U.S. court revives human rights case versus Rio Tinto

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota
By Jonathan Stempel

Tue Oct 25, 2011 4:48pm EDT

n">(Reuters) - A U.S. federal appeals court has revived a lawsuit seeking to hold Rio Tinto Plc responsible for human rights violations and thousands of deaths linked to a Papua New Guinea copper and gold mine it once ran.

A divided 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco reversed a lower court's dismissal of claims against the mining giant for genocide and war crimes, while upholding the dismissal of claims for racial discrimination and crimes against humanity.

"The complaint alleges purposeful conduct undertaken by Rio Tinto with the intent to assist in the commission of violence, injury, and death, to the degree necessary to keep its mines open," Judge Mary Schroeder wrote.

Some dissenting judges protested against allowing a lawsuit to proceed in federal courts brought by non-U.S. residents against a non-U.S. companies such as Rio Tinto, which has corporate offices in London and in Melbourne, Australia.

The 6-5 decision on Tuesday revives an 11-year-old lawsuit on behalf of about 10,000 current and former residents of the South Pacific island Bougainville, where a late 1980s uprising led to the use of military force and many deaths.

Tony Shaffer, a Rio Tinto spokesman, said, "We intend to defend ourselves vigorously against these improper claims."

Rio Tinto is one of the world's largest mining companies, with a market value exceeding US$100 billion, Reuters data show.

The case is one of several in which non-U.S. residents seek to hold companies responsible in U.S. courts for alleged human rights violations on foreign soil, under a 1789 U.S. law known as the Alien Tort Statute.

Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to consider in its current term the reach of that statute, in a lawsuit accusing Royal Dutch Shell Plc of helping Nigeria violently suppress protests in the 1990s.

A federal appeals court in New York had ruled that Shell was not liable under the statute. It is unclear how the pendency of that case will affect the Rio Tinto proceedings.

Steve Berman, a lawyer for the Rio Tinto plaintiffs, said: "My clients believe Rio has been covering up its complicity in war crimes and genocide. We're pleased to be able to return to the district court and begin proving our case."

"EXPENDABLE"

The Bougainville residents claimed that Rio Tinto's Panguna mine operations polluted the island and that the company forced native workers to live in "slave like" conditions.

They also contended that after workers began to sabotage the mine in 1988, Rio Tinto goaded the government into exacting retribution and conspired to impose a blockade that resulted in the deaths of some 10,000 civilians by 1997.

Rio Tinto shut the mine in 1989.

Writing for the 9th Circuit, Schroeder said the complaint's allegation that Rio Tinto's "worldwide modus operandi" was to treat indigenous non-Caucasians as "expendable" justified restoring the genocide claim to the case.

She also said the allegation that Rio Tinto acted for its own private ends in inducing Papua New Guinea's military to murder civilians justified restoring the war crimes claim.

The appeals court returned the case to U.S. District Judge Margaret Morrow in Los Angeles for further proceedings.

In a dissent, Judge Sandra Ikuta wrote that the Alien Tort Statute gave the court no authority to hear a case between the non-U.S. plaintiffs and Rio Tinto over non-U.S. activity.

"The majority sees fit to brush past these limitations and give itself unlimited authority to adjudicate suits between aliens for torts arising anywhere in the world," she wrote.

Another dissenting judge, Andrew Kleinfeld, wrote: "This case calls for judicial humility. Instead, we arrogate to ourselves imperial authority over the whole world."

Berman is a partner at Hagens Berman in Seattle. Rio Tinto's defense has been handled by O'Melveny & Myers and, until recently, been overseen by Sri Srinivasan, a partner who in August was appointed deputy U.S. solicitor general.

The case is Sarei et al v. Rio Tinto Plc et al, 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 02-56256.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; additional reporting by Dan Levine in San Francisco; editing by Dave Zimmerman and Andre Grenon)

Career Advisor

News

Read More

Zimbabwe PM rebuked on gay rights

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota
25 October 2011 Last updated at 12:53 GMT Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa is in a bitterly divided coalition government Zimbabwe's Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa has rejected calls by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai to enshrine gay rights in a new constitution.

Mr Chinamasa told the BBC that gay rights could not be "smuggled" into the constitution because most Zimbabweans opposed it.

Earlier, Mr Tsvangirai told the BBC that gay rights were a "human right" that should be respected.

Mr Tsvangirai and Mr Chinamasa are from rival parties in a fractious coalition.

Their parties - the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and Zanu-PF respectively - are drafting a new constitution, which will be put to a referendum ahead of elections next year.

'Tsvangirai propaganda'

Homosexual is currently illegal in Zimbabwe, as in most African countries where many people view gay rights as un-Christian and un-African.

