anvil finally cleared in court , page-2

I would appreciate some editorial comments with an open letter I will be sending to Four Corners and RAID. (I would appreciate if the moderators of Hot Copper leave this post for further comment as this has been a major issue for AVM holders since mid 2004 and has now finally been resolved in court) See below.

An Open Letter to the Rights & Accountability in Development

Attention: Patricia Feeney


RAID, on its web site says “RAID works to advance corporate accountability, fair investment and good governance to ensure the human rights of people living in poverty are respected by the private sector, international financial institutions and governments.”

Now, that the ex-employees of Anvil Mining Limited have been found NOT GUILTY of complicity in war crimes in court.

We demand that RAID finally issue an unconditional PUBLIC APOLOGY to Anvil Mining Limited.

Or will RAID try to now say that it was “political pressure” that cleared the men. We wonder if the verdict had been guilty, would RAID have then come out and said, “justice has been done?"

RAID has now a major credibility problem. RAID has known has known for some time, that Anvil Mining was innocent of all alleged claims of willingly assisting the army and knowingly committing these crimes, but continued to support this trial.

We also demand RAID publicly acknowledge it was also aware of the source of these claims, which lead to the Four Corners program doing a story on the Kilwa incident.

Four Corners were allegedly fed misinformation by a competitor of Anvil mining in the DRC and some disgruntled NGO’s. A competitor that wanted Anvil to leave the DRC and so it could take over Anvil’s, mining leases.

We will also be demanding Four Corners issue a public apology for the deliberate misrepresentation of facts, and the withholding of key information, to only further sensationalise their story.

RAID and other NGO’s know that Anvil Mining has been a model of how a mining company should operate in the DRC.

RAID needs to be finally accountable for its own actions in this matter.

Copies of this open letter will be sent to media outlets around the world and governments.