State Department and former adviser to Uribe are pressed for information in death squads case

[Judi Lynn]

State Department and former adviser to Uribe are pressed for information in death squads case
PETE YOST
Associated Press
8:03 p.m. EDT, April 15, 2011

WASHINGTON (AP) — The State Department and a one-time adviser to former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe (oo-REE'-bay) are being pressed for information in a U.S. court case brought by families of death squad victims in the South American nation.

The victims' relatives are suing an Alabama-based coal company that does business in Colombia for allegedly supporting the killers.

The families have subpoenaed the State Department for any information about the relationship between the death squads and Drummond Company Inc., which is headquartered in Birmingham. The company denies any wrongdoing.

Separately, former Uribe adviser Fabio Echeverri will be asked about any ties he may have had with executives of the Alabama company. The court handling the case sent the request for Echeverri's testimony to judicial authorities in Colombia.

http://www.mcall.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-us-death-squads-case,0,2195321.story

[Judi Lynn]

1. Drummond Coal is based in Birmingham, Ala., where it developed a terrible safety record for employee

before leaving its employees high and dry suddenly and switching operations to Colombia, where it pays employees almost nothing, and then sells its very cheap coal back to the South East for a huge profit.

More on its behavior toward employees, from SourceWatch:

A federal Court in Alabama began a civil case against Drummond in 2010 for the alleged paramilitary links, in a case that is still underway. Victims of paramilitary violence in Colombia accuse Drummond of paying the paramilitary organization United Self Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) between 1999 and 2005, during which time 116 civilians were murdered in the region where the coal company operates, allegedly by the right-wing militia. The civil case also seeks compensation for the relatives of several people who were murdered, which they claim was for refusing to sell their land to to make way for the company's railroad.<9>

Labor

Human Rights
Estate of Valmore Lacarno Rodriguez v. Drummond Company
In 2002, the families of three deceased Colombian labor leaders and the union they belonged to, Sintramienergética, filed suit against Drummond Company, Inc. and its wholly-owned subsidiary Drummond Ltd. in U.S. federal court. The plaintiffs alleged that Drummond hired Colombian paramilitaries to kill and torture the three labor leaders in 2001. Sintramienergética represents workers at Drummond’s coal mining operations in Colombia. The case was brought under the U.S. Alien Tort Claims Act (ATCA), U.S. Torture Victim Protection Act and Alabama state law.

~snip~
Drummond charged in the murders of 67 Colombians

In May 2009, law firms Conrad & Scherer LLP (of Florida) and Ivey Law Firm (of Jasper, Alabama) filed a federal lawsuit against Drummond for the company's involvement in the murders of sixty-seven Colombians.<7> Drummond paid millions of dollars to the paramilitary terrorist group United Self Defense Forces of Colombia (the AUC) to protect the company's property and U.S. workers, and according to the lawsuit, "allowed the AUC terrorists to set up a military base of operations on its property, and supplied electric, food and fuel."<7> The sixty-page lawsuit documents many allegations of violence against people who were perceived as sympathetic to leftist guerilla groups and supportive of local union organizations, including "how hundreds of men, women, and children were terrorized in their homes, on their way to and from work… innocent people killed in or near their homes or kidnapped to never to return home, their spouses and children being beaten and tied up, and people being pulled off buses and summarily executed on the spot."<7> The lawsuit also describes a meeting between Drummond and the AUC in November 2000 where the company ordered the execution of two union leaders.<7>

The law firms represent 252 plaintiffs, who are relatives of the sixty-three men and four women that were murdered.<7> Their names were withheld from the lawsuit in order to prevent repercussions.<7>

More:
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Drummond


~~~~~
Three Colombian union workers working in Drummond's coal operation, were getting death threats from the paramilitaries working secretly for Drummond. They feared the ride home on the bus at night, and begged the company to allow them to sleep overnight on the grounds to reduce their exposure to assassinations to the weekend. Drummond, of course, refused them.

Estate of Rodriquez v. Drummond Co.<1> was a lawsuit filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama by relatives of dead relatives that were employees of Drummond Company.

Sintraminergetica has sued Drummond Company for allegedly conspiring with paramilitary groups to exterminate the union. This suit was brought after years of claims of abuses ranging from forcing potential employees to undergo lie detector tests to reveal their political affiliation as a condition of employment, to the assassination of union leaders, their displacement from the mining zones, and accusations made against them of being guerilla supporters. On March 12, 2001, Valmore Locarno Rodriguez and Victor Hugo Orcasita Amaya, the President and Vice President of the union local, were taken from a company bus en route from the mine to their homes. Locarno was assassinated with two shots in the head in front of his coworkers. Over the protests of the workers, Orcasita was taken away in a truck. The next day his body was found, with obvious signs of torture. On October 5 of the same year, under similar circumstances, Gustavo Soler, the union's new president, was taken from a bus, taken away in a pick-up, tortured, and killed. His body was found on October 7 by people from the area.

The court ruled that Sintraminergetica has standing to bring suit against Drummond and the Colombian managers of the company under the Alien Tort Statute. The crimes that claimed to be committed violated ILO pacts and agreements, and were also crimes against humanity and war crimes, according to U.S. and International Law.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estate_of_Rodriquez_v._Drummond_Co.

http://www.changetowin.org.nyud.net:8090/connect/WindowsLiveWriter/TrialBeginsforMiningCompanyAccusedofKill_9851/image%7B0%7D%5B8%5D.png