Category Archives: News

“Police this gateway” – Report on London appeal hearing of Vedanta vs Lungowe

July 6, 2017NewsAnil Agarwal, copper, Foil Vedanta, Human Rights, KCM, London, Mining, Pollution, protest, solidarity, Tom Albanese, UK government, Vedanta, Zambialankoid

6th July. This report is a detailed account of hearings in Vedanta’s appeal against Justice Coulson’s 2016 judgment allowing the case of Zambian villagers polluted by KCM/Vedanta to be heard in the UK, which took place during the 5th and 6th July.

At 9am on Wednesday 5^th of July activists from Foil Vedanta Pan African Society Community Forum (PASCF), Women of Colour in Global Women’s Strike and London Mining Network rallied outside the Royal Courts of Justice with placards and banners calling for justice for thousands of Zambian villagers polluted by Konkola Copper Mines, a subsidiary of UK firm Vedanta Resources PLC. At 10am the court session in Vedanta’s appeal to the May 2016 judgment, which allowed the claimants case to be heard in the UK, began.

The protesters sat in the public gallery of the small court which was packed with observers and press. In the benches, Vedanta’s legal team consisted of two QCs instructed by ‘magic circle’ corporate law firm Herbert Smith Freehills , as well as three assistants. Behind them Vedanta’s company secretary Deepak Kumar attended along with Geoffrey Green, a non executive director and former partner in law firm Ashurst LLP. On the claimant’s side personal injury firm Leigh Day Solicitors also had two QCs and a number of lawyers and assistants including firm partner Martyn Day sitting at the back. Above them on the judges bench the case was heard by Lord Justice Jackson, Lord Justice Simon and Mrs Justice Asplin.

Wednesday’s hearing was almost entirely taken up with the lengthy appeal plea of Vedanta’s lawyer, Mr Charles Gibson QC. His argument, which we give in detail here, hung on these points:

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Vedanta denies ‘duty of care’ to Zambian communities and faces protests at RCJ

July 5, 2017NewsAnil Agarwal, copper, Corruption, Foil Vedanta, Human Rights, KCM, London, Pollution, solidarity, UK government, Vedanta, Zambialankoid

5th July 2017. The latest hearing in the case of the Chingola communities consistently polluted by Vedanta subsidiary Konkola Copper Mines (KCM) began at the Court of Appeals in London today. A rally organised by Foil Vedanta with Pan African solidarity groups took place outside the court in solidarity with the victims of ongoing pollution who have been fighting legal battles for justice in Zambia, and now the UK, for eleven years.

See the video from today’s rally here!

Activists from Pan African Society Community Forum (PASCF), Women of Colour in Global Women’s Strike and London Mining Network joined Foil Vedanta today to rally outside the Royal Courts of Justice calling for justice for thousands of Zambian villagers polluted by UK firm Vedanta Resources, and echoing their demands. The protesters sat in the public gallery of the court which was packed with observers and press.

artists impression of Deepak Kumar in court today

Inside the court Vedanta’s lawyers began their appeal against a May 2016 decision to allow the villagers’ case to be heard in the UK, arguing that Vedanta has no duty of care to claimants potentially polluted by subsidiary KCM. The case Dominic Liswaniso Lungowe vs Vedanta Resources and Konkola Copper Mines is being heard by Lord Justice Jackson, Lord Justice Simon and Mrs Justice Asplin and may continue for several days. Vedanta’s company secretary Deepak Kumar attended the hearing along with Geoffrey Green, a non executive director and former partner in law firm Ashurst LLP.

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Vedanta excluded again by Norwegian pension fund

March 16, 2017Newscopper, Corruption, Displacement, Dongria Kond, Human Rights, India, KCM, Lanjigarh, Mining, Niyamgiri, Odisha, Orissa Mining Corporation, Pollution, Sterlite, Supreme Court of India, Tamil Nadu, Thoothkudi, Tom Albanese, Tuticorin, Vedanta, Vedanta Aluminium, worker's deaths, Zambialankoid

16th March 2017. In its latest report, released on 9th March 2017, the Norwegian Council of Ethics has again excluded Vedanta from the Government Pension Fund’s investment universe. The report is an indictment of Vedanta’s pattern of operation at four subsidiaries in Odisha, Chhatisgarh, Tamil Nadu and Zambia, finding “numerous reports of Vedanta’s failure to comply with government requirements” and concluding 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.”

