The Federal Prosecutor's Office of the
Citizen's Rights (PRDC / MG), an agency of the Federal Public Ministry (MPF),
requested the court to cancel the provisional and installation licenses granted
by the State of Minas Gerais to Anglo American Iron Mining Brazil for the
implementation of Step 3 of the company's iron ore exploration and
transportation expansion project in Conceição do Mato Dentro, central region of
the state.
According to the PRDC, the licenses were
granted in violation of the rights of those affected, especially the right to
information, since the licensing process went ahead without presenting
information on compliance with the conditions of steps 1 and 2 of the project,
and with the complaints from those affected still pendning. These complaints
were also registered by the MPF and the Minas Gerais Public Ministry (MPMG) at
a public hearing in the district of São José do Jassém and at meetings at Dom
Joaquim and Alvorada de Minas.
MPF also points out that five leaders who
questioned the venture had to be included in the Program for the Protection of
Human Rights Defenders in the face of the threats they suffered after joining a
citizen action calling for the suspension of the process and a public hearing.
In addition , two ruptures of the pipeline
occurred in under a month in the municipality of Santo Antônio do Grama (MG)
which, for the MPF, makes clear the risks resulting from the non-observance of
principles of prevention and precaution by the state and the company.
The MPF also requests that any act that may
advance the mining activity related to Step 3 cease, until the compliance of
the conditions of the previous steps is proven; until the adoption of concrete
measures to repair, compensate and mitigate the impacts and damages caused to
communities adjacent to the project, which have strong traditional links; and
the adoption of safeguard measures to prevent the recurrence of damage to the
Rio Doce basin.
The requests were made within the public
civil lawsuit proposed in July 2017, in which the MPF requested the suspension
of the Step 3 licensing process underway at that time, due to the lack of
demonstration of compliance with the right to information, as determined by the
Transparency Law.
According to the lawsuit, many doubts
remained about what was included in the Environmental Impact Studies (EIA) and
the Environmental Impact Report (RIMA) and on the level of compliance with the
conditionalities of the previous steps, which were not resolved by the authorities.
The original lawsuit did not go to
judgement because of a conflict of jurisdiction between two courts of Belo
Horizonte city; the MPF awaits the Federal Regional Court of the 1st Region to
resolve the conflict, generated by a problem in the distribution of the
Electronic Judicial Process (Pje), which did not allow the handing down of a
previous injunction, distributed to the 16th Federal Court.
Licenses - According to the request sent to
the Federal Court, after the MPF filed suit, the state agencies simultaneously
granted the prior and installation licenses of Step 3, presenting 50 new
conditions, even without the company presenting proof of compliance with the
conditions related to the previous phases of the mining project. Steps 1 and 2,
together, contain over 400 conditioners.
For the Regional Attorney for the Rights of
the Citizen, Helder Magno da Silva, the granting of licenses by the state of
Minas Gerais is an affront to the objectives of the licensing process,
especially those objectives related to the principles of precaution and
prevention and the right to information.
"It is surprising that in a project of
this magnitude, with the report of numerous cases of human rights violations,
and after the rupture of the Fundão Dam, the licensing agencies, especially the
state of Minas Gerais, grant environmental licenses without the due, expected
and valuable clarification of relevant and essential issues" states Helder
Magno.
Public hearing - The annulment of the
public hearing held on June 20, 2017 was also requested, because, given the
scramble throughout of the public entities in their eagerness to make the
licensing of the enterprise feasible ,a debate was not allowed at the hearing;
in addition there was no opportunity in the hearing to obtain information and
question the amendments presented by Anglo American, which included the
existence of a new EIA / RIMA; there are
several topics to be clarified, including in relation to the impacts of the expansion
of the project on the Rio Doce Basin.
For MPF, these impacts are the most
negative and require clarification for the population resident close to the
mine, so that it can mobilize and claim their rights in a clear and safe way.
"These rights have long been violated
under the pretence that negative impacts were being mitigated, and Anglo
American and the licensing agencies have solemnly disregarded that a proportion
of the population living in the rural communities around the mine are directly
impacted or affected by mining activities. This situation results in an
illegitimate exclusion of people who are affected by mining, who take directly
in their lives - and houses - the burden of this activity and are facing a
progressive worsening of their living condition, forced displacement and social
or moral death is being imposed on them," the request says.
From: Ministério Público Federal em Minas Gerais
Assessoria de Comunicação Social
(16-07-2018)
(16-07-2018)
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