggle against the Phulbari project. It is utter madness for GCM to keep pressing on with a new opencast coal project which would displace tens of thousands of people dependent on rural occupations, with no guarantee that they could find alternative work, and at a time when we know we have to stop burning coal anyway. UK authorities should not allow London share markets to be used to finance this kind of destructive project. GCM should be delisted.”

Speaking from Bangladesh, Professor Anu Muhammad, Member Secretary of the central National Committee to Protect Oil, Gas, Natural Resources, and Power-Port in Bangladesh said:

“This is unbelievable that a fraud company like GCM which has no credibility even as a business house, rather it has blood in its hands, lies in their leaps, falsehood in their papers, poison in their activities- still enjoying support from British establishment to continue with these. This company has been cheating people in share business to make money in the name of Phulbari where they were behind killing people, on which they have no valid license, where they tried to implement a disastrous project, from where they were driven out in 2006  by a mass uprising  and never allowed to enter. 

Since 2006, in all these years they have been trying to recreate violence in the area, tried to mobilize criminals against community leaders, made false cases against them, but could not enter into the area. People’s resistance remains strong. These frauds should be driven out by British institutions including LSE. We are looking forward to seeing the trial of these criminals in Dhaka and London.”

Yesterday’s green action took place in solidarity with those in Bangladesh and mirrors a silent rally of the Phulbari communities in Nimtola corner. It aims to put pressure on the LSE to de-list GCM. If this were to happen, GCM would no longer be able to trade on the LSE’s Alternative Investment Market (AIM), significantly affecting their funding and representing clear action being taken to hold the company to account. Campaigners point to potential fraud, harassment of local communities and the fact that GCM holds no valid license to mine in Bangladesh as reasons to de-list the company.

Despite lacking any contract with the national government, GCM have continued to move forward aggressively with their plans, which would displace up to 230,000 people and destroy up to 94% of the region’s agricultural land. Their 2019 Annual Report states that GCM have signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Power China to develop a 4000MW power plant in Phulbari.  In May 2020, GCM announced extensions to strategic partnership talks for the Phulbari coal project in Bangladesh, they extended a joint venture agreement with PowerChina and the MoU with NFC by 12 months to January 2021, and recruited a local agency called the DG Infratech Pte Ltd, a Bangladesh company to lobby with the government and to get their dodgy deal through.

Speaking in August 2019 to the Prothom Alo newspaper, Deputy State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources, Nasrul Hamid said:

“Even in the absence of an agreement, GCM or Asia Energy is trading shares in London by providing information that coal would be extracted from Phulbari, which is false. The government has taken this into notice. The government is proceeding to take legal action against them.”

A short film of the vigil is avaiable here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avVbmZd4QQY

 

Press Contact:

To organise statements or interviews with any of the host organisations,  and for video clips from the green vigil please contact:

Saul Jones – Communications Coordinator, London Mining Network

e-mail: saul@londonminingnetwork.org

phone: 07928443248

Green Vigil at London Stock Exchange: Mark 14th Phulbari Day

Memorial of Al Amin, Mohammad Salekin, and Tarikul Islam in Phulbari. It reads: WE DO NOT WANT COAL MINE! AMIN, SAEKIN, TARIKUL, SLEEP IN PEACE. WE ARE AWAKE AND WIlL REMAIN VIGILANT.

Demand DE-LIST GCM from London Stock Exchange

Protest outside of London Stock Exchange

11:30AM – 12:30PM  on Wednesday, 26 August 2019

 10 Paternoster Square, London EC4M 7LS

 

This 26th August marks the 14th anniversary of the Phulbari Day shooting. On 26 August in 2006 three young people Al Amin (11 yo), Mohammad Salekin (13 yo), and Tarikul Islam (18 yo) were shot dead, and more than two hundreds injured in a non-violent demonstration of 80,000 people who marched against a London-listed mining company, GCM Resources Plc., in Phulbari. GCM want to build a massive open cast coal mine by forcibly displacing 130,000 people in Phulbari, the only flood protected location in northwest Bangladesh. The day has been marked as Phulbari Day since the murders of Al Amin, Salekin and Tarikul.

Powerful resistance by women, children, indigenous men, farmers and teachers against the mining company has in the aftermath of the shooting put a decade long halt to the coal project. The Bangladesh government has declined all contracts with GCM. But the company continues its dodgy deals. GCM announced extensions to strategic partnership talks for the Phulbari coal project in Bangladesh, they extended a joint venture agreement with PowerChina and the MoU with NFC by 12 months to January 2021, and recruited a local agency called the DG Infratech Pte Ltd, a Bangladesh company to lobby with the government and to get their dodgy deal through. Despite having no valid contract with Bangladesh, they are aggressively moving ahead with their plans.

If the mine is built, 130,000 people and farmers in Phulbari would be displaced, 14,600 hectares of highly cultivable land would be destroyed (1 hectare=2.58 acres), clean water resources be threatened and one of the world’s largest mangrove forests, the Sunderbans, would be damaged. In return GCM would enjoy 9 years tax holiday, would extract coal for 36n years, and offers only 6 percent revenue to the government keeping 94 percent profit from 572 million tons of high quality coal in Phulbari.

London Stock Exchange (LSE) is hosting this company. The LSE has the power to suspend or expel a company from AIM for breach of the AIM rules . Despite our repeated calls to investigate GCM’s rights to business, the LSE is reluctant to do so. We had been there with black vigil and red vigils in the past. This year we are going with a green vigil. We demand the London Stock Exchange must de-list GCM.

In this Black August, Phulbari Solidarity Coalition stands with the people in Phulbari.  The coalition’s Green Vigil is organised by the Phulbari Solidarity Group, London Mining Network, XR Youth Solidarity,  Reclaim the Power, Labour Party for Human Rights, and XR Slough. We will be protesting silently with canvassing in the City of London. In the spirit of Black Lives Matter, we will pay tribute to the three black youths Al Amin, Mohammad Salekin and Tarikul Islam by Green Canvassing and art works by the youths.

Join us. Confirm attendance via:  https://www.facebook.com/events/220971732649471/

Communities in Phulbari are holding silent rallies in Nimtola corner to pay tribute to Amin, Salekin and Tarikul’s graveyard on 26th August. Civil societies in Bangladesh joined by the Phulbari Solidarity Group are hosting online protests and webinars on witnesses to Phulbari Day, demanding the government take legal action against GCM. Coinciding with the community commemoration,  we will hold a GREEN VIGIL at the London Stock Exchange (nearest tube station: St Paul’s). We will honour the lost lives by rallying and canvassing silently at the City of London. We demand London Stock Exchange MUST De-list GCM Resources Plc.

     JOIN US  at 11:30AM on Wednesday 26 August!

Wear Green as a symbol of Solidarity with Phulbari!

Wear A Mask!

Bring along your hand written placards! 

Use hand gloves.

We will maintain social distance but commemorate and protest together!

See you there!

 

Contact for further information: +447767757645,  +44 07903 851695.

Email: phulbarisolidaritygroup@gmail.com, contact@londonminingnetwork.org ,xry.intrrnationalist@gmail.com

 

Phulbari Solidarity Group, London Mining Network, Extinction Rebellion Youth Solidarity, Extinction Rebellion Slough, Reclaim the Power, Labour Party For Human Rights, Foil Vedanta, and Global Justice Rebellion.

#PhulbariDay #CoalKills #PhulbariResistance #BlackLivesMatter

Thousands Took Actions Against AGM of Miner GCM, Forcing Its Directors to Step Back

PRESS RELEASE: Phulbari Solidarity Coalition

21 March 2020, London

For immediate release

Three thousands climate justice campaigners from across the world have taken online action against the AGM of GCM Resources, as GCM planned meeting neglecting social distancing during London lockdown last Friday.

The four-fold online-action was launched on Wednesday 18^th March to expose GCM, by a wide coalition of 13 organisations led by the Phulbari Solidarity Group, involving social media and mass-Emails which forced the company’s three directors and Executive Chairman Datuk Michael Tang to stand back from attending the AGM. Despite directors stood back, the company’s CEO Gary Lye who was appointed Alternate Director on the night before the AGM, has gone ahead with the meeting.

Climate activist of Stand Up To Racism held a handpainted placard as they protest online, on Friday 20 March 2019. Copyright: Phulbari Solidarity Coalition

GCM Resources, formerly Asia Energy plc, is one of the two London-listed mining companies that plan to build a massive open pit coal-mine by displacing upto 220, 000 people from Phulbari. Their 2019 AGM saw two postponements before it was held on 20^th March 2020, at an imposing venue in the QEII Centre in Westminster. Bangladesh’s Deputy Energy Minister claims that GCM has no valid asset to operate in Phulbari, and that government will take legal action over GCM’s selling shares in London on Phulbari project’s name without permit.

In August 2019 the Deputy State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources, Nasrul Hamid, made this statement to the daily Prothom Alo newspaper:

“Even in the absence of an agreement, GCM or Asia Energy is trading shares in London by providing information that coal would be extracted from Phulbari, which is false. The government has taken this into notice. The government is proceeding to take legal action against them.”

The Phulbari Solidarity Coalition had organised loud picket at the AGM of GCM for what would have been the 11th consecutive year. As social distancing is key at this time of pandemic, the campaigners have changed the event into online to avoid in person picketing. They protested online as a cross-network action for resisting mining, colonisation, the protection of indigenous peoples, land and environmental justice, and public health.

Some 3,000 Facebook users have taken action by holding placards “GCM:Hands Off Phulbari”, while hundreds were tweeting and calling on instagram #ExposeGCM. Others have emailed GCM’s official email, by calling on GCM’s directors and CEO to withdraw all legal cases against the community leaders, and to stop selling shares and signing contracts with external corporations on the basis of Phulbari coal project.

Meanwhile, in Bangladesh, the Phulbari communities outraged. In a written press statement, Joy Prokash Gupta, the spokesperson of the Phulbari chapter of the National Committee of Bangladesh, stated:

GCM’s AGM in London is insane and unethical. Its fraudulent business must be stopped immediately. Government must implement the 6-point demands of Phulbari verdict 2006, and take legal action against the company by ensuring harassment of and false legal cases against community leaders will be withdrawn immediately.

Sanjit Prasad, a community organiser who participated in PSG’s online-action via Facebook last Friday, said:

Asia Energy plc, thereafter GCM, has been abusing us since mid 2000. This company inflicted violence that killed three of our young boys in August 2006. Al Amin, Saleqin and Tarikul were shot dead. My co-worker, Bablu Roy, who was a van driver, is now in wheelchair because of GCM.  It’s CEO, Gary Lye, filed false legal cases against me and 18 community leaders in Phulbari and Dinajpur. Our Mayor is also abused by GCM. Gary Lye claims 1Billion Bangladeshi Taka from us for so called damage of his business intentions.

The communities had planned a long-march from Phulbari to Dinajpur against continuous abuse of community leaders, which was scheduled on 30^th March, and now been postponed until the pandemic is over.  

Dr Rumana Hashem, the Chair of Phulbari Solidarity Group who coordinated the Coalition’s online picket, said:

GCM’s forced AGM indicates that it has scant regard for its investors. The London Stock Exchange guidance asked all brokers to avoid business last Monday and London is in lockdown. GCM’s directors have heard our online calls and they stood back but its reckless CEO went ahead. How is this possible for a CEO to take over charges of directors before an AGM? I had never heard of any other London-listed company to appoint alternate director the night before the AGM. They are running scared because they do not have a valid license for business. London Stock Exchange now needs to investigate whether the company is in breach of the law. What does the company have to hide, postponing their AGM at peace time and holding meeting during emergency lockdown?

Richard Solly, the Coordinator of London Mining Network, said:

I attend lots of mining company AGMs and none is as pathetically badly organised as GCM’s. Every time GCM holds its AGM, I think ‘this must be the last GCM AGM’. The company seems to have no licence for its planned operations in Bangladesh and there is massive community opposition. Why would anyone trust them to organise a mining operation when they can’t even organise an AGM in usual business time? They’ve postponed their 2019 AGM twice because of ‘security concerns’ being expressed by the planned venues. Didn’t they tell the venues there would be a protest? There’s always a protest! Why has our protest come as a surprise? Would you trust these people to sell you a used car? I wouldn’t!

 

Despite no contract GCM have signed three Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Chinese companies attempting at coal mining in Phulbari in 2019. Ahead of the GCM AGM on Friday, their share price indicated a significant decline from a high of around 28.25 GBX* in March 2019 to a lowly figure of 7.10 GBX* at close of trade. GCM’s share price hiked upto 2 GBX after the AGM.

Friday’s four-fold Online-Action was co-hosted by the Global Justice Rebellion, London Mining Network,  XR Universities, Environmental Justice Bloc, Labour Campaign for Human Rights, Extinction Rebellion International Solidarity Network, XR Youth, XR Slough, Extinction Rebellion London, XR Scotland, and Extinction Rebellion. The action was supported by 350.org, Stand Up To Racism, No Tar Sands,Christian Climate Action, and Urgewald.

 

 

 

Media contacts

Darren Gens, Phulbari Solidarity Group: phulbarisolidaritygroup@gmail.com,  +44 (0) 753356963.

 

Notes to Editors

GCM Resources (then ‘Asia Energy’) is listed on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) of the London Stock Exchange in 2004, following the granting of a two year permit (license) from the Bangladesh Energy Department’s Bureau of Mineral Resource Development on 27 January 2004 for exploration and surveying of a 572 million tonnes open cast coal mine at Phulbari in Dinajpur, Northwest Bangladesh. A Scheme of Development was submitted to the Government of Bangladesh in 2005 but has never received approval. The original permit expired on 27 January 2006 and has not been renewed, yet the company has continued to sell shares and raise capital in London based on claims that a contract will be forthcoming. GCM Resources has no other assets or projects in its portfolio.3

On 26 August 2006 three young people – Al Amin (11 yo), Mohammad Salqin (13 yo) and Tarikul Islam (18 yo) were shot dead, and more than two hundred injured by paramilitary forces in a peaceful demonstration of 80,000 people against the mine.(4) Phulbari communities maintain that GCM is responsible for the murder of three young boys and 220 injured in a 2006 demonstration. Annual ‘Phulbari Day’ rallies have been held every year in Phulbari and across Bangladesh, commemorating the deaths and protesting the company’s continued plans. In December 2019 the communities in Phulbari have handed a memo to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina (who is also Bangladesh’s Minister for Energy and Mineral Resources) via the UNO, asking her to take legal action against GCM immediately.

Earlier this month, on 9th March, Phulbari communities have demonstrated in the town centre opposing GCM’s London AGM, and demanding trial of its officials, to withdraw false cases against community organisers, and full implementation of their six-point agreement with the government. The two-hour demo also demanded that the government must take legal action against GCM immediately.

In support of the communities, last year activists had glued themselves to the entrance of the AGM preventing some shareholders from entering. This year the Phulbari Solidarity Coalition had organised loud picketing at the AGM of the AIM-listed GCM Resources. Protesters planned to demand that GCM is de-listed from the London Stock Exchange as it has no viable asset to its name, and has not held a license for coal exploration or mining in Bangladesh since 2006. Inside the AGM, dissident shareholders would again dominate the meeting, accusing the company of misleading shareholders and the London Stock Exchange. The in person picket has transformed into online action as protesters, in their good conscience, would not risk Covid-19 pandemic.

[ii] Facebook solidarity action: https://www.facebook.com/events/207936613748475/

[iii] Sample letter to GCM’s directors: https://phulbarisolidaritygroup.blog/2020/03/20/call-on-gcms-directors-and-ceo-to-handsoff-phulbari/

[iv] See report of 2018 AGM protest here: https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/environmental-activists-confront-coal-mining-executives-at-shareholders%27-meeting-in-london

Call on GCM’s Directors and CEO to #HandsOffPhulbari

The below is a suggested format of the letter to GCM’s Directors and the CEO. To personalise and to flood the GCM’s directors, CEO and communication and media inboxes, please Feel Free to edit, amend and rephrase the letter.  Thanks.

 

20 March 2020, London.

Gary Norman Lye

Alternate Director and CEO

&

Datuk Michael Tang

Executive Chairman

GCM Resources plc.

Piccadilly Circus, London, UK.

Tel: +44 (0) 20 7290 1630

Email: info@gcmplc.com

GCM: HANDS OFF PHULBARI

Dear Mr Gary Norman Lye and Datuk Michael Tang,

I write as your company are selling shares in the London Stock Exchange on Phulbari coal mine’s name, for 14 years without permit to operate in Phulbari in Bangladesh.

The Global Coal Management (GCM) Resources plan to build a massive open cast coal mine by displacing upto 220, 000 people and polluting 14, 600 hectares of fertile land (1 hectare is equal to 2.471 acres or 10,000 square metres) from Bangladesh’s only flood protected area.  For the people in the region, this project would mean losing their livelihood and identities because the mining would disperse the communities. It would also impact upto 50,000 indigenous people from the area and the world’s largest mangrove forests, the Sundarbans.

GCM Resources, then ‘Asia Energy’, was listed on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) of the London Stock Exchange in 2004, following the granting of a two-year permit (license) from the Bangladesh Energy Department’s Bureau of Mineral Resource Development on 27 January 2004 for exploration and surveying of a 572 millions tons open cast coal mine at Phulbari in Dinajpur, Northwest Bangladesh. A Scheme of Development was submitted to the Government of Bangladesh in 2005 but has never received approval. The original permit has expired on 27 January 2006 and has not been renewed, yet the company has continued to sell shares and raise capital in London share market, based on claims that a contract will be forthcoming. GCM Resources has no other assets or projects in its portfolio.

Phulbari communities maintain that GCM is responsible for the murder of three young boys and 200 injured in a 2006 demonstration in Phulbari, where 80,000 people marched against the company. They also say that you, Gary Lye as the CEO of the company, have filed false legal cases against community leaders, including the Mayor of Dinajpur, in Dinajpur judge court claiming 1 Billion Bangladeshi Taka from the community, because you were stopped from returning to Phulbari after the shooting and for damage to GCM’s fraudulent business intentions.  In December 2019 the communities in Phulbari have handed a memo to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, (who is also Bangladesh’s Minister for Energy and Mineral Resources) via the UNO, asking her to take legal action against your company, immediately.

Bangladesh government “is proceeding to take legal action against” your company. The Deputy State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources, Nasrul Hamid, made this statement to the daily Prothom Alo newspaper on 23 August 2019.

In this context,  I would like to ask you to take your hands off Phulbari, withdraw all false cases against the community leaders in Phulbari and Dinajpur, compensate the victims in Phulbari shooting 2006, and stop selling shares in Phulbari coal project’s name, and stop signing Memorandum of Understanding with external corporations without permit, immediately.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Your Name

Cc.

1. Keith Fulton

Finance Director

GCM Resources plc.

Telephone: +44 (0) 20 7290 1630

Email: info@gcmplc.com

2. Strand Hanson Limited,  Media and Communications agents for GCM

Stuart Faulkner: StuartFaulkner@strandhanson.co.uk

Rory Murphy: RoryMurphy@strandhanson.co.uk

James Dance: JamesDance@strandhanson.co.uk

PRESS RELEASE: GCM postpones AGM *again*, citing security concerns

9th March 2020,London, For Immediate Release

Phulbari Solidarity Coalition

 

• Controversial London-listed mining company GCM have postponed Tuesday’s AGM again, with less than 24 hours notice, citing “security concerns”.
• Communities in Phulbari have demonstrated in the town centre on Monday morning opposing GCM’s London AGM.
• Due to sudden AGM postponement, angry transnational protesters in London will join the occupation of Imperial College London for Democratisation, Decarbonisation and Decolonisation from 11AM-12pm, and discuss how to respond.
• Bangladesh Deputy Energy Minister confirms that GCM has no valid license or asset in the country, and claims that the government will be taking legal action against them.

 

GCM Resources have on Monday issued this statement postponing Tuesday’s AGM indefinitely again, citing “security concerns” of the venue. This is the second time that the London-listed company have cancelled their AGM in three months, citing security concerns. Last December’s meeting was cancelled 36 hours before it was due to take place, also citing security concerns1. In Phulbari and London, communities are angry because of GCM’s decision to postpone the AGM, which they say, is becoming an institutional habit. GCM’s last minute cancellations indicate that it has scant regard for its investors.

Dr Rumana Hashem, the Chair of Phulbari Solidarity Coalition and an organiser of the London protest said:

Never heard of any other London-listed company to adjourn AGM so abruptly and repeatedly. GCM failed their shareholders last December by postponing AGM with 36 hours notice. They did not hold their 2019 AGM. A second postponement in three months, and at such short notice, means that London Stock Exchange now needs to investigate whether GCM is in breach of the law. What does the company have to hide, postponing their AGM for a second time, with less than 24 hours notice and again citing “security concerns”?

Dramatic protest and picket have been organised by the Phulbari Solidarity Group (1) alongside a wide coalition of organisations at the AGM of the AIM-listed mining company GCM Resources Plc on Tuesday as it has no viable asset to its name, and has not held a license for coal exploration or mining in Bangladesh since 2006. Instead of picketing at GCM’s AGM, for what would have been the 11th consecutive year, campaigners will now meet at the Imperial College London to discuss how to respond to GCM’s latest move, and will join the occupation for Democratisation, Decarbonisation and Decolonisation of the University from 11AM to12pm.

Rally in Nimtola corner in Phulbari on Monday 9 March 2020. Photo: PSG.

In Bangladesh, angry Phulbari communities have demonstrated in the town centre on Monday morning opposing GCM’s London AGM, and demanding trial of its officials, to withdraw flase cases against Phulbari community organisers, and full implementation of their six-point agreement with the government. The demo lasted for two hours amid a huge police presence. Communities are now organising a long-march from Phulbari to Dinajpur to be held on 30th March under the banner of the National Committee of Bangladesh to Protect Oil, Gas, Mineral Resources and Power-Port. The long-march will demand an end of speculation about whether GCM can obtain a license, to remove the GCM Resources office from Phulbari, and to take legal action against the company for fraud and harassment of Phulbari residents(3).

Professor Anu Muhammad, the leader of the National Committee to Protect Oil, Gas, Mineral Resources, Power and Ports of Bangladesh said:

“People’s resistance against GCM is still strong despite an environment of fear and surveillance. GCM’s fraudulent and illegal business must be stopped immediately by delisting it from the London Stock Exchange to stop its continuing manipulation and corrupt attempts at coal mining along with Chinese companies, its harassment of community leaders, and preparations for violent crimes against people and environment in the form of open cast coal mining and displacement.

On 26 August 2006 three boys were shot dead, and more than two hundred injured by paramilitary forces in a peaceful demonstration of 80,000 people against the mine.(4) Annual ‘Phulbari Day’ rallies have been held every year in Phulbari and across Bangladesh, commemorating the deaths and protesting the company’s continued plans. Recently, GCM’s CEO Gary Lye has filed multiple cases against 26 community organisers in Phulbari claiming he has felt ‘harassed’ when he visited the area in an attempt to continue coal mining plans in 2014. Lye demands $2.6million as his compensation from the community representatives who stopped him.

In August 2019 the Deputy State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources, Nasrul Hamid, made this statement to the daily Prothom Alo newspaper:

“Even in the absence of an agreement, GCM or Asia Energy is trading shares in London by providing information that coal would be extracted from Phulbari, which is false. The government has taken this into notice. The government is proceeding to take legal action against them .”

He stated that the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s clear instructions are that the government has no plans to extract coal from Phulbari, and the future extraction of coal would only be considered if any advanced and environmental mining or coal burning technology emerged.

Media contacts

To organise statements or interviews with any of the host organisations or case studies, contact:

Lydia James, London Mining Network: 07928443248, lydia@londonminingnetwork.org
Darren Gens, Phulbari Solidarity Group: 07309 556334, phulbarisolidaritygroup@gmail.com

Notes to Editors

GCM Resources (then ‘Asia Energy’) listed on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) of the London Stock Exchange in 2004, following the granting of a two year permit (license) from the Bangladesh Energy Department’s Bureau of Mineral Resource Development on 27 January 2004 for exploration and surveying of a 572 million tonne open cast coal mine at Phulbari in Dinajpur, Northwest Bangladesh. A Scheme of Development was submitted to the Government of Bangladesh in 2005 but has never received approval. The permit expired on 27 January 2006 and has not been renewed, yet the company has continued to sell shares and raise capital in London based on claims that a contract will be forthcoming. GCM Resources has no other assets or projects in its portfolio.3

Phulbari communities maintain that GCM is responsible for the murder of three young boys and 200 injured in a 2006 demonstration. In December 2019 they handed a memo to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina (who is also Bangladesh’s Minister for Energy and Mineral Resources) via the UNO, asking her to take legal action against GCM immediately.

Case studies and photos from protests in Bangladesh are available.

1. Phulbari Solidarity Group (PSG) is a transnational activist network which exists to support and represent the communities located within the Phulbari region and across Bangladesh in opposing the plans for coal mine.
2. The London demonstration was due to be co-hosted by London Mining Network, Reclaim the Power, Labour Campaign For Human Rights, Global Justice Rebellion, Committee to Protect the Resources of Bangladesh UK Branch, XR Youth, XR Internationalist Solidarity, Christian Climate Action.
3. London Mining Network (LMN) is an alliance of solidarity, human rights, development and environmental groups. We work to support communities negatively affected by the operations of London-based and London-funded mining companies.
4. See more information on the Phulbari massacre, challenging the invalid contract under Bangladesh’s energy policy, and facts about Phulbari coal project

Phulbari Resistance was made possible by Women’s Uprising against Coal Mining

Linking Climate Injustice to Women’s Struggle

By Rumana Hashem

This is a reporting from the frontline of climate activism in northwest Bangladesh, and an eyewitness to coal-led bloodshed, and women’s resistance against mining in a post-colonial location in South Asia.  The discussion tells us about the Truth – who should we save, on the one hand; and advocates for the need to change, and the need to prevent climate breakdown and environmental injustice, and killings by coal-mining and multinational corporations listed on London Stock Exchange.