The Fund first divested from the company in 2007 after Vedanta Sterlite’s operations in India — Thoothukudi, Chhattisgarh and Orissa — and in other parts of the world were found to be in violation of accepted human rights and environmental norms.

The Pension Fund is “the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund with shares in 9,000 companies. . .[and] 1.3 percent of the entire world’s listed equity, giving the decisions it takes to drop or reinstate shareholdings or warn firms considerable weight among investors.”

Read the Council’s full assessment of Vedanta’s operations below. Continue reading →

Niyamgiri decries State human rights abuses and rejects NGOs

September 29, 2016Newsbauxite, Dongria Kond, Foil Vedanta, Human Rights, India, Lanjigarh, Mining, Niyamgiri, Niyamgiri Suraksha Samiti, Odisha, protest, Vedanta, Vedanta Aluminiumlankoid

On 2^nd September indigenous Dongria Kondh and Dalit Bahujan residents of Niyamgiri mountain held a demonstration in Muniguda, Odisha, under the banner of Niyamgiri Suraksha Samiti. The protest demanded an end to harassment, false arrests and murder of indigenous activists by police and paramilitary forces, and rejected the involvement of NGO’s in their decades long movement to prevent Vedanta and other companies mining their sacred mountain.

Protesters blocked the main road for several hours and burnt tyres.

The demonstration is part of ongoing anger at the false arrest of Dasuru Kadraka, the thirty year old Dongria Kondh youth leader of Niyamgiri Suraksha Samiti (NSS), who was picked up from the Muniguda market by the police six months ago, and subsequently brutally tortured and implicated in several false cases.

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London Stock Exchange targeted by Bangladeshi activists

August 31, 2016NewsLondon, London Stock Exchange, Phulbari, Pollution, protest, Repression, solidaritylankoid

31st August. This news from Phulbari Solidarity following their celebration of a decade of resistance to UK company GCM’s open cast coal mine plans, and commemorating the death of three protesters shot by paramilitary forces in 2006.

Friday the 26^th August, marked a decade of halt to plans by an AIM-listed British company, Global Coal Resources Management (GCM), who want to build a massive open cast coal mine by forcibly displacing 130,000 people in Phulbari, northwest Bangladesh. A four day long Commemoration for victims of Phulbari outburst, where three protesters were shot dead by police in 2006, was held in Dkaka, Dinajpur, Phulbari, London and Germany. On the final day of remembrance, on 30^th August, the National Committee to Protect Oil, Gas, Mineral Resources, Power and Ports in Bangladesh has declared a fresh programme in Phulbari to kick GCM out of Bangladesh as the CEO of the company has recently filed multiple arbitrary charges against indigenous farmers, small businessmen and local leaders who opposed the mine.

In London, in support of Phulbari protesters, community activists under the banner of Phulbari Solidarity Group and Committee to Protect Resources of Bangladesh held a colourful and powerful commemoration rally and protest at London Stock Exchange , calling for the de-listing of the company from London Stock Exchange. Despite heavy securitization and repeated attempts of interruption by police last Friday, protesters blocked up the pavement at the main entrance of London Stock Exchange (LSE) for two hours and demanded immediate de-registration of GCM for its unethical business, deceitful marketing of Phulbari project, and for human rights abuse in Dinajpur and Phulbari. Prior to the demo, Phulbari Solidarity Group has submitted evidence of unethical business of the company to the CEO of London Stock Exchange, Xavier Rolet KBE, via email.

