Rio Tinto faces human rights crisis over Bougainville mine

Anglo-Australian mining company Rio Tinto is once again facing a backlash after it reportedly "side-stepped" its responsibility after failing to clean up toxic waste from a closed mine on the autonomous Papua New Guinea island of Bougainville.

The case, spearheaded by the Melbourne-based Human Rights Law Centre (HRLC) and lodged to Australian authorities on behalf of more than 150 island locals is just the latest in a string of controversies levied on the mining giant.

Earlier this month, it was announced the soon-to-be-former CEO of the company, Jean-Sébastien Jacques' head was on the block after a nationwide campaign called for company executives to be called to account when news that the company had destroyed a 46,000-year-old cave system - which is sacred to the local Aboriginal population - surfaced back in May.

Jacques and two other executives were let go by the company following a heated board meeting the week after. Jacques is due to step down either on March 31, or when a new replacement is selected.

An Australian Senate enquiry into the explosion is still ongoing.

The new claim details the former Panguna gold and copper mine, which was at the centre of a civil war in Bougainville, continues to leak waste into the surrounding areas more than three decades after it was abandoned.

"Our rivers are poisoned with copper, our homes get filled with dust from the tailings mounds, our kids get sick from the pollution," a traditional landowner and member of the local parliament, Theonila Roka Matbob, said in a statement.

The mine was in operation between 1972 and 1989, and during this time, it was noted as one of the biggest copper and gold mines of its type in the South Pacific. It was eventually closed over growing anger among the locals due to its heavy pollution and distribution of profits triggered an uprising that forced its closure.

The civil war that followed left 20,000 dead in its wake, and the peace agreement that followed paved the way for Bougainville independence.

Last year, the locals overwhelming voted in favour of independence from Papua New Guinea in a landslide 98% (176,928 votes) victory. It is safe to say Rio Tinto's mining actions were central to the start of the civil war, and, as a result, the eventual independence vote.

In 2016, the mining company divested itself of the mine and passed on its shares to both the Bougainville and Papua New Guinea governments, in a move that has been widely condemned as the corporation avoiding having to clean up their mess.

Ms Matbob said: "These are not problems we can fix with our bare hands. We urgently need Rio Tinto to do what’s right and deal with the disaster they have left behind."

The complaint lodged against them by the HRLC alleges that the Anglo-American company failed to mitigate the risks posed by billions of tonnes of mining waste that have reportedly turned riverbeds blue and caused health problems for more than 12,000 locals living downstream of the mine.

It urges the Australian government to bring the corporation into negotiations with locals to investigate the situation if talks fall through.

Keren Adams, legal director at the Human Rights Law Centre, made comparisons between the Juukan Gorge disaster with the crisis unfolding on Bougainville.

She said:  "As we saw at Juukan Gorge in Australia and we see here in Bougainville, there is a total disconnect between Rio Tinto's rhetoric and the reality experienced by Indigenous communities.

"If Rio Tinto is serious about learning lessons, it needs to listen to communities and take responsibility for the human impacts of its activities."

Speaking to the Sydney Morning Herald, a Rio Tinto spokesman made the following statement in regards to the situation: "We are aware of the deterioration of mining infrastructure at the site and surrounding areas, and claims of resulting adverse environmental and social, including human rights, impacts."

They failed to comment further.

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