CORPORATE watchdog RAID has alleged community members near Barrick Gold’s North Mara mine in Tanzania have been regularly attacked by police resulting in the death of four people, said Bloomberg News.
Barrick responded to the newswire’s queries saying that it was not responsible for the actions of police and it urged RAID to bring evidence of wrongdoing to the attention of the country’s courts. It has also agreed to provide human rights training to police.
RAID said in a report that since 2019, when Barrick took operational control of the North Mara mine, at least four people have been killed and seven others seriously injured by local police, sometimes after villagers enter the site in search of waste rock.
“Barrick’s board and investors should ensure an end to the mine’s relationship with the police and set up a truly credible and independent investigation into the abuses,” said RAID executive director Anneke Van Woudenberg.
Citing the report, Bloomberg News said Barrick has ties to police, including a memorandum of understanding that includes paying and equipping officers assigned to provide security for the mine.
Barrick said that the RAID report was misleading, and that local police operate independently while hired security within the mine site is performed by unarmed employees of a local company.
A lawsuit over assaults that occurred before 2019 is going before a British court on March 17. In the lawsuit, Barrick will face allegations of unlawful killings and assaults at the mine between 2014 and 2019. The claimants include the family of a nine-year-old girl killed by a mine vehicle driven by police, and four women who were fired upon while gathering around her body, said Bloomberg News. Barrick’s subsidiaries deny liability.