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India, Zambia, London protest Vedanta’s AGM

August 5, 2016Actions, NewsAGM, Anil Agarwal, copper, Displacement, Dongria Kond, Foil Vedanta, Human Rights, India, KCM, Mining, Niyamgiri, Niyamgiri Suraksha Samiti, Odisha, Pollution, solidarity, Tom Albanese, Tuticorin, UK government, Vedanta, Vedanta Aluminium, worker's deaths, Zambialankoid

5th August 2016 Protests have been held in India and Zambia in parallel with today’s AGM of British mining company Vedanta Resources’ at Ironmongers Hall, Barbican, London. Inside the AGM dissident shareholders asked incisive questions submitted by Zambian villagers who are suing Vedanta in the UK for twelve years of polluted water, as well as displaced farmers who were never compensated for their land in Lanjigarh, Odisha, India and accuse Vedanta of murdering and harassing them with state collusion. A loud protest organised by Foil Vedanta took place outside the meeting, demanding that Vedanta subsidiary Konkola Copper Mines publish its hitherto secret annual accounts in Zambia, and accusing the company of pollution, human rights abuses and financial mismanagement in India and Afrika.

See the video of the London demo here… and of the Delhi demo here.

Please see a full report on proceedings inside the AGM bu London Mining Network entitled ‘Vedanta’s 2016 AGM: evidence, evasion and arguments‘.

and coverage in The Mining Journal, the New International, and Reuters.

At Vedanta’s London AGM activists from Foil Vedanta interrupted the meeting asking incisive questions to the Vedanta board and gathered shareholders on behalf of the Zambian Copperbelt villagers living downstream of Vedanta’s Konkola Copper Mines (KCM), who are demanding an end to twelve years of pollution by KCM, which has turned the Kafue into a ‘river of acid‘ and left them with no access to clean water. They asked why KCM has never submitted annual accounts in Zambia in accordance with national laws, and whether Vedanta’s deliberately obstructive approach to compensation cases as revealed in a recent London judgement was company policy.

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Zambian villagers win right to have case against Vedanta & KCM heard in UK

June 7, 2016NewsFoil Vedanta, Human Rights, KCM, Konkola Copper Mines, London, Pollution, protest, Vedanta, Zambialankoid

7th June, 2016. On Friday 27^th May the Hon Mr Justice Coulson published his judgment on the jurisdiction hearing between 1,826 Zambian villagers and Vedanta and it’s Zambian subsidiary KCM which took place in April in London, finding in the villagers’ favour that their case demanding compensation for personal injury and loss of livelihood due to gross pollution could be heard in the UK. The judgment (which can be downloaded at this link: KCM Coulson Judgment May 2016) is an indictment of KCM’s financial secrecy, historic dishonesty and attempts to pervert the course of justice, detailed in this article. To those of us experienced in legal cases against some of Vedanta’s Indian subsidiaries this does not come as a surprise but fits with the pattern of corruption and deception which Vedanta has become famous for.

This is a great victory in the preliminary stages of this major case against Vedanta and KCM for knowingly causing gross pollution from 2005 (just after they acquired KCM) to the present day. Our previous article details the shocking living conditions of thousands of villagers whose water sources have been chronically polluted causing sickness, poverty and even death. Video testimonies from some of the claimants and victims detail how people have ‘collapsed and died’ as a result of prolonged exposure to high levels of contaminants (as scientific papers attest).

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Vedanta sponsored Jaipur Literature Festival disrupted in London

May 21, 2016NewsFoil Vedanta, Human Rights, India, KCM, London, Mining, Niyamgiri, Pollution, protest, solidarity, Vedanta, worker's deaths, Zambialankoid

20^th May 2016. A massive thank you to all the writers, bloggers, activists and supporters who made the JLF boycott a huge success. Please read more on the London protest and and press coverage below:

A group of protesters from a wide range of organisations today disrupted the Jaipur Literature Festival at London’s Southbank Centre, taking over the stage with their placards and giving shouted speeches to the eminent audience about the multiple criminal convictions and abusive pattern of operation of the festival’s main sponsor, the British mining company Vedanta. A number of attendees left the event in response. NDTV journalist Barkha Dutt’s presentation was also disrupted by chanting naming the news channel for taking Vedanta funding for the Our Girls Our Pride campaign which is accused of being a whitewash sham for the company.

