Madagascar: LUSUD faces repression for organising protest against Rio Tinto's QMM mine
"Rio Tinto Roadblock: Community Organisers Threatened in Madagascar", 4 July 2023
On 2 June, thousands gathered to block the main road to Rio Tinto’s QMM mine in Madagascar. This protest follows an offer of a compensation and indemnification payment by the mining company, which many say falls far short of the value of the losses suffered by the local community in terms of their environment, health, and lives.
LUSUD, a local community organisation, is now facing repression for its organising. Two of its officials have been informed there are warrants for their arrest...
One of the officials of the LUSUD association, Eugène CHRETIEN, was the person summoned to the offices of the police in Fort-Dauphin and defended by his lawyer when the Order of Lawyers of the Madagascar Bar Association made a statement to the national press about their colleague being subjected to "confinement, psychological violence, destruction of personal property, and threats" by a senior gendarmerie officer at a police station in Fort Dauphin in March 2023...