URGENT ACTION on Aug 30th!!!

Award to Newmont Mining Company CEO Draws Protest in Denver – Local and International Organization Cite Newmont’s Abuses of Human Rights and the Environment

Nonviolent Community Demonstration

WHERE: Downtown Denver Marriott Hotel (17th and California)

WHEN: Thursday, August 30, 2007 at 6:00 p.m.

On August 30, when the University of Denver's Graduate School of International Studies (GSIS) presents its “International Bridge-Building Award” to Newmont CEO Wayne Murdy, protestors will serve Murdy with a citation for “building bridges on a foundation of human rights and environmental abuses.”

Denver-area organizations will protest the award on behalf of communities around the world that suffer the consequences of Newmont’s gold mines. Western Shoshone elder Carrie Dann and Julie Fishel of the Western Shoshone Defense Fund will denounce Newmont’s encroachment on their lands and rights in Nevada. A public speaking event will follow. Location TBA.

On five continents, Newmont-affected communities are constantly engaged in protests, marches and litigation to defend their natural resources and their rights. Oxfam America, Amnesty International and the World Resources Institute have documented community charges against Newmont for contaminating drinking water; polluting rivers and oceans with toxic waste including cyanide, mercury and arsenic; colluding with police and military in order to intimidate, brutalize and detain community activists; bribery; and depriving local fishermen and farmers of their lands and livelihoods.

GSIS Dean Tom Farer admitted to the press that this award to Murdy comes with hopes of major financial contributions to the school from Newmont and Murdy. The award will be presented at the Annual Korbel Dinner, the University’s annual black-tie fund raiser. Even in the face of scores of letters and petitions from DU faculty, alumni, communities in Ghana and Peru, the Western Shoshone Defense Project, and national and local activist organizations, Farer and Chancellor Robert Coombe refused to withdraw the award.

In April, Newmont shareholders passed a resolution requiring an investigation into the company’s relations with the communities affected by its mines. A report will be presented to shareholders at the 2008 meeting. “Why is DU giving an award to a corporation whose own shareholders have moved to investigate the negative human rights and environmental impacts of their operations?” asks Kara Martinez, a GSIS alumna who coordinates the Denver Justice and Peace Committee.

“This award is an unforgivable affront to many thousands of people whose lives, livelihoods and natural resources are forever marred by Newmont’s mines,” says Paula Palmer, executive director of Boulder-based Global Response.

Carrie Dann, representing the Western Shoshone Defense Fund, said, “Newmont has done nothing to address the impact of their operations on the ongoing human rights violations against the Western Shoshone.”

The Colorado American Indian Movement, the Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center, the Stop Newmont Coalition, the University of Colorado’s Indigenous Support Network, and the Denver Justice & Peace Committee are calling on their members and all concerned citizens to gather for a civil demonstration outside of the Marriott Hotel (California and 17th Street) at 6:00 p.m. on Thursday, August 30th. Protest organizers have pledged their commitment to non-violence.

WANT MORE INFORMATION?

Al Lewis, a Denver Post business columnist wrote about the issue in the Sunday, August 5th paper. You can view the article and a television interview via his ongoing blog, which also allows you to join in on the debate:

http://blogs.denverpost.com/lewis/2007/08/07/gold-miners-academicians-and-activists

In 2005 Frontline aired a documentary on Newmont’s Peruvian operations, following allegations of corruption and due to massive community resistance.

http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/peru404/thestory.html

Deadlock in Latin America UN race

Voting in the fierce battle for one of Latin America's UN Security Council seats will go into a second day after delegates failed to end a deadlock.

After 10 rounds of voting neither of the leading nations, Guatemala and Venezuela, emerged as the victor in the election for the temporary seat.



Guatemala has forged ahead but is still short of the 124 votes needed to win.

Guatemala is backed by the US and Western diplomats over Venezuela - a strong critic of Washington.

Lobbying

The BBC's UN correspondent, Laura Trevelyan, says diplomats will now try to see whether enough of Venezuela's votes can be transferred to Guatemala for victory or whether a compromise candidate can come through with enough votes to win.

Costa Rica, Panama and Uruguay could emerge in the compromise.

The race has been the most dramatic at the Security Council since Cuba ran against Colombia in 1979, at the height of the Cold War, our correspondent says.

Guatemala was ahead in the early rounds of Monday's voting. Venezuela then drew level but in the final rounds it slipped back.

Round 10 ended with 77 votes for Venezuela to 110 for Guatemala, leaving Guatemala short of the two-thirds majority required. Further voting is set for Tuesday.

The US has warned that the work of the Security Council will become impossible if Venezuela wins and denounces President George W Bush at every turn.

Venezuela says every vote cast for it is a vote of conscience for the developing world.



Venezuela's UN ambassador Francisco Arias Cardenas blamed its performance in the vote on lobbying by the US.


"We're not competing with our brother country [Guatemala]," he said. "We are competing with the most powerful country on the planet."

Diplomats told Associated Press news agency that the campaign of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez may have hurt his country's chances.

President Chavez denounced George W Bush as "the devil" in a speech at the UN last month.

Rotated

With Iran, Darfur and North Korea on the agenda of the council in the coming months, a position on the Security Council gives some influence over key decisions.

Five of the UN Security Council seats are held permanently by China, the US, Russia, the UK and France.

The others are held by regional blocs from Africa, Latin America, Asia, Western Europe and Eastern Europe.

Other regional seats, which are rotated every two years, went to Indonesia, South Africa, Italy and Belgium in the first round of voting.

The 1979 battle between Cuba and Colombia took three months of voting to resolve, with Mexico eventually winning as the compromise candidate.