War Profiteers News

Welcome to our November issue of War Profiteers' News and the last one for 2009. In this issue we continue to draw attention on corporate crimes in the contradictory India, that appears to the world as one of the new super powers, while continues to threat the lives of government dissidents and local communities, as we present the Campaign of the Month of the Dongria people against the mining corporation Vedanta and their project in the state of Orissa.

Switzerland will vote on a constitutional amendment to ban all exports of arms on November 29. The Swiss electorate still hovers between its ideal of peaceful neutrality and the economic interests of the military industry.

Each fall, in early October, the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space holds Keep Space for Peace Week. The purpose of the event is to increase global consciousness about the need to prevent the arms race from moving into space.

Carmel Agrexco blockaders in court

On the 26th - 29th October 2009 two women were taken to trial for taking part in a blockade of Carmel Agrexco’ produce warehouse during the Bloody Valentine Week of Action. They are accused of obstructing police officers and assaulting a police officer during the women only action. This is only the second time that people have been brought to court for actions against Carmel Agrexco in over 5 years of sustained direct action at the London depot.

In Eastern India's Jharkand State, tensions are mounting between Indigenous tribal communities and the Uranium Corporation of India Limited, or UCIL.
Heavy security at a May public hearing in Jadugoda prevented many local activists and villagers from entering. But outside the hearing, activists from the Jharkhandi Organization Against Radiation (JOAR) argued their case for protecting their health and the environment from horrific impacts of radioactive contaminated waste resulting from uranium mining.

http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=15450

Arkadi Gaydamak, a Russian-born Israeli businessman and Pierre Falcone, his French associate, have been sentenced to six-year jail terms for organising the illegal trafficking of weapons to Angola.
Gaydamak, who fled France before the trial, and Falcone were among 42 politicians, businessmen and members of the Paris elite accused of defying a UN embargo to arm the Angolan government during a civil war in the 1990s.
Charles Pasqua, France's former interior minister, was handed a one-year jail term for his involvement in the case dubbed "Angola-gate".

To be a Dongria Kondh is to live in the Niyamgiri Hills in Orissa state, India - they do not live anywhere else. Yet Vedanta Resources is determined to mine their sacred mountain's rich seam of bauxite (aluminium ore). The Dongria and other local Kondh people are resisting Vedanta and are determined to save Niyamgiri from becoming an industrial wasteland. Other Kondh groups are already suffering due to a bauxite refinery, built and operated by Vedanta, at the base of the Niyamgiri Hills.

Tata Group is one of India's oldest and largest conglomerates in India. The group is spread over seven business sectors. It comprises 96 companies, operates on six continents and employs 350,000 people. Revenues in 2007-08 are estimated at $62.5 billion (around Rs. 2,51,543 crore), of which 61 percent is from business outside India.

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