 

Nurunnahar was leading the march after shooting in August 2006. Photo: Anonymous @Phulbari Solidarity Group.

The story is important on this International Women’s Day because it reminds us why and how women fight coal mining, at the same time how rarely women get recognised by the nation. Women in northwest Bangladesh know that coal doesn’t only damage environment but also kills humans. On 26 August in 2006 three young people were shot dead and over 200 injured in Phulabri when paramilitary forced opened fire on a demonstration of more than 80,000 people who marched against a coal-mine proposed to be built by a British mining company, Asia Energy, thereafter the toxic Global Coal Management (GCM) Resources Plc.

The Global Coal Management plans to extract 572millions tons coal from Phulbari  and wants to build a massive open cast coal mine by displacing upto 220, 000 people and polluting 14, 600 hectares of fertile land (1 hectare is equal to 2.471 acres or 10,000 square metres) from Bangladesh’s only flood protected area.  For the people in the region, this project would mean losing their livelihood and identities because the mining would disperse the communities. It would impact upto 50,000 indigenous people from the area.

The three killed in August 2006 were teenagers aged from 11 years to 18 years. I was present in the spot and saw innocent children dying and people getting badly injured, while running away from the town as gunshots, tear gas and arrests continued in the afternoon on a sunny Friday. When most people had run away, a group of women peasants turned around and started to chase paramilitary personnel and Rapid Action Battle (RAB) who were torturing men, women and children of all ages. The fighter women were swearing at the male soldiers, Police and RAB, and running with their home made sweep, cooking sticks and bamboo sticks. The fight went on for nearly two hours and the BDR gradually moved away from the main road as women told them that they had no right to enter the civilian’s space.

Women’s outburst after shooting in Phulbari in the evening on 26 August 2006. Photo: Anonymous @Phulbari Solidarity Group.

Police enforced section 144 and announced emergency leave so women were then forced to go home. The night came with darkness and silences everywhere, and police played a role of industrial security guards for the British mining company. They raided houses in the manless town from 1am to 3am in the morning of 27 August. Everyone except the women and their children left the town. The mothers, sisters, aunts and grandmas had stayed in the town to protect their children. The fight did not end until we won.

People in Phulbari, Barapukruia, and all six neighbouring chapters took strike actions for five days. It was women who took on the leading road for strikes. Four thousands women in Khoiyrbari took over the highway and roads on 29 August and cooked meal in their handmade oven right on the road and stayed there with their babies, as young as 4 months old.  Nurunnahar, a sex worker, who chased hundreds of RAB and Police alone in the morning of 27 August, was the leader of all of us in the town of Phulbari.  Nurunnahar taught everyone how to be brave and told us never to give up.

Nobody gave in. The men and children joined the women’s march, and continued strike actions till 31 August when government signed the six-point demand, ensuring that no mine will be built in Phulbari without public consent. People’s verdict won.

Families of the victims and women peasants protesters march towards Shahid Minar, the memorial of the three killed, in Phulbari to pay tribute. 26 August 2015. Photo: Anonymous @Phulbari Solidarity Group.

Government has cancelled the deal with the company. The controversial GCM is a London-based AIM-listed extractive company, who do not have any valid asset anywhere. They do not hold a valid contract with Bangladesh since September 2006. People have put a halt to the mine for more than 13 years. But GCM are selling shares on Phulbari coal project’s name. They are to hold their AGM again this Tuesday on 10^th March. This will be resisted. Women and men in Phulbari town will be demonstrating against the AGM of GCM on Monday 9^th March. In London, we will convey the message from Phulbari communities at the AGM of GCM, by holding a picket outside of the venue.

The Phulbari women know that coal mining is not about progression or development, it is about profit. Women continue to resist GCM and any plans for extractions in Barapukuria, and the neighbourhood of Phulbari. Nontheless, women’s contributions get rarely recognised by the male leadership in Bangladesh.

We should not forget the invaluable contributions of women in Phulbari resistance. The narrative of anti-coal mine struggle in the South Asian country illustrates the links between climate injustices, the power of anti-coal struggles, and women’s organising in the global South, in this case, Bangladesh. We must not undermine the resistance movement and women’s power to halt the massive open cast coal mine.

Women are marching against GCM’s proposed Phulbari coal project in Phulbari. 26 August 2016. Photo: Anonymous @Phulbari Solidarity Group.

We will be joining the picket against GCM’s AGM in London as our duty to stand with the women, men and children in Phulbari. Everyone is invited to join the demo and picket at 9am on Tuesday 10th March at Glaziers Hall, 9 Montague Close, London, SE1 9DD. Join us!

Further details is available on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/698989857304401/

PRESS RELEASE:Protesters in London and Bangladesh oppose AGM of GCM Resources Plc

                 For immediate release

6 March 2020, London.

• Loud and dramatic protests will be held outside of GCM Resources’ rescheduled AGM on Tuesday 10th March between 9am-11.30am at Glaziers Hall, 9 Montague Close, London, SE1 9DD, after GCM Resources announces date with just 9 days notice.
• The London-listed mining company has cancelled their last year’s meeting with 36 hours notice, citing ‘security’ concerns.
• Communities in Phulbari, Bangladesh, are marching against the GCM’s AGM on Monday 9 March, demanding that the Bangladeshi government take immediate legal action against the AIM-listed company.
• Bangladesh’s Deputy Energy Minister confirms that GCM has no valid license or asset in the country, and claims that the government will be taking legal action against them.

 

Copyright @Global Justice Rebellion, Phulbari Solidarity Coalition, XRY Internationlist Network.

Loud and dramatic protests are being organised by the Phulbari Solidarity Group and London Mining Network  alongside Global Justice Rebellion and a wide coalition of organisations at the AGM of the AIM-listed mining company GCM Resources Plc for the 11th consecutive year. Protesters will demand that GCM is delisted from the London Stock Exchange as it has no viable asset to its name, and has not held a license for coal exploration or mining in Bangladesh since 2006. Inside the AGM, dissident shareholders will attend the meeting, accusing the company of misleading shareholders and the London Stock Exchange. During GCM’s 2018 AGM, some activists glued themselves to the entrance of the building, preventing some shareholders from entering.

In Bangladesh on Monday 9th March, the Phulbari communities are demonstrating, under the banner of the National Committee of Bangladesh to Protect Oil, Gas, Mineral Resources and Power-Port, demanding that the Bangladeshi government take immediate legal action against the AIM-listed company. Communities in northwest Bangladesh will also be organising a long-march from Phulbari to Dinajpur to be held on 30th March . The long-march is  to demand an end of speculation about whether GCM can obtain a license, to remove the GCM Resources office from Phulbari, to ban coal mining and to take legal action against the company for fraud and harassment of Phulbari residents.

They maintain that GCM is responsible for the murder of three young boys and 200 injured in a 2006 demonstration. They had in December 2019 handed a memo to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina (who is also Bangladesh’s Minister for Energy and Mineral Resources) via the UNO, asking her to take legal action against GCM immediately. As GCM had postponed AGM by habit of changing things at the last minute, seemingly to frustrate the plans of dissident shareholders, communities raged in Phulbari and in London.

Professor Anu Muhammad, the leader of the National Committee to Protect Oil, Gas, Mineral Resources, Power and Ports of Bangladesh said:

“People’s resistance against GCM is still strong despite an environment of fear and surveillance. GCM’s fraudulent and illegal business must be stopped immediately by delisting it from the London Stock Exchange to stop its continuing manipulation and corrupt attempts at coal mining along with Chinese companies, its harassment of community leaders, and preparations for violent crimes against people and environment in the form of open cast coal mining and displacement.

Dr Rumana Hashem, the Chair of Phulbari Solidarity Coaltion and an organiser of the London protest says:

“London-listed companies are required to hold AGMs within 15 months of each other, 14 months was up by 28th February. GCM has only announced the AGM on the 28th February, which is a rare occurrence in the London Stock Exchange. The Stock Exchange needs to investigate whether GCM is in breach of the law for giving only 7 working days to their shareholders to prepare.”

Dr Hashem adds, “People in Phulbari have lived under the threat of displacement, and with the trauma of the Phulbari killings for more than 13 years. The London Stock Exchange has continued to list and generate capital for this company, despite its total lack of any viable mining asset in Bangladesh. We are calling on the Bangladeshi government to categorically end the speculation, remove GCM’s office from Phulbari, launch legal action against them, and pressure the London Stock Exchange to finally delist this criminal and fraudulent company. It is time to end the suffering for the residents of Phulbari.”

GCM Resources (then ‘Asia Energy’) listed on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) of the London Stock Exchange in 2004, following the granting of a two year permit (license) from the Bangladesh Energy Department’s Bureau of Mineral Resource Development on 27 January 2004 for exploration and surveying of a 572 million tonne open cast coal mine at Phulbari in Dinajpur, Northwest Bangladesh. A Scheme of Development was submitted to the Government of Bangladesh in 2005 but has never received approval. The permit expired on 27 January 2006 and has not been renewed, yet the company has continued to sell shares and raise capital in London based on claims that a contract will be forthcoming. GCM Resources has no other assets or projects in its portfolio.

On 26 August 2006 three teenage boys were shot dead, and more than two hundred injured by paramilitary forces in a peaceful demonstration of 80,000 people against the mine.(5) Annual ‘Phulbari Day’ rallies have been held every year in the community and across Bangladesh, commemorating the deaths and protesting the company’s continued plans. Recently, GCM’s CEO Gary Lye has filed multiple cases against 26 community organisers in Phulbari and Dinajpur claiming he has felt ‘harassed’ when he visited the area in an attempt to continue coal mining plans in 2014. Lye demands 1billion$ as his compensation from the community representatives who stopped GCM.

In commenting on GCM’s contract, Bangladesh’s Deputy State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources, Nasrul Hamid, stated to the daily Prothom Alo newspaper in August 2019 that:

“Even in the absence of an agreement, GCM or Asia Energy is trading shares in London by providing information that coal would be extracted from Phulbari, which is false. The government has taken this into notice. The government is proceeding to take legal action against them .”

He asserted that the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s clear instructions are that the government has no plans to extract coal from Phulbari, and the future extraction of coal would only be considered if any advanced and environmental mining or coal burning technology emerged.

According to GCM’s 2019 annual report and its Regulatory New Service submissions to the London Stock Exchange, the company signed an MOU with Power Construction Corporation of China (PowerChina) in November 2018 to develop a 4,000MW power plant at Phulbari as part of the One Belt, One Road Initiative of the People’s Republic of China. In January 2019, the Power entered into a Joint Venture Agreement with the GCM for the first stage of development, leading to a hike in its share price, despite the lack of government approvals for the project.

This year on 3 February, the GCM Resources stated another RNS that it has secured a GBP1.2 million increase to its existing loan facility of GBP 2.3 million with Polo Resources Ltd, raising the total loan amount to GBP3.5 million. This announcement has helped increase GCM’s share sells on London Stock Exchange. Shares in GCM were trading 0.5% higher at 12.06p each in London after the RNS.7

Contact

To organise statements or interviews with any of the host organisations or case studies, contact:

Lydia James, London Mining Network: 07928443248, lydia@londonminingnetwork.org

Darren Gens, Phulbari Solidarity Group: 07309 556334, phulbarisolidaritygroup@gmail.com

Case studies and photos from protests in Bangladesh are available.

An updated press release will be available after the picket on Tuesday afternoon.

Video clips and photos from the protest will be available from 1pm on Tuesday 10 March.

Our Children Have Already Died – Correct Your Policy!

A letter of support to the Bristol amendment on climate and in solidarity with the vigil opposing 2045 net zero carbon date for the Church of England.

By Rumana Hashem

Hand-painted banner for victims of Phulbari shooting. Photocredit: Peter Marshall.

Three young lives were lost on 26 August in 2006 in a protest opposing coal mining and carbon emissions in northwest Bangladesh.  The children who have died were teenagers aged from 11 years to 18 years.

They were the residents of a green and peaceful town, called the Phulbari, that has turned into a town of uproar because a London-listed mining company wants to build an open-cast coal mine there.  In the face of Britain’s wrong policies on emissions, coal-crime and climate crisis, more than 80,000 people took strike action and marched across Phulbari in the Dinajpur district. The teenagers, Al-Amin (11 yo), Mohammad Salekin (13 yo), and Tarikul Islam (18 yo) were amongst many other young people who joined the march and were striking with their families and communities for a green planet.

Amin, Salekin and Tarikul were shot dead when the protest had nearly ended and people were to return home.  It was the paramilitary force who opened fire in favour of a British mining company, Asia Energy – thereafter, the Global Coal Management (GCM) Resources Plc.

The Global Coal Management plans to extract 572millions tons coal from Phulbari  and wants to build the project by immediately displacing 130, 000 people and polluting 14, 600 hectares of fertile land (1 hectare is equal to 2.471 acres or 10,000 square metres)  from a location that is Bangladesh’s only flood protected area.  For the people in the region, this project would mean losing their livelihood and identities because the mining would disperse the communities. It would impact upto 50,000 indigenous people from the area.

The families of the murdered youths search for peace in appreciation that the Bangladesh government will not let this project happen. The families and injured people in Phulbari bear the burns of the UK’s emissions and the climate crisis, though they do not know that it is the British government’s poor policy that enabled such killings in Phulbari.

Amin, Salekin and Tarikul’s families have not got a clue that England still allows similar projects, causing emissions across the UK and elsewhere. Their grief for and pain of losing loved ones are yet to heal.  Amin’s sister Hanifa told, recalling the memory of her little brother, that it was just before her wedding time that Hanifa has heard the news of young Amin’s death. Amin had never been to a strike before the UK Company, GCM, entered the town for mining. The grief, the emptiness, and disbelief remain in Hanifa’s voice as does the tears and pain in Salekin’s mum for 13 years. We hope that the Church of England can hear the cry of Amin’s and Salekin’s families.

In her tears, Salekin’s mum supports the cause of her lost child’s strike action. Salekin went to the protest with his uncle and took part in the strike because it was urgent to oppose GCM’s plans. Everyone has gone to protest in Phulbari. We stand in solidarity with them.

The deaths of Amin, Salekin and Tarikul are heart breaking.  The ballad of Phulbari is one of cruel climate injustice. My heart weeps as I write this letter of cruel murders of innocent children which I have witnessed in Phulbari. The children wanted to save their earth, to live, and play in their green play ground. They were taking strike action as coal mining would release carbon and would destroy their green land.

13 years on, despite the killings and brutal causalities, the UK government continues to make poor policies on emissions. The UK government let their mining companies, as GCM, to move ahead, to expand corrupt business and  sell shares for this coal-mining project on the London Stock Exchange. People on the ground have been led to believe that the project has been halt, though in reality the company operates with green signal from the UK’s National Contact Point. Britain let carbon emissions that would kill many more people across Britain and overseas.

Synod should make timely amendment to their net zero bill as necessary.

Please DON’T let more children die – End UK’s Wrong Policy on Emissions.

PRESS RELEASE : GCM AGM Postponed Due To Risk Of Protests

Tuesday, 17 December 2019, London, UK.

• British mining company GCM Resources has postponed tomorrow’s London AGM due to security risk from protests.
• In Phulbari, Bangladesh, protests today blocked roads demanding the Bangladesh government take immediate legal action against the company.
• Phulbari UNO joined rally with community leaders and stated that the resistance movement in Phulbari is democratic and peaceful which demands attention of the government.

• Bangladesh Deputy Energy Minister confirms that GCM has no valid license or asset in the country, and claims government will be taking legal action against them.

Phulbari Rally outside of UNO’s office in Phulbari on 17 Dec 2019. Photocredit: Biplob River Down

GCM Resources yesterday issued this statement postponing Wednesday’s AGM indefinitely due to the risk of protests threatening the security of the venue:

“The decision to seek to adjourn the AGM follows consultation with the venue over access and security issues, which has resulted in the venue being withdrawn as the location for the AGM.”

Loud protests had been organised by Phulbari Solidarity Group alongside a wide coalition of seven organisations at the AGM of the AIM listed British mining company GCM Resources Plc for the 10^th consecutive year. Protesters planned to demand that GCM is de-listed from the London Stock Exchange as it has no viable asset to its name, and has not held a license for coal exploration or mining in Bangladesh since 2006. Inside the AGM, dissident shareholders would again dominate the meeting, accusing the company of misleading shareholders and the London Stock Exchange. Last year activists had glued themselves to the entrance of the AGM preventing some shareholders from entering.

Phulbari Rally outside of UNO’s office is joined by the UNO who came out of office and accepted the memorandum from the community leaders to be delivered to prime minister and energy minister of Bangladesh on 17 Dec 2019 . Photocredit: Biplob River Down

 

Meanwhile in Bangladesh, communities from Phulbari, Barapukuria and Dinajpur, many of whom are threatened with displacement by the planned mine, today demonstrated outside of the UNO (Phulbari District Office) and blocked the Nimtoli roundabout demanding that the Bangladesh government categorically end speculation on whether GCM can obtain a license, remove the GCM Resources office from Phulbari, and take legal action against the company for fraud and harassment of Phulbari residents.  Community leaders have handed a memorandum to Phulbari UNO, who has joined the rally himself and stated that “the protesters are peaceful and the movement is justified and democratic”.

The community memo also demands an immediate withdrawal of all arbitrary cases against 19 community leaders, which Gary Lye has filed in 2014 by claiming that the community leaders must pay him 100 crore Taka, Bangladeshi money (GBP 1 billion), as he felt insulted and faced reputational damage when community activists stopped him from re-entering the township. Protesters maintain that GCM is responsible for the murder of three young boys and 220 injured in a 2006 demonstration. They have handed a memorandum to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina (who is also Bangladesh’s Minister for Energy and Mineral Resources) via the UNO, asking her to take legal action against GCM immediately.

Professor Anu Muhammad, the leader of the National Committee to Protect Oil, Gas, Mineral Resources, Power and Ports of Bangladesh said:

“People’s resistance against GCM is still strong despite an environment of fear and surveillance. GCM’s fraud and illegal business must be stopped immediately by de-listing it from the London Stock Exchange to stop its continuing manipulation and corrupt attempts at coal mining along with Chinese companies, its harassment of community leaders, and preparations for violent crimes against people and environment in the form of open cast coal mining and displacement.”

Dr Rumana Hashem, Chair of Phulbari Solidarity Group, who organised the London protests says:

“GCM’s postponement of their AGM shows that they are running scared from activists and academics who would expose the fraudulent nature of their London listing and trading on the LSE. People in Phulbari have lived under the threat of displacement, and with the trauma of the Phulbari killings for more than 13 years. Yet the London Stock Exchange has continued to list and generate capital for this company despite its total lack of any viable mining asset in Bangladesh. We are calling on the Bangladeshi government to categorically end the speculation, remove GCM’s office from Phulbari, launch legal action against them, and pressure the London Stock Exchange to finally de-list this criminal and fraudulent company. It is time to end the suffering for the residents of Phulbari.”

 

Phulbari Rally against GCM attended by Phulbari Labours and Indigenous Workers’ leader, Hamidul, on 17 Dec 2019.  Hamidul is a victim of two arbitrary cases filed by Gary Lye in 2016. One of these charges claim that Hamidul must pay 1 billion$ for Lye’s reputational damage in 2014.  Photocredit: Sanjit Prasad Gupta.

 

GCM Resources (then ‘Asia Energy’) listed on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) of the London Stock Exchange in 2004, following the granting of a two year permit (license) from the Bangladesh Energy Department’s Bureau of Mineral Resource Development on 27 January 2004 for exploration and surveying of a 572 million tonne open cast coal mine at Phulbari in Dinajpur, Northwest Bangladesh. A Scheme of Development was submitted to the Government of Bangladesh in 2005 but has never received approval. The permit expired on 27 January 2006 and has not been renewed, yet the company has continued to sell shares and raise capital in London based on claims that a contract will be forthcoming. GCM Resources has no other assets or projects in its portfolio.

 

On 26 August 2006 three teenage boys were shot dead, and more than two hundred injured by paramilitary forces in a peaceful demonstration of 80,000 people against the mine. Annual ‘Phulbari Day’ rallies have been held every year in the community and across Bangladesh, commemorating the deaths and protesting the company’s continued plans. Recently, GCM’s CEO Gary Lye has filed multiple cases against 19 community organisers in Phulbari and Dinajpur claiming he has felt ‘harassed’ when he visited the area in an attempt to continue coal mining plans in 2014.

In August 2019 the Deputy State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources, Nasrul Hamid, made this statement to the daily Prothom Alo newspaper:

“Even in the absence of an agreement, GCM or Asia Energy is trading shares in London by providing information that coal would be extracted from Phulbari, which is false. The government has taken this into notice. The government is proceeding to take legal action against them .”

He stated that the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s clear instructions are that the government has no plans to extract coal from Phulbari, and the future extraction of coal would only be considered if any advanced and environmental mining or coal burning technology emerged.

According to GCM’s 2019 annual report and its Regulatory New Service submissions to the London Stock Exchange, the company signed an MOU with Power Construction Corporation of China (PowerChina) in November 2018 to develop a 4,000MW power plant at Phulbari as part of the One Belt, One Road Initiative of the People’s Republic of China. In January 2019, the Power entered into a Joint Venture Agreement with the GCM for the first stage of development, leading to a hike in its share price, despite the lack of government approvals for the project.

      Phulbari Rally outside of UNO’s office on 17 Dec 2019. Photocredit: Sanjit Prasad Gupta.

GCM is not only selling shares on Phulbari’s name in London, the company is one of a string of London listed mining companies linked to the murder and ‘massacre’ of protesters, including Lonmin, Glencore, Kazakhmys, ENRC, Essar, Vedanta, Anglo Gold Ashanti, African Barrick Gold and Monterrico Metals. They have recently announced three new strategic partnerships with two Chinese firms – China Nonferrous Metal Industry’s Foreign Engineering and Construction Company (NFC) and Power Construction Corporation of China (PowerChina), and a Bangladesh based company DG Infratech Pte Ltd. to develop the mine and conspiring in Bangladesh.

Wednesday’s London protests were to be co-hosted by the UK Committee to Protect the Natural Resources of Bangladesh, Foil Vedanta, London Mining Network, Global Justice Rebellion, Extinction Rebellion International Solidarity Network, Christian Climate Action and Reclaim the Power.

 

For further information, contact:

Lydia James: <contact@londonminingnetwork.org>

Phulbari Rally outside of UNO’s office on 17 Dec 2019. Photocredit: Sanjit Prasad Gupta

#ExposeGCM  #ProtestCoalMining  #PhulbariResistance

 

 

BREAKING: Bangladesh govt will take legal action as GCM spreads false information

This is a translated version of an important report by Mohammad Arifuzzaman, a senior journalist at the daily Prothom Alo. The report was published on 24 August 2019 in both the hard copy of and online Prothom Alo – Bangladesh’s most widely read newspaper in Dhaka. Our colleague, Munira Chowdhury, has interpreted this from Bengali to English to help clarify the position of Bangladesh government on the question of GCM’s illegal business and claims related to Phulbari coal mine.  Mohammad Arifuzzaman reports that Government is considering a legal action against GCM because GCM is selling shares on the basis of false information. Read detailed report below.

Asia Energy providing false information on Phulbari contract

By Mohammad Arifuzzaman, Dhaka, 24 August 2019.

 

At the moment the government of Bangladesh does not have a contract (or agreement) with London-based company Global Coal Management (GCM or formerly known as Asia Energy). Even then, the company is trading shares in United Kingdom’s London Stock Exchange (LSE) making claims that coal will be extracted and used for power generation from coal mines in Phulbari, Dinajpur. The government of Bangladesh is considering legal action in this regard.

The Deputy-State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources, Nasrul Hamid, commented on this to Prothom Alo. He said: “Even in the absence of an agreement, GCM or Asia Energy is trading shares in London by providing information that coal would be extracted from Phulbari, which is false. The government has taken this into notice. The government is proceeding to take legal action against them.”

The Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s clear instructions are that the government has no plans to extract coal from Phulbari, said Nasrul Hamid. Phulbari’s coal has been reserved for the future. The extraction of coal would be considered if any advanced technology in the future emerges that will not harm the environment.

Sources from the ministry informed that Asia Energy received a two-year permit (license) from the Energy Department’s Bureau of Mineral Resource Development (BMD) on 27 January 2004 for survey and work plan (for coal mining) for Dinajpur’s Phulbari coal mine. That permit expired on 27 January in 2006. BMD has not renewed Asia Energy’s permit since then. Therefore, the UK-based company has no legal license to play any role in the development of Phulbari’s coal mine.

After receiving permit in 2004, Asia Energy attempted to extract coal at Phulbari through open pit mining. According to Energy Department officials, then ruling parties BNP-Jamaat alliance gave the company permit to extract coal with 92 percent ownership.

At that time, the National Committee to Protect Oil, Gas, Mineral Resources, Power and Ports, opposed the extraction of coal through open pit mining and coal exports and started protests against Asia Energy. As a part of the protests, on 26 August 2006, a rally was organised at the site of the coal mine at Phulbari.

Three locals were killed and more than two hundred were injured when the then BDR (now BGB) opened fire at the people gathered at the rally. Following these events, in order to manage this situation, the government reached an agreement with the National Committee. One of the major conditions of that agreement was the ban of Asia Energy from the country and their just trial as well as a stop to open pit mining of coal.

Doing business in the United Kingdom by showcasing resources in Bangladesh Energy Department officials inform that Asia Energy was listed in 2004 with Alternative Investment Market (AIM), a sub-market of the London Stock Exchange. However, the name of the company was changed to GCM. AIM allows different companies with potential for future growth to raise investments in the share market.

