Mass murder

The land belonged to the women. Now it belongs to developers.
They came to her village. Took everyone out. And massacred all those who did not escape. At least a dozen men women and children were killed. A year later 20 are still missing - presumed dead. Another 300 are refugees according to the National Indigenous Organisation in Colombia.

One survivor Debora Barros Fince, a Wayuu indigenous woman gave a chilling account to council in May.

Chilling because BHP Billiton was implicated in mass murder.

The village in northern Colombia was built on coal and gas. The people were in the way. But they did not want to leave their homes. The two clans had lived there for 500 years.

Debora was in Australia to attend council as special guest of the CFMEU (Mining and Energy) and the MUA.

She described how paramilitaries first came to the village. They began

demanding food and livestock and refusing to pay. When locals complained to police they were killed. When her brothers were to testify. They too were shot.

"The paramilitaries came and killed my two brothers. They killed one of them at 6.30 in Portonuevo. They said 'give me a pack of cigarettes,' and they shot him in the back. He was 18. Then they went to our house. My other brother, who was 24 was a truck driver. He came home to eat at around

7 o clock at night. They came there, and killed him in front of my mother.

Ten men grabbed him and all of them shot him the the face."

A few days later the paramilitaries began boasting they would kill everyone.

Once they could kill them all the land would be freed up for developers.

"The massacre happened on a Sunday. They cut women's heads off. They put a grenade on one woman's head. It was 6.30 in the morning on April 18. 159 men came down from the mountain near a military base. It was the army. The men took my aunts by the arms and pushed my grandmother. People began to run. They tied one youth with a chain to a Toyota and dragged him along the road. Some people fled to the mangrove swamps others ran to sea. They would rather drown than be slaughtered. The women were turned over to men in civilian clothes and massacred."

Those who survived are now refugees. They left for Venezuela

BHP directors were grilled at a shareholders meeting in London over the allegations. Chairman Don Argus, however, did not deny that the company supported the military: "Like all major companies in Colombia we do have a contract with the military but what it calls for is logistical support."

Council passed a resolution of support the struggle of the Wayuu people and their struggle.