INVESTIGATION. In Azerbaijan, opposition to a gold mine project upsets the government

With the consortium of international journalists Forbidden Stories, franceinfo has resumed the investigation into a gold mine project in Azerbaijan, denounced by residents. Journalists who covered these protests are now detained.

Forbidden Stories is an international media network dedicated to continuing the investigations of imprisoned or murdered journalists. In June 2023, journalists fromAbzas Media were intimidated and arrested for investigating the Gedabek gold mine in western Azerbaijan. Forbidden Stories continued the work of these journalistsAbzas Media. For this investigation called “The Baku Connection”, 15 international media outlets traced the gold industry, from the Gedabek mine to electric cars, smartphones and computers.

Azerbaijan is once again singled out for the issue of human rights, while an early presidential election is due to take place on Wednesday February 7. The campaign was marked by the arrest of numerous journalists, including those ofAbzas Media, an anti-corruption media. Six of them are currently behind bars.

A new mine that the inhabitants do not want

The investigation concerns a gold mine, located in the west of the country, approximately 450 kilometers from the capital, Baku. On June 20, residents of the village of Söyüdlü demonstrated against the creation of a new artificial lake for storing chemical waste, including cyanide, while a first pond, just 400 meters from homes, would already pollute the soil, according to them. and would be the cause of respiratory diseases, and even cancers.

“Our babies should not grow up sick. We want to raise healthy children !”, can we hear during the demonstration which brings together around a hundred people. It was harshly repressed, and the next day, filmed by a handful of journalists, including Nargiz Absalamova ofAbzas Mediaresidents demand accountability from the police.

Among them, this villager, who talks about a member of her family : “He was injured in the face. He was sent to pre-trial detention for 20 days ! He is starving there, they don’t give him bread.“
For having filmed these testimonies, journalist Nargiz Absalamova will be detained for a few hours, then expelled from the village. Arrested again in November, she remains in detention.

Journalist threatened with rape

Elmaddin Shamilzade is also a journalist, now in exile. He was present during this demonstration. He was arrested two weeks later, in Baku, for taking photos of police officers and sharing them on social networks. Questioned by the police who wanted to erase these images, he was severely beaten before being taken to a pre-trial detention center.

“A police officer arrived and he started to take off his pants, while telling me : ‘I’m going to rape you if you don’t give us your password.'”

Elmaddin Shamilzade, journalist

at franceinfo

“I thought it was something I couldn’t accept, being raped. And I gave my password.”, says the journalist.

Three weeks after the demonstrations, activity at the mine, which is operated by the British company Anglo Asian Mining, will be interrupted while analyzes are carried out. At the request of President Aliev, who took up the subject, a commission was set up. It is chaired by the Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources, Mukhtar Babaiev, who this year will be the president of COP29, organized in Azerbaijan.

The results of the analyses, to which we did not have access, show that “no soil sample revealed the presence cyanide beyond analytical detection limits.

Residents still live in fear

A resident says : “They took our sons, they tortured them. In such a state, if you tell the truth, they cut out your tongue. They can easily make you look like a drug dealer. One person has already been sentenced to three years prison. But who do you want us to complain to?”
Four months after the protests, the mine was able to resume operations.

The gold is then sold in Switzerland, at MKS Pamp, one of the largest gold refineries in the world. Among its clients, companies like Tesla, Samsung and Apple. None responded to our questions, except Microsoft which reiterated its commitments to human rights. This gold from Azerbaijan can therefore be found in our computers, our smartphones, or our electric cars.