Displaying items by tag: compensation

This year will mark the 10th anniversary of the Yazidi genocide in Sinjar, Iraq. Beginning on the night of 2 - 3 August 2014, ISIS displaced the entire Yazidi population from its homeland, amid a campaign of abductions and killings that claimed 12,000 victims.¹ A striking detail of this and other crimes of the self-proclaimed caliphate is the proximity of a Western corporate actor: cement producer Lafarge, whose subsidiary Lafarge Cement Syria operated the Jalabiyeh cement plant in neighbouring northern Syria. On-going investigations have since helped uncover what may amount to complicity on the part of Lafarge and Lafarge Cement Syria in the form of payments dating back to August 2013.²

In a week that began with the abandoned Jalabiyeh cement plant ablaze following a drone strike,³ Lafarge learned that it will face trial in France over its alleged complicity in crimes against humanity committed by ISIS.⁴ On 16 January 2024, the French Court of Cassation upheld Lafarge and Lafarge Cement Syrias' indictments on the charge. Also reportedly indicted are (all former) Lafarge CEOs Bruno Lafont and Eric Olsen, vice president Christian Herrault and security director Jean-Claude Veillard and Lafarge Cement Syria CEOs Bruno Pescheux and Frédéric Jolibois, along with an intermediary and a Jordan-based risk management consultant.^{5, 6} The collaboration in question includes monthly payments to ISIS and other armed groups worth US$15.5m, a lower French court found in May 2022. It may be more than another 20 months before the thorny mass of issues to be considered by the court resolves itself in convictions, or cleared names.

Another front in Lafarge and Lafarge Cement Syria's legal battle over what happened in Syria is the US civil court system. Activist and survivor Nadia Murad and 426 other Yazidis have filed an Anti-Terrorism Act claim for damages, based on the companies' previous guilty plea to the US Department of Justice to conspiracy to the tune of US$5.92m in October 2022. Murad and fellow claimants allege ‘far higher’ total payments, pointing to correspondence between Lafarge Cement Syria and its intermediary that references ‘[sic] ten millions that we pay directly to them, i.e. to ISIS.’ The DoJ estimates the total value of the conspiracy for all parties at US$80.5m.

On 6 August 2014 (the fourth day of the Yazidi genocide), Lafarge and Lafarge Cement Syria signalled their agreement to enter into a new long-term agreement to share their revenues with ISIS. On 15 August 2014, the UN Security Council issued Resolution 2170 condemning 'any engagement in direct or indirect trade' with the organisation.⁷ Lafarge and Lafarge Cement Syria allegedly concluded the revenue-sharing agreement, under new terms more beneficial to ISIS, on that same day.

Lafarge Cement Syria finally evacuated the Jalabiyeh cement plant in September 2014, whereupon ISIS added it to its own five-plant international cement network, with sales worth US$583m/yr. The US-led Coalition bombed the site in October 2019 and it was subsequently occupied by Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) forces. The strike on 14 January 2024 was part of a drone campaign by Turkish forces against Kurdish positions that the invaders say destroyed 23 targets.

It is conceivable that Turkish armed forces also had personal reasons for destroying this monument to Lafarge’s former presence in the region: on Lafarge’s stipulation, ISIS implemented a duty on Turkish cement entering its area of control, ostensibly charged at US$150/truck. As anyone familiar with the Turkish cement sector knows, one of the major investors in the industry happens to be the country’s military pension fund.

For the 400,000 Yazidis who have survived, the tragedy that began in August 2014 will not end soon. More than half remain in refugee camps. Among the missing are 2000 girls and women who the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism suspect ISIS may have 'further entrenched in human trafficking,' constituing a continuation of the genocide that has outlasted both the self-proclaimed caliphate and the French multinational that may have helped to bankroll it.⁸ Courts in different countries are helping bring to light a reign of terror that spanned international borders. In the US, some of its victims may find redress, while in France, justice may be closing in on anyone who might prove to have made common cause with the perpetrators.

