“Under the influence of your company, the Papua New Guinea government has imposed a virtual state of emergency in Porgera”, Jethro Tulin, from the Atali Tange Association (ATA) of the Porgera Valley in Papua New Guinea, said at the annual general meeting of Barrick Gold in Toronto on April 29.

“While I am standing here before you, their houses are being burnt down and they are fleeing for fear of their life”, he told shareholders and executives.

Tulin is from the Porgera Valley in the Enga province of PNG’s highlands. The province is home to the indigenous Ilipi people and one of the world’s richest gold mines.

On April 27, up to 200 police moved into the valley as part of “Operation Ilipi” and violently ejected indigenous residents. This followed the declaration of a state of emergency.

Police torched everything in sight, including shanty homes, pig sties and food gardens.

Mark Ekepa from the Porgera Landowners Association said more than 300 homes in the Ungmi, Yokolama and Kulapi villages were destroyed, PNG’s Post Courier said on April 30.

More than 1000 people were left homeless.

Police and Barrick Gold both claimed only 50 houses were cleared to “eliminate illegal miners”.

However, Ekepa said landowners were targeted. Tulin said the first houses razed were closest to the mine, allowing for an expansion of the site. He said the actions were clearly in Barrick’s interests.

The police had camped at the mine site before the attacks.

Prior to the violent eviction, Protest Barrick, a group that campaigns against Barrick Gold’s operations globally, said Barrick clearly stated its intentions to force indigenous people off their homelands without compensation.

While a chief landowner, Nixon Mangape, tried to alert local government, there has been no acknowledgement that Barrick is violently confiscating land surrounding the mine to make way for expansion.

These claims have been backed up by Mining Watch Canada, which has reported on the human rights abuses and environmental destruction caused by Barrick’s global practices.

Barrick Gold Corporation is the largest gold mining company in the world. It has 27 mines operating in countries including Canada, the US, Chile, South Africa, Peru, Russia and Australia.

Since 2006, continuous brutality from Barrick-hired security squads has “protected” the Porgera mine from locals and those who come to the valley searching for income. It is no coincidence that the increase in violence has corresponded with Barrick’s plans to further expand the mine.

Many locals have been shot dead by police. Mine security is implicated in rapes and beatings. Since the mine began, drug-running and a black market in mercury have developed.

Barrick claimed violence was due to “tribal” and “inter-clan rivalry”. However, security targets people who are “trespassing” on the mine under the imposed Special Mining Lease.

ATA compiled a list of 56 violent incidents in the area, the Sydney Morning Herald said on June 10. It included the shooting of 15-year-old Gibson Umbi, killed on July 22 when security opened fire with rifles and machine guns.

The environmental impacts of the mine have devastated the livelihoods and ancestral territory of Porgera communities.

Barrick dumps tailings directly into an 800 kilometre-long river system. It has damaged the subsistance-based farming system that is the Ilipi people’s main supply of food.

Before the mine was built, locals panned the river and found small amounts of gold in the ore. This practic continues as waste from the mine has destroyed local market gardens.

Barrick calls locals panning thieves and uses violence to stop them.

“Barrick’s security force, recruited from outside the district, has shot and killed people who, the cops say, are stealing Barrick’s gold”, the Nation said on June 10. Barrick says it “owns” the gold.

On May 28, Tulin told the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues: “In one generation the mine has brought militarisation, corruption, and environmental devastation to a land that previously knew only subsistence farming and alluvial mining.”

The practices of Barrick Gold are well known. In a letter to Australian foreign minister Stephen Smith, both Amnesty International and Mining Watch demanded the Australian government condemn Barrick’s conduct.

Canadian politicians are trying to pass a law to force mining companies like Barrick to adhere to national laws when operating abroad.

Protest Barrick said 50% of all newly mined gold is taken from the land of indigenous people who rely on their land for survival.

Despite ancestral ownership of the land, Tulin and representatives from the Porgera Landowners Association are now calling for a relocation process sponsored by Barrick Gold.

“We want Barrick to repair the damage to the environment,” Tulin told the June 6 US Workers World.

“We want reparations to compensate for those who have been killed or injured by the mines security force.”