Mozambique: Several detained after protesters invade Vale’s Moatize mine – DW

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Mozambique: Several detained after protesters invade Vale’s Moatize mine – DW

8:09 CAT | 12 May 2021

File photo: DW

Peasant farmers and potters invaded Vale Moçambique’s coal mine in Tete last week, claiming that the company had improperly occupied a section of land. Social activists are calling for government intervention to resolve the dispute.

About 800 potters from the 1º de Maio neighbourhood in Moatize, Tete province, are protesting against coal-mining company Vale Moçambique, who they accuse of improperly occupying one of the sections of the coal mine concession without proper compensation.

Several people were arrested in the aftermath of the blockade last week, social activist Júlio Caleng revealed in an interview with DW Africa.

Caleng, a lawyer for the Human Rights League in Tete, says that neither party wants to make concessions and the case should therefore go to court. He is also calling for the provincial government to intervene and resolve the dispute.

DW Africa: What is the cause of these successive violations of community rights by Vale Mozambique?

Júlio Caleng (JC): The cry for help from the communities has to do with compensation. What happens is that these mining companies – at this point we can talk about Vale – from time to time expand their activities, where coal must be mined. What has been lacking is fair, transparent compensation. I think this is the biggest problem. Now, whose fault is it? Evidently it is of the people who are ahead. What should happen was to compensate the communities, compensate those people who are already there, without any problem and in a transparent way.

DW Africa: But in the specific case of Vale, what is happening?

JC: What I can say at the moment is that Vale wants to enter a new area to continue to extract coal. And they are already there, they have already been there to install the potters. It is from there that this confusion arises. Vale says they have already paid compensation according to a memorandum of understanding. But the potters say no, they were only compensated for elsewhere. So, here is a delaying manoeuvre, a liability avoidance manoeuvre. And this exhausted the beneficiaries, tired the potters, and the matter burst out into the open, so to speak.

DW Africa: Is it true that Bairro 1º de Maio residents last week invaded one of the sections of the coal mine to prevent work?

JC: This is one of the ways that the community has found [effective] – to act in a violent way, and that is not a good thing. But this way of acting comes about because they are not finding peaceful solutions. The potters have already knocked on the door of our offices and we have even entered the ‘peace process’, in the sense of finding a peaceful way of resolving conflicts. We made an extrajudicial interpellation to alert the company about this, with the knowledge of the government. But we received no answer, and there was nothing else we could do. The community had some hope, they even held a negotiating meeting, but it went wrong and, out of desperation, the community acted as it did. The Rapid Intervention Police also acted, there was even a stir here. And right now we have people who have been detained since entering the mine, as a form of punishment.

Vale.g.dw_ — *“Vale will have to give in”, activist Júlio Caleng says*

DW Africa: What is the reason for this apparent lack of concern on the part of the provincial and central government?

JC: The current leadership, actually, found some poorly resolved situations already in place, and this has had its effects. And, in addition to the legal non-compliance, there is this fragility, a weakness of those who are leading the action, and sometimes we feel their despair, as if they’re saying it is an issue “with a white beard”, that is, one that never ends.

DW Africa: But what is the situation now? Will Vale continue to exploit the area or will it abandon it?

JC: Vale is obviously going to have to give in. The community is not going to give in, because it is in the right. We are in an uneasy situation, and nobody is better placed to resolve it than the government. What is happening is that Vale thinks it has paid compensation, but the communities say that they have not been compensated. About 800 potters…they cannot say that they were not compensated when they were. It is good to do business, but it is necessary to take advantage of the business in favour of human rights, so that the community can look at mining companies as a good thing, as a joy, a feast. But unfortunately, the communities look at these resources as a curse. That is how they speak about it.

Source: Deutsche Welle