[IPSM] Montrealers demand “ALCAN! OUT OF KASHIPUR!”

[Devin Butler Burke]

“ALCAN! OUT OF KASHIPUR!”

Montreal (December 16, 2004) --- Dozens of demonstrators took to the  cold
streets of downtown Montreal to show their solidarity with the people of
Kashipur, India in opposition to a proposed bauxite mine of Alcan Inc.
December 16, 2004 marks the 4th anniversary of the killings of Damodhar,
Abhilash and Raghunath Jhodia by state police after a meeting against  the
mine and refinery project in the state of Orissa in Eastern India.

Over 60 people gathered at Alcan’s international headquarters to urge  the
aluminum multinational corporation to honour these murders by respecting
the demands of the peoples' movement for self-determined development  and
to
divest immediately from the troubled project.  Protesters demanded to  speak
directly with Michael Hanley, Alcan’s CEO of Bauxite & Alumina.  Hanley
declined the invitation.

Protesters chanted and marched to the front doors of Alcan, one-by-one
hand-delivering signed postcards denouncing the deaths and demanding  that
Alcan take responsibility for the continued repressions of indigenous  and
low-caste peoples of Kashipur.  A security guard spoke with individual
protesters and promised to deliver the postcards directly to Hanley.

After Norwegian multinational and lead investor Norsk Hydro pulled out  of
the project in 2001, Alcan increased its involvement and now presently
holds a 45% share.  Alcan consistently maintains that the project is  only
in its “conceptual phase” though recent reports from the affected region
indicate otherwise.  On December 1, 2004, a group of about 300
indigenous and low-caste peoples peacefully gathered to show their
opposition to  the inauguration of an access road and police barrack. 
Villagers were met  with harsh police violence, tear gassed and beaten
with batons.

Montreal-based group “Alcan’t in India” organized the protests in  solidarity
with protests in Orissa.  In Kashipur today between 5000 and 7000 people
gathered to commemorate the deaths and show their ongoing opposition to 
the
project.  A delegation of political leaders and elected members of the
Orissa legislature were harassed and blocked from getting to the
protests. Reports from independent media sources in Orissa indicate that
the  police and hired civilian goons damaged vehicles and manhandled the
delegates  on their way to the demonstration.  The situation in Kashipur
and
surrounding anti-mining villages has recently intensified as the state
government  began building a police station and barracks designed to
protect mining  companies from local anti-mining villagers.

In spite of the repression, the people of Kashipur are steadfast in  their
resolve to oppose the project and continue to struggle against it.  For
more information about the ongoing situation in Kashipur please visit  the
Alcan’t in India site at http://www.saanet.org/alcant or the Kashipur  site
at http://www.saanet.org/kashipur/.

--Samira Rahmani, Montreal


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