Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania – Tanzanian villagers have moved to court to sue Barrick Gold, a Canadian multinational, for alleged crimes committed in the country’s northwest gold mine.
A lawsuit filed at the Superior Court of Justice in Ontario, Canada, accused the world’s second-largest gold miner of being culpably involved in extrajudicial killings of locals by the police deployed to the company’s North Mara facility that is located 30 km (about 18 miles) off the Kenyan border.
The plaintiffs in the case include relatives of victims murdered by the Tanzanian police guiding the company’s mines and individuals who had been tortured and shot.
According to court documents, the plaintiffs say that the locals regularly enter the company’s ‘waste rock areas’ to collect rocks bearing gold traces to process and sell, which seems not to sit well with the company’s authority.
The police guarding the company’s facilities have responded brutally by killing and torturing the intruders.
The plaintiffs also claim that the company has ‘effective and practical control over the security personnel deployed to their facilities by the Tanzanian government based on the security agreements signed between the two parties.
According to the corporate watchdog RAID, the lawsuit is by indigenous community members belonging to the Kurya community, whose concerns include brutal murders, torture, and shootings by the police.
A Barrick Gold spokesperson confirmed receipt of the lawsuit to the Reuters news agency but argued it was ‘riddled with inaccuracies.’
He further stated that it was an attempt by the plaintiffs to seek compensation from the company in Ontario even though it did not have or exercise control over the Tanzanian police force, noting that, ‘We intend to defend against these allegations in the appropriate forum vigorously.’
The case is the first ever filed against the company for alleged violations committed abroad.
It also comes after the Canadian court in 2019 ruled that Nevsun Resources Limited could be sued for alleged forced labor violations in its Eritrea operations.
The lawsuit is not among the many filed by foreign plaintiffs against Canadian mining companies since 2010, per the Canadian Network on Corporate Accountability.