WHEN: Wednesday, April 29, 9am
WHERE: Metro Convention Centre, 255 Front St.
see media release
Read the statement of Jethro Tulin, of the Porgera Alliance and the Akali Tange Association
Read the statement of Sergio Campusano, President of the Diaguita Huascoaltinos
Affected Indigenous communities from Papua New Guinea and Chile are
coming to Toronto to give Peter Munk a piece of their mind. Come out
and support them! Rally at the annual general meeting of Barrick Gold
on Wed. April 29th.
Jethro Tulin is native to the rocky highlands of Papua New Guinea
(PNG), Jethro Tulin is a popular organiser and founder of the Akali
Tange Association (ATA), a human rights organization documenting abuses
at the Porgera mine, owned by Toronto�s Barrick Gold.
Jethro has
been organizing within and outside the Barrick's Porgera mine since its
inception (then owned by Placer Dome. In 1989, he registered Porgera�s
first mine workers union and became its first secretary. Years later,
after spending time abroad and involved in other aspects of Papua New
Guinea�s nascent union movement, Jethro returned to Porgera to find the
situation with the mine and the surrounding villages had worsened
dramatically. So, in 2003, he founded the ATA, which has operated in
Porgera with an all-volunteer staff and material support from friends,
victims� relatives, and even local businessmen and officials.
here's a good youtube clip of Jethro speaking: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUY-ift-6ts
Sergio
Campusano is the President of the Diaguita Huascoaltinos Indigenous and
Agricultural Community. Since he assumed the role of president, Sergio
has been fighting against the greed of the mining corporations and the
local agriculture companies in order to mantain the rights of his
people. He has participated pressing charges in countless times even
against the Chilean State and the Inter-American Commission on Human
Rights. He's conscious they're fighting not only to represent the
living, but also the ancestral thought of preservation of the ecosystem
for the entire world, for the children of us all. In this clear idea is
impregnated the principles of AUTO-DESTINY, AUTONOMY, and the right of
the indigenous peoples of AUTODETERMINATION.
He will be accompanied by Albadina Carmona Villegas, an elder of his community. |