Date: Thu, 28 Apr 2005 10:32:42 -0700 (PDT) From: sujani reddy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Montrealers well-prepared to converge at Alcan Annual General Meeting Will continue to expose company's abuses in Kashipur region of India Montreal, April 27, 2005 As shareholders, management and analysts convene for Alcan's general meeting, Montrealers with world-wide support under the banner of the Alcan't in India campaign will again be raising the issue of the company's violent, corrupt and repressive presence in the Kashipur region of Orissa, India. For the last twelve years, tens of thousands of peoples from Kashipur have been successfully fighting against the installation of the Utkal Alumina International Limited (UAIL) bauxite and alumina project, in which the multinational Alcan Inc of Montreal has a 45% share. At a public event in Montreal last night, over 60 people gathered to learn about the current situation in Kashipur. Renowned Global Justice advocate Vandana Shiva emphasized the illegality of Alcan's proposed project. "The Indian Constitution gives the highest decision making rights to tribal communities... The people of Kashipur have repeatedly voted against Alcan and against Utkal. They have repeatedly voted against mining." Dr. Shiva, who has travelled to Kashipur and written extensively about the issue, has also successfully taken on the presence of exploitative multinational corporations in India, such as WR Grace and Monsanto. Tamara Herman, a Montreal-based independent journalist who just one week ago returned from a fact-finding trip, confirmed that currently Kashipur "is for all intents and purposes a militarized area. Police, paramilitary forces, Indian reserve batallion forces, local administrators and villagers who have reportedly been paid off by UAIL were making sure that the area has been sealed." She also noted that no company official in the entire country would speak to her about the project. Attendees at the evening event were also reminded by Catherine Coumans, research coordinator at MiningWatch Canada that, "What's happening in Kashipur is happening with Canadian mining corporations around Asia... the tactics and way they go about dividing communities and buying people off and wearing people out is the same everywhere. It's a horrible reality." Just as Alcan prepares this week to face heavy criticism for its dubious operations around the world, Richard Girard, a corporate researcher with the Polaris Institute revealed one glaring example. "Alcan's actions between October 2001 and January 2005 when it had 50% control of the Candonga Consortium in Brazil, are definite and recent examples of how this company is capable, despite its rhetoric of sustainability and transparency, of destroying human lives, the environment and abusing human rights all in the interest of profit." Montrealers will be using this in-depth and up to date understanding of Alcan and its operations to directly confront the corporation at its annual meeting. Shareholders from a variety of groups will be raising the Kashipur issue for the second consecutive year inside the AGM. Likewise, others will be holding a Peoples' Assembly and colourful street theatre event outside the AGM to further promote the Kashipur peoples' perspectives, which have been systematically ignored by Alcan. Contact: Patrick Cadorette 514-298-9974; [EMAIL PROTECTED]; www.saanet.org/alcant