Despite the fact that Asia Energy does not have any permit from with Bangladesh post 2006, the company is still disclosing information on the London Stock Exchange with the Phulbari coal mine in its listed assets. In the meantime, on 17 January this year, Asia Energy has signed an agreement with Chinese firm PowerChina to build mine-mouth power plant at the Phulbari. Asia Energy’s stock price was down for several years in London stock market. After the signing an agreement with the Chinese company, the value of each share stood at 25.75 pence (100 pence = 1 British pound).

The Ministry of Power did not know of Asia Energy’s agreement with the Chinese company to build
mine-mouth power plant at Phulbari. State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid said: “the matter would be seriously scrutinized. In order to find out how Asia Energy is making claims to plans for extraction of coal from Phulbari coal mine while they are not having a valid permit to do so.

The daily Prothom Alo contacted the company’s media and communication specialist Mahmood Hafiz through mobile phone. He said to Prothom Alo, “I am not the right person to talk about matter.”

Meanwhile, 12 environmental and rights-based organisations under the banner of Phulbari Solidarity Coalition wrote to the London Stock Exchange chief financial officer,  David P. Warren, on 19 July with a petition to halt GCM’s share trading.  Making these demands, members of the 12 environmental groups staged a protest in front of the London Stock Exchange office on Friday. These 12 organisations are the Phulbari Solidarity Group, the UK branch of the National Committee to Protect Oil, Gas, Mineral Resources, Power and Ports, Foil Vedanta, Extinction  Rebellion-UK, the United States-based Mangrove Action Project and BankTrack, among others.

Anu Muhammad, the member-secretary of the National Committee to Protect Oil, Gas, Mineral Resources, Power and Port told Prothom Alo that: “it is unacceptable that the government does not know of the openly disclosed agreement of Asia Energy to develop power plants at the mine site with a Chinese company. The illegal activities of this company need to be stopped. In fact, a dominant group of people receives money from Asia Energy, which is the reason behind the government’s inaction against them.”

      Copyright: Fossil Free UK.

 

The Bangla original version of the report is accessible here, the daily Prothom Alo, 24 August 2019.

Expose GCM: Protest Coal-Mining

Picket at Global Coal Management’s AGM

Global Coal Management (GCM) Resources Plc. is a London-based AIM-listed extractive company that wants to build a massive open-pit coal mine by forcibly displacing 130,000 families of farmers in Phulbari. They do not hold a valid contract with Bangladesh but they are selling shares on Phulbari coal project’s name. The company, previously known as Asia Energy, has been hotly resisted by locals for its fatal business policy in northwest Bangladesh. Three young people, Amin, Salekin and Tariqul, were shot dead and over two hundred injured when paramilitary force opened fire in a demonstration of 80,000 people who marched against destructive plans by GCM in 2006 in Phulbari. Following a peoples’ verdict, Bangladeshi government has declined contracts with GCM.

Bangladesh government has reiterated that the Phulbari project is unlikely to go ahead and that GCM will not be given permission to return to Phulbari or northwest Bangladesh for coal extraction. Bangladesh government has overturned their right to mine in Bangladesh more than a decade ago.

Despite no valid license, GCM continues to sell shares on London Stock Exchange.  GCM recently announced three new strategic partnerships with two Chinese firms – China Nonferrous Metal Industry’s Foreign Engineering and Construction Company (NFC) and Power Construction Corporation of China (PowerChina), and a Bangladesh based company DG Infratech Pte Ltd. to develop the mine and conspiring in Bangladesh. If the mine is built, it would destroy 14,600 hectares of highly cultivable land in northwest Bangladesh. It would pose threats to clean water resources for as many as 220,000 people, and would leave devastative impact on one of the world’s largest mangrove forests and UNESCO heritage site, the Sundarbans. Why does the British government allow this?

Bangladesh’s Deputy-State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources , Nasrul Hamid, has recently stated that the government is considering legal action against GCM because “the company is selling shares on the basis of false information. There is no contract between the government and GCM for mining in Bangladesh”.

GCM will hold their AGM in London on 18 December during the month of the climate summit #COP25.

                              We said: WE WILL EXPOSE THEM & STOP DESTRUCTION.

WE WILL PICKET AT GCM’s AGM! JOIN US.

When? 9:30AM-12:30PM, Wednesday 18 December

Where? 4 Hamilton Place, London W1J 7BQ.

Come along with your friends, and bring along jolly carols and lots of noisy instruments. Confirm your participation here: https://www.facebook.com/events/533400950849952/

 

Further information:

Global Coal Management is not only selling shares on Phulbari’s name in London, the company is one of a string of London listed mining companies linked to the murder and ‘massacre’ of protesters, including Lonmin, Glencore, Kazakhmys, ENRC, Essar, Vedanta, Anglo Gold Ashanti, African Barrick Gold and Monterrico Metals.  GCM has been allegedly involved in abuse and harassment of opponents of the proposed Phulbari mine. Media reports on the death of Nasrin Huq, the former executive director of Action Aid, revealed that Huq was killed brutally in her car park because of her strong opposition to the project.[i] GCM’s CEO, Gary Lye, has continued to abuse local opponents of the project. Lye has filed multiple arbitrary cases against 26 frontline local leaders who spoke against mining. This cannot go on.

We must stop them. We will picket outside of GCM’s AGM.

Inside the AGM, dissident shareholders will dominate the meeting, accusing the company of misleading shareholders and the London Stock Exchange. We demand that GCM is de-listed from the London Stock Exchange as it has no viable asset to its name, and has not held a contract for coal exploration or mining in Bangladesh since 2006.

Meanwhile, communities in Phulbari will demonstrate outside of the UNO – the Phulbari sub-District Office- on Tuesday 17 December. Communities will follow on from their October rally, demanding the government in Bangladesh must remove GCM’s office in Phulbari and take legal action against GCM immediately.

In London PSG protesters will move from the AGM to the Bangladesh High Commission, where we will submit a memorandum to the Ambassador, Ms Saida Muna Tasneem, echoing the demands of the Phulbari community that government categorically end speculation on whether GCM can obtain a license, remove the GCM Resources office from Phulbari, and take legal action against the company for harassment of Phulbari residents.

We will march together after the AGM at 4 Hamilton Place to Bangladesh High Commission at: 28 Queen’s Gate, South Kensington, London SW7 5JA.

 

#ExposeGCM #ProtestCoalMining

 

 

Phulbari Solidarity Action At Coal Mining Company: Trial Verdict

Amy, Angela and Shulamit glued to the entrance: The protest last year at the AGM of Global Coal Management at 33 Cavendish Road, London. Photo: Paul Dudman, PSG.

 COURT DISMISSED TRESPASSING CHARGES, ACTIVISTS RECEIVED CONDITIONAL DISCHARGE  

• Climate activists convicted of aggravated trespassing and criminal damage-related offences for gluing themselves to the entrance of a building used by criminal GCM have received 12-month conditional discharge.
• The judge decided not to charge activists for trespassing but charged them of criminal damage of £350 each after he accepted they were motivated by the cause of “human rights”.
• Three women pleaded not guilty at the City of London Magistrate’s Court and said that they “will take it to High Court” and “will stop GCM”.

 

Three transnational women climate activists convicted of aggravated trespassing and criminal damage-related offences for gluing themselves to the entrance doors of a building that hosted the criminal Annual General Meeting (AGM) of an AIM-listed murderous coal mining company Global Coal Management (GCM), have received conditional discharge.

The activists who stood trial on Tuesday the 22nd October took part in an action in solidarity with Phulbari protesters who were protesting against an immense open cast coal mine to be built in northwest Bangladesh, where GCM wants to construct a 4000 MW power plant by immediately displacing as many as 130, 000 people from the region.

The judge at the City of London magistrate’s court decided not to charge activists for aggravated trespassing after he accepted they were motivated by the cause of “human rights”. The judge suggested initially that all charges should be dismissed but the women’s defence barristers felt ethically obliged to tell the judge that he had misunderstood the criminal damage charge and that he was wrong to dismiss it. The activists were then found guilty of criminal damage of £350 each.

Angela Ditchfield, 41, Shulamit Morris-Evans, 23 and Amy Pritchard, 34, were all given a 12-month conditional discharge, ordered to pay £350 each in costs and a £20 surcharge. Deputy district judge Paul Booty said: ‘The act of glueing oneself to an object was thought through and the possibility of damage could not have slipped your minds, therefore such an act was reckless.’

Amy, Angela, and Shulamit outside of the City of London Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday 22 October 2019. Photo: Christian Climate Action.

Angela Ditchfield, a mother-of-two teenage boys and Kings Hedges Green Party candidate, Amy Pritchard, an activist at Extinction Rebellion London, and Shulamit Morris-Evans, a school teacher and a member of Extinction Rebellion Youth pleaded not guilty. They told the City of London magistrates that the protest last December was proportionate due to GCM’s plan to build a mine in Bangladesh that could displace thousands of vulnerable people. They joined a direct action alongside the Bangladeshi anti-coal campaigners at Phulbari Solidarity Group and Reclaim the Power that targeted the extractive company, GCM, at their AGM on 28 December in 2018.

Although GCM do not have any valid stake, they are aggressively moving to build the coal project in Phulbari. They have recently announced a strategic partnership with two Chinese firms – China Nonferrous Metal Industry’s Foreign Engineering and Construction Company (NFC) and Power Construction Corporation of China (PowerChina) to develop the mine, which created a hike in its share price. On 4th September GCM Resources have signed yet another agreement with DG Infratech Pte Ltd, a Bangladesh based firm to get a deal with Bangladesh government.

Ms Ditchfield, Morris-Evans, and Pritchard glued themselves to the entrance of the AGM’s London venue before it started in the early morning, disrupting the event for nearly four hours. Specialist police used solvents to detach them before making arrests. Outside the building 30 more protestors obstructed the entrance by holding banners and speaking out against the coal mine. All major shareholders including GCM’s Head of Corporate Affairs, Brian Mooney, were blocked from entering the building. The attendees waited outside of the venue for several hours, before eventually leaving to go home.

The protesters outside of GCM’s AGM last year on 28 December 2018. Photo: Golam Rabbani

If the Phulbari coal mine is built, it would lead to forced-displacement of up to 220, 000 people over the 36 years life cycle of the project. The company would give only 6 percent of all extracted coal to Bangladesh and the remainder of high quality coal would be exported. Bangladesh government has declined the licence of GCM in 2007.

Ms Pritchard of Extinction Rebellion Youth, who blocked GCM’s AGM, says,

“The story of this coal project demonstrates clearly the almost unbelievable global exploitation which continues to be based in this City. I will continue to act in defiance of the domination of vulnerable countries, communities and Indigenous peoples at the front-line of climate change. I call on others to consider their power and privilege and do the same.”

Ms Ditchfield who pleaded not guilty and is part of an activist group Christian Climate Action, says,

“As a Christian, I believe Jesus calls us to come alongside people who are oppressed and in need, just like he did. I stand with the brave Bangladeshi activists who have been resisting this project for more than a decade. Successfully so far, yet the company continues to take investment from HSBC and other shareholders to try and pressure the government of Bangladesh to ignore local people and change their mind. Thirteen years ago GCM allegedly paid paramilitary guards to shoot at a protest of 80,000 people against the mine in 2006. Three teenagers were killed, the youngest 13 years old. 200 others were injured for peaceful protest against the theft of their homeland for foreign profit. The GCM director and representatives of the London Stock Exchange laughed when presented with this news. “As a mother of a 12yo and a 14yo, I have to stand with the families left still resisting this company which killed their children and seeks to bring so much more destruction and death through displacing communities and through climate change. One UK Bangladeshi activist recently asked me: “how can people do such things?” – destroying the lives of whole communities in the only flood-safe land in the region. I have no answer”.

The protesters outside of GCM’s AGM chant slogans last year on 28 December 2018. Photo: Golam Rabbani

 

Angela Ditchfield and Amy Pritchard said that they “will block GCM again” and that they “will take the charge of criminal damage to High Court “ because they “have not intended to cause any damage”.

Ms Morris-Evans, a school teacher and the third defendant who glued herself to the entrance in support of Phulbari says,

“To attempt to build a coal mine when we are at such a pitch of crisis – a crisis engendered by our excessive use of fossil fuels – is utter madness. If we do not cease to burn fossil fuels we risk entering into uncontrollable spirals of climate change which could ultimately endanger the survival of our own species along with countless others. We cannot stand by and watch as others plunge our world into disaster for the sake of short-term gain.”

Dr Rumana Hashem who directs Phulbari Solidarity Group and was present at the 2006 demonstration in Phulbari, says,

“I appreciate it that women who have intervened to obstruct GCM’s way of criminal activities are the dedicated earth defenders. My heartfelt thanks to Angela,  Amy and Schulamit for risking their bodies to hold GCM to account. I have witnessed GCM’s violence in Bangladesh, heard the cries of the victims’ families and seen tears of non-violent protesters who were injured in GCM’s inflicted violence in one of Bangladesh’s most harmonious, flood protected and green place. GCM want to destroy Phulbari and livelihood of tens of thousands of people. GCM’s CEO Gary Lye has been targeting local opponents. They are a fraudulent company. They are selling shares in London without a valid license for business in Phulbari. They must be held to account.”

The protest outside of GCM’s AGM held on Friday 28 December 2018. Photo: Golam Rabbani

Baroness Natalie Bennett who stands in support of protests against the company says,

“I am proud to stand in solidarity with campaigners in Bangladesh campaigning against the Phulbari Coal project as well as in remembrance of those massacred in 2006 while standing up for their rights. There should be no place in the London Stock Exchange for companies creating such immense harm to our environment and international community. We all need to take action to ensure we remain below 1.5 degrees of warming, and that includes the LSE. There is no place for open cast coal mining in the fossil fuel future this planet demands.”

A collation of 12 climate organisations, called the Phulbari Solidarity Alliance, have recently asked London Stock Exchange to consider de-listing GCM and investigate the criminal activities of the company. The coalition echoing the demands in their letter said that allowing GCM to retail shares on the share market is to allow cheating on ordinary people. London Stock Exchange is yet to respond to the call.

 

Further news:

Report on British Bangla News, 23 October 2019: http://www.britishbanglanews.com/court-dismissed-phulbari-activists-of-trespassing%ef%bb%bf/ 

Brief report by London Metro, 23 October 2019: https://www.metro.news/xr-activists-convicted-of-glue-protest-at-coal-firm/1769161/

PRESS RELEASE

LONDON SOLIDARITY ACTION TO SAVE THE SUNDARBANS BLOCKED BANLGADESH HIGH COMMISSION

 

• Passionate climate justice activists in London block the entrance of the Bangladesh High Commission for three hours demanding immediate halt to Rampal Coal Power Plants
• Bangladesh High Commission deployed police to harass peaceful climate change protesters
• The High Commissioner refused to meet activists and denied Bangladeshi citizens’ entry to the building
• A memorandum signed by 30 climate justice organsiations calls on the Bangladesh government to stop building fossil fuel industries near the Sundarbans

 

Amidst heavy policing and non-stop rain passionate climate and mangrove rights activists have blocked the main entrance of the Bangladesh High Commission in London today for three hours. A powerful and noisy solidarity action by London based transnational campaigners condemn the Bangladesh government’s decision to implement the 1,320 MW Rampal coal power plant as it would destroy the Sundarbans in Bangladesh. Protesters echo calls in their memorandum signed by members of 30 participating organisations demanding the Bangladesh government must put immediate halt to the Rampal project and take responsibility to save the Sundarbans.

A representative of five non-violent Bangladeshi protesters wanted to hand in the memorandum to the High Commissioner, Ms Saida Muna Tasneem, asking her to convey their five-point demand to the government, but she refused to make herself available to activists. Bangladeshi citizens were turned away, and denied access to the building and harassed by privately hired security guards and police which the activists called appalling. Protesters joined the UK Committee to Protect Natural Resources in Bangladesh and the Phulbari Solidarity Group with a coalition of Global Justice Rebellion and other climate organisations. Following from the refusal and rude manners of the High Commissioner and her First Officer, more climate activists joined the protest and formed a human chain blocking the entrance of the building in the afternoon.

A Bangladesh-India Friendship Power Company Ltd is building the giant Rampal coal power plant project, and a joint venture between National Thermal Power Company of India and the Bangladesh Power Development Board is going ahead, enabling additional 154 industrial constructions to be built in southwest Bangladesh.  These industrial constructions are threatening the Sundarbans, located at the Indian-Bangladeshi border. The 1,320 MW Rampal coal-power plant is located 14 miles from the Sundarbans, situated at the Indian-Bangladeshi border. The Sundarbans are the world’s single largest mangrove forests, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, a natural protective barrier for Bangladeshi coast against frequent storm-surges. They also are home to one of the last populations of the Bengali Tiger.

The proposed power plant is in an area already documented to be at or below sea level. UNESCO has asked the government to stop all industrial constructions until the exact impacts for the forests have been critically assessed. On Thursday 4 July at the 43^rd meeting of the World Heritage Committee in Baku UNESCO “notes with great concerns the likely environmental impacts of large scale industrial projects” and asked Bangladesh government to “take all necessary mitigation measures”. Despite UNESCO’s recommendation to halt constructions, the Bangladesh government is going ahead with industrial constructions and the power plant in the vicinity. Climate activists in Bangladesh who raise voice against the Rampal project have been faced with incredible repression.

Dr Rumana Hashem, an organiser of the London Solidarity Action and the coordinator of Phulbari Solidarity Group says:

We are protesting here because the Bangladesh government does not have the right to destroy the world’s largest mangrove forests in this way. UNESCO noted the danger of Rampal coal fired project for the survival of the Sundarbans but the government has violated UNESCO’s recommendations and did not stop building coal plants. People in Bangladesh have been protesting for years but government repress them badly. We demand that the government of Bangladesh will come to sense to scrap the Rampal project immediately. We must not let destructive projects destroy our greatest mangrove forests. 

Akhter Sobhan Khan of the UK Committee to Protect Natural Resources in Bangladesh says:

There is an Alternative Power and Energy Plan for Bangladesh , recommended by the energy experts belonging to the Save the Sundarbans movement, which shows that it is possible to generate up to 91,700 MW of electricity through renewable sources. The government totally overlooked the alternative energy plan. As we protest today we have been harassed by the High Commissioner’s security guards and police, despite advance permission sought to hand in the memo to the High Commissioner  who refused to meet us.This is unacceptable.

Kofi Mawuli Klu, the joint-coordinator of the Global Justice Rebellion and Extinction Rebellion International Solidarity Network states:

Sundarbans are the world’s largest mangrove forests. We all have responsibilities to save them. For the Internationalist Solidarity imperatives of our Climate and Ecological Emergency International Rebellion demand, we boldly take sides with grassroots Communities of Resistance at the Global South front ranks of defending World Heritage sites like the Sundarbans. We stand firm with the communities to prevent their loss from worsening the looming catastrophe. The most decisive victories of our International Rebellion will be won on such Global South battlegrounds as the Sundarbans, to effectively save all Humanity and our entire planet Earth.

Nicki Myers, the coordinator of the Disabled Rebels Network of Extinction Rebellion, says, explaining why she and her rebels participate in this protest:

The Civil DISobedience affinity group is taking part in this action because, like everyone here, we act to protect all life. We want to use our position of privilege in being able to peacefully protest to try and save these bountiful forests and the life they support. We have also supported the UK actions against the Phulbari coal mine. Recently we were humbled by the support of our friends in the Bangladesh solidarity movement who supported our actions to secure the right for disabled people to have equal rights to peaceful protest. 

Environmental Justice Bloc, Extinction Rebellion Cambridge, Extinction Rebellion Youth, Extinction Rebellion London, Global Justice Forum, London Mining Network, Reclaim the Power, Rising Up, South Asia Solidarity, and 21 other ecological and climate justice organisations from the UK and Europe vouch to stand with Bangladesh to prevent destructive coal projects in Bangladesh.

 

Which are the coal plants that threaten the Sundarbans?

There are three coal plants that threaten the Sundarbans. The first plant is being built by a joint venture of Bangladesh and India’s state-owned National Thermal Power Corporation at Rampal, within 14 kilometers north of the world Heritage site. There are two other plants to be built at Taltoli and Kalapara as joint Chinese-Bangladeshi ventures. The mentions of these later ones were taken out by the Chinese amendment to the final draft decision at the 43^rd session on 4 July.

The pollution and dredging from these coal plants will, as a mission from the IUCN in 2016 reported, undyingly damage the world’s mangrove forests. There are also plans for two additional coal plants to be built on the Payra port, by Chinese investments, which would threaten the ecological buffer zone.

 

Contact for further information:

Akhter Sobhan Khan (akhtersk@gmail.com), UK Committee to Protect Natural Resources in Bangladesh

More Photos  and video footage from the protest are available on request.  

https://www.facebook.com/events/2617889908297326/

More information on the Sundarbans struggle can be found at:

• Alternative Power and Energy Plan for Bangladesh http://ncbd.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/The-Alternative-Power-and-Energy-Plan-for-Bangladesh-by-NCBD.pdf
• Final draft decision of UNESCO: https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6183374-FINAL-SUNDARBANS-DECISION-2019.html
• Report on repression on activists in Bangladesh: https://phulbarisolidaritygroup.blog/2019/07/28/ensure-security-to-anu-muhammad-denounce-governments-inaction-to-save-the-sundarbans/
• Report on UNESCO’s recommendations in July 2019: https://phulbarisolidaritygroup.blog/2019/07/05/unesco-ask-to-halt-all-industrial-constructions-near-sundarbans-before-sea/

Solidarity Action to Save the Sundarbans

This Thursday at 11am we are marching to the Bangladesh High Commission to tell the Bangladesh government to stop the destructive Rampal coal-power plants and all industrial constructions near the Sundarbans, the worlds largest mangrove forests. We will be coming together with the UK’s Committee to Protect Natural Resources of Bangladesh, Global Justice Rebellion, Reclaim the Power and many more climate activist groups and global citizens concerned to the destruction of the Sundarbans.

The Sundarbans mangrove forests are the world’s largest mangrove forests and an invaluable ecosystem along Bangladesh’s coast. The Sundarbans are located at the Indian-Bangladeshi border in south-west Bangladesh. The mangrove is home to many rare animals and species, especially to the rare Bengal Tigers. The word ‘Sundar’ stands for bounty and ‘Bans’ for forests. These bountiful forests face destruction.

A Bangladesh-India Friendship Power Company Ltd is planning a dangerous project. A joint venture between the National Thermal Power Company of India and the Bangladesh Power Development Board are building a 1,320 MW coal-power plant in Rampal within 14 kilometers of the Sundarbans which will kill the rare animals and destroy the mangrove forests. There are 154 other industrial constructions planned in the area. The detrimental aspects of the project were highlighted by national and international experts. In July 2019, the 43rd session of the UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee has asked the government to halt all constructions.

Despite UNESCO’s recommendation to halt constructions, the Bangladesh government is going ahead with 154 industrial constructions to be built for the power plant in the vicinity. Climate activists in Bangladesh who raised voices against the destruction of the Sundarbans faced incredible repression by the state security forces.

We call on the Bangladesh High Commission for an urgent intervention into the government’s decision to implement the destructive Rampal coal-power plant and all industrial constructions.

JOIN US! SAVE The SUNDARBANS!

 

                                               11am on Thursday 17 October 2019

                                                Bangladesh High Commission

                                               28 Queens Gate, SW7 5JA, London.

(nearest tube stations: Gloucester Road and Kensington)

Confirm your participation via Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/2617889908297326/

Come in animal-friendly costumes, bring along lots of friends, noisy instruments, chants and handmade placards!!  

If you have a question, contact us on phone: 07714 288221, or email: phulbarisolidaritygroup@gmail.com,

PROTESTERS AND POLICE BLOCK LONDON STOCK EXCHANGE DEMANDING DE-LISTING OF BRITISH MINING COMPANY

PRESS RELEASE 23rd August 2019

Phulbari Day Black Vigil and protest at London Stock Exchange, 23 Aug 2019. Photo credit: Dovydas Vilimas

Dramatic protests took place at the London Stock Exchange today as scores of police blocked off both entrances to the London Stock Exchange with barriers and police lines in an attempt to stop protesters entering the building. The protesters, wearing all black, held a vigil outside the blocked entrance in commemoration of the massacre of three teenage boys during a non-violent protest against AIM listed Global Coal Management Resources plc (GCM) by communities around a proposed coal mine in Phulbari in 2006. Further protests are being held in Bangladesh on the official Phulbari Day on Monday 26^th August.

The UK protest was organised by the Phulbari Solidarity Group , Reclaim the Power, and the UK Committee to Protect Natural Resources in Bangladesh with a coalition of other organisations. Protesters echoed calls in their letter to Chief Financial Officer of the LSE, David Warren, demanding that GCM is investigated and de-listed from the London Stock Exchange for fraudulent and criminal activities.

Protesters ignoring police barricade pay tribute to Amin, Salekin and Tarikul during Black Vigil outside of London Stock Exchange at 9am on 23 Aug 2019. Photo credit: Dovydas Vilimas

The protesters in London targeted David Warren personally, asking him to come and meet them and demanding that he take their complaints seriously and immediately de-list GCM. They shouted “London Stock Exchange, shame on you!” “London Stock Exchange is a crime scene”; and “David Warren – blood on your hands” during the protest which lasted over five hours with many onlookers throughout. A survivor and eye witness of the 2006 massacre spoke passionately about the ongoing suffering and harassment of people in Phulbari GCM Resources.

Protesters chanting slogan shaming David Warren at LSE. Phulbari Day Black Vigil at London Stock Exchange. Friday 23 Aug 2019. Photocredit: Dovydas Vilimas

Deputy leader of the Green Party in England and Wales, Amelia Womack, who attended the demonstration, said:

The Phulbari coal project symbolises a threat to people, lives and human rights in Bangladesh. We stand with the protesters demanding that the London Stock Exchange de-list GCM Resources for their violations.

