Stop-Look-Listen: Visual Letters / Short Films to the UN on Forced Resettlement in Northern Mozambique

Director / Editor / Photography: Peter Steudtner

Together with the Mozambican NGO Justiça Ambiental / Friends of the Earth Mozambique, Peter Steudtner directed, filmed and edited a series of three short clips (4-6 minutes) supporting Justiça Ambiental’s “Letter of Allegation: Concerning human-rights abuses in the village of Cateme, Mozambique” handed in to Mrs. Raquel Rolnik, UN Special Rapporteur on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The films link up to Gregor Zielke’s series of photos “Promised Land”.
Justiça Ambiental Homepage
Justiça Ambiental Blog

Background Information:

In Mozambique, Vale operates the Moatize Coal Project in Moatize – Tete province. Between late 2009 and early 2010, when setting up this project, Vale displaced and resettled more than 1,300 families in the communities of Chipanga, Mithete, and Malabwe in the Moatize province. Apart from the loss of their land, these families also suffered health impacts as a result of the dust produced by Vale’s mining activities, changes in social relations, destruction of liveli- hoods, and radical changes in traditional cultures due to the resettlement. The resettlement process was mishandled from the beginning. Vale provided poor quality infrastructure and insufficient housing conditions with poor access to water. Furthermore, the land provided was inadequate for agricultural purposes, putting the nutrition of the communities at risk. Promises of compensation by Vale were not kept. The free movement of people and goods and the access to resources was restricted in the resettlement area. Vale is also accused of violating workers’ rights by keeping them in precarious and short-term contractual relationships, and risking workers’ health by exposing them to compounds that cause allergies and pain. Since then rights to food and subsistace, the right to adequate housing and political rights of the resettled communities have been violated continiously by Vale and the Mozambican Government.

This entry was posted on Dienstag, April 30th, 2013 at 05:55. It is filed under Allgemein, Multimedia, Peter Steudtner, Photography. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.