Drummond Court Case Update - a newsletter from Stein Ove Gronsund
Dear friends and colleagues,
As a member of the advisory committee of the International Rights Advocates, a new organization that is the successor to the litigation department of the International Labor Rights Fund (ILRF), I have decided to establish a weekly newsletter to inform you about the progress in the court case against Drummond Co. Inc. The court case started in Birmingham , Alabama on July 9, 2007 and is based on a suit filed by IRAdvocates in 2002 against the Alabama-based mining corporation with facilities in La Loma, Colombia . The suit is asserting claims on behalf of families of union mineworkers in Colombia who were tortured, kidnapped, and murdered by paramilitary gunmen.
For those who do not know me, I am a Norwegian journalist and trade union activist, now based in Miami , Florida . I use some of my spare time to do voluntary work for progressive, American NGOs, in particular IRAdvocates.
The court case against Drummond is the first ever human rights trial against a multinational corporation in the United States.
On March 10, 2001, Colombian paramilitary gunmen assassinated the mine-worker's local president Valmore Locarno, and his deputy Victor Orcasita. Shortly afterward Gustavo Soler - Locarno 's replacement as head of the union - was also murdered by the paramilitary. With extensive evidence and witness testimony to support their claims, IRAdvocates allege that Drummond "hired the hit". While this case directly concerns a coal company violently keeping its labor costs down, its implications for corporate accountability and international human rights law are truly historic.
The IRAdvocates case is based on the Alien Tort Claims Act (ATCA) - a 1789 law that allows citizens of foreign nations to enact a civil suit in U.S. courts for actions that violate the "law of nations". You can read more about ATCA following this link http://www.hrw.org/campaigns/atca/intro.htm.
After this introduction, I will provide you with some reading links from the court case so far.
From the first week, I have selected this article from Bloomberg: Drummond Murder Trial Tests Law Used to Sue Chiquita which gives a good background. So does this story from The Associated Press Alabama coal company accused of bankrolling Colombia's killer right-wing militias. I also recommend an article from Miami Herald: Witnesses link U.S. company, Colombian paramilitaries.
The best daily coverage of the case appears in The Birmingham News. The following links covers the details of the first week of proceedings:
July 11: Jurors hear from lawyers
July 12: Drummond exec made threat, worker testifies
July 13: Testimony casts union chief as company critic
July 14: Union execs' security touted
Here are some links to the coverage from the second week:
July 17: Motives of union witness in question
July 19: In court, widow tells of odyssey
July 20: Witness describes gun-toting life in gang
July 22: Trial gives glimpse of Colombia
However, the story has not only been followed locally. I have read articles in most major newspapers from South Korea via Madrid to Paris. The Colombian government has not cooperated thus far to allow a key witness to testify. This has resulted in a request from US lawmakers to Colombian authorities: Lawmakers seek Colombian agent's testimony against Drummond. The court case has also led to broader reporting on US companies’ activities abroad, as this article from Los Angeles Times: U.S. bending rules on Colombia terror?
When the court case resumed this week, Drummond’s attorneys started to present their witnesses, and I have selected this AP story from International Herald Tribune: Top Colombian executive for coal company denies paying for murders of union leaders.
I hope you excuse me for using this much space in your e-mail box for this first newsletter. I promise to be shorter when I sum up this week’s proceedings. If you do not want to receive future updates, just respond to this e-mail and write “REMOVE” at the subject line.
For further information about International Rights Advocates, see their webpage www.iradvocates.org
Kind regards,
Stein Ove Gronsund
steinove@innomedia.org
— Chris Saeger, "Strengthening Rule of Law Through Aid for Human Rights Litigation in National Courts: A Case Study of Oil Multinational Corporations Complicit in Human Rights Violations in Sudan and Nigeria (December 2007)
— Terry Collingsworth, "Using the Alien Tort Claims Act to Introduce the Rule of Law to the Global Economy (2005)
International Rights Advocates is a nonprofit dedicated to holding corporations accountable for human rights violations in countries around the world. IRAdvocates already has 14 pending cases but without your support, IRAdvocates will not be able to continue its litigation.