Five survivors of the devastating dam collapse in an iron ore mine in Brazil, have shown the TÜV Süd, and its Manager in Germany. After about nine months of the disaster reached Germany.
On Thursday (17.10.2019) confirmed the public Prosecutor’s office Munich I to the receipt of a criminal complaint against an accused person is German and a lawyer, as well as the reception of a Misdemeanor complaint against the TÜV Süd.
The TÜV Süd has confirmed that a criminal had received a complaint against its employees and said: “We continue to have great interest in the elucidation of the cause of the disaster and offer in the context of the ongoing investigations of the authorities and institutions in Brazil and Germany to continue our cooperation.”
The German accused of bribery in the business will allow “traffic through, Under, negligent cause of a Flood in addition to perpetration by omission, and negligent homicide, in addition to perpetration by omission, accused of”, the Munich public Prosecutor’s office.
The Prosecutor’s office of Munich I should now decide whether it will allow the indictment of the TÜV SÜD and a Manager.
Was overloaded the dam?
In the case of the fracture of a retention basin in the town of Brumadinho in the southeastern state of Minas Gerais, died on April 25. January 249 People. 21 people are still missing. The TÜV Süd had attested in September 2018 in an opinion of the stability of the dam.
The company had to certify in a report that was the basis for the continued operation of the Mine, a sufficient safety, even though engineers of the company had previously pointed to the lack of stability of the 85-Meter-high dam.
According to them, there had been problems with the drainage system. The engineers had pointed out that too much water was in the dam and the resulting pressure have endangered the stability of the structure. Of Brazilian media had reported, citing police interrogation protocols.
To “collective redress” required
Already a quarter of a year, a court had sentenced the mine operator, the joint-stock company Vale Rio de Janeiro, for all the damage of the disaster to pay. The accounts of the Vale in the amount of more than 2.5 billion euros have been frozen due to possible compensation payments.
In an Agreement with the Prosecutor’s office of Vale, in addition to compensation payments and pensions for members of up to 75 committed. To pay year of life. In addition, the group was imposed the payment of a “collective redress” of approximately 90 million euros. The money is intended for the elimination of environmental damage and reconstruction.
The entire damage that the dam break has done you can see even today, hardly.
Nevertheless, Vale, the world’s largest iron ore exporter and the operator of the Mine, one of the cracked dam has to take any responsibility for the dam break itself. The company refers to the TÜV Süd and the results of its Brazilian subsidiary. The relief organisation Misereor sees in the present case, an example of an institutional conflict of interest, if the company, as in this case, Vale, certifier security pay checks.
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Who is the group behind the dam breakage of Brumadinho is?
“Not an accident but a crime!”
The Catholic Episcopal relief organization Misereor and the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) to support the survivors in their suit. In a communication of Misereor Marcela Nayara collects Rodrigues – she is one of the five Informants – serious allegations: “The dam break was not an accident – it was a crime. TÜV Süd knew that the dam is a security risk barg, nevertheless, the stability was issued in a statement.”
Their personal motives, she described Misereor also: “For me, the display is a personal matter: Because my father was killed when the dam burst, and because the corrupt business of security must change – because it destroys our lives and our planet.”
“Company responsibilities”
It should not be said Pirmin mirror, chief Executive of Misereor, companies that put their economic interests above human rights. In the present case, “that we are not desperately in need of a legal obligation for companies, because many of the descendants voluntarily of their responsibility”.
Minestens 249 people died. a further 21 are still broke as missing, as a new months of the dam.
Claudia Müller-Hoff from ECCHR said that the lawsuit filing: “The procedure in Germany should not dismiss the Brazilian mining company Vale S. A. of all responsibility. But we want to make it clear: TÜV Süd carries the responsibility for the many dead”. In your statement you do not see the same mechanisms are at work, and laments Misereor: “the System of certification ensures safety, but especially for a obfuscation of responsibilities.”
From now on, s may take’
TÜV Süd did not want to speak yet of the details in the context of the complaint and referred to ongoing investigations in Brazil, reported the news magazine “mirror”. Also, the accused TÜV SÜD Manager did not respond to a request from the magazine.
The prosecutors have to examine the case now – and then decide whether to allow a lawsuit against the Brazil competent German TÜV Süd Manager. The display, which includes three folders, will now be examined, the public Prosecutor, this will take some time.
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Brazil: rage and sadness after dam breakHopeless Search
Firefighters bergen on Monday, the body of a buried Person. In the meantime, the chances of Living goes to zero. The last Survivors were found on Saturday. A day earlier, a dam at the Mine of the Brazilian mining company, was broken Vale, a mud avalanche rolled over parts of the plant and the nearby small town of Brumadinho across.
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Brazil: rage and sadness after dam breakExhaustion and disillusionment
Exhausted and mud-stained rescue workers take a break. While the mud dries slowly, before the fight to previously inaccessible areas and dig out more to the Victims. Support the local units of the approximately 130 Israeli soldiers, traveled to the disaster.
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Brazil: rage and sadness after dam breakAlso Indigenous evacuated
A member of the Pataxó breaks out in tears. A settlement of the indigenous people had to be evacuated after dam burst in the Metropolitan area of Belo Horizonte. According to the authorities, it is because of the sludge too dangerous to continue to live on the Paraopeba river.
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Brazil: rage and sadness after dam breakMudslide hits the water
A woman from the tribe of the Pataxó holds up on the banks of the Paraopeba a dead fish – about 13 million square feet of mud should have been in the river poured. It is still unclear how many of the pollutants contained in the sludge. For the Pataxó, the river is the basis of existence.
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Brazil: rage and sadness after dam breakSerious allegations against mine operator Vale
A mud-stained, activist, protested, like many others on Monday in front of the headquarters of the mining group Vale in Rio de Janeiro. Many Brazilians give the Vale to blame the mudslides disaster. However it is still unclear how it came to be. The German testing organisation, TÜV Süd had checked the dam in 2018. The Brazilian public Prosecutor’s office launched an investigation.
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Brazil: rage and sadness after dam breakMorbid art, performance as Protest
At the Demonstration in Rio de Janeiro, reddish brown stained, people laid in front of the Vale headquarters, and left their hand prints on a glass wall. A black-cloaked woman appeared as a death, more not clad demonstrators unveiled placards and described the walls with Slogans such as “It was no accident, it was a crime” and “justice for Brumadinho”.
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Brazil: rage and sadness after dam breakHistory repeats itself
The bewilderment in the face of an embankment breach in Brumadinho is greater than that in the city of Mariana in 2015, a similar misfortune happened. At the time came out 19 people died of toxic sludge contaminated the river Rio Doce to hundreds of kilometers and reached the Atlantic ocean. The former operator of the iron ore mine, Samarco, which also belonged, among others, Vale.