Last year, Mr Tsvangirai said "the ancestors would turn in their graves" if gay rights became enshrined in a new constitution.

Continue reading the main story

We all know what people said about gay rights - it's a total no; an almost 100% no”

End Quote Patrick Chinamasa Justice minister But Mr Tsvangirai signalled a shift in policy in an interview with the BBC's Newsnight programme.

"It's a very controversial subject in my part of the world. My attitude is that I hope the constitution will come out with freedom of sexual orientation, for as long as it does not interfere with anybody," Mr Tsvangirai said.

"To me, it's a human right."

In his reaction, Mr Chinamasa said Zimbabweans had firmly rejected gay rights when they were consulted on a new constitution during the government's outreach programme.

"We all know what people said about gay rights - it's a total no; an almost 100% no," he told the BBC's Network Africa programme.

Mr Chinamasa said Mr Tsvangirai made the comments for "propaganda" purposes, contradicting the position he had adopted in the cabinet.

Zimbabwe's Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai in gay rights U-turn

"We can't smuggle [into the constitution] the views of a prime minister who wants to please a certain audience basically, I suppose, to mobilise resources for his party."

"I know personally he doesn't believe it. He has said so many times in the cabinet," Mr Chinamasa told Network Africa.

The election due next year will be the first since the MDC and Zanu-PF - led by President Robert Mugabe - formed a unity government after polls in 2008.

Those elections were marred by widespread violence and rigging, with Mr Tsvangirai boycotting a run-off vote.

The coalition - formed under pressure from regional leaders - has stabilised the country, but tension has been rising ahead of next year's vote.

The two parties are yet to agree on political and security reforms to guarantee a free and fair poll.

Technology

News

Read More

U.N. Human Rights Office Urges Inquiry into Qadhafi's Death

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

GENEVA(Reuters)—The United Nations human rights office called on Friday for a full investigation into the death of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and voiced concerns that he may have been executed.

Separate cellphone images showed a wounded and bloodied Gaddafi first alive and then later dead amidst a jostling crowd of anti-Gaddafi fighters after his capture in his hometown of Sirte on Thursday.

"There's a lot of uncertainty about what happened exactly. There seem to be four or five different versions of how he died," U.N. human rights spokesman Rupert Colville told Reuters Television in an interview.

"If you take these two videos together, they are rather disturbing because you see someone who has been captured alive and then you see the same person dead.

[See photos of Muammar Qadhafi]

"We are not in a position to say what has happened at this point but we feel that it is very important that this is clarified, that there is some sort of serious investigation into what happened and what caused his death," he said.

Asked whether the office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay was concerned Gaddafi may have been executed while in captivity, Colville replied:

"It has to be one possibility when you look at these two videos. So that's something that an investigation needs to look into," he said.

ARRESTED ALIVE, KILLED LATER

It is a fundamental principle of international law that people accused of serious crimes should be tried if possible, he said. The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants in June for Gaddafi, his son Saif al-Islam and intelligence chief for crimes against humanity.

[See photos of unrest in Libya]

"Summary executions are strictly illegal under any circumstances. It's different if someone is killed in combat. There was a civil war taking place in Libya. So if the person died as part of combat, that is a different issue and that is normally acceptable under the circumstances," Colville said.

"But if something else has happened, if someone is captured and then deliberately killed, then that is a very serious matter," he said.

Gaddafi was fatally wounded by a bullet in his intestines following his capture, according to a doctor who examined his body, amid conflicting accounts of how the fugitive former Libyan leader met his end at the end of an eight-month uprising against his 42-year rule.

"Gaddafi was arrested while he was alive but he was killed later. There was a bullet and that was the primary reason for his death, it penetrated his gut," doctor Ibrahim Tika told Al Arabiya television. "Then there was another bullet in the head that went in and out of his head."

[Read: Qadhafi's Death Won't Mean End for U.S. Role in Libya]

Earlier, Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril, reading what he said was a post-mortem report, said Gaddafi was hauled unresisting from a "sewage pipe," shot in the arm and put in a truck which was "caught in crossfire" as it ferried him to hospital.

Jerky footage showed a man with Gaddafi's distinctive long, curly hair, bloodied and staggering under blows from armed men, apparently NTC fighters.

An international commission of inquiry, launched by the U.N. Human Rights Council, is already investigating killings, torture and other crimes in Libya.

Colville said he expected that the team would look into the circumstances of Gaddafi's death and perhaps make recommendations about the need for a full national inquiry or an international investigation.

Home, Architecture and Furniture

Traveling Info

Read More