Vedanta’s logo stickered over on programme

Earlier two speakers at the festival – the scientist and broadcaster Aarathi Prasad and K. Satchidanandan, a Malayalam and English poet – had pulled out in response to an open letter calling for a boycott of the event in view of its sponsorship by ‘the world’s most hated company’. Another four speakers – Vasundhara Raje, Meghnad Desai, Gavin Francis and Rachel Spence – also had their names removed from the programme suggesting they too have refused to participate. Nonetheless Sanjoy Roy, the managing director of Teamwork Arts and festival organisers Namita Gokhale and William Dalrymple have continued to defend their sponsor in the media even claiming Vedanta are not guilty of any criminality, despite multiple convictions cited in the open letter. However, the Vedanta logo was removed from publicity on the day and stickers were used to poorly conceal the logo on the programmes.

Press coverage:

Kavita Bhanot – JLF Brings ‘Exotic India’ To Your Doorstep – Who Pays The Price?

The Hindu – Anti Vedanta protests mar JLF event in South Bank London

Ravinder Kaur – JLF Southbank: By ignoring boycott call, writers may have missed out on powerful stories of dissent

The Wire – Writers Protest Vedanta Sponsorship of Jaipur Lit Fest London

Sabrang India – Protesters Disrupt Jaipur Lit-fest Sponsored by Vedanta in London

Sabrang India – Boycott Vedanta’s London festival and bid to seek legitimacy: Writers

Eyezine – Why Jaipur Lit Fest needs to remove Vedanta from its sponsors

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Authors pull out of Vedanta JLF, and a rebuttal to the organisers

May 17, 2016Newsbauxite, copper, Dongria Kond, Foil Vedanta, Human Rights, India, KCM, London, Mining, Niyamgiri, Pollution, protest, Sterlite, Supreme Court of India, Vedanta, worker's deaths, Zambialankoid

17th May. On 14th May we released an open letter calling for the renowned authors and artists participating in the Jaipur Literature Festival at Southbank, London, to pull out of the event in view of its sponsorship by Vedanta Resources – dubbed ‘the world’s most hated company’. The letter has now been signed by over 100 writers, academics, activists and people directly affected by Vedanta’s operations, including poets Nabina Das, Hemant Devate, Rafiq Kathwari and Surya Vahni Priya Capildeo and writers Tariq Mehmood, Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar, Courttia Newland and Gladson Dungdung.

In response two speakers have already pulled out. The scientist and broadcaster Aarathi Prasad and K. Satchidanandan, a Malayalam and English poet have both refused to participate. (Please see the full article critiquing the neocolonialist approach of the Jaipur Literature Festival by Kavita Bhanot here)

Despite this, Sanjoy Roy, the managing director of Teamwork Arts, which produces the festival, issued this statement to the media on behalf of the festival organisers Namita Gokhale and William Dalrymple:

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Boycott Vedanta sponsorship of JLF 2016

May 14, 2016Actions, NewsDisplacement, Dongria Kond, Foil Vedanta, Human Rights, India, KCM, Lanjigarh, London, Mining, Niyamgiri, Niyamgiri Suraksha Samiti, Odisha, Orissa Mining Corporation, Pollution, protest, solidarity, UK government, Vedanta, worker's deaths, Zambialankoid

14th May 2016. On May 21st the high profile Jaipur Literature Festival will take place in Southbank London with Vedanta as its key sponsor*. Foil Vedanta and Roundtable India have authored this open letter to the many renowned authors taking part, asking them to boycott the event in view of Vedanta’s criminal activities.** The letter has been signed by eminent writers, academics, activists and people directly affected by Vedanta’s criminal activities. A protest will also be held outside the event from 10am to 1pm at the Southbank centre, SE1 9PX, London.