Protesters paid tribute with Red and White roes to Amin, Salekin and Tarikul during Phulbari Day Black Vigil at LSE. Friday, 23 Aug 2019. Photocredit: Fossil Free UK.

Natalie Bennett, politician and former leader of the Green Party of England and Wales said:

I am proud to stand in solidarity with campaigners in Bangladesh campaigning against the Phulbari Coal project, as well as in remembrance of those massacred in 2006 while standing up for their rights. There should be no place in the London Stock Exchange for companies creating such immense harm to our environment and international community.

She added, We all need to take action to ensure we remain below 1.5 degrees of warming, and that includes the LSE. There is no place for open cast coal mining in the fossil fuel future this planet demands.

The London rally is co-hosted by a wide coalition of groups including Extinction Rebellion International Solidarity Network, Foil Vedanta, Extinction Rebellion Youth, Reclaim the Power and Christian Climate Action.

Meanwhile in Bangladesh, indigenous communities and thousands of anti-mine activists will commemorate the lost lives by forming Red and Black vigils under the banner of National Committee to Protect Oil, Gas, Mineral Resources, Power and Ports in Bangladesh on 26^th August. The communities and families of victims will pay tribute with flowers to the memorial of the three dead at the Phulbari Memorial. The vigils demand that government must ban open cast coal mine, that Phulbari Day must be declared as the National Fossil Free Energy Day and government should implement the Phulbari Day Verdict by taking legal action against GCM immediately.

On 26 August 2006 three boys Al Amin (11), Mohammad Salekin (13) and Tarikul  Islam (18) were shot dead, and more than two hundred injured in a non-violent demonstration of 80,000 people against plans for an open cast coal mine by GCM’s subsidiary Asia Energy. The  eight million ton mine would forcibly displace 130,000 people from Phulbari in northwest Bangladesh. Construction of the plant is dependent on approval from the Bangladeshi government who previously shelved plans for the development following huge protests. Subsequently GCM’s CEO Gary Lye has filed multiple cases against 26 community organisers in Phulbari and Dinajpur claiming he has felt ‘harassed’ when he visited the area in an attempt to continue coal mining plans in 2014.

A protester is writing the names of the three dead in Phulbari shooting, Amin, Salekin and Tarikul during the Black Vigil outside London Stock Exchange. Friday 23 Aug 2019. Photo credit: Dovydas Vilimas

S.M. Nuruzaman, a survivor of Phulbari shooting and a local community organiser of the 2006 Phulbari Day protest in Phulbari says:

GCM is a fraudulent and murderer company who killed three of our young people for simply watching over a non-violent demo. The company’s CEO, Gary Lye, laughed after the killing on television. They bribed our police and border security guards to kill us and poison our society. They created violence which left three killed and 220 injured even before the company was awarded approval for mining in our Phulbari. They do not have a license, there is no project in Phulbari. We halted the mine 13 years ago. But GCM are selling shares in London Stock Exchange in the name of Phulbari. They continue abusing us. GCM’s arbitrary court cases against myself and 25 other community organisers in Phulbari claimed 1billion taka (BDT 100 crore) for so called harassments that Gary Lye and his men faced after they killed people in Phulbari. 9 of the 11 cases against me have already been dismissed by the courts. We want justice in our fight against this criminal company which has destroyed so many lives already.

Protests are ramping up in the UK following 13 years of campaigning for GCM to be de-listed from the LSE. Responding to the massacre and widespread protests, the Bangladeshi Government declined to renew the GCM subsidiary Asia Energy’s license to extract coal from Phulbari in 2010. Despite aggressive lobbying and public claims that they have government approval for coal extraction, GCM continues to have no valid contract with the Bangladesh government. However GCM recently announced a strategic partnership with two Chinese firms – China Nonferrous Metal Industry’s Foreign Engineering and Construction Company (NFC) and Power Construction Corporation of China (PowerChina) to develop the mine, which created a hike in its share price. GCM has no other operation or assets, yet the company continues to sell shares on the LSE on the basis of the Phulbari coal project.

Rumana Hashem, an eye witness to the Phulbari shooting who survived the vioence in 2006, describes the brutality that GCM’s Bangladesh subsidiary Asia Energy has been involved in Phulbari. Phulbari Day Black Vigil at London Stock Exchange. Friday, 23 Aug 2019. Photocredit: Fossil Free UK

A letter from twelve leading campaigning organisations from the UK, Europe and USA was sent to LSE Financial Director David Warren asking that the London Stock Exchange de-list GCM by Phulbari day. The letter details the company’s fraudulent selling of shares on the UK stock exchange without any viable project or permission to mine in Phulbari, as well as harassment of activists in Bangladesh. The letter points out that GCM is one of a string of London listed mining companies linked to the murder or ‘massacre’ of protesters, including Lonmin, Glencore, Kazakhmys, ENRC, Essar, Vedanta, Anglo Gold Ashanti, African Barrick Gold and Monterrico Metals. It notes the failure of the Financial Conduct Authority or the London Stock Exchange to investigate or penalise any London listed mining company on these grounds, and notes that this is bringing the LSE into disrepute.

Rumana Hashem from Phulbari Solidarity Group in London, who was present at the 2006 demonstration, says:

Dr Rumana Hashem explains to journalists and police why it is legitimate to blockade the London Stock Exchange. Phulbari Day Black Vigil at London Stock Exchange. Friday 23 Aug 2019. Photocredit: Dovydas Vilimas

 London Stock Exchange is complicit in the criminal activities of GCM by allowing them to retail shares and cheating on ordinary people for a decade. I have witnessed Asia Energy’s violence in Bangladesh, heard the cries of the victims and seen tears of non-violent protesters who were injured in GCM’s inflicted violence in one of Bangladesh’s most harmonious, flood protected and green place. GCM want to destroy the region and livelihood of the people in Phulbari. GCM’s CEO Gary Lye has been targeting local opponents. They must be held to account.

The vigil was attended by the deputy leader of the Green Party in England and Wales – Amelia Womack, the coordinator and activists of the London Mining Network, and activists from Fossil Free UK, 350.org UK, Decolonising Environment, Disability Climate Action, Extinction Rebellion London, Marikana Solidarity and others.

Rumana Hashem and Miriam Rose of Phulbari Solidarity Coalition led the protest at the main entrance of the London Stock Exchange, London. Friday, 23 Aug 2019. Photo credit: Paul Dudman

Akhter Khan from the Committee to Protect Resources of Bangladesh – UK branch, says:

We demand that London Stock Exchange must de-list GCM as the company do not have valid license to conduct business in Phulbari. LSE must not allow GCM’s deceitful money grabbing from the share market.

Kofi Mawuli Klu from Extinction Rebellion International Solidarity Network UK says:

XRISN-UK stands with the Phulbari Solidarity Group, the National Committee and all Environmental Justice campaigners in and outside Bangladesh in solemn remembrance not only of those martyred but also of those who survived to continue fighting up till now for real Change for a better World! It is with the blood of the heroic likes of the Phulbari martyrs that our XR International Rebellion is fuelled; and this gives us the assurance that the Struggle will continue relentlessly through the turbulence of this dangerous time of Climate and Ecological Emergency; it will continue till we overcome to usher in the victories they deserve.

#BlackVigil #CoalMurder #PhulbariDay

For Further information on the Black vigil, Phulbari massacre and GCM’s lies check out:

Video clips from the Black vigil by Jason Parkinson is available here: https://jasonnparkinson.com/2019/08/23/protestors-demand-london-stock-exchange-de-list-uk-mining-company/

A short film by Helen Brews is accessible in this link: https://youtu.be/jTBnAWl_bVQ

1. GCM provides false information and Bangladesh Government will take legal action against GCM – by Arifuzzaman Tuhin: The Daily Prothom Alo, 24 August 2019 
2. Protesters demand London Stock Exchange delists mining company: Morning Star, 23 August 2019.
3. Phulbari day observed in Bangladesh: The New Age, 27 August, 2019.
4. Vigil held in front of London Stock Exchange –  350.org report
5. Protests planned at London Stock Exchange over links to massacre in Bangladesh: Morning Star, 21 August 2019.
6. Govt mulls stopping Asia Energy’s activities in country – by Manjurul Ahsan: New Age, 9 December, 2014:http://www.newagebd.net/74878/govt-mulls-stopping-asia-energys-activities-in-country/#sthash.mWNPG6Xu.W0jEZXnK.dpbs

     4. Video footage of killings in Phulbari: https://phulbarisolidaritygroup.blog/videos/

     5. Facts about Phulbari coal project at a glance: https://www.banktrack.org/download/the_phulbari_coal_project/iap_factsheet_footnotes_the_final_0.pdf

      6. A copy of the letter to LSE Chief Financial Officer David Warren can be found at this url: https://wp.me/p2ZU1R-ql

 

Consider De-listing of Global Coal Management from London Stock Exchange

12 Climate Justice Organisations Calling Upon Chief Financial Officer at London Stock Exchange

 

A letter signed by a coalition of 12 organisations to Chief Financial Officer of London Stock Exchange, David P Warren, demands the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) must undertake an impartial enquiry into GCM’s unethical business. The letter asks that FCA must establish that the company holds a valid license for mining in Phulbari or LSE must de-list GCM from the London Stock Exchange by Friday, 23rd August. The coalition warns that failure to respond to the letter would mean that LSE faces essential action. The letter has been delivered to David P Warren by the City Sprint Courier Service and was later handed over again by the City of London police during the Black vigil at LSE on Friday. The letter with full list of signatories is as follows.

Dear Mr David P Warren,

We write to you in regard to an urgent investigation and overdue de-listing of a fraudulent company on the London Stock Exchange (LSE). The company is called the Global Coal Management Resources plc. (GCM), formerly known as “Asia Energy”. GCM is listed as a mining company on the London Stock Exchange’s Alternative Investors Market (AIM). They are selling shares in London’s share market in the name of a project called “Phulbari coal project”, which does not exist. The company do not hold any valid asset to operate in Phulbari and do not have permission for mining anywhere in the world.

We would like to draw your attention to fraudulent activities of GCM, and would like to hand over some key documentation about the company’s fraudulent business, thereby asking you to undertake an urgent enquiry into GCM’s business and consider de-listing GCM from LSE.

Under the coalition of Phulbari Solidarity we are campaigning alongside groups in Bangladesh to raise awareness about the human rights abuse, ecocide, and fraudulent business of GCM, who want to build a massive open-cast coal mine in Phulbari, the only flood protected location in northwest Bangladesh. Due to severe level of human rights violation by GCM’s Bangladesh subsidiary, Asia Energy, in Phulbari the government in Bangladesh declined to renew the company’s licence in 2010. Yet the company, currently listed on AIM, continues to grab money by selling deceitful shares on Phulbari coal project’s name in London’s share market.

Bangladesh government reiterated that the Phulbari project is unlikely to go ahead and that GCM will never be given permission to return to Phulbari or northwest Bangladesh for coal extraction. The government has overturned their right to mine in Bangladesh about a decade ago.

Given the LSE’s remit in overseeing the conduct of the AIM-listed companies, we are asking that the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) undertakes an impartial enquiry into GCM’s unethical business and establish that the company holds any valid license for mining in Phulbari or abroad with a view to review the company’s listing within the London Stock Exchange.

We ask you to kindly respond to our call for investigation by Friday the 23^rd of August.

GCM is one of a string of London listed mining companies linked to the murder and ‘massacre’ of protesters, including Lonmin, Glencore, Kazakhmys, ENRC, Essar, Vedanta, Anglo Gold Ashanti, African Barrick Gold and Monterrico Metals. We note the failure of the Financial Conduct Authority and the London Stock Exchange to investigate or penalise any London listed mining company on these grounds is bringing the LSE into disrepute.

This 26^th August marks 13^th anniversary of the Phulbari killing when three young people were shot dead and more than two hundreds injured in a non-violent demonstration of 80,000 people who marched against plans by GCM in Phulbari. The day has nationally been called the Phulbari Day since. Powerful resistance in the aftermath of the shooting in Phulbari has put a decade long halt to the project. Following the killing of people in Asia Energy’s incited violence Bangladesh government has declined to renew the company’s contract to operate in Phulbari.  Despite no valid contract for mining, GCM is selling shares and cheating on the UK’s share market.

We have previously written about this to you and to Mr Xavier Rolet KBE, the former Chief Executive of London Stock Exchange. We also proposed for a meeting to discuss the matter in 2016. Nevertheless there was no response.

We would appreciate it if you can respond to our demand before Friday 23^rd August. If not, we ought to take further steps to hold London Stock Exchange to account.

In support of our concerns we are enclosing some key documentary evidence:

1. OECD complaint about GCM-led human rights abuse and corruption in Bangladesh submitted to and accepted by UK National Contact Point.
2. Report on the cancellation of contract with Bangladesh government.
3. Reports on GCM’s deceitful sales of their shares in the name of Phulbari Project.
4. Evidence of GCM’s continuous violence and harassment of opponents to the project.

 

If you need further information, please feel free to contact us (as per below contact details).

We look forward to hear from you in due course.

Yours Faithfully,

Dr Rumana Hashem, Co-ordinator, Phulbari Solidarity Group.

Alejandra Piazzolla, Spokesperson, Extinction Rebellion Youth.

Akhter Sobhan Khan, Member secretary, the Committee to Protect Natural Resources of Bangladesh, UK branch.

Alfredo Quarto, Director, Mangrove Action Project, US.

Angela Ditchfield, Director, Christian Climate Action.

Johan Frijns, Director, Bank Track.

Kofi Mawuli Klu, Joint Co-ordinator, Extinction Rebellion International Solidarity Network.

Knud Voecking, Director, Urgewald e.V., Germany.

Nick Bryer, Europe Campaign Manager, 350.org.

Nils Agger, Co-founder, Extinction Rebellion, UK.

Richard Roberts, Spokesperson, Reclaim the Power

Samarendra Das, Chair, Foil Vedanta.

#PhulbariDay #CoalMurder

Press Release

PHULBARI DAY PROTESTS IN LONDON AND BANGLADESH MARK MASSACRE BY BRITISH MINING COMPANY

• Sombre protests will be held at London Stock Exchange on 23^rd August and at Phulbari Memorial in Bangladesh on 26^th August to mark ‘Phulbari day’, commemorating the massacre of protesters by GCM in Phulbari in 2006.
• A letter from a coalition of groups demands that GCM is de-listed from the London Stock Exchange for fraudulent activities.

London, 14th August 2019: Sombre protests will take place at the London Stock Exchange in London and in Bangladesh on the 23^rd and 26^th of August to mark the 13^th anniversary of the murder of three teenage boys and abuse of hundreds of people by AIM listed Global Coal Management Resources plc (GCM) during a non-violent protest by communities around a proposed coal mine in Phulbari in 2006. The anniversary is officially declared Phulbari Day in Bangladesh. A creative rally, a human chain and a performative vigil will be held at the London Stock Exchange organised by Phulbari Solidarity Group and the UK Committee to Protect Natural Resources in Bangladesh with a coalition of seven other organisations. Protesters will echo calls in their letter to Chief Financial Officer of the LSE, David Warren, demanding that GCM is de-listed from the London Stock Exchange for fraudulent and criminal activities.

Meanwhile in Bangladesh, indigenous communities and thousands of anti-mine activists will commemorate the lost lives by forming Red and Black vigils under the banner of National Committee to Protect Oil, Gas, Mineral Resources, Power and Ports in Bangladesh on 26^th August. The communities and families of victims will pay tribute with flowers to the memorial of the three dead at the Phulbari Memorial. The vigils demand that government must ban open cast coal mine, that Phulbari Day must be declared as the National Fossil Free Energy Day and government should implement the Phulbari Day Verdict by taking legal action against GCM immediately.

On 26 August 2006 three boys Amin (13), Salekin (16) and Tariqul (19) were shot dead, and more than two hundred injured in a non-violent demonstration of 80,000 people against plans for an open cast coal mine by GCM’s subsidiary Asia Energy. The eight million ton mine would forcibly displace 130,000 people from Phulbari in northwest Bangladesh. Construction of the plant is dependent on approval from the Bangladeshi government who previously shelved plans for the development following huge protests. Subsequently GCM’s CEO Gary Lye has filed multiple cases against 26 community organisers in Phulbari and Dinajpur claiming he has felt ‘harassed’ when he visited the area in an attempt to continue coal mining plans in 2014.

Nuruzzaman, a survivor of Phulbari shooting and a local community organiser of the 2006 Phulbari Day protest in Phulbari says:

“GCM is a fraudulent and murderer company who killed three of our young people for simply watching over a non-violent demo. The company’s CEO, Gary Lye, laughed after the killing on television. They bribed our police and border security guards to kill us and poison our society. They created violence which left three killed and 220 injured even before the company was awarded approval for mining in our Phulbari. They do not have a license, there is no project in Phulbari. We halted the mine 13 years ago. But GCM are selling shares in London Stock Exchange in the name of Phulbari. They continue abusing us. GCM’s arbitrary court cases against myself and 25 other community organisers in Phulbari claimed 1billion taka (BDT 100 crore) for so called harassments that Gary Lye and his men faced after they killed people in Phulbari. 9 of the 11 cases against me have already been dismissed by the courts. We want justice in our fight against this criminal company which has destroyed so many lives already. ”

Protests are ramping up in the UK following 13 years of campaigning for GCM to be de-listed from the LSE. Responding to the massacre and widespread protests, the Bangladeshi Government declined to renew the GCM subsidiary Asia Energy’s license to extract coal from Phulbari in 2010. Despite aggressive lobbying and public claims that they have government approval for coal extraction, GCM continues to have no valid contract with the Bangladesh government. However GCM recently announced a strategic partnership with two Chinese firms – China Nonferrous Metal Industry’s Foreign Engineering and Construction Company (NFC) and Power Construction Corporation of China (PowerChina) to develop the mine, which created a hike in its share price¹. GCM has no other operation or assets, yet the company continues to sell shares on the LSE on the basis of the Phulbari coal project.

Rumana Hashem from Phulbari Solidarity Group in London, who was present at the 2006 demonstration, says:

“London Stock Exchange is complicit in the criminal activities of GCM by allowing them to retail shares and cheating on ordinary people for a decade. I have witnessed Asia Energy’s violence in Bangladesh, heard the cries of the victims and seen tears of non-violent protesters who were injured in GCM’s inflicted violence in one of Bangladesh’s most harmonious, flood protected and green place. GCM want to destroy the region and livelihood of the people in Phulbari. GCM’s CEO Gary Lye has been targeting local opponents. They must be held to account. ”

The London rally is co-hosted by a wide coalition of groups including Extinction Rebellion International Solidarity Network, Foil Vedanta, Christian Climate Action, Extinction Rebellion Youth, and Reclaim The Power. The protest is expected to be theatrical and hard hitting with participants wearing black clothes and masks, forming human chain, paying tribute with red roses to the memorial of the three killed, and singing songs of mourning and resistance from the Phulbari struggle to commemorate the lost lives.

Akhter Khan from the Committee to Protect Natural Resources of Bangladesh – UK branch (4), says:

“We demand that London Stock Exchange must de-list GCM as the company do not have valid license to conduct business in Phulbari. LSE must not allow GCM’s deceitful money grabbing from the share market. ”

Kofi Mawuli Klu from Extinction Rebellion International Solidarity Network UK says:

“XRISN-UK stands with the Phulbari Solidarity Group, the National Committee and all Environmental Justice campaigners in and outside Bangladesh in solemn remembrance not only of those martyred but also of those who survived to continue fighting up till now for real Change for a better World! It is with the blood of the heroic likes of the Phulbari martyrs that our XR International Rebellion is fuelled; and this gives us the assurance that the Struggle will continue relentlessly through the turbulence of this dangerous time of Climate and Ecological Emergency; it will continue till we overcome to usher in the victories they deserve.”

A letter signed by 12 transnational climate justice organisations under the coalition of Phulbari Solidarity has been sent to LSE Financial Director, demanding that GCM is investigated and de-listed for its crimes and fraudulent selling of shares without any valid asset. The letter points out that GCM is one of a string of London listed mining companies linked to the murder or ‘massacre’ of protesters, including Lonmin, Glencore, Kazakhmys, ENRC, Essar, Vedanta, Anglo Gold Ashanti, African Barrick Gold and Monterrico Metals. It notes the failure of the Financial Conduct Authority or the London Stock Exchange to investigate or penalise any London listed mining company on these grounds, and notes that this is bringing the LSE into disrepute.

 

 

More information on the Phulbari massacre can be found at:

Video footage of killings in Phulbari: https://phulbarisolidaritygroup.blog/videos/

Facts about Phulbari coal project at a glance: https://www.banktrack.org/download/the_phulbari_coal_project/iap_factsheet_footnotes_the_final_0.pdf

 

Contact for further information: Miriam Rose ( miriam.rose@outlook.com ) to organise statements or interviews with any of the host organisations or case studies.

 

 

#PhulbariDayVigil #CoalMurder

 

 

 

BLACK VIGIL for Phulbari Victims in London

What? Rage and Rally outside London Stock Exchange

When? On Friday, 23 August, at 9AM to1PM

Where?  10 Paternoster Square, London EC4M 7LS, UK. (nearest tube station: St Paul’s)

 

Hand-painted banner for victims of Phulbari shooting, 26 August 2016. Photocredit: Peter Marshall.

On 26 August in 2006 three people were shot dead and more than two hundreds injured in a non-violent demonstration of 80,000 people against a London-listed mining company, Global Coal Resources Management (GCM), who want to build a massive open cast coal mine by forcibly displacing 1,30000 people in Phulbari of northwest Bangladesh. The three killed were young people. The day has been marked as Phulbari Day ever since.

 

Although powerful resistance in the aftermath of the shooting against the coal mine has put a decade long halt to the project, the company continues its dodgy deals. GCM is aggressively moving ahead to build an open-cast coal mine in Phulbari. They have recently signed two new MOUs with two Chinese companies, and are lobbying with Bangladesh government for approval of the project.

 

GCM do not have a valid contract with Bangladesh. Following the unauthorised shooting and killings in violence inflicted by GCM’s Bangladesh subsidiary, Asia Energy, the government declined to renew the company’s license in 2010. But GCM’s CEO filed multiple cases against 26 community organisers in Phulbari and Dinajpur. They are also selling shares in the name of Phulbari project in the London Stock Exchange.

 

We have alerted London Stock Exchange about GCM’s fraudulent business. Phulbari Solidarity Group, Foil Vedanta, London Mining Network and the UK Committee to Protect Natural Resources in Bangladesh had previously asked London Stock Exchange to de-list GCM. But there was no response to our calls.

 

• As Phulbari Day marks 13th anniversary this August, we will rally and rage outside the London Stock Exchange on Friday the 23^rd August. Coordinated by Phulbari Solidarity Group, this year we will march together with climate activists at Christian Climate Action, Committee to Protect Natural Resources of Bangladesh, Extinction Rebellion, Foil Vedanta, and Reclaim the Power. While anxious people in Phulbari are paying tribute to victims in Phulbari memorial on 26 August, we stand in solidarity with the communities by rallying at London Stock Exchange. We will be commemorating the lost lives by rallying against GCM in London.

 

• We will pay a creative tribute to Al-Amin (13), Salekin (16) and Tariqul (19). We will form a Vigil by wearing BLACK clothes. We will sing songs of loss and struggle.

 

We ask London Stock Exchange to De-list GCM NOW.

JOIN THE VIGIL on at 9AM on Friday 23 August!

Come along with your friends and families for a non-violent rally and creative action at London Stock Exchange.

• Wear Black as symbol of grief, dirty coal and anguish!
• Bring along musical instruments, own placards and ideas for creative actions:)

Please confirm your attendance here on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/events/219008188986792/

#PhulbariDayRally

Memorial of Al-Amin, Salekin and Tariqul in Phulbari. Photocredit: Nuruzzaman

Solidarity with #PowerBeyondBorders Campaigners

The below message was delivered to the Reclaim the Power’s Power Beyond Borders camp on Tuesday, 30 July. It was written in solidarity to those who took a series of incredible actions against UK Home Office, Hallmark Depot and Drax. The statement written by PSG founder Rumana Hashem, was read out by Put Down the Sword’s founder Angela Ditchfield on behalf of all at Phulbari Solidarity Group.

This message comes from the hearts of Bangladeshi migrants and environmental activists at Phulbari Solidarity Group. We congratulate the super dedicated climate and migrants rights activists at the Power Beyond Borders camp. We wish we could be in the camp with you. Due to our visa, immigration status, and other material issues we couldn’t be physically there but we wanted to let you know that we are with you in spirit.

It is heartening to see climate activists at the Power Beyond Borders camp are taking just actions as required for five days. It is splendid that Reclaim the Power network have reached out to migrants and Black and Minority Ethnic groups for an inclusive climate justice action. Thank you for taking an intersectional approach to climate struggles and for seeking to build a planet free of fossil fuel, and of exploitation and hostility.

There is no doubt that climate change is interrelated with migration and refugee “crisis”. Those of us are fighting at the frontline of climate campaign in Bangladesh and Phulbari know very well that our goods, including coal and gas are allowed to cross borders – as robbed by certain corporations such as the UK-based Global Coal Resources Management and Tullow Oil Plc. The governments in the UK and elsewhere are fully aware of this free movement of goods from Bangladesh, and let their companies to inflict violence killing indigenous people in northwest Bangladesh.  But our people, especially students and migrants in the UK, are not welcome or treated with respect.