References

1. RASHID, 'DESTROYING THE SOUL OF THE YAZIDIS,' Augut 2019, https://www.rashid-international.org/downloads/RASHID_Yazidi_Heritage_Destruction_Report_2019.pdf

2. Jenner & Block, 'IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK,' 14 December 2013, www.jenner.com/a/web/fy85Wd97fANx7fwBecn31r/23-9186-as-filed-complaint2.pdf

3. ANHA, 'Turkish occupation army targets former Lafarge site,' 14 January 2024, https://hawarnews.com/en/turkish-occupation-army-targets-former-lafarge-site?__cf_chl_tk=mSB3Ph6iU.3FEJ.Z3ywRvcu2n.tOahhpLnd.Fmqk0SU-1705415232-0-gaNycGzNDHs

4. Reuters, 'Lafarge can be charged with 'complicity in crimes against humanity' over Syria plant, French court says,' 16 January 2024, https://ca.news.yahoo.com/lafarge-charged-complicity-crimes-against-132904436.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAANqF5SKpSZ7KB5rT5rjo_vFZ5LGdZ9bVkC5SeNw3iZGneLy5Tir2dsb1O3GQjITBRSF_xEs2GDBcSU94nKOocm-npnTznmbfhKB_FgOsBCg-9lO7ilPP2phHAcGahghG9yjmFoWVd24uU7xEwZ2RZqmmMaE2bSIIcTGRuh4LAlXD

5. Madeline Young, Lafarge's Case Cemented, 2021, https://scholarlycommons.law.emory.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1032&context=eilr-recent-developments

6. Le Télégramme, 'Complicité de crimes contre l’humanité : les poursuites contre Lafarge validées par la Cour de cassation?' 16 January 2023, www.letelegramme.fr/france/complicite-de-crimes-contre-lhumanite-les-poursuites-contre-lafarge-validees-par-la-cour-de-cassation-6505590.php

7. UN Security Council, 'Security Council Adopts Resolution 2170 (2014) Condemning Gross, Widespread Abuse of Human Rights by Extremist Groups in Iraq, Syria,' 15 August 2014, https://press.un.org/en/2014/sc11520.doc.htm#:~:text=Through%20the%20unanimous%20adoption%20of,as%20ISIS)%20and%20Al%2DNusra

8. Al-Dayel et al, ‘ISIS and Their Use of Slavery,’ 27 January 2020, https://www.icct.nl/publication/isis-and-their-use-slavery

US/Iraq: Victims of ISIS brought a new claim for compensation against Lafarge on 14 December 2023 for its alleged complicity in crimes committed by the terrorist group in Iraq. A group of US citizens who belong to the Yazidi minority has sued the company, now part of Switzerland-based Holcim, in a US court. ISIS conducted a genocide against the Yazidi people in Sinjar, Iraq, beginning on 3 August 2014. The genocide involved 2100 – 4400 killings and 4200 – 10,800 abductions of girls and women, and displaced 500,000 people.

On 18 October 2023, Lafarge and Lafarge Syria pleaded guilty to conspiring to provide material support to ISIS and its ally al-Nusra Front by paying them approximately US$5.92m to continue operating during the Syrian Civil War.

Barrister Amal Clooney, representing the claimants in the latest case, said “It is shocking that a leading global corporation worked hand in hand with ISIS while ISIS was executing American civilians and committing genocide against Yazidis. We hope that this case will send a clear message that supporting terrorists cannot be ‘business as usual’ and that there will be justice for the victims.”

Cemento Yura said it was considering expanding cement and lime production this week. The announcement, made in an interview to business newspaper Gestión, follows a strong second quarter for the subsidiary of Grupo Gloria with clinker production volumes jumping up by 36% year-on-year to 0.51Mt. Overall for the half-year its clinker and cement production rose by 12.8% year-on-year to 0.86Mt and 12.7% to 1.47Mt. The success was attributed to consistent demand from the domestic sector as well as various large-scale mining projects. Julio Cáceres, the commercial director for its Cement, Concrete and Lime Division in Peru, Chile and Bolivia, wouldn’t say where the company was considering heading next, other than that remarking that it was attentive to new markets.

As Cáceres’ job title implies Cemento Yura also operates cement plants outside of Peru. At home it runs one integrated plant in the south of the country near to Arequipa as well as a lime plant at Juliaca. Outside of Peru though it also runs two integrated plants and a grinding unit in Bolivia, via its Sociedad Boliviana de Cemento (SOBOCE) subsidiary, and two integrated plants in Ecuador, via its Union Cementera Nacional (UCEM) subsidiary. The company also has assorted concrete assets. The international aspect to Cemento Yura’s business is interesting given that the larger cement producers in Peru are dominant in different parts of the country with Cementos Pacasmayo in the north, UNACEM (Unión Andina de Cementos) in the centre around Lima and Cemento Yura in the south. Notably, UNACEM also runs a plant in Ecuador and one in Arizona, US. It is also worth mentioning that competition issues have been reported in the local market previously. In mid-2021 Peru’s competition authority, the National Institute of the Defense of Competition and Intellectual Property Protection (INDECOPI), investigated Cemento Yura.

