It is deeply depressing to see how little has changed in the coal fields of Mozambique in the 18 months since the publication of a damning report into the poor behaviour of multinational mining companies back in January 2012.
Released by the Southern Africa Resource Watch (SARW), that report - entitled Coal vs. Communities: Exposing poor practices by VALE and Rio Tinto in Mozambique - highlighted a series of key failings in the companies' deeply problematic resettlement programme, including dumping many people over 40km away and far from the main road; moving families to new sites even though basic services were not in place; providing insufficient and infertile land for the people - the majority of whom were subsistence farmers; and not consulting widely enough with the affected communities.
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