Due to hostile environment and new immigration legislation by Theresa May, more than 7,000 legal Bangladeshi students were forced to leave the UK between 2014 and 2017. ‘Accusations of faking English tests came amid department’s “hostile environment” policy. A Financial Times report showed that the Home Office may have falsely accused as many as 7,000 international students of faking their proficiency in English and ordered them to leave the country, with some of them saying they were detained and made homeless as a result’ (Financial Times, 01 May 2018). At a personal level, the author of this statement of solidarity has experienced hostility for years in Britain. Despite Indefinite Leave to Remain in the UK, this author’s work permit was curtailed for three years (2014-2017). I was forced to collect a second/fresh biometric and pay £280 for no good reason. During the renewal of biometric, there was no paid work and no money to survive. There was only a feeling of vulnerability and of being unwelcome.

This is not an uncommon story. Thousands of international im/migrants have undergone such harassment and face hostility in the UK. If you are a climate activist, your burden would be doubled.

The same government let toxic corporations to forcibly displace 1,30000 people including 50, 000 indigenous families from Phulbari of northwest Bangladesh.  A London-listed company called the Global Coal Management (GCM) Resources Plc. want to build a massive open cast coal mine by polluting our water and livelihood, grabbing our land, homes, and by exploiting government. Over the course of 30 years of coal extraction, GCM would like to export 94 percent of extracted coal and give only 6 percent to Bangladesh government.  They would enjoy a tax holiday and would not pay any tax for the extracted coals for 9 years.

When non-violent people took to the streets to protest, they faced violence by company-hired security forces. Three people were shot dead and 200 plus injured in unauthorised shooting, which shook up entire Bangladesh. But the company is aggressively moving ahead to build the mine without a license from Bangladesh government.

This one story tells a lot about UK government’s inaction to climate and migration issues. When evicted people from Phulbari would want to enter the UK and re-make home in London, would UK’s Home Office let those people? We know the answer is “NOT likely”. Migrants’ rights and climate justice are inseparable issues. Thank you for taking this interconnected actions by risking your bodies.

We are saddened to hear that police targeted some activists after the protest at UK Home Office on Monday. The hostility against migrants is once again visible.

We stand in solidarity with all activists at Power Beyond Borders. Congratulations for your deliberation and your efforts to bring in justice.

Sending courage, peace and power to the camp!

Long Live Power Beyond Borders!

Anxious Phulbari people to be evicted. File photo. Courtesy: NCBD

 

Ensure Security to Anu Muhammad: Denounce Government’s Inaction to Save the Sundarbans

Joint Statement by

Extinction Rebellion International Solidarity Network and Phulbari Solidarity Group

Friday the 26^th July was International Mangrove Day when the world was believed to celebrate mangrove action for conservation of the mangrove and associated ecosystems. Whilst climate activists in the minority world such as USA celebrate mangrove action month, activists in the majority world face unspeakable repression during this mangrove action month.  We note on 12 July a dedicated mangrove rights activist and a leader of the National Committee to Protect Oil, Gas, Mineral Resources, Power and Ports in Bangladesh (NCBD), Professor Anu Muhammad, was threatened to be kidnapped and silenced by malevolent terrorist claiming to be from India. This is appalling.

The threat to the professor came on the day after he wrote an article exposing government’s responsibility to prevent coal plants in the vicinity of the Sundarbans, a UNESCO World Heritage site. Professor Anu Muhammad is a renowned economist, a fearless climate activist, and the member secretary of the central NCBD. He should inspire us all. In our shock we read that he was told to pay BDT 400,000 and threatened to be kidnapped, otherwise.  Although he reported the incident to police straightaway on the same day, Bangladeshi police are yet to take action. Such malicious threat to Anu Muhammad and police inaction are abysmal.

We call on the government of Bangladesh to urgently enquire into the case and to provide security to Professor Anu Muhammad.  Police should inspect, identify and prosecute the criminals, and ensure that such intimidation never happens again.

Notably this is not the first time that Professor Anu Muhammad was intimidated. In February 2008 he was threatened to be killed. In September 2009 the same professor, along with 50 other NCBD activists, was brutally beaten by the state-security forces to such extent that he merely survived. He was opposing government’s decision to award gas and oil exploration rights in the Bay of Bengal to US based gas company called ConocoPhillips and the UK-based oil company Tullow Oil plc. who took Bangladesh government hostage for three blocks and wanted to export up to 80 per cent of gas from the country.  In 2018, Anu Muhammad, received further death threat by malicious extremists. But no action for his security was taken by the government so far.

NCBD march against Rampal deal to handover statement to PM of Bangladesh in Dhaka 28 July 2016. Courtesy: Anonymous NCBD activist.

We note it is not only Anu Muhammad who faced such threats in Bangladesh. Over the past several years during save the Sundrabans movement many Bangladeshi climate justice activists underwent intimidation and heightened insecurity including police brutality for their actions to protect mangrove and ecological justice. In 2016 on this day, police foiled non-violent demonstration and unleashed violence on those who marched to conserve the mangrove ecosystem in Bangladesh.

We express our intense disturbance to such intimidation, repression and government’s inaction to protect voices of mangrove in Bangladesh.  Bangladeshi mangrove rights activists deserve better.

We also explicitly condemn ongoing destruction of the Sundarbans, one of the world’s largest mangrove forests, located at the Indian-Bangladeshi border in south-west Bangladesh.  An Indian National Thermal Power Company and Bangladesh Power Development Board are building a joint venture coal power plant to produce 1,320 megawatt coal fired power in Rampal, within 14 kilometers of the Sundarbans.  The detrimental aspects of the project were highlighted by national and international experts. But the governments have so far ignored all criticisms.  Bangladesh government’s decision to implement the destructive Rampal coal power-plant near the Sundarbans is disgraceful.

We express our unambiguous support to activists of the Bangladesh National Committee and associated grassroots organisations as they are opposed by the destruction of the beautiful forests in the Sundarbans. The Sundarbans mangrove is an invaluable ecosystem along Bangladesh’s coast. Government of Bangladesh should take responsibilities to protect the mangrove site.

On this International Mangorve Action month, we stand firm in solidarity with Bangladeshi climate activists to take action to save the mangrove. Extinction Rebellion International Solidarity Network and Phulbari Solidarity will be watching development in Bangladeshi climate struggle.

#SavetheSundarbans #StopRampalCoalPowerPlant

UNESCO Ask To Halt All Industrial Constructions Near Sundarbans Before SEA

 

Activists condemn UNESCO for failing to list the Sundarbans to “World Heritage in Danger”

 

By Akhter Khan

 

Despite heavy lobbying by Bangladesh government and Chinese coal diplomats, UNESCO held the ground by asking to halt all industrial constructions near the Sundarbans. On Thursday 4 July at the 43^rd meeting of the World Heritage Committee in Baku the committee agreed a decision that “notes with great concerns the likely environmental impacts of large scale industrial projects” and asked Bangladesh government to “take all necessary mitigation measures”.

The committee asked the government to conduct a regional Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) by the end of 2019. It “expresses concern that 154 industrial projects upstream of the property are currently active, and reiterates the Committee’s request in Paragraph 4 of Decision 41 COM B.25”. The government has been asked to “ensure that any large-scale industrial and/or infrastructure developments will not be allowed to proceed before the SEA has been completed.”

The government of Bangladesh, backed by Chinese coal lobbyists, has maintained the Rampal project was put through a thorough environmental assessment process. But the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has disputed this claim.

Bangladeshi and transnational campaigners to save the Sundarbans condemned the decision of UNESCO for it has moved away from the earlier draft decision of the committee. The earlier draft did express grave concerns to the construction of three coal plants in the area. But the final decision re-drafted by China, Australia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cuba, Hungary and Norway fails to recognise the threats linked to the coal plants near Sundarbans.

We should name and shame those members of the Committee that removed mention of danger of coal plants in the final declaration. UNESCO’s final decision is cowardly. But we also note it doesn’t approve building of any coal plants or industrial constructions in the vicinity before a Strategic Environmental Assessment is completed, said Dr Rumana Hashem, the Phulbari Solidarity spokesperson and an organiser of transnational campaign to save the Sundarbans.

An earlier draft decision of the Committee citing the site as a ‘Heritage in danger’ was indisputably supported by climate campaigners and earth defenders from across the world. On Monday 1^st July, a petition initiated by Bangladeshi diaspora campaigners in the UK and Europe, and signed by 53 global ecological and grassroots climate justice organisations demanded UNESCO must recognise the threats posed to the Sundarbans.  There were other calls and messages sent from across the globe to the World Heritage Committee to save the Sundarbans.

Despite all calls, the Committee allowed amendments to the original draft decision. It also failed to acknowledge the existence of economical renewable energy options which were recommended by biodiversity experts. The Alternative Power and Energy Plan for Bangladesh, recommended by the energy experts belonging to the Save the Sundarbans movement articulate that it is possible to generate up to 91,700 MW of electricity through renewable sources. The Committee overlooked the Alternative Energy Plan.

Professor Anu Muhammad, the Member Secretary of NCBD said that: Yeras ago, UNESCO from its own research and investigations confirmed the danger of Rampal coal fired project for the survival of Sundarban. The global institution has to do more to save the Sundarban. The government and the corporations have been lobbying to rationalize disastrous projects there.

He added: People will not accept such decision. Lobbying and propaganda cannot hide the truth. We demand that the governments of both Bangladesh and India will come to senses to scrap the Rampal project immediately. When we say YES to the Sundarbans, we must say NO to Rampal and other destructive projects in the vicinity. 

Cultural Survival, Extinction Rebellion, Greenpeace Russia, Global Justice Forum, London Mining Network, Mangrove Action Project, Reclaim The Power, South Asia Solidarity, 350.org, Urgewald and 43 other environmental organisations from Asia, Afrika, Australia, Canada, Europe, East Europe, Middle East, UK and US stand firm in solidarity with Bangladeshi communities to prevent destructive coal projects in Bangladesh.

Urgewald’s Director, Knud Vöcking, stated:  Again the Sundarbans are threatened by fossil fuel projects. UNESCO has to step up but they failed!

Extinction Rebellion International Solidarity Network’s joint cooridinator, Kofi Mawuli Klu, as a signatory of Monday’s petition stated:

For the Internationalist Solidarity imperatives of our Climate and Ecological Emergency International Rebellion demand, we boldly take sides with grassroots Communities of Resistance at the Global South front ranks of defending World Heritage sites like the Sundarbans. We stand firm with the communities to prevent their loss from worsening the looming catastrophe. The most decisive victories of our International Rebellion will be won on such Global South battlegrounds as the Sundarbans, to effectively save all Humanity and our entire planet Earth.

 

Stop-rampal-coal-power-plant-poster-by Rudro Rothi.

Which are the coal plants that threaten the Sundarbans?

There are three coal plants that threaten the Sundarbans. The first plant is being built by a joint venture of Bangladesh and India’s state-owned National Thermal Power Corporation at Rampal, within 14 kilometers north of the world Heritage site. There are two other plants to be built at Taltoli and Kalapara as joint Chinese-Bangladeshi ventures. The mentions of these later ones were taken out by the Chinese amendment to the final draft decision at the 43^rd session on 4 July.

The pollution and dredging from these coal plants will, as a mission from the IUCN in 2016 reported, enduringly damage the world’s mangrove forests. There are also plans for two additional coal plants to be built on the Payra port, by Chinese investments, which would threaten the ecological buffer zone.

 

#SavetheSundarbans #NotoRampalCoalPowerPlant

We Call on the World Heritage Committee to Intervene to Stop Bangladesh’s Government from Pushing the Sundarbans Towards Destruction

The Bengal Tiger in River Pashur at the Sundarbans on 26 July 2016. Courtesy: Anonymous photographer, NCBD.

In the light of ongoing threats on the world’s largest mangrove forest, the Sundarbans, located at the Indian-Bangladeshi border, we write to the country delegates to the 43^rd Session of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee by calling for an urgent intervention into Bangladesh government’s decision to implement the destructive Rampal coal power-plant.

 

As concerned global citizens, earth defenders, climate organisations and researchers, and members of Bangladeshi environmental groups abroad, we express our unequivocal support to the draft decision generated by international biodiversity experts and to be discussed and voted in Baku on 4 July 2019. We welcome the draft decision that calls in particular to halt the construction of the coal plants at Rampal, Taltali and Kalapara and 154 other active industrial activities in southwest Bangladesh until the exact impacts for the forest have been critically assessed.

 

The Sundarbans mangrove forest is an invaluable ecosystem along Bangladesh’s coast and the government of Bangladesh should take responsibility to protect the mangrove site. Ahead of the 43^rd Session in Baku where 21 member states on the Committee will discuss the status of the Sundarbans forest, we caution also that declaring it a “World Heritage Site in Danger” will not suffice. This will be a first step only. We recognise the imminent danger threatening the mangrove forest, where such a decision is needed. However, the Committee should take a more bold and positive step to bring in a solution to the problem faced by the affected communities and the World Heritage.

 

The outcome of such declaration should not mean that the World’s largest mangrove forest being an isolated or left over site, diminishing its original status. In our view the World Heritage Committee should take an important and positive step by first declaring the Sundarbans as a “Heritage in Danger” and asking the Bangladesh government to immediately comply with UNESCO guidelines for the protection and conservation of this universal common heritage. The Committee should ask the government to ensure that the mangrove being not harmed in the future. This could be done by consistent monitoring of the activities across the site, which the government should be accountable for.

 

The Committee could also ask the government to follow the Alternative Power and Energy Plan for Bangladesh, crafted by the energy experts belonging to the Save the Sundarbans movement that articulate that it is possible to generate up to 91,700 MW of electricity through renewable sources.

 

The government in Bangladesh do not recognise the cost of fossil fuel and harms done by ongoing industrial developments in the vicinity of Sundarbans. There are significant evidence of ongoing dredging and construction in the vicinity of the Sundarbans that overlooked appropriate measures to limit water and soil pollution. Despite thorough critiques by national and international climate experts and scientists, industrial projects near this intricate ecosystem continue. This situation is saddening.

 

Thus we call on the Country Delegates to the World Heritage Committee to immediately:

 

1. Declare the site as a “Heritage in Danger” and take positive steps to save the Sundarbans;
2. Ask Bangladesh government to withdraw from the move to build coal-power plants near the Sundarbans;
3. To reiterate that it is the government’s responsibility to protect mangrove forests and to comply with the UNESCO World Heritage recommendations as elaborated in the draft decision;
4. Tell Bangladesh government to overhaul all industrial installations of destructive enterprises in the area;
5. To consult the Alternative Power and Energy Plan for Bangladesh as a way forward for meeting energy needs of the country.

 

Sincerely,

 

We the undersigned:*

 

1. Akhter Sobhan Khan Masroor, Committee to Protect Natural Resources of Bangladesh, the UK branch.
2. Alfredo Quarto, Mangrove Action Project, USA.
3. Amrit Wilson, South Asia Solidarity Group, London.
4. Amy Caitlin, Extinction Rebellion London, UK.
5. Anna Gaynutdinova, ICOMOS Russia Board member.
6. Andrea Martínez-Fernández, World Heritage Office of San Antonio (US/ICOMOS Int´l Exchange Intern), Texas.
7. Anna Fisk, Extinction Rebellion Scotland.
8. Delphine Djiraibe, Public Interest Law Centre, TCHAD, North-central Afrika.
9. Danielle DeLuca, Cultural Survival, USA.
10. Dominique Palmer, Extinction Rebellion Youth, London.
11. Elena Belokurova, German-Russian Exchange St. Petersburg.
12. Eman Shokry Hesham, The World Heritage Watch.
13. Environics R. Sreedhar, Environics Trust, India.
14. Ercan Ayboga, Initiative to Keep Hasankeyf Alive and Platform No to the Destruction of Sur, Turkey.
15. Esther Stanford-Xosei, Coordinator-General, Stop The Maangamizi:We Charge Genocide/Ecocide Campaign.
16. Eugene Simonov, Coordinator, Rivers without Boundaries International Coalition.
17. Farwiza Farhan, Chairperson, Yayasan HAkA, Indonesia.
18. Fe Haslam, Global Justice Forum
19. Geoff Law AM, Wilderness Society, Australia.
20. Gunter Wippel, MENSCHENRECHTE (HUMAN RIGHTS) 3000 e.V., Germany.
21. Humaida Abdulghafoor, Save Maldives Campaign, Maldives.
22. Jessica Lawrence, Earthjustice, USA.
23. Dr Kat Kramer, Christian Aid, UK.
24. Kofi Mawuli Klu, Joint Coordinator, Extinction Rebellion Internationalist Solidarity Network (XRISN), London, UK.
25. Knud Voecking, Urgewald, Germany.
26. Luiz Fernando Vieira, Coordinator, The Breton Woods Project, Critical Voices on the World Bank and IMF, UK.
27. Marion Hammerl, Global Nature Fund
28. Mikhail Kreyndlin, Greenpeace Russia.
29. Maurizio Farhan Ferrari, Forest Peoples Programme, UK.
30. Mª Alejandra Piazzolla Ramírez, Extinction Rebellion Youth, Bristol,
31. Melody Lepine, Mikisew Cree First Nation.
32. Mostafa Farook, European Branch of National Committee to Protect Oil, Gas, Mineral Resources, Power and Port in Bangladesh.
33. Nils Agger, Risingup! UK.
34. Norly Mercado, Asia Regional Director, 350.Org.
35. Paul V. Dudman, Refugee Council Archive, University of East London.
36. Peter Tatchell, Director, Peter Tatchell Foundation.
37. Pieter Jansen, Both ENDS.
38. Richard Hering, Extinction Rebellion London.
39. Richard Roberts, Reclaim the Power ‘Frack Free Three’, London, UK.
40. Richard Solly, London Mining Network, UK.
41. Rohit Prajapati, Paryavaran Suraksha Samiti Gujarat, India.
42. Dr Rafiqul Hassan Khan (Jinnah),President, Rivers Saving Network UK
43. Rumana Hashem, Coordinator, Phulbari Solidarity Group.
44. Saeed Baloch, Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum, Pakistan.
45. Salman Khairalla,Director,Tigris River Protector Association (Humat Dijlah), Iraq.
46. Syed Babul, Bengalische Kulture Forum, Germany.
47. Sukhgerel Dugersuren, Oyu Tolgoi Watch, Mongolia.
48. Stephan Doempke, Chairman, World Heritage Watch, Germany.
49. Stephanie Fried, Ulu Foundation, USA
50. Sergiu Musteata, ICOMOS Moldova
51. Virginia Young, Australian Rainforest Conservation Society
52. Vidya Dinker, Indian Social Action Forum (INSAF)
53. Yulia Naberezhnaya, Russian Geographical Society, Member of the World Commission on Protected Areas in the North Eurasia Region. Russia.

 

*Names of signatories on this list are re-organised around the alphabetical order of ‘First names’. There is no first or second signatory. All signatories share the same sentiment, equally.  The signatories are the spokespersons of organisations that they represent in the letter above. The signatures close here.

 

A rally with handmade dummy of rare Bengal Tiger was brought about by the rural green-cultural activists at Samageet to Save the Sundarbans in Narsingdhi, Bangladesh (14 April 2016). The Bengal Tigers are decreasing by ongoing dredging in the area and they would gradually disappear if building of coal plants continue around Rampal. File photo. Photocredit: Anonymous PSG activist.

#SAVESUNDARBANS #NOtoCOALPLANTS #SAVEtheSUNDARBANS

Vibrant Protests Held at HSBC AGM

Protesters Demand that the Bank Stops Fuelling War and Climate Crisis

By Raaj Manik

 

Last Friday Birmingham witnessed colourful and powerful protests by an alliance of anti-militarism, climate groups and pro-Palestinian rights activists who have joined forces to demand that banking giant HSBC ends its complicity in climate change, military occupation and war.

 

In the morning of 12th April, protesters gathered outside the International Convention Centre at 8 Centenary Square in Birmingham where HSBC’s AGM was being held. Under the slogan “No War, No Warming” a loud group of activists occupied the front entrance of the lavish building to speak out against the bank’s involvement in the climate crisis and militarised conflict around the planet. Activists said that HSBC has poured £43bn into fossil fuels, whilst investing over £830m in arms companies in the last three years alone. They accused the bank being involved in syndicated loans to the arms sector exceeding £18.9bn.

 

Protests outside HSBC AGM was held in Birmingham on 12 April 2019

There have already been campaigning successes, with anti-militarism and pro-Palestinian rights groups pushing HSBC to divest from Israel’s biggest arms manufacturer, Elbit Systems, last December and climate groups winning tighter restrictions on the bank’s coal policy last April though, protesters say that HSBC’s policies, lending practices and exposure give cause for an escalation in action and demands.

 

Lise Masson, a climate campaigner at BankTrack said: “For too long now big banks like HSBC have been pouring billions into climate-wrecking fossil fuels every year. HSBC is one of the biggest fossil fuel financiers, supporting projects that not only damage our climate but also ravage frontline communities across the world. HSBC needs to massively step up its climate ambition, concretely that means ending its financial support for all fossil fuels.”

 

Huda Ammori, Campaigns Officer at Palestine Solidarity Campaign, stated that: “Despite divesting from Elbit Systems following campaigning pressure, HSBC continues to invest in companies supplying weapons and military technology to Israel such as Caterpillar, which makes the armoured bulldozers used to demolish Palestinian homes and communities. Our message today is clear – HSBC must end its complicity in war crimes and military occupation, and cut ties with all companies that profit from the violent repression of the Palestinian people.”

 

Protests outside HSBC AGM was held in Birmingham on Friday 12 April 2019.

As research shows that a heating climate has been a contributing factor behind wars in the Middle East, protesters assert that a cycle of war and warming increasingly binds anti-militarism and climate campaigners to the same cause. The groups highlight that in Nigeria, Syria, Iraq and elsewhere, oil, gas and coal are being pulled from the ground under the watchful gaze of state-military and militias.

 

HSBC also continues to finance new coal-fired power plants in Bangladesh, Vietnam and Indonesia.  All three countries are on the front line of climate change and have significant renewable energy potential, a crucial tool to sustainable poverty eradication.

 

Bangladesh National Committee protest outside HSBC AGM in Birmingham on Friday 12 April 2019

Akhter Khan Masroor, Member Secretary of NCBD, UK said: “Whilst coal mines funded by HSBC destroyed the ecology and livelihoods in Colombia and Russia, HSBC’s new investment in coal business in the Delta region is a threat to livelihoods in Bangladesh, Indonesia and Vietnam. Bangladesh is the most vulnerable country to climate change. As HSBC’s coal financing policy for Bangladesh will push it into more danger, we demand they do not invest in coal in Bangladesh and in the delta region. We do not need dirty coal energy. HSBC must also stop arming the Israeli state that is killing the people of Palestine.”

 

Protests against HSBC’s financing of war and climate change have been coordinated by groups including 350.org, War on Want, Palestine Solidarity Campaign, BankTrack, and Bangladeshi diaspora groups NCBD UK and Phulbari Solidarity Group. Campaigners say they will continue to lobby and protest against HSBC until it divests fully from the fossil fuel industry and the arms trade.

 

School strikers protests outside HSBC AGM in Birmingham on Friday 12 April 2019

Previously, climate and anti-militarism groups have challenged HSBC on separate terms, but have now come together in a collective show of force to demand that the bank severs ties with companies that are at the root of war crimes and global warming.

 

Read further news:

Our house is on fire but its business as usual at the HSBC AGM say the activists who took action to get HSBC to #stopfundingdestruction : http://bit.ly/2IyWXN0 

BDS Victory: HSBC Divests From Elbit
https://waronwant.org/media/bds-victory-hsbc-divests-elbit

HSBC Accused of Hypocrisy for Coal Finance Ban That Excludes Countries Most Vulnerable to Climate Change
https://www.desmog.co.uk/2018/10/16/hsbc-accused-hypocrisy-coal-finance-ban-excludes-countries-most-vulnerable-climate-change

HSBC has recently announced it has appetite to finance coal in Bangladesh and in the delta region, despite research showing that pollution caused by coal expansion in South-East Asia will cause tens of thousands of deaths.

Add your name to the petition with protesters calling on the bank to change its policies with respect to finance for fossil fuel projects and weapon manufacturers: https://350.org/hsbc/#petition 

LANDMARK JURISDICTION CASE WON BY ZAMBIAN FARMERS AT SUPREME COURT

PRESS RELEASE by Foil Vedanta

Historic victory opens the door for global claimants to seek justice against British multinationals in the UK

 

The Supreme Court on Wednesday the 10th April announced its verdict in the landmark case of the Zambian communities consistently polluted by Konkola Copper Mines (KCM), a subsidiary of British miner Vedanta Resources Plc, allowing them to have their case against the parent company and its subsidiary tried in the UK. The ruling sets a strong legal precedent which will allow people with claims against subsidiaries of British multinationals to sue the parent company in the UK.

The judgment by Chief Justice Lady Hale, and four further judges, re-affirms the rulings of the Court of Technology and Construction in 2016 and the Court of Appeal in 2017. Lady Hale refused Vedanta’s pleas in appealing the former judgments stating that, contrary to the claims of Vedanta’s lawyers:

• the claimants do have a bona fide claim against Vedanta

• the company does owe a duty of care to the claimants, especially in view of the existence of company wide policies on environment and health and safety.

• that the size and complexity of the case, and the lack of funding for claimants at ‘at the poorer end of the poverty scale in one of the poorest countries of the world’ means that do not have substantive access to justice in Zambia.

The 1,826 claimants, represented by UK law firm Leigh Day, are from farming and fishing communities downstream of KCM’s mines and plants. They claim to have suffered continual pollution since UK firm Vedanta Resources bought KCM in 2004, including a major incident in 2006 which turned the River Kafue bright blue with copper sulphate and acid, and poisoned water sources for 40,000 people(2). 2,001 claimants took KCM to court in Zambia in 2007. The courts found KCM guilty but denied the communities compensation after a nine year legal battle. As a result the victims took their case to UK lawyers.

James Nyasulu from Chingola, a long term campaigner in the case, and lead claimant in the Zambian cases, issued this statement:

“The Supreme Court judgment will finally enable justice for the thousands of victims of pollution by KCM’s mining activities, who have suffered immensely since 2006 to date, in the Chingola district of Zambia. Their livelihoods, land and health have been irreparably damaged by pollution which has rendered the River Kafue completely polluted and unable to support aquatic life. Some have already died as a result.

