RIO TINTO PLC AND UK MERCENARIES

Motion Text

That this House is greatly concerned to learn that in a class action complaint filed in the USA courts, the London-based mining conglomerate, Rio Tinto, stands accused of having acted in concert with the Government and Military Forces of Papua New Guinea to force the re-opening of the Panguna Copper Mine on Bougainville Island, that the PNG Government contracted the London-based (British Virgin Islands-registered) Sandline International, a firm of mercenaries, to recapture Bougainville and restore Rio Tinto's mine, and that in 1997 Lt. Col. Tim Spicer of Sandline secured a $36 million PNG contract to recapture the mine with a mercenary force; notes that Sandline had shipped weapons to Sierra Leone in 1995, investigated by this House in the 'Arms for Africa' affair; and urges Her Majesty's Government to institute a full public inquiry into this disgraceful affair, and to report back to the House.