Anvil named in class-action suit
NGOs say firm liable for role in Congo massacre

Anvil Mining Ltd. on Monday was named in a class-action suit petition in Québec Superior Court by a coalition of five non-governmental organizations that seek to hold the copper producer liable for its involvement in a military action that resulted in a massacre in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The newly formed Canadian Coalition Against Impunity alleges the Montréal-based mining company "by providing logistical assistance, played a role in human-rights abuses, including the massacre by the Congolese military of more than 70 people in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2004."

Anvil provided trucks, drivers and planes to a military commando unit seeking to respond to a rebel offensive in Kilwa, a town near the Dikulushi copper/silver mine the company owned until earlier this year in the copper-rich Katanga province in the southeast of the Central African country.

In June 2007, a Congolese military court acquitted Anvil, along with three former employees, including a Québecer who was executive director at the Dikulushi mine, and nine Congolese soldiers, of war crimes or other crimes related to the Kilwa incident.

But members of the coalition seeking authorization from the court to certify the class-action suit said at a news conference yesterday that the military court hearings were "beset by irregularities" and that Kilwa victims were blocked from an appeal.

Given that TSX-listed Anvil has corporate offices in Montréal, and has raised more than $400 million through Canadian capital markets, Québec and its civil law provide recourse to the Congolese Kilwa victims, said Bruce Johnston of the law firm Trudel & Johnston, which filed the class-action petition.

No damages have been specified at this point in the legal process, but Johnston said if the class action is certified, claimed compensation could be in the order of "tens of millions of dollars" if Anvil is found liable.

Anvil did not respond to requests for comment on the court action.

Source: The Montréal Gazette