We are very grateful to the British Supreme Court for allowing the case to be tried in the UK where we trust that justice will finally be done. As our thirteen years of legal battles have shown, we have been unable to get justice in Zambia.”

Now that the Supreme Court has confirmed their permission to have the case tried in the UK the case itself can begin.

Samarendra Das from Foil Vedanta said:

“As the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals recognise, sustainable development and access to justice go hand in hand. The judges ruling today recognises and enforces that principle.

Criminal companies like Vedanta can no longer so easily whitewash their reputation and assume a ‘cloak of respectability’ by virtue of a London listing. This is an historic day for victims of British multinational’s abuses worldwide.”

In a further development Vedanta Resources de-listed from the London Stock Exchange on 1^st October 2018, amid global protests following the killing of 13 people, shot by police during protests against the company’s copper smelter in Tuticorin, Tamil Nadu, India. Commentators (including Foil Vedanta in their comprehensive report on the company’s global operations entitled ‘Vedanta’s Billions: Regulatory failure, environment and human rights’)¹ claimed the company were fleeing regulation in the UK. However, Vedanta remains liable in the UK for damages arising from the Zambian case.

It is now possible that claimants from some of the many of the Indian communities affected by pollution and human rights abuses by Vedanta may also seek to get justice in the UK.

In April 2016 a High Court ruling granted the claimants jurisdiction to have their case against KCM and Vedanta heard in the UK, citing KCM’s uncertain and opaque finances as one reason they may not be able to get justice in Zambia. The Court of Appeal upheld this verdict in July 2017.²(3)

1Download the full report at http://www.foilvedanta.org/news/vedantas-billions-regulatory-failure-environment-and-human-rights-report-released/

2 Dominic Liswaniso Lungowe and others vs Vedanta Resources Plc and Konkola Copper Mines Plc. (13 Oct, 2017)

Support Three XR Activists at Court – Show Solidarity with Bangladesh

This Wednesday 10th April, Amy, Angela and Shulamit face the City of London Magistrate’s court for defending the affected communities in Phulbari and for disrupting AGM of a bullying extractive company, GCM Resources, in London. Please come to support and show solidarity with the brave activists and with abused Bangladeshi communities.

Wednesday, 10 April 2019 from 09:30-11:30 UTC+01 City of London Magistrate’s court 1 Queen Victoria Street, EC4N 4XY London, United Kingdom.

 

The three arrests happened at the AGM for Global Coal Management (GCM) Resources Plc. on 28th December 2019. GCM is an AIM-listed British company whose sole purpose is to build a 6000MW massive open pit coal mine in the only flood protected area in Bangladesh, the Phulbari, in northwest region.

Building the mine will involve displacement of up to 220,000 people including 50,000 indigenous people from 23 tribes, destroying their ancient culture which can be traced back 5,000 years. The mine will drain and pollute the water supply for the 230,000, destroy 14,600 hecters of areas of the most fertile agricultural land in Bangladesh whilst only 6 percent of the coal or profit will remain in the country.

The project will damage the UNESCO world heritage site, the Sundarban Mangroves where the endangered Bengal Tigers live.

Why do corporations hold the power to do this? This is ecocide.

Three people including a 13 year old-child in Phulbari have been killed protesting this mine.  Activists have been abused by the company’s CEO who filed multiple arbitrary cases against 26 community leaders. The company’s Bangladesh subsidiary, Asia Energy, was also allegedly involved in the murder of Nasrin Huq who was fighting the controversial Phulbari coal project.

 

The courageous Extinction Rebellion activists decided their personal consequences are of less importance than putting their bodies in the way of this criminal activity.

 

JOIN Us with friends and family outside and inside the court, if you are around London.

If you are not in London, please show your solidarity by sending a message of support on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/events/371034560412653/

Stop #GCM Blockade The #Coal Burglars

On Friday 28 December in 2018, Bangladeshi protesters and transnational campaigners against the development of coal mines in the Phulbari region of Bangladesh blocked the entrance to the venue of a London based company Global Coal Management  (GCM) Resources’ annual general meeting in central London. Activists disrupted the AGM by occupying the front entrance for four hours from 9am to 1pm on Friday. All major shareholders including GCM’s Head of Corporate Affairs Brian Mooney were blocked out, they waited angrily outside, then gave up and went home.

Activists were particularly angry about GCM Resources’  recent claim that they have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Power China Ltd. to develop a giant coal mine in Phulbari and their plans to build a 6000 megawatt power plant.

If the mine is built, it would lead to forced–displacement of up to 230, 000 people over the 36-year life cycle of the project. It will increase poverty, water pollution and will plunder 14,600 hecters of Bangladesh’s most fertile and productive agricultural land in the region, causing a crisis of food production. It will have a devastating impact on the people and the environment.

Watch a short video of the demo outside of the GCM’s AGM:

PRESS RELEASE: London Protesters Disrupted GCM’s AGM

• Activists Blocked the Front Entrance of the AGM for Four Hours

• Three Arrested as Protesters Glued Themselves to the Entrance of the Venue

• GCM’s Chairman Michael Tang Failed to Attend the AGM

• Protesters Successfully Disrupted AGM

London, 28 December 2018

Bangladeshi protesters and transnational campaigners against the development of coal mines in the Phulbari region of Bangladesh blocked the entrance to the venue of the London based company GCM Resources’ annual general meeting in central London. Activists disrupted the AGM by occupying the front entrance for four hours from 9am to 1pm on Friday, 28 December. All major shareholders including GCM’s Head of Corporate Affairs Brian Mooney were blocked out, they waited angrily outside, then gave up and went home.

Three “Friends of Phulbari Solidarity” blocked the foyer of 33 Cavendish Square at 9am on Friday, 28 December 2018. Photocredit: Samarendra Das.

Three activists superglued themselves to the entrance turnstiles of the lavish building of 33 Cavendish Square where GCM had planned to hold their AGM. The activists self-identified as “Friends of Phulbari Solidarity” refused to move until specialist police used solvents to detach them, then make arrests. Outside the building 30 more obstructed the entrance holding banners, chanting slogans and singing Christmas carols against the bullying coal mining company.

If the mine is built, it would lead to forced–displacement of up to 230, 000 people over the 36-year life cycle of the project. It will increase poverty, water pollution and will plunder 14,660 hecters of Bangladesh’s most fertile and productive agricultural land in the region, causing a crisis of food production. It will have a devastating impact on the people and the environment. In return Bangladesh government would gain nothing but economic exploitation, said Rumana Hashem, the Coordinator of Phulbari Solidarity Group.

A placard displayed outside 33 Cavendish Square by the Bangladesh National Committee’s UK branch asked the Financial Conduct Authority of London Stock Exchange to de-list GCM.  On Friday, 28 December 2018. Photocredit and Copyright: Golam Rabbani, Phulbari Solidarity Group.

Noisy and jolly protesters sang Christmas jingles “Phulbari says NO! GCM must GO! We won’t let you trade in England. Or pollute Bangladesh”! Friday, 28 December 2018. Photocredit: Paul Dudman, Phulbari Solidarity

Construction of the plant is dependent on approval from the Bangladeshi government who previously shelved plans for the development following massive protests in 2006. The 80,000 people’s peaceful and powerful march was attacked by paramilitary forces resulting in the deaths of three protesters and injured 220 more. Abuse by the UK company was furthered by the recent arbitrary cases against community leaders by GCM’s CEO. Gary Lye, the CEO of the company, filed multiple arbitrary cases against 26 frontline local leaders for opposing the proposed coal mine in 2016.

Friday’s colourful and vibrant protest addressed these issues and more. On November 27, 2018 GCM Resources claimed to have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Power China to develop a giant coal mine in Phulbari and to build a 6000 MW power plant. This news has made protesters angry.

Rumana Hashem of Phulbari Solidarity Group reads out a petition by 134 community leaders from Phulbari. Friday, 28 December 2018, 33 Cavendish Square, London. Photocredit: Paul Dudman.

An eye witness to the Phulbari shooting and the spokesperson of the Phulbari Solidarity Group, Rumana Hashem has conveyed a petition signed by 134 community leaders from Phulbari challenging GCM’s so called MoU with China Power. Dissident shareholders were to hand in the petition to GCM’s chairman Michael Tang. But Tang was not in attendance. Activists say that Tang was worried about the protest.

The protest was co-organised by the Phulbari Solidarity Group, Reclaim the Power and the Committee to Protect Resources of Bangladesh – UK branch of the Bangladesh National Committee. They were joined by Foil Vedanta, London Mining Network, Extinction Rebellion, Cambridge Zero Carbon Society, Christian Climate Action, 350.org South Asia, and Udichi Shilpi Gosthi, UK.

Three “Friends of Phulbari” who successfully blocked out GCM’s shareholders on Friday were released from the Police custody at 3:30am on Saturday, 29 December 2018. Photocredit and Copyright: Ian J Bray, Quaker Peace.

Three arrestees who passionately glued themselves to the entrance were released before 24 hours. They were charged with GBP 4000 for so called criminal damages. But the activists are proud to have joined and supported the Phulbari people. Extinction Rebellion said that they will fight the charges and provide legal supports to defend the activists during trial.

Protesters, jeering “Free Our Friends”, occupied the car park & fire exit of 33 Cavendish Squire. They blocked the exit and stopped the police van for police wrongly arrested three creative protesters. Friday, 28 December, 2018. Photocredit: Land In Curiosity.

Currently Bangladesh produces very little of its electricity from coal and whilst many other countries in the world are looking to transitioning away from coal, the Bangladesh government is planning to massively expand energy production through coal. “ We have published an alternative plan for power generation that demonstrates there is no need to take disastrous path of coal mining and coal power plants to meet power demand in Bangladesh – said Akhter Sobhan Khan Masroor of the Committee to Protect Resources in Bangladesh.

Supporting the protest, Hoda Baraka, Global Communications Director of 350.org stated:

The construction of any new coal power plant is inconceivable given the findings of the IPCC report released in October 2018. Every ton of coal burned makes an immediate contribution to the quantity of CO2 in the atmosphere causing long term and irreversible climate change. We need to keep fossil fuels in the ground now to ensure that we stay below 1,5 degrees in order to avoid catastrophic environmental breakdown.

###

What is the status of the project now?

On November 27, Global Coal Management Resources signed a memorandum of understanding with Power Construction Corporation of China, Ltd (Power China), to develop the coal mine in Phulbari and to build a 4000 MW power plant in Northwest Bangladesh. The company states, “The MOU embodies the principles of a cooperative relationship between the two parties to develop the Company’s proposed coal mine as well as power plants generating up to 4,000 MW at the mine site, and sets out the steps towards a future Joint Development Agreement, obtaining approval from the Government of Bangladesh and subsequent development of both the mine and power plants generating 4000MW.”

GCM wanted to hold their AGM in London on Friday, 28 December 2018, but Bangladesh diaspora along with allies did disrupt the AGM. A powerful, jolly and incredibly noisy protest was held outside the venue and against GCM’s aggressive plans to start mining in Phulbari.

These snapshots are taken from Friday’s protest by PSG BD photographer Golam Rabbani. These are free to use for non-commercial purpose. Please give a credit to the photographer though.

A video of the protest can be accessed here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79IV2TjqRTo&feature=youtu.be

For more photos and video foootage, feel free to contact: Golam Rabbani @rabbani.enpolicy@gmail.com

An online report of GCM’s AGM is available on London Mining Network’s website:  http://londonminingnetwork.org/2018/12/the-sound-and-the-fury-yet-another-gcm-agm/

 

Further reports can be accessed from below:

Morning Star – Environmental activists confront coal-mining executives at shareholders’ meeting in London https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/environmental-activists-confront-coal-mining-executives-at-shareholders%27-meeting-in-london

BBC News – https://www.bbc.com/bengali/46701606?fbclid=IwAR2ujvw7wSDkczbD8bwhPqFAEbEd7cxiYMt3cH6sewMZcwMjnKUeyIHEt_w

350.org South Asia report –Protest in London on Friday to Stop a Planned Open Cast Coal-Mine in Bangladesh

Common Dreams – https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2018/12/27/stop-coal-burglers 

The Daily Prothom Alo: 29 December 2018.

Asia Energy/GCM Must Stop Unethical Business In London Stock Exchange

In support of Phulbari communities, a noise demo and blockade was held outside GCM’s AGM at 33 Cavendish Square in London on Friday 28 December 2018. Copyright: Golam Rabbani/PSG.

Phulbari Verdict Must Be Fully Implemented

The below statement was signed by 134 community leaders from 50 communities around Phulbari, objecting to GCM’s proposed open cast coal mine. It was meant to be presented by dissident shareholders to GCM’s board of Directors at the AGM. The original letter from the community was  written in Bangla. PSG has translated the statement in English language for greater readership.

“The killer and corrupt extractive company, Asia Energy, thereafter Global Coal Management Resources  (GCM) , hold their AGM to bluff shareholders and to sketch out vicious plans for further human rights violation and to destroy livelihood  in Phulbari and northwest Bangladesh. The company has recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding with a Chinese company and is trying to reach new agreements with various other companies to develop a giant open cast coal mine in Bangladesh to destroy Phulbari, Birampur, Parbotipur, Nobabganj and Boropukuria chapters.

Despite ban of Phulbari project, the company is selling shares in London Stock Exchange. This is outrageous. GCM’s do not have any business in Phulbari. They do not have license to undertake business in Bangladesh. That a company is selling fake shares in the name of Bangladesh’s Phulbari project abroad is an embarrassment for the nation. We see this is a humiliation for all of us. Such act should be legally challenged in international court.

We are aware that GCM’s directors continue to lobby Bangladesh’s corrupt ministers, politicians and elite businessmen. The company continues to harass local people and indigenous farmers. GCM has filed utterly false and multiple cases against 26 community organisers and frontline activists in the region.  Now they are selling shares in the name of Phulbari in other countries. Bangladesh government should denounce this utterly unethical act of GCM. Government must not allow this company to re-enter the region.

The Phulbari Verdict 2006 was written with our blood. We will never let GCM or any other company to enter Phulbari ever. We say loud and clearly that the construction of the coal mine in the region will never be possible. Not in our region. Not in our lifetime.

We call upon the government that this company be banned for ever.  We express our total disapproval of and outrage to GCM’s ongoing unethical and corrupt activities. We demand full implementation of the 6-points demand of the Phulbari Verdict.

We the undersigned,

Amar Chand Gupta, Bablu Rai,  Muahmmad Murtaja Sarkar Manik,

Sondhya Rani Rai, and 130 more community representatives.”

 

The above statement is translated by Rumana Hashem. The scanned copy of the original Bangla version of the community statement and the list of signatures are attached.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A protest outside GCM’s AGM held on Friday 28 December 2018 in central London. Copyright: Golam Rabbani

Stop GCM, Blockade the Coal Burglars!

Defend the Homes, Land, Livelihood and Environment

Protest at GCM’s AGM in London

 

Non-violent protest by affected communities and women’s resistance in August 2006

Global Coal Management Resources Plc. is a London-based AIM-listed extractive company that wants to build a massive open-pit coal mine by forcibly displacing 130,000 families of farmers in Phulbari. The company, previously known as Asia Energy, has been hotly resisted by locals for its fatal business policy. Three people were shot dead and two hundred injured when paramilitary force opened fire in a demonstration of 80,000 people that took place in opposition to plans by GCM in 2006 in Phulbari.

 

GCM do not hold a valid contract with Bangladesh, but they are selling shares in London Stock Exchange in the name of Phulbari coal project. They are aggressively moving ahead to build the coal mine. If the mine is built, it would destroy 14,600 hectares of highly cultivable land in northwest Bangladesh. It would pose threats to clean water resources for as many as 220,000 people, and would leave devastative impact on one of the world’s largest mangrove forests and UNESCO heritage site, the Sundarbans.

In return Bangladesh govt would gain nothing but economic exploitation. According to the proposed deal, GCM would extract coal for 30 years, while government of Bangladesh would get 6 percent royalty and the company would own and export 94 percent of the extracted coal. Moreover, the company would enjoy 9 years tax holidays and after 30 years they would own all of whatever coal would be remaining in the Phulbari coal-bed reserve. This is unacceptable!

GCM has recently reached a so called memorandum of understanding with Power Construction Corporation of China, Ltd. to implement the project. GCM’s CEO, Gary Lye, has been systematically abusing local opponents of the project. Lye has filed multiple arbitrary cases against 26 frontline local leaders against mining. GCM will hold their AGM in London on 28 December during the month of the climate summit #COP24. We must stop them. Blockade the coal burglars, GCM!

JOIN Us Inside and Outside the AGM!

Please confirm your participation via Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/376498479785077/

Protest Outside AGM

When? 9:30am-1pm, Friday 28 December

Where? 33 Cavendish Square, London W1G 0PW.

The protest will be loud, colourful and noisy. Feel free to bring along your organisational banners and any noisy instrument, and lots of friends to make noise:))

Proxy Inside AGM

When? 10am, Friday 28 December

Where? 33 Cavendish Square, London W1G 0PW.

Dissident shareholders will represent the communities inside the AGM. If you would like to join the delegation, please do get in touch with us. Please RSVP via email to: aktersk@gmail.com (Dr Akhter Sobhan Masroor) by Friday 14 December 2018.

Phulbari Solidarity Protest outside GCM’s AGM in December 2016. Photocredit: Golam Rabbani.

 

For further information contact: nationalcommittee.uk@gmail.com , phulbarisolidaritygroup@gmail.comTel: 07714288221, 07861686036.

Committee to Protect Resources of Bangladesh, UK branch http://www.protectbdresources.org.uk

Phulbari Solidarity Group www.phulbarisolidaritygroup.org

Reclaim The Power https://reclaimthepower.org.uk/

Climate Change Dissenters Blocked Five London Bridges

Phulbari Solidarity Stands in Solidarity with Extinction Rebellion

By Paul Dudman

 

Westminster Bridge blocked by Extinction Rebellion on 17 November 2018. Photocredit: Rumana Hashem

Yesterday we have witnessed an extra-ordinary Rebellion Day in London where climate change dissenters closed down iconic bridges in the city. Despite arrests and police barricades, five bridges in central London were closed down by concerned, disobedient and non-violent civilians, who gathered in the city under the banner of Extinction Rebellion, a platform committed to “Fight For Life”.

 

Blocked Westminster Bridge on 17 November 2018. Photocredit: Rumana Hashem

From the morning 10am through late afternoon 5pm on the Rebellion Day more than 6,000 people have occupied five bridges in central London “to raise the alarm on the climate and ecological crisis – and to put pressure on the Government to come clean on the fact that there is a climate emergency”. A press release by the Extinction Rebellion notes “This is the first time in living memory that a protest group has intentionally and deliberately blocked the five iconic bridges of central London”. The blocked bridges include Southwark, Blackfriars, Waterloo, Westminster and Lambeth. Police have put signal blockers in place to prevent live streaming. There have been 22 confirmed arrests of protestors. People have willingly put themselves at risk of arrest and imprisonment to ensure that this cause is brought to the public’s attention.

 

Rebellion Day witness at Westminster Bridge on 17 November 2018. Photocredit: Rumana Hashem

We were there in Westminster Bridge with full support from the Bangladesh National Committee and Phulbari Solidarity Group to the rebels. At the end of the blockade an Extinction Assembly was held featuring six voices from six nations from the global South affected by climate breakdown.

 

The voices include Raki Ap of Free West Papua Campaign, Rumana Hashem of Phulbari Solidarity Group- Bangladesh, Mawukofi Klu of Pan-Afrikan Reparations Coalition in Europe, and representatives from Ecuador, India, Kenya, Ghana and Mongolia.

 

The Phulbari Solidarity Group declared solidarity with the Extinction Rebellion on the Rebellion Day. Rumana Hashem, the founder of the Phulbari Solidarity, who attended the Assembly at the Westminster Bridge, said that: the ongoing civil disobedience to decarbonise our lifestyle and to protect our planet from criminal extractive companies and governments was long- overdue. Rumana gave her witness to the climate crime committed by a London-based mining company in Bangladesh.

 

Rebellion Day witness by Rumana Hashem in Westminster Bridge on 17 Nov 2018. Photocredit: Peter Marshall

She stated by addressing a passionate crowd that:

I’m bearing witness to the killings of three people and the destruction of green land, rivers and homes of thousands of peaceful people in Bangladesh, perpetrated by a British mining company for 12 years. An AIM-listed London-based multinational company, Global Coal Resources Management plans to build a massive open-cast coal mine in northwest Bangladesh, in Phulbari. Original research by independent researchers shows that if the mine is built at least 130, 000 people would be immediately displaced, polluting water sources of as many as 220,000 people. It will destroy over 14,000 hecters of land in the country’s most fertile agricultural region, where most people have land-based livelihoods. It would contribute to catastrophic climate change by supplying coal burning power stations. It would threaten the Sundarbans – one of the world’s largest remaining mangrove forests and a UNESCO World Heritage site.

 

In return Bangladesh govt would gain nothing but economic exploitation. According to the proposed deal, the British company would extract coal for 30 years, govt of Bangladesh would get 6 percent royalty and the company would own 94 percent of the extracted coal. Moreover, the company would enjoy a 9 years tax holiday and after 30 years the company would own all of whatever coal would be remaining in the Phulbari coal-bed reserve.

 

The company, previously known as Asia Energy, has been hotly resisted by locals for its fatal business policy. On 26 August in 2006, over 80,000 farmers marched in Phulbari where three people were shot dead and over 200 injured when paramilitary troops fired on a massive demonstration. I was present there. I have witnessed the bloodshed; I saw people’s stomach coming out right on the street. So we’ve blocked roads, bridges, and railway in the region. All entries to the region were closed down for a week. Following on the shooting, Bangladesh government has cancelled all contracts with Global Coal Management. We’ve put a halt to the project.

 

Westminster Bridge on 17 November 2018. Photocredit: Rumana Hashem

This shows that civil disobedience works. It is required in historically specific context. When government fails, we need to take control in our hands. We need to act to save our lives and our planet. We would not occupy bridges and roads for ever though. We ought to take control of our streets at times to make the governments take steps to prevent crimes.

 

In Bangladesh, we said, “No fracking, invest to save the planet”. But that is not enough. The London-based company is still aggressively moving on to get a new deal with the government. They continue to breach law. They have been harassing indigenous people. 26 frontline activists have been faced with multiple arbitrary cases filed by the company in 2016. We asked the UK government and political leaders to use their influence to stop the Global Coal Management, and to act immediately to prevent climate crimes. But the UK government failed to act.

 

We’ve submitted three reports to the Joint Committee for Human Rights Enquiry into Human Rights and Business in 2009.  We’ve placed a joint OECD complaint to the UK National Contact Point in 2013, and I have given many witnesses. But no action was taken against the company. The Parliament failed to print the witness statement that I gave for their annual report in 2009. They said that they couldn’t print the witness due to financial hardship. The parliament wanted to save printing cost. Instead of publishing my report, the Joint Committee has published a response from the Global Coal Management in their annual report in 2009!

 

Rebels on Rebellion Day on 17 Nov 2018. Photocredit: Peter Marshall

Rumana also said that Bangladesh is at the frontline of climate change. We have reached a juncture when preventing climate change has become urgent. We want a fair commitment from the UK to stop coal based power plants and corporate grabbing in the name of development in Bangladesh and the UK. We call on the government for ensuring renewable energy and social justice without delay.

 

She concluded by saying:

This Rebellion Day is, to me, a beginning of a much needed social movement that not only challenges the criminal inaction of the ecocidal governments but also a way to connect with each other over struggles in the global South and the global North to make our planet habitable for all. I stand in solidarity with the Extinction Rebellion on this Rebellion Day.

 

 

The crowd expressed solidarity with the struggles in Bangladesh and other countries including Ecuador, Ghana, India, Kenya, Mongolia where British mining companies undertake projects violating human rights and causing climate change.

 

Solidarity in blocked Westminster Bridge on 17 November 2018. Photocredit: Rumana Hashem

The Rebellion Day has ended by a treeplanting ceremony in the Parliament Square, with more than 3K Extinction Rebellion protestors present. The rebels planted three trees in the centre – plum, apple and evergreen – while singing a sufi song called “Always in Love”.

The Extinction Rebellion was launched on 31st October and has fast grown.  Its branches have spread across 28 countries while London remains the centre of the rebels. Supports to Extinction Rebellion are rapidly growing. The Extinction Rebellion demands that:

 

1.  The Government must tell the truth about the climate and wider ecological emergency, reverse inconsistent policies and work alongside the media to communicate with citizens.
2. The Government must enact legally binding policy measures to reduce carbon emissions to net zero by 2025 and to reduce consumption levels.
3. A national Citizen’s Assembly to oversee the changes, as part of creating a democracy fit for purpose.

Blockade on Rebellion Day in Westminster Bridge on 17 Nov 2018 Photocredit: Rumana Hashem

Read the Extinction Rebellion Declaration here: https://rebellion.earth/declaration/

Please visit the Rebellion Day Facebook page for further information and news about the blockades: https://www.facebook.com/events/1758991460816073/ 

For Photos/videos visit: https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/1m1v7Cs8JFkDM1gHp45OF-NwwhLzPZJO8

Also pictures by Peter Marshall are available for editorial use from Alamy. Westminster Bridge pictures at https://www.alamy.com/news/newsresults.aspx…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Credits for most photos used in this report belongs to Rumana Hashem, except for those indicated by Peter Marshall. The photos are free to use but please acknowledge the photocredit, thanks.