Cemento Yura’s rise in clinker production in the second quarter of 2022 is worth considering because in a previous interview with the local press Humberto Nadal, the chief executive officer of Cementos Pacasmayo, said that importing clinker had become more expensive in 2021. Subsequently, the company started a US$70m upgrade at its Pacasmayo plant to increase its production capacity by 0.6Mt/yr. In its second quarter financial results for 2022 Cementos Pacasmayo directly credited a 27% increase in its earnings on higher operating profits arising from decreasing costs by using less imported clinker. Sure enough data from Association of Cement Producers (ASOCEM) shows that both cement and clinker imports started to fall in October 2021 and have mostly followed a downward trend since then. Clinker imports fell by 41% year-on-year to 0.66Mt from January to August 2022 compared to the same period in 2021.

Graph 1: Cement production in Peru, 2014 – present. Source. Association of Cement Producers (ASOCEM).

Looking at the wider picture in Peru, cement production has stayed fairly consistent since 2014 at around 10Mt/yr. An upward trend probably started in 2019 but then the Covid-19 pandemic cut it off in the first half of 2022 before the market surged back in the second half of that year. 2021 was a good year with production peaking at 12.9Mt. So far the first eight months of 2022 have seen production rise by 5.3% year-on-year to 8.64Mt.

In summary, cement production is rising in Peru, importing clinker appears to have become more expensive for at least one of the producers and some of the larger local companies are investing in new production capacity, considering it or thinking about acquisitions elsewhere. Local clinker producers appear to be in a good place; clinker importers, or those reliant on it, not so much.

China: Jiangxi Wannianqing Cement’s net profit in 2019 was US$197m, representing a 20% year-on-year increase from US$164m. Reuters has reported that on 15 November 2019 Jiangxi Wannianqing Cement paid US$82.6m for a lease and limestone exploration rights for land in De’an County, Jiangxi Province, previously held by Fushan Cement. On 25 June 2019 the company received US$23.3m in government compensation for the relocation of its Wannian cement plant.

Nepal: Residents of Jyamire are seeking ’fair’ compensation from a quarry that Hongshi-Shivam Cement is building. Villagers have prevented Chinese technicians from the Nepal-China joint venture from working near the village, claiming that the company has ignored their complaints, according to the Kathmandu Post. Around 32 households in the region will be displaced by the mining project. The villagers are seeking compensation in excess of the rate set by the government, which they say the cement company offered them initially.

Hongshi-Shivam Cement is building a cement factory at Sardi in Nawalparasi district. It has acquired a permit from the Department of Mines and Geology to extract limestone at Jyamire in Palpa. China's Hongshi Holding Group has invested US$330m and its local partner has contributed around US$140m towards the project. The plant will have a production capacity of 6000t/day when operational and it is expected to be opened in 2017.

Greece: The Supreme Court of Greece has ordered the Heracles' General Cement Company, a subsidiary of Lafarge, to pay the residents of Agia Marina, Halkida Euro78,000 as compensation for pollution from its cement plant.

The court upheld the settlement's arguments that the cement plant had failed
to adhere to the environmental terms in its operating licence in order to avoid the relevant costs and refused to take measures for the proper maintenance and modernisation of its facilities. They said this resulted in all outdoor areas in the village being covered in a layer of cement dust up to 1.2cm thick, including the nearby coastline.

The village residents had originally sued for a total of Euro1.14m but the court awarded the residents a much lower sum, even though it found that the company's omissions fully justified their claim to moral damages resulting from their deprivation of environmental benefits and the threat to their health from exposure to environmental pollution.

Venezuela: Holcim has received the last compensation instalment of US$97.5m in connection with the nationalization of Holcim Venezuela in 2008. The Corporacion Socialista Del Cemento, which is operating the former Holcim plant, has transferred the remaining amount, which was due on 10 September 2014. The agreed total compensation amount for nationalisation of Holcim Venezuela was US$650m.