In 2006 three people were killed and over 200 injured when paramilitary troops fired on a massive protest of some 80,000 demonstrators in Phulbari, Bangladesh. The protesters were opposing a proposed open pit coal mine in the north-west of Bangladesh that the Bangladesh subsidiary of GCM Resources plc, Asia Energy, intends to implement. The project threatens to destroy the homes, lands, and water sources of as many as 220,000 people, and forcibly evict an estimated 130,000 people.
Yet, GCM Resources plc, an AIM-listed UK-based multinational company, supported by major hedge funds and banks including UBS, Credit Suisse, LR Global, and Argos Greater Europe Fund, is aggressively moving on to implement this immense open pit coal mine ignoring the human rights and environmental degradation the project would leave. The project would destroy over 14,660 acres of fertile agricultural land that produce three food crops annually, threatening to increase hunger in a country in which nearly half of all people currently live below the nutrition poverty line.
Come and Join us in the protest - Stand with the people in Phulbari -Tell GCM to end its unethical business now!
For further information contact the UK branch of National Committee nationalcommittee.uk@googlemail.com, phulbari_action@googlegroups.com,
phone: 07846 012646, 07872 567841 or visit http://protectbdresources.org.uk/, http://londonminingnetwork.org/, www.ncbd.org,