Vibrant Rally held in London on Global Day of Solidarity to Save the Sundarbans from Coal

By Rumana Hashem

On Saturday, the 10^th November, London saw a vibrant rally by London’s climate activists at Altab Ali Park on the Global Day of Solidarity to Save the Sundarbans. In response to the National Committee to Protect Oil Gas and Mineral Resources in Bangladesh (NCBD)’s call to observe a worldwide solidarity to save the world’s largest mangrove forest, the UK branch of NCBD has organised a powerful rally which was joined by grassroots and community climate organisations. Speakers attending the rally called on Bangladesh and Indian governments to scrap Rampal coal-power plant urgently and to halt climate change in Bangladesh and across South Asia.

Altabl Ali Park rally in London on Global Day of Solidarity to Save the Sundarbans from Coal, 10 Nov 18. Courteasy: NCBDUK.

 

Presided by a veteran Bangladeshi community leader and medical professional Dr Rafikul Hasan Jinnah and moderated by the general secretary of the UK branch of NCBD, Akhter Sobhan Masroor, the rally was outraged about the joint project of the Power Development Board (PDB) of Bangladesh and National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) of India for 1320 Megawatt Rampal coal-fired plant because it is a deadly threat to the environment and livelihood of the Sundarbans. If built the Rampal power station in Bangladesh will spew 8 million tonnes of Co2 emissions into the atmosphere contributing to rising temperatures and irreversible climate change. This isn’t compatible with the scientific mandate to keep global heating under 1.5˚C.

Speakers expressed solidarity with the NCBD in their call to all political parties in Bangladesh to include forestry reservation, especially the Sundarbans, and environmental protection in their manifesto for the 11th national polls. Activists also demanded that the government stop all processes for industrialisation near the Sundarbans prior to declaring the schedule of the general election. The general secretary of the UK branch of NCBD, Akhter Sobhan Masroor, said that alongside the destructive coal-based Rampal power plant, a group of forest and land-grabbers have developed more than 300 commercial projects near the Sundarbans.

The rally was joined by East London’s leading local climate organisations such as Fossil Free Newham, the River Savings Network, the Water Keepers, the Extinction Rebellion, the Unite Community and Labour Party Women’s Forum in Tower Hamlets, the Bangladesh Socialist Party, the Communist Party of Bangladesh, the Liberty Arts, and of course Phlulbari Solidarity, UK. The London rally took place as part of  the global human chains and public meetings held in Bangladesh, Canada, France, Germany and across the world demanding immediate halt to the Rampal coal-plant in October and November.

 

The Sundarbans is the world’s largest mangrove forest and is located in Bangladesh – one of the world’s most vulnerable areas to climate change impacts. Despite grave concern raised by the experts and people, the government in Bangladesh is going ahead to implement an Indo-Bangla 1300 MW coal fired Rampal power plant close to the forest which speakers at the Altabl Ali Park rally branded as “clearly issued its death warrant”. In addition, it is inviting a range of national and international vested interest groups to grab forest and has set up hundreds of commercial projects in and around the Sundarbans.

This has not only put the livelihoods of at least 3.5 million people at risk, it has made the lives of around 40 million coastal people vulnerable to natural disasters. The Sundarbans have long since been a natural safe-guard against frequent cyclones, storms and other natural disasters in the country. Sundarbans provides a natural barrier against Bangladesh’s deadly climate change threat. In order to preserve its outstanding universal value and to protect the world’s largest mangrove forest, Saturday the 10^th November has been observed worldwide as a global day of solidarity to save the Sundarbans.

 

For further background news, please read:

Global Protests on Saturday to Save the Sunderbans from coal, 350.org news, 09 November 2018.

A call for Global Day of Solidarity for the Sundarbans, Fossil Free Newham, 6 November 2018.

Stop industrialisation in Sundarbans before election schedule, Environmentalists urge govt. The Daily Star, 07 October 2018.

Make poll pledge to scrap hazardous power plants. The New Age, 07 October 2018.

 

Call out – JOIN Protest at Vedanta’s Last London AGM on 1st October!

Monday 1st October, 2-5 pm Lincoln Centre, Lincoln Inn Fields, London, WC2A 3ED

On 1st October Vedanta will hold their last AGM in London before de-listing from the London Stock Exchange, under pressure from MPs and activists following the Thoothukudi massacre in Tamil Nadu May.

 

At this final AGM, Foil Vedanta will be celebrating the notable victory of Vedanta’s de-listing (which seriously curtails their corporate ambitions), and the success of grassroots activism which has shut down Vedanta’s operations in Goa, Tuticorin and Niyamgiri, with a carnival theme.

 

Please join  kick Vedanta out of London protest once and for all!

 

Bring drums, whistles and colourful flags and clothes!

 

Monday 1st October, 2-5 pm Lincoln Centre, Lincoln Inn Fields, London, WC2A 3ED

 

Decry the complicity of the City of London in Vedanta’s corporate massacre of 13 environmental protesters at Thoothukudi in May, the latest in a long history of corporate murders and massacres of activists by London mining companies.

Vedanta’s exit from London is in fact a ‘divorce of convenience’ for the City, who have totally failed to regulate Vedanta, or any other criminal mining company to this day.

 

We will also be releasing our report ‘Vedanta’s Billions: Regulatory failure, environment and human rights’ – which gives a comprehensive account of the company’s crimes at all of its operations, and the City of London’s complicity, on Thursday 27th Septmber, before the AGM.

 

On 1st October the company will also sign contracts for 41 new oil and gas blocks in India, where their subsidiary Cairn India (part of Vedanta Ltd) have already been using unconventional extraction methods (fracking) in Rajasthan.

We must hold them to account before they run away!

 

Please join the facebook event if you are able to attend!

#KickVedanta #BanSterlite #BringAnilAgarwal2Justice 

 

For further information about Vedanta, read a latest report here: Vedanta’s Billions- Regulatory failure, environment and human rights

:http://www.foilvedanta.org/news/vedantas-billions-regulatory-failure-environment-and-human-rights-report-released/

Vedanta’s Billions: Regulatory Failure, Environment and Human Rights

Centre for World Environmental History &

Academia and Activism Forum launch Foil Vedanta’s latest Report

Thursday 27 September 2018  2:30pm-4:30pm,  Room Fulton 203, the University of Sussex, UK.

You are all cordially invited to the launch of Foil Vedanta’s latest report, ‘Vedanta’s Billions: Regulatory Failure, Environment and Human Rights’, co-authored with a variety of contributors and to be held on Thursday 27th September at  the University of Sussex.

Speakers will include: Foil Vedanta’s co-directors, Samarendra Das and Miriam Rose, and lawyer Krishnendu Mukherjee.

Anil Agarwal with polluted water at the Vedanta AGM 14 August 2017. Photo credit: Foil Vedanta

The report will be released online on Wednesday 26th September.

The discussion following the launch of the report will describe the rise of the mining corporation Vedanta registered in the City of London, the impact of mining on tribal and local communities in India and Zambia, the environmental costs, and grassroots informed activism which exposed Vedanta’s operations in Goa, Tuticorin and Niyamgiri, and resulted in the recent de-listing of the company from the London Stock Market exchange following sustained campaigning.

Please join the launch of an important report prior to the Annual General Meeting of the notorious multinational company, Vedatna Ltd.

RSVP and for further information, please contact:

Zuky Serper        actacdforum@sussex.ac.uk

Artist in residence, CWEH-Academia and Activism Forum

GLOBAL PROTEST FOR THE RELEASE OF SHAHIDUL ALAM

#FreeShahidulAlam

 

What? Global Protest for the Release of Shahidul Alam

When? 12 noon to 14:00, Friday, 7 September 2018

Where? Bangladesh High Commission, 28 Queen’s Gate, Kensington, London SW7 5JA.

(nearest tube station: Gloucester Road/ South Kensington/ High Street Kensington)

 

Shahidul Alam being abused and silenced by DB police in front of a Dhaka court on 6 August 2018. Photocredit: Anonymous activist.

 

Dr Shahidul Alam, an internationally renowned photographer, the Managing Director of Drik and a rights activist had been covering student protests for road safety sparked off by the tragic death of two students on 29 July in Dhaka. Last month, on the night of 5 August, Shahidul was forcibly abducted from his home by the Bangladeshi Detective Branch (DB) because of his reporting, and subsequently, without legal representation, was sent to prison on 12th August and charged under Bangladesh’s controversial Section 57 of the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Act, meaning he could face upto 14 years imprisonment for free expression. Shahidul said that he was tortured. His lawyers reported that Shahidul has shown signs of mental abuse but was denied medical and psychological support. Although the High Court had ordered that he should be examined for torture, this was not carried out.

 

Photographer Shahidul Alam is an active member of Phulbari Action group since the inception of the listserve. He is also a dedicated supporter of the Save the Sunderbans Movement in Bangladesh. Shahidul has been contributing to both movements through his photography and powerful documentation of the ongoing resistance to protect Bangladesh’s climate and environment. Phulbari Solidarity Group along with other frontline activists in Bangladesh and London joined the worldwide outrage, demanding the immediate release of Shahidul Alam.

 

Since his arbitrary arrest, smear campaigns and media trials are continuously being conducted against Shahidul Alam. We have now learnt from credible sources that further cases might be framed against Shahidul Alam –  founder of Drik and Pathshala, award-winning institutions, recognised internationally for having placed Bangladesh photography on the world map – and that these could be grounds for further interrogation and remand.

 

There have been ongoing global protests against his arrest yet government in Bangladesh is stern in its position to punish the photographer for speaking truth to power. Many of the detained protestors have been released on bail but Dr. Alam is not one of them. Shahidul Alam is unwell.  Moreover, the Court’s order for division has not been implemented.

 

We also note with deep concern that Dr. Alam’s bail hearings have repeatedly been refused.  A High Court bench on 4th September declared itself ’embarrassed’ but it is not clear whether this was due to any genuine conflict of interest or pressure exerted from above.

 

Since his arrest, smear campaigns and media trials are continuously being conducted against Shahidul Alam.  We have now learnt from credible sources that further cases might be framed against Shahidul Alam –  founder of Drik and Pathshala, award-winning institutions, recognised internationally for having placed Bangladesh photography on the world map – and that these could be grounds for further interrogation and remand.

 

The storm of global condemnation and protests on Shahidul’s unlawful imprisonment continues unabated and has included statements made by 12 Nobel laureates and many eminent citizens and activists across the globe. Several British MPs with Bangladeshi roots, notably, Rupa Huq, Rushanara Ali and Tulip Siddique have made statements in support of Shahidul Alam.

 

Many of us have been actively supporting Shahidul Alam and demanding his release by sending letters to MPs and to the Bangladeshi authorities. But the authorities failed to respond to our calls. We will be joining the London based activists and artists in a sit-in demonstration to free Shahidul Alam this Friday. As our commitment to continue with the protests is ever stronger, we will be gathering outside Bangladesh High Commission in London this Friday ahead of the 11 September hearing of a bail petition for Shahidul to be held in a Dhaka court.

 

We encourage everyone to add voices to those rallying in front of the Bangladesh High Commission from 12 noon to 2pm on Friday, 7 September.  There will be a sit-in demonstration, songs, short speeches and a petition to be submitted to the Bangladesh High Commission demanding Shahidul Alam’s immediate release.

 

We call on the Bangladesh Government headed by the prime minister Sheikh Hasina to heed world public opinion; demand his immediate, unconditional release; withdrawal of false cases, cessation of persecution; and safety of his family members.

 

 

JOIN Us with Your Friends this Friday outside Bangladesh High Commission in London.

Tell Bangladeshi Government to Release Photographer Shahidul Alam Now! 

Please confirm your participation via Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/events/315084915715037/

 —————————————————————————————————————–

Contact for further information: phulbarisolidaritygroup@gmail.com

For Further news and updates, please see below:

1. Photographer charged as police crackdown in Bangladesh intensifies: 06 August, The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/aug/06/famed-bangladeshi-photographer-held-over-road-protest-comments?CMP=share_btn_tw
2. Bangladeshi photographer Shahidul Alam detained after post about Dhaka protests https://cpj.org/2018/08/bangladeshi-photographer-shahidul-alam-detained-af.php
3. Bangladesh protests: How a traffic accident stopped a city of 18 million: 06 August, BBC https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-45080129
4. Violence continues as students protests , Washington Post, 6 August https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/violence-continues-in-bangladesh-capital-as-students-protest/2018/08/06/f23226d4-9952-11e8-a8d8-9b4c13286d6b_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.d3b8a3b666cf
5. Renowned Photographer held after media comments: 06 August, Al-Jazeera English https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/08/bangladesh-renowned-photographer-detained-media-comments-180806065359943.html
6. Free Shahidul, 07 August, New Internationalist, https://newint.org/features/web-exclusive/2018/08/07/free-shahidul
7. High court has issued an order to suspend 7 days Remand of Shahidul Alam. And transfer him to Bangabondhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University: 08 August, Dhaka Tribune https://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/court/2018/08/07/high-court-halts-shahidul-alam-s-remand/
8. Shahidul was arrested to silence everyone: 09 August, BDNews24.com https://bangla.bdnews24.com/bangladesh/article1527976.bdnews
9. Commentary by Golam Mortoja: How rumour hides under Helmets, 08 August, 2018,  The Daily Star. Net (Bangla) https://www.thedailystar.net/bangla/%E0%A6%AE%E0%A6%A4%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%AE%E0%A6%A4/%E0%A6%97%E0%A7%81%E0%A6%9C%E0%A6%AC-%E0%A6%B9%E0%A7%87%E0%A6%B2%E0%A6%AE%E0%A7%87%E0%A6%9F%E0%A7%87%E0%A6%B0-%E0%A6%86%E0%A7%9C%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%B2%E0%A7%87-96517
10. Why a road accident in Bangladesh has sparked widespread protests, ITV News , 08 August 2018: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnNFU1G9waw
11. Renowned Photographer Shahidul Alam is still held by Bangladeshi Detective Branch custody, CWAB, 09 August, 2018: https://communitywomenblog.wordpress.com/2018/08/09/renowned-photographer-shahidul-alam-is-still-held-by-the-bangladeshi-detective-branch-police-custody/
12. Protests in Bangladesh reveals deep insecurity of the government, TRT World, 09 August 2018: https://www.trtworld.com/opinion/protests-in-bangladesh-reveal-the-deep-insecurity-of-the-government-19481
13. An acclaimed photographer in Bangladesh says, he was tortured: New York Times, 8 August https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/08/world/asia/bangladesh-photographer-shahidul-alam.html
14. Bruised and battered: 10 August, The Daily Star, https://www.thedailystar.net/news/star-weekend/special-feature/bruised-and-battered-1618453
15. 323 prominent activists, artistes, academics call for Shahidul’s immediate release, 11 August, New Age http://www.newagebd.net/article/48207/323-prominent-activists-artistes-academics-call-for-shahiduls-immediate-release
16. Shahidul Alam sent to prison: 13 August 18, the Daily Star https://www.thedailystar.net/news/city/shahidul-dropped-remand-abruptly-1619743?amp&__twitter_impression=true
17. Sheikh Hasina’s son’s response and the Indian media analysis: 13 August, The Wire: https://thewire.in/south-asia/shahidul-alam-sheikh-hasina-son-bangladesh-arrest
18. Who Is Afraid of Shahidul Alam? By Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, 20 August, New York Times, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/20/opinion/shahidul-alam-prison-bangladesh.html
19. Amartya Sen voices support for Shahidul Alam: 26 August, 2018, The Independent Bangladesh http://www.theindependentbd.com/post/163560
20. সড়ক দুর্ঘটনা: বাংলাদেশের কুষ্টিয়ার যে ভিডিও নাড়া দিলো সবাইকে, 30 August https://www.bbc.com/bengali/news-45351512?ocid=socialflow_facebook
21. MP urges aunt to release Bangladesh photographer Shahidul Alam, 28 August, The Sunday Times, https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/mp-urges-aunt-to-release-bangladesh-photographer-w9tgs0svw

Homage Paid to Victims on Phulbari Day: 12 Years of Halt and Outburst against Coal Mine Celebrated

By Rumana Hashem

Yesterday, 26^th August, marked 12 years of successful halt to and the outburst against an AIM-listed British company, Global Coal Resources Management (GCM) who wants to build a massive open cast coal mine by forcibly displacing 130,000 people in northwest Bangladesh. In 2006 three people were shot dead and two hundred injured as paramilitary force opened fire in a demonstration of 80,000 people who marched against plans by GCM in Phulbari. The day has been called Phulbari Day since. And a powerful resistance by people in the aftermath of the shooting against open-cast mine in Phulbari has put a decade long halt to the project.

Homage paid to victims at Al-Amin, Salekin and Tariqul’s memorial in Phulbari on Sunday, 26 Aug 2018. Photocredit: Nuruzzaman

This week two events were held in remembrance of the victims of Phullbari outburst. On Sunday, 26 August, the National Committee to Protect Oil, Gas, Mineral Resources, Power and Ports in Bangladesh held a commemoration event in Phulbari, where community members and national environmentalists paid homage by flowers to the victims who were killed by paramilitary force, allegedly paid by the company, in Phulbari on 26 August in 2006.  The National Committee stated that there will be intense movement if the government fails to implement “Phulbari verdict 2006” by this December.

Earlier this week, the community activists under the banner of the Committee to Protect Resources of Bangladesh also held a commemoration event in London, where they have accused GCM for exploitation and harassment of the locals, for criminalising the society in Phulbari, and for ongoing corruption in Bangladesh. The committee has called upon the Bangladesh government for immediate implementation of the “Phulbari verdict 2006”.  Members of the UK Committee of NCBD also called for the de-listing of GCM from London Stock Exchange.

Community women and men paid tribute to Phulbari Victims in Phulbari on Sunday 26 August 2018. Photo credit: Nuruzzaman

If the mine is built, 130,000 families of farmers in Phulbari would be forcibly displaced. It would destroy 14,600 hectares of highly cultivable land, would pose threats to clean water resources and would leave devastative impact on one of the world’s largest mangrove forests and UNESCO heritage site, the Sunderbans.  Government has cancelled the company’s license, following the outburst in 2006, but GCM continued its dodgy deals and lobbying for Phulbari coal mine.

The company has been allegedly involved in various forms of abuse and harassment of opponents of the proposed Phulbari mine. Media report on the brutal death of Nasrin Huq , the former executive director of Action Aid in Dhaka, revealed also that Huq was killed in her car park for her opposition to the project in 2005.

Anu Muhamad, the Member Secretary of the National Committee in Bangladesh, said:

GCM is a fraudulent company. Government must ban both GCM and its plan for open cast coal mine. The export idea of 80 percent coal was rooted by GCM. Its Bangladesh subsidiary, Asia Energy, proposed to export extracted coal via Bay of Bengal and the point of coal terminal was that of the Sunderbans, the world’s largest mangrove forest.  GCM’s plans would have destroyed the Sunderbans. Besides, they have killed our people and wants to build a mine by displacing tens of thousands people from their homes. They are continuously harassing the locals and activists through filing false cases in the court, and they are criminalising our society by drug addiction. But they will not win.

Phulbari Day poster by the NCBD 23 Aug 2018. Credit: National Committee of Bangladesh

GCM does not have a valid contract with Bangladesh for coal mining but they are selling shares in the name of Phulbari project. Instead of leaving Bangladesh, the company has filed multiple cases against 26 key indigenous organiser’s, local leaders, farmers, small scale business entrepreneurs and students who opposed the mine in Phulbari. The arbitrary charges were formed on 25 July in 2016 at the Dinajpur Magistrate Court, which has been traumatising and abusing all those fighting the fraught.

The company has changed its name from Asia Energy to Global Coal Management in 2010, and continued lobbying for Phulbari coal mine in Bangladesh. Despite grave concerns at national and international level, GCM is pushing the government to give it a go ahead.

PROTEST AGAINST GLOBAL COAL MANAGEMENT PLC. AT THEIR AGM

By Raaj Manik

Despite the cold weather, a loud and theatrical protest was again held outside the AGM of British mining company Global Coal Resources Management (GCM) at the Aeronautical Society in 4 Hamilton Place in London at 10am today. In solidarity with the communities in Phulbari, where three people were shot dead as paramilitary officers opened fire on a demonstration of 80,000 people in 2006, protesters reaffirmed that they will not sleep until GCM is ousted from Bangladesh.

A parallel protest followed by a press conference was held in Phulbari against the plans by GCM, an AIM-listed company who want to build a massive open cast coal mine by forcibly displacing 130,000 people in Phulbari, northwest Bangladesh. Inside the AGM in London, dissident shareholders asked questions on behalf of the communities in Phulbari and Dinajpur by accusing the company of human rights abuses as the CEO of the company has filed multiple arbitrary charges against 22 frontline defenders, indigenous farmers, small entrepreneurs and local leaders who opposed the mine.

Here is a link to a short video of today’s protest in London!

Watch accounts of activists from Bangladeshi community and eye witness to Phulbari shooting here: GCM Must Leave Bangladesh NOW!

Read minutes of GCM’s AGM 2017: Flogging a Dead Horse

Coal play outside the AGM. Photo credit: Keval Bharadia, South Asia Solidarity

Climate activists and community defenders under the banner of Phulbari Solidarity Group and Committee to Protect Resources of Bangladesh calling for three-point demands, blocked  the pavement at the main entrance of the Aeronautical Society for two hours. They demanded that GCM’s Chief Operating Officer, Gary N Lye, must withdraw all cases against activists in Bangladesh with immediate effect, that GCM must stop selling shares in the name of Phulbari project in London’s Alternative Investors Market, and that GCM must Leave Bangladesh immediately.

The demo ended with a comedy coal show where activists wearing masks of coal thieves, Gary N Lye (CEO of the company) and Michael Tang (the Executive Chairman of the company), attacked a Bangladeshi woman holding coal from Phulbari. Protesters forced the maskmen to leave the premises and sang Phulbari jingles against coal mine: “your home and my home, Phulbari Phulbari”.

Dissident shareholders inside the AGM poured scorn on GCM’s 2017 Annual Report which claims that the company “Continued to make progress with principle partner China Gezhouba Group International Engineering Co Limited [CGGC, ultimately owned by China Gen Engineering Ltd.]”and that they are “Working on proposal for mine mouth power plant to provide integrated power solution for government of Bangladesh.”

The company claims, overlooking the declining of share price over the last month from £43.00 on 14 November to £26.38 today, that “Last month [it] raised 2m pounds before costs enabling all shareholders to participate and to enable GCM to continue pursuing strategy of joint mine and power plant proposal.” The report concludes by acknowledging “There are significant challenges ahead”, not least achieving approval to go ahead. They still believe that they are “in the right direction and hopes to continue momentum into New Year.” Shareholders condemning the report say that it represents a poor attempt to cover up the fact that they lost credibility and market confidence.

The company has been drowning in bank loans, but still borrowing money and facing continuous loss.  GCM was again found violating human rights and disregarding the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights  at the UN Forum on Business and Human Rights Report 2017.

The UN Forum on Business and Human Rights is the global platform for yearly stock-taking and lesson-sharing on efforts to move the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights from paper into practice. The Phulbari case was highlighted at the 6th UN conference held on 27-29 November 2017 in Geneva and GCM’s failure was noted in Annual Report of UNFBHR 2017.

Shareholders also note the Bangladesh government has not given the company the go-ahead because of a lack of a “social licence to operate” in Phulbari and anywhere else in Bangladesh. There was also an OECD complaint about GCM failing to keep obligations. An internal review of the UK governments investigation affirmed that the OECD 2011 guidelines do apply to human rights abuses that would occur if the project went ahead. GCM’s Board of Directors failed to respond to shareholders scrutiny.

Today’s meeting ended in a rush, lasting less than an hour, as the Board was exhausted by questions.

Today’s protest echoed the demands made by the National Committee to Protect Oil, Gas, Port-Power and Mineral Resources in Bangladesh . Activists from 12 grassroots organisations, including Foil Vedanta, Grow Heathrow, London Mining Network, K M Protectors (North-east England),  Communist Party of Bangladesh – UK branch, Bangladesh Socialist Party, UK branch, Reclaim the Power, Plane Stupid, South Asia Solidarity Group, and the Socialist Party of England and Wales, joined the protest outside and inside the AGM.

Rumana Hashem, the PSG spokesperson and an eye witness to the Phulbari outburst in 2006, said:

“the company is abusing our people and criminalising society in Bangladesh. We will hold them to account here. We will not give up until London Stock Exchange de-list GCM. We will ensure that this company could never go back to Bangladesh.’”

Akhter Sobhan Khan of Committee to Protect Resources of Bangladesh said that:

“The company does not have a valid contract with Bangladesh; nevertheless they are selling shares in the name of Phulbari project. London Stock Exchange must de-list GCM as they are doing deceitful marketing of the project”.

Background

Global Coal Management, formerly known as Asia Energy, has been allegedly involved in abuse and harassment of opponents of the proposed Phulbari mine. Media reports on the brutal death of Nasrin Huq, the former executive director of Action Aid, revealed that Huq was killed brutally in her car park because of her strong opposition to the project.[i] Later in August 26 in 2006, three people were shot dead and two hundred injured in a demonstration of 80,000 people who marched against plans by the company. It has been 11 years since the powerful resistance in the aftermath of the shooting against an open-cast mine in Phulbari has put a decade long halt to the project. Government has cancelled the company’s license but the company has been pushing the government to give them a go ahead.

If the mine is built, it would not only displace 130,000 families of farmers in Phulbari but also would destroy 14,600 hectares of highly cultivable land, would pose threats to clean water resources and would leave devastative impact on one of the world’s largest mangrove forests and UNESCO heritage site, the Sunderbans. In February 2012, seven UN rapporteurs expressed grave concerns to the project, and at national and international level. The UK National Contact Point has acknowledged the strong opposition to the project in an assessment in 2015.

