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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings & Torture |
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September 24th,
2001 - Ecuadorians File U.S. Suit Over Plan Colombia |
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Ecuadorians File
U.S. Suit Over Plan Colombia By Danielle Knight Inter Press Service September 24, 2001 Washington - Ecuadorian
Indians are taking legal action in federal court here, charging that a U.S. company
contracted to carry out fumigation of illicit crops in neighbouring Colombia
recklessly sprayed their homes and farms, causing illnesses and deaths, and
destroying crops. U.S.-based attorneys
representing 10,000 individuals living in the Amazon rainforest near the
border with Colombia filed a class action complaint against Virginia-based
DynCorp Corporation in federal court here Sep. 11. A DynCorp spokesperson said
the company has not been notified about the complaint and declined to comment
further. The legal complaint is the
latest in a series of actions brought under the Alien Tort Claims Act, which
allows foreign citizens to sue U.S. companies in courts here over acts
committed abroad. ''The spraying of a toxic
herbicide over people and land is a stupid and reckless action,'' said Terry
Collingsworth of the International Labour Rights Fund here, one of the lead
counsels in the case. In addition to charging
DynCorp with violating the Alien Tort Claims Act, the complaint alleges the
company also breached the U.S. Torture Victim Protection Act, among others.
It seeks millions of dollars in compensation and an immediate halt to
spraying that allegedly affects Ecuador. The complaint also calls
into question 'Plan Colombia', the U.S.- funded strategy to combat narcotics
launched last year by Colombian President Andres Pastrana. Plan Colombia involves 7.5
billion dollars for social and economic development and 1.3 billion dollars,
pledged by the United States, mostly for military equipment and training, and
aerial fumigation of illicit coca, marijuana, and poppy crops. Colombian politicians and
officials have said that although they favour eradicating narcotics crops, a
new strategy is needed because fumigation with the herbicide glyphosate is
causing illnesses, destroying pastures and food crops, poisoning livestock,
and displacing thousands of small farmers. In March and July, Colombian
legislators and governors came here and told reporters that fumigation was
not hurting the narcotics industry but severely harming poor farming
families. They said planes spraying the crops blanket entire communities with
the herbicide and cause poor farmers to suffer illnesses and skin problems. Indigenous leaders in Colombia
also have voiced opposition to the spraying. Last year, Emperatriz
Cahuache, president of the Organisation of Indigenous Peoples of the
Colombian Amazon, came to Washington and showed reporters a map illustrating
how the areas of coca and marijuana cultivation overlaps with indigenous
territories and the areas that have been fumigated. ''These fumigations are
contaminating the Amazon and destroying the forest,'' said Cahuache. Proponents of Plan Colombia
said glyphosate, marketed by the U.S.- based Monsanto company under the trade
name 'Roundup', is as safe as salt. Critics countered that directions on
glyphosate labels warn users not to allow the product to come into contact
with people or water sources. The lawsuit against DynCorp
is the second time that indigenous communities in the Ecuadorian Amazon have
used the Alien Tort Claims Act to sue a U.S. company in U.S. court for
allegedly endangering human health and destroying crops. In 1993, a group of
Ecuadorian indigenous people filed a class action suit against the Texaco oil
company, charging that during two decades of drilling in the Amazon, it
dumped more than 3,000 gallons of crude oil into the rainforest. The plaintiffs claimed that
the company ignored oil industry standards and, instead of re-injecting the
waste back into the ground, dumped a toxic cocktail of chemicals into unlined
pits that eventually leached into streams and rivers. Their lawsuit is still
pending in federal court in New York. Cristobal Bonifaz, a
Massachusetts-based attorney originally from Ecuador, is one of the lead
attorneys in the case against Texaco. He is also a lead counsel representing
Ecuadorians in the new action against DynCorp. Bonifaz said he became aware
of the alleged fumigation in Ecuador after communication with his clients in
the lawsuit against the oil company. ''In the same region where
Texaco devastated the environment and caused untold suffering to the people
of the rainforest, a new enemy now comes from the air, poisoning the people,
killing their crops, and destroying their land,'' said Bonifaz. © 2001 IPS. External link: http://www.commondreams.org/headlines01/0924-03.htm |