We found that our sons had been killed. We found bullets.

They were not the only ones killed — many were killed. A lot of people died.

He was tortured every single day.

All kinds of torture you can imagine.

I’d characterize it as industry-facilitated massacre.

You can’t help but smell a rat, and feel,

well, this is, you know, retrofitting the facts to justify your

failure to act properly in the first place.

The argument that Anvil had provided this assistance

and couldn’t possibly have known that there would have been such serious consequences

seems hardly credible,

and if so,

almost criminally naive.

So, it’s a question of trying to draw boundaries.

How far is a company allowed to go to make a profit,

to operate in countries that are obviously high risk?

What kind of safeguards are those governments requiring of companies?

How are they going to react if a problem arises?

It was like a bomb. So, I can’t even remember because I was half dead.

Starting from here is all skin graft — all skin graft. All, if you can see, skin graft.

On the head here. This wound will not heal until the rest of my life, as I was told by the specialist who did this.

Pains,

hour after hour.

When I take tablets, I can feel better — maybe three, four hours.

After that, when it stops working on the body, the body starts paining again.

I’m so disappointed.

Since from, I mean, 2012 up to now, they have not taken me to the hospital.

They are just buying me medication.

His condition has to do with — he was done this skin grafting. So that involves a lot of expertise.

So for us here, we don’t have much of the skills to do such kind of treatment.

I will die quickly because, even you know — depression. I’m thinking too much.

It’s better [for] those guys who have passed away because fighting someone which is just very physical, and with a person who is sick, is completely different.

I feel like dying.

Because lying in a bed like this, no good at all.

No good at all.

Working at Aquarius was my first job in my life.

I had dreams to do other things in life, but now because of my current situation, being disabled has made it impossible for me to achieve my dreams.

I tried to get up, but I couldn’t, and that’s when I started calling for help.

On a normal occasion we work in pairs, but on that day my partner was absent and I had to work by myself.

Rules and regulations are always being changed.

For instance, they may state that we are not supposed to do this or that,

but then later when it’s time to work, they change what they said.

Mines don’t want to be blamed.

They will go all the routes to find someone for being responsible.

That is the case that we most experience as the worker.

From every accident you will find that the worker is guilty, you see?

The issue of safety my friend is very complex. The safety of Australia is very excellent. I wish that could be applied on the Aquarius mine.

What makes people experience this injury? People are working for bonuses

because sometimes bonus is more than our salary. That is the whole thing that is messing everything.

That is the thing that makes things rough in the mine.

We’ll just go there to make it quick and fast because we want our bonus. We want to push the bonus.

So the miners not care about the safety, what they care about is the production — how far the production goes because this way is money.

The coming in of Paladin was a relief to my community. Because through that, that’s how our economic standards can be boosted.

It took time for my government to realize they were given a raw deal.

Our general plan from the beginning was to start with this village and work our way outwards,

down this main road to the town, which we’ve called “the Corridor of Care.”

The idea was:

Let’s just do a little bit for everybody, instead of put everything in one place.

Consequently, everybody wishes they had a little bit more.

That’s just something we struggle with.

I think a lot of people had expectations that we would utterly transform the district up here.

I think we’ve made quite a big impact, but if you ask individuals:

“Well, they gave me one teacher’s house, but I wish I had four more.”

Well, we’ve built a total of sixteen, which is remarkable really,

but a drop in the bucket to the need.

Yes, I did benefit — a little, though. They stayed at my hotel here for a few months.

But that was me. I look at the picture — the whole sum picture. What about others? How much did they benefit?

So, that’s my biggest worry. I wish many of us, the business community at large in Karonga, had benefited from the mining venture.

If only we knew this would be the outcome, we would not have allowed Paladin to come in.

Instead of things improving in terms of livelihood here in Karonga,

there has been a serious retrogression in all spheres of our lives —

whether economic or social, maybe to an extent political as well.

The places we solely depended on to make farms and grow food to feed ourselves and our families have all been snatched away. Our lands are being grabbed. No one even cares.

At the time, the checkpoints were here.

This one was the checkpoint for the women.

The other one was the checkpoint for the men.

So, we were standing behind this one. We were standing at this checkpoint. They came and fired at us.

After the violence, these are the ones we were able to collect from the main streets — not to mention the shots that were fired in the bushes — I am referring to the ones that fell on the streets. They added up to 99 bullets.

I can say striking [against the company] has made matters even worse. Instead of being a cure to our problems, we are enduring a whole lot of sufferings, as though we have no one to protect us; as though we are not citizens of this country.

May Allah’s peace and mercy be upon his soul.

Let’s all pray for him. Why? Because he became the dead body of the entire town.

He died because of what the entire town unanimously agreed to protest against.

May his grave be restful and peaceful. Let’s all pray for his soul.

They [Anvil Mining] have never given,

or been obliged to give,

proper explanation of their real role.

The government has its interests and that is to protect the interest of white people.

If mining companies have come here and the government is benefiting from those companies

so they cannot let them down because they have their interests there.

The Governor called a meeting in Kilwa. He said, “If you testify, Anvil Mining will leave, go home, and we’ll remain unemployed here.”

I think it’s quite natural, whenever anything happens you think about justice.

Anyone in the world, I mean, it’s a universal concept, right? To seek for justice, to need justice.

So, Australia is really the only forum left.

Give us at least this chance.

We never had a chance of being heard here.

I think that Australia will give us this chance.

I think that the system is solid, is robust.

We’ve had many frustrations,

but I’ve been so impressed with the tenacity of the families,

and also, so touched by the scale of their suffering and losses,

and so appalled at the inability of either the government of Australia or Canada,

to act responsibly in this matter.

And that’s why we hope it will, that there will be a day in court for the families of the victims.