[i]               The mystery death of Nasrin Huq – a report to which the company was not able to respond, was derived from http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2006/sep/03/bangladesh, last cited on 01. 01. 2013

For further information on GCM and Phulbari resistance:

Visit PSG Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/phulbarisolidaritygroup/

Watch accounts of activists from Bangladeshi community and eye witness to Phulbari shooting: GCM Must Leave Bangladesh NOW!

Check out the Facebook event page for updates and more photos

Read full report of GCM’s AGM 2017: Flogging a Dead Horse

Read the memorandum of Tuesday’s demo outside the AGM: GCM Must Leave Bangladesh Now

Read News about GCM’s paperless business in Bangladesh here

Read also how GCM’s CEO Gary Lye was evicted from Phulbari: Prothom Alo News

News about Bangladesh government’s latest position about is here: Asia Energy/GCM

Read also report of LMN about previous AGM of GCM here

Socialist Party’s London Youth Organiser Helen Pattison explains why GCM must be stopped here:  https://youtu.be/CzoXC4MNdx0

Watch a Bengali version, featuring statement by the member secretary of Committee to Protect Resources of Bangladesh, UK branch, of the demo 2017: https://youtu.be/v35x0Tr0bC0

GCM Must Leave Bangladesh Now!

Memorandum of the Demonstration against AGM of Global Coal Resources Management Plc.

4 Hamilton Place, London, W1J 7BQ.

Tuesday, 12 December, 2017.

 

Photo credit: Keval Bharadia, South Asia Solidarity Group

Today we, the activists from Bangladesh, Tower Hamlets, and London’s environmental organisations, have gathered to call upon the AIM-listed London-based extractive company, GCM Resources Plc, to leave Bangladesh. The company, GCM Resources, is desperately moving to implement an immense open pit coal mine in northwest Bangladesh, forcibly displacing an estimated 130, 000 people and destroying the homes, lands, and water sources of as many as 220,000 people. If the project is implemented, it will destroy over 14,660 hecters of fertile agricultural land that produce three food crops annually, threatening to increase hunger in a country in which over a third of all children and nearly 17 percent of the entire population are undernourished.

 

GCM’s planned Phulbari coal mine has provoked repeated protests by local people. Three people were killed and over 200 injured when paramilitary officers opened fire on a protest against the project in August 2006. Protests in 2013 forced the company’s CEO, Gary Lye, to abandon a visit to the area.

 

The project has generated grave concern at national and international levels including the United Nations. On 28 February, 2012, seven UN human rights experts have called for an immediate halt to the project, citing threats to fundamental human rights, including the rights to water, food, adequate housing, freedom from extreme poverty and the rights of indigenous peoples. On  20 November, 2014, the UK government has concluded, following an investigation into GCM’s activities in Phulbari, that the company had breached the OECD Guidelines on Multinational Enterprises by failing to “foster confidence and mutual trust” with the people who would be affected by the mine. We welcome the Board’s affirmation that the 2011 Guidelines on human rights do apply to the planned conduct of an enterprise and its prospective impacts on human rights (para 6).  We welcome also the finding that the 2011 Guidelines would apply if GCM “continued to be “actively involved in the project” (para 19).  An internal review of the investigation affirmed that the OECD 2011 guidelines do apply to human rights abuses that would occur if the project went ahead.

But Global Coal Resources Management is aggressively moving ahead to implement Phulbari coal project. They are selling fraudulent shares in London’s Alternative Investors Market (AIM) –although the company does not have any valid contract with Bangladesh Government for business in Bangladesh and they do not have any other project elsewhere. It’s been 11 years since we have put a halt to the Phulbari coal project. The government in Bangladesh has declined to renew the contract for the project. GCM do not have any valid project in anywhere in the world. But they do hold an office in Bangladesh and the company’s corrupt CEO keep going back to Bangladesh to lobby MPs and politicians. We say they should leave Bangladesh now.

In 2011 and 2012, we have served two notices of eviction to GCM. Instead of leaving Bangladesh, GCM has been abusing communities and activists in Dinajpur and Phulbari. They are violating the guidelines of OECD.  The company’s Chief Executive Officer, Gary N Lye has filed multiple arbitrary cases against 26 frontline community defenders in a Bangladeshi court. These community defenders are farmers and small entrepreneurs who do not have as much as money as Lye to fight the cases in a court. Through the harassment and abuse of frontline community activists, the company embarked on a project to silence opponents to the Phulbari coal project.

 

The UK Committee  (National Committee) to Protect Oil- Gas-Mineral Resources and Port-Power in Bangladesh and Phulbari Solidarity Group, in conjunction with Foil Vedanta, London Mining Network, Reclaim the Power, Socialist Party of England and Wales, and all our co-worker organisations stand with the communities in Phulbari, Dinajpur and Bangladesh.  We will not be silent bywatcher. We demand, as National Committee of Bangladesh, that:

1. GCM’s CEO, Gary N Lye, must withdraw all cases against activists in Bangladesh with immediate effect,
2. GCM must stop selling shares in the name of Phulbari project in London’s Alternative Investors Market (AIM), and
3. Finally, GCM must Leave Bangladesh immediately.

 

We declare, on behalf of the people in Phulbari, our resistance will not end until the above three-point demands are met. We will not give up until GCM has closed their office in Bangladesh, until they have stopped selling shares in the name of Phulbari coal project in London Stock Exchange.

The undersigned organisations:

Dr Mokhlesur Rahman, President, NCBD-UK branch

Sarbjit Johal, South Asia Solidarity Group

Michelle Easton, K M Protectors (North-east England)

Mostofa Farook , Bangladesh Socialist Party, UK branch

Miriam Rose, Foil Vedanta

Nesar Ahmed, Communist Party of Bangladesh – UK branch

Peter Mason, Socialist Party of England and Wales

Richard Roberts, Reclaim the Power

Richard Solly, London Mining Network

Rumana Hashem, Phulbari Solidarity Group

Sam Brown, Plane Stupid

 

Protest the GCM Resources’ AGM

10am on Tuesday, 12 December 2017

4 Hamilton Place, London W1J 7BQ 

(Nearest Tube station: Hyde Park Corner)

 

Bangladeshi activists together with London-based climate defenders will hold a lively and theatrical protest against the London-based AIM-listed mining company, in solidarity with representatives of communities in Phulbari, where three people were shot dead and 200 injured in a demonstration of 80,000 people in 2006 for opposing a massive coal project.

Courtesy Saptahik 2000 (reprint) 26 August 2016

 

Global Coal Management Resources (GCM), formerly known as Asia Energy, wants to build an immense open cast coal mine in Phulbari, Bangladesh. The project threatens to destroy the homes, lands and water sources of as many as 220,000 people, and forcibly evict an estimated 130,000 people. If the project is implemented, it would destroy 14,600 hectares of highly cultivable land and would leave devastative impact on the world’s largest mangrove forests and UNESCO heritage site, the Sunderbans.

 

Bangladesh said ‘NO’ to open cast mining. The government has declined to renew GCM’s license after the shooting. The company does not hold a valid contract with Bangladesh. But they are selling shares in the name of Phulbari project in London Stock Exchange. GCM’s CEO has been systematically abusing local opponents of the project. 26 frontline community defenders in Phulbari and Dinajpur have been faced with multiple arbitrary cases as GCM’s CEO filed illogical cases. We are heading to GCM’s annual general meeting to challenge the investors and to ask them to leave Bangladesh. The annual general meeting of the company will be held at 10.00 a.m. on Tuesday 12 December 2017 at 4 Hamilton Place, London W1J 7BQ.

 

JOIN Us Inside and Outside the AGM!

Stand Against Abuse and Harassment of Community Defenders by GCM!

For further information, please contact:  07714288221, 07956260791, 07936047597

Email:Committee to Protect Resources of Bangladesh, UK branch nationalcommittee.uk@gmail.com , Phulbari Solidarity Group phulbarisolidaritygroup@gmail.com

Visit Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/155245848559144/

 

Hundreds Signed the Berlin Declaration to Save the Sundarbans

By Rumana Hashem

The European Network of the National Committee to Protect Oil, Gas, Mineral Resources, Power and Ports in Bangladesh (NCBD)  has demanded the cancellation of Bangladesh Government’s  destructive project of 1320 MW Rampal Coal based power plant situated near the world largest mangrove forest, the Sundarbans. Rampal is situated very close to sensitive ecological zone – biosphere of Sundarbans, which is the ultimate home of hundreds of species and the Royal Bengal Tiger. The adjacent area of the mangrove has already become a hub of industries because of this mega scale power plant. Therefore, the committee has also demanded to formulate supportive policy and to take necessary steps for alternative energy solution in order to save lives and nature from coal pollution and to produce cheap and affordable electricity in future. 

To oppose the destructive Rampal Coal-Power Plant, a two-day international conference was held at the Democracy and Humanity Centre in Berlin, Germany on 19-20 August, 2017.  Along with spontaneous participation of senior academics and ecologists from Germany, and front-line Bangladeshi green activists, many international environmentalists and representatives from climate organisation’s joined the conference in Berlin to say ‘NO’ to Rampal Power Plant. Among the participants were a large number of Bangladeshi researchers, students and professionals from Europe who expressed grave concerns.

At the end of the two-day conference, a statement of what the conference organisers called the ‘Berlin Declaration’ was announced, urging the government to promote renewable energy in Bangladesh, thereby saving the Sundarbans. In solidarity with the declaration that was announced from the conference in Berlin, over a hundred of environmentalists and nature and biodiversity based organisations such as 350.org. Europe, Coal Action Network, Green Peace, Friends of the Earth,  London Mining Network, World Wild Foundation, Women Engage for the Common Future, Bank Truck, Reclaim the Power and more have signed the Berlin Declaration.  We echo the signatories of the Berlin Declaration.  We signed the declaration as below:

 

We, the participants and supporters of the Sundarbans Solidarity Action Networking and An Alternative Energy Solutions for Bangladesh, an international conference to be held on 19-20 August, 2017, organised by The National Committee to Protect Oil, Gas and Mineral Resources, Power and Ports in Bangladesh, the European Action Branch in Berlin have  signed the declaration as  follows:

 

The Sundarbans, the largest mangrove forest of the world, is bestowed with magnificent scenic beauty and extraordinarily rich in biodiversity with a unique eco-system. It is a habitat of some of the endangered species e.g. Bengal Tiger, Ganges dolphin.  People living in adjacent areas are also dependent on this forest.  In addition to providing livelihood, it is also protecting millions of people living in the coastal belt from tidal surges and cyclones.

 

This forest is under severe threat from a Bangladesh-India joint venture project– Rampal Power Plant, a coal based power generating company. The plant is placed only 14 km from the forest. It is estimated that the plant will emit 7.9 million tons of CO2, and 0.94 million tons of ashes annually which will contaminate environment of the adjacent areas and will put the fragile ecosystem into critical condition. Despite the grave concerns raised by the experts, scientists, environmentalists, local population and international organisations, the Government of Bangladesh has been  moving ahead to implement the project for the last seven years. The project is scheduled to be completed within  the coming few years . To justify the project the government is blatantly giving false assurances to protect the forest from all  kinds of adverse impacts. The Government of India is also a major stakeholder of this joint-venture project and playing important roles as consultant, financier, and supplier of the equipment.

 

There is a growing demand of electricity in the country. To address the demand, the government has adopted a Power Sector Master Plan (PSMP) in 2016. The plan has proposed that the use of coal would increase from the current 0.3% to over 35%. The coal-fired power plants would produce electricity worth of 19,000 MW. It has also set the target to meet 10% of its electricity demand, by 2041, from its 7000 MW nuclear fleet, undermining the renewable energy potential. According to the PSMP 2016, the contribution of renewable energy would be only 3% of total electricity generation by 2041. This suggests that the government’s plan has failed to address environmental concerns and technical development in regards to renewable energy sources. Environment friendly renewable energy solutions are sustainable and cost effective and because of this, many countries in Europe and Asia including India and China are moving away from coal and nuclear based power generations.  Contrary to this, ignoring the growing positive shift , the government of Bangladesh has taken a position in support of dirty coal and nuclear based power generations.

 

Given this, the National Committee to Protect Oil, Gas, Mineral Resources, Power and Ports in Bangladesh (NCBD) has proposed an Alternative Power Sector Master Plan (APSMP) in July 2017. The APSMP 2017 has proposed to generate 55% of electricity from renewable energy sources including solar, wind, waste  and other green resources by 2041. The National Committee also  stipulates that there is an urgent need for the need for building national capability  that would attain 100% renewable energy usage to meet electricity demand of the country by 2050.  The NCBD has also categorically refuted the government’s arguments in regard to the nuclear and coal dependent energy policy.

 

We, the signatories of this declaration, view the NCBD proposed APSMP as a way forward to the current energy needs of Bangladesh.We  ask the government to listen to the NCBD’s suggestions for clean and renewable energy movement and protect the Sunderbans. We see it is the government’s duty to protect peoples’ interest rather than corporate greed and interest. As renewable energy is cheaper and eco-friendly, we demand a policy shift emphasizing renewable energy production rather than dirty coal energy generation. Renewable energy will protect ecology, life and livelihood of the people. The government must take appropriate steps to phase out coal and replace it with renewable energy sources in Bangladesh. The government ought to halt the Rampal Power Plant with immediate effect. As a coal based power plant, Rampal Plant will irreversibly damage the Sundarbans. It will disrupt the link between humans and the natural world by destroying ecology and species. This convention and the signatories of this declaration unequivocally demands immediate halt of the plant. We urge everyone to raise their voice to save  the Sundarbans, and to save our future.

 

Commemoration on Phulbari Day and Celebration of Over a Decade of Halt to an Open-Pit-Mine Held

By Raaj Manik

Friday, the 26^th of August 2017 marks the 11th anniversary of Phulbari outburst when local activists, farmers, housewives and small entrepreneurs in Phulbari  have put a halt to a massive open-pit-coal mine by saying ‘NO’ to Global Coal Management (GCM) Resources Plc, an AIM-listed British mining company who want to build a massive open cast coal mine by forcibly displacing 130,000 people in Phulbari, a location in northwest Bangladesh.

 

Hand-painted banner for victims of Phulbari shooting. Photocredit: Peter Marshall

 

On 26th August in 2006 three people were shot dead and two hundred injured in a demonstration of 80,000 people who marched against plans by the Global Coal Resources Management , formerly known as Asia Energy. The day has been dubbed Phulbari Day since. If the mine is built, 130,000 families of farmers in Phulbari would be forcibly displaced. It would destroy 14,600 hectares of highly cultivable land, would pose threats to clean water resources, and would leave devastative impact on one of the world’s largest mangrove forests and an UNESCO heritage site, the Sundarbans.

Phulbari outburst on 26 August 2006.

Pupils at Oxford’s Rose Hill Primary School painted banner against open cast mine to express solidarity with Phulbari people . 18 June 2015. Photo: Andy Edwards

Families of the victims and women protesters march towards Shahid Minar in Phulbari to pay tribute. 26 August 2015. Photo: Anonymous

Grand rally of locals in Phulbari town on 27 December 2014. Photo credit: Kallol Mustafa

The powerful resistance in the aftermath of the shooting against open-cast mine in Phulbari has put a decade long halt to the project. Government has cancelled the company’s license. Communities and climate activists at national and international levels formed a three-level resistance under the banner of National Committee to Protect Oil, Gas, Mineral Resources, Power and Ports in Bangladesh (NCBD).  In support of the tremendous resilience in Phulabri, the National Committee (NCBD) held commemoration events in Bangladesh and London on Saturday 26 August in 2017. Like every year, the day was celebrated and the victims were remembered with respect by communities, simultaneously activists vowed to continue the struggle to end land grabbing and dirty coal power in Phulbari and elsewhere.

 

 

Despite grave concerns at national and international levels GCM is pushing the government to give it a go ahead. The company has changed its name from Asia Energy to Global Coal Management in 2010, and continued its dodgy deals and lobbying for Phulbari coal mine in Bangladesh.  Although GCM does not have a valid contract with Bangladesh, they are selling shares in the name of Phulbari coal project. Our strength is people power in and outside Phulbari. The halt to Phulbari coal project will continue.

Sun Has Shone On The Communities At The Vibrant Demo Against Vedanta Resources

By Rumana Hashem

Monday, the 14^th August, was apparently a bright day for the communities oppressed by a notorious British mining company, called Vedanta Resources. Protests held by communities in Zambia, India and London while activist-shareholders, representing the communities, were interrogating the Vedanta board at their Annual General Meeting at the Lincoln Centre in Lincoln Inn Fields in London. Although residents of Lincoln Inn Fields have seen lousy weather with gusty wind and non-stop rain across London for weeks before Monday, the gorgeous sun has shown up to brighten the colourful and powerful protest of communities against Vedanta Resources last Monday.  Loud and theatrical protest was held outside the AGM of the British mining company, for three hours, accusing the company of major environmental and human rights abuses across its operations. I was one of the late comers though there were numerous protesters with noisy instruments and colourful banners and placards till late afternoon who greeted me in smiling face. They said, as were determined, that: “We wouldn’t leave the venue hitherto the miners are out of the block”.

 

Parallel protests and meetings were held by affected communities and their supporters at several locations in India and Zambia. Inside the AGM, dissident shareholders in London asked questions on behalf of Zambian villagers who are suing Vedanta in the UK for twelve years of polluted water, and tribal inhabitants of the Niyamgiri hills in Odisha, India, who accuse Vedanta of murdering and harassing them with state collusion. Organised by the Foil Vedanta, the protest in London was joined by many grassroots organisations and community activists from the global South.

 

The shareholders, representing communities, poured scorn on Vedanta’s 2017 Annual Report, which claims that the company ‘demonstrate world-class standards of governance, safety, sustainability and social responsibility’. They say it represents a poor attempt to don the “cloak of respectability” of a London listing noting that Vedanta was again excluded from the Norwegian Pension Fund’s investments this year following an investigation which found “numerous reports of Vedanta’s failure to comply with government requirements”¹ at four subsidiaries in Odisha, Chhatisgarh, Tamil Nadu and Zambia. The report concludes that: “there continues to be an unacceptable risk that your company will cause or contribute to severe environmental damage and serious or systematic human rights violations.”

 

On Sunday, a day before the AGM, farming communities living downstream of copper mines run by Vedanta subsidiary Konkola Copper Mines (KCM) in Chingola, Zambia, held a meeting in Hippo Pool to renew their resolve in their twelve year struggle against the company for severe water pollution which has caused major health problems, and rendered land uncultivable. Police had refused them permission to hold a protest. Government officials visited their villages in Spring this year asking them to drop their London case against Vedanta and settle out of court with the company. The Headmen of Hippo Pool village submitted a statement to the Vedanta board and shareholders which was asked by Shoda Rackal from Women of Colour in Global Women’s Strike. The statement notes:

 

“The people here are sick and tired of pollution which is killing us through illness and loss of our crops and fish. The pollution must end at all costs. Whether we receive compensation or not, we are asking you to stop polluting us now.”

 

Another dissident shareholder asked why Vedanta’s Annual Report makes no mention of its liabilities relating to the landmark legal case in which 1,826 of the farmers have been granted jurisdiction to sue Vedanta in London for gross pollution by KCM. At the July appeal hearing in the case, Vedanta’s lawyers claimed that the company’s sustainability and human rights reports are only produced for show as a requirement of London Stock Exchange rules. Instead they claimed Vedanta Resources has very little actual oversight or involvement with subsidiary operations such as Konkola Copper Mines.²

 

Meanwhile in Zambia debate rages over KCM’s secret finances as the company on Thursday announced it would retrench a further swathe of workers in favour of contract labour at its Nchanga underground mines. KCM have never filed Annual accounts in Zambia according to the recent London judgment.³ Samarendra Das from Foil Vedanta says:

“The UK Government and London Stock Exchange are directly responsible for failing to investigate Vedanta’s corporate crimes in India and Zambia since its London listing in 2003. The Zambian State’s threats to polluted farmers demonstrate the ongoing colonial power of this British corporation which acts more powerful than the Zambian State.”

“Britain is profiting from the financial transactions of non-domiciled family-run business houses like Anil Agarwal’s Vedanta, while appearing to provide them a service. The opaqueness of the British financial system is gaining directly from giving Anil Agarwal “a cloak of respectability” and in exchange Britain itself is gaining from appropriating the resources of the third world”, adds Das.

 

Anil Agarwal with polluted water at the Vedanta AGM 14 August 2017. Photo credit: Foil Vedanta

In Chattisgarh the organisation Adivasi Resurgence held a protest at Ambedkar Chowk in Raipur, decrying Vedanta’s suppression of the Bakshi Commission report into the death of between 40 and 100 workers when a chimney collapsed at their Korba power plant.⁴ The inquiry found Vedanta as guilty of negligence and using sub-standard materials and construction methods which caused the death of the workers.⁵

 

At the University of Hyderabad the group Odisha Scholars for Social Justice held a protest and meeting today in solidarity with communities affected by Vedanta’s operations worldwide. In Delhi, students from Birsa Ambedkar Phule Students’ Association (BAPSA) held a solidarity demonstration at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) calling for an end to the displacement and repression of Dalit, Bahujan and Adivasi communities across India by Vedanta.

 

While their Annual Report claims to respect the right to ‘Free Prior Informed Consent’, Vedanta has not given up its plans to mine the Niyamgiri hills, despite a unanimous referendum against it by tribal inhabitants in 2013. The Odisha Mining Corporation (OMC) has filed a new plea with the National Green Tribunal to overturn the referendum, claiming it overstepped the provisions of the Forest Rights Act by allowing Palli Sabhas to decide on mining, rather than merely settling their claims.⁶ In September 2016 a group of Dongria Kond had burned down a CRPF (Central Reserve Police Force) camp, opposing construction of a road connecting Niyamgiri to Kalyansingpur, which they claim is to aid Vedanta’s mine plans, and opposing ongoing harassment by the force.⁷

 

Last Friday five villages around another Odisha bauxite mountain – Kodingamali – held a palli sabha (village council) opposing the proposed mining of the mountain by OMC to feed Vedanta’s Lanjigarh refinery.⁸ They passed a resolution “not to give any patta land, forest land and community land to any mining company” under the banner of Ganatantrik Adhikar Suraksha Sangathan.

 

The Dongria Konds also held a protest on Tuesday in Lakhpadar village on Niyamgiri mountain under the banner of Niyamgiri Suraksha Samiti (NSS). They demanded the dismantling the Lanjigarh refinery since Vedanta did not get permission to mine, and an end to its illegal expansion. They also demand an end to the militarisation of Niyamgiri, claiming that the anti-Maoist programs are in fact targeting the tribal activists. Ongoing abductions, false arrests and State sponsored murders of tribal activists against Vedanta’s mine have been highly publicised in recent months.An NSS spokesperson Lingaraj Azad said:

 

“Vedanta didn’t get permission to mine so why are they keeping the Lanjigarh refinery? which continues to pollute our communities, affecting our ecology and water resources and making people and animals sick.”

In August 2016 Vedanta Head, Anil Agarwal, told a press conference that he had asked Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to deal with the ‘disruptive elements’ holding up bauxite mining in the State, suggesting he follow the Tamil Nadu government’s approach with protesters at Kudankulam, where widespread police brutality was reported.⁹ In February 2016 Vedanta employed the services of former Iraq war General Sir Richard Shirreff, and Lord Peter Hain, former Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, in ‘handling local protest groups’.¹⁰

 

Vedanta Resources are again the subject of multiple major scams and several international arbitrations this year. An international arbitration is underway for Vedanta’s withholding of $100 million in dividends from Cairn Energy, owner of 9.8% shares in Vedanta controlled oil company Cairn India.¹¹ In December 2016 London courts ordered Vedanta subsidiary Konkola Copper Mines to pay $103 million in withheld dividends to Zambian State entity ZCCM-IH.¹²

 

The Rajasthani High Court has uncovered a Rs 600 crore ($96 million) tax evasion scam in which Vedanta subsidiary Hindustan Zinc Ltd (HZL) benefitted from tax fraud at the hands of shamed IAS officer Ashok Singhvi in 2015.¹³ HZL is the subject of another major scam in which it closed its Visakhapatnam Zinc smelter on false grounds to enable the sale of the land for high value realty. HZL is also accused of major toxic pollution at the site.¹⁴

 

In Punjab, Vedanta subsidiary Talwandi Sabo Power Ltd is the subject of a major power purchase scam in which the Akali Dal government bought power at inflated prices from the private company over cheaper State owned companies.¹⁵ Former Rio Tinto CEO, Tom Albanese, will step down from Vedanta’s board at this year’s AGM along with executives Euan MacDonald and Aman Mehta. Vedanta’s CEO of Zambian operations Steven Din has recently been accused of offering bribes for the Simandou iron ore mine by the former Guinean mining minister, as part of a major corruption investigation. Din was head of Rio Tinto’s Guinean operation at the time the scandal unfolded, while Tom Albanese was CEO.¹⁶ Recent analyst reports highlight Vedanta’s high debt, lack of bauxite at Lanjigarh refinery, and operational issues in Zambia.

Reports have detailed how twelve years of pollution by KCM has turned the river Kafue into a ‘river of acid’^{19 20} and left the farmers with no access to clean water. As well as suing KCM and Vedanta in the UK for personal injury and loss of livelihood due to gross pollution, the villagers are demanding that KCM de-silt and remediate the contaminated areas so they can return to normal life.

An estimated 40,000 people in total are affected by contaminated water which also affects the municipal piped water system²¹. A number of scientific papers have documented the extent of contamination, with acid pH and heavy metal content regularly tens and even hundreds of times above legal limits.^{22 23 24}

 

One villager Judith Kapumba appears in a youtube video testifying to how contamination has destroyed their livelihood and their lives, has claimed that many have ‘collapsed and died’ as a result of illnesses caused by drinking contaminated water, and that crops can no longer grow leading to starvation and extreme poverty. ²⁵

 

 

For further details visit Foil Vedanta website:  www.foilvedanta.org

For photos and a short film of London demonstration, visit Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FoilVedanta/