{"id":273735,"date":"2017-03-02T08:04:06","date_gmt":"2017-03-02T13:04:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rael.org\/?p=273735"},"modified":"2020-10-26T02:10:29","modified_gmt":"2020-10-26T06:10:29","slug":"french-industrial-giant-admits-deals-with-armed-groups-in-syria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rael.org\/cs\/french-industrial-giant-admits-deals-with-armed-groups-in-syria\/","title":{"rendered":"French industrial giant admits deals with \u2018armed groups\u2019 in Syria"},"content":{"rendered":"
RAEL\u2019S COMMENT:<\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n
The proof that French (and other) mega capitalist multinational companies are supporting terrorism.<\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

French building materials giant Lafarge admitted that it provided funds to \u201ccertain armed groups\u201d and \u201csanctioned parties\u201d in Syria when it faced operational and security challenges. The company called the measures \u201cunacceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a\u00a0statement, LafargeHolcim (created after Lafarge merged with the Swiss company Holcim in 2015) said it was reacting to the allegations involving Lafarge.<\/p>\n

In June 2016, Le Monde\u00a0published\u00a0the results of its investigation which claimed Lafarge paid taxes to Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS\/ISIL) in 2013-2014 to continue operations in northern Syria.<\/p>\n

Following an internal inquiry, the company announced that\u00a0\u201cdifferent armed factions controlled or sought to control\u201d\u00a0territories around its plant, posing\u00a0\u201cvery difficult challenges for the security and operations of the plant and its employees.\u201d\u00a0This included\u00a0\u201cthreats to safety\u201d\u00a0of the workers as well as the disruption of supplies.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt appears from the investigation that the local company provided funds to third parties to work out arrangements with a number of these armed groups, including sanctioned parties, in order to maintain operations and ensure safe passage of employees and supplies to and from the plant,\u201d\u00a0the announcement by LafargeHolcim reads.<\/p>\n

The company, however, noted that it could not establish the\u00a0\u201cultimate recipients\u201d\u00a0of the funds. All money transactions were made between 2013 and September 2014, when the plant was evacuated.<\/p>\n

The plant in question started production in May 2010 and\u00a0\u201cwas a source of meaningful employment for the surrounding communities, providing cement for homes, businesses, roads and the like for various communities throughout Syria,\u201d\u00a0the industrial giant said.<\/p>\n

However, the measures which the plant took \u2013 paying money to these \u2018armed groups\u2019 \u2013 were\u00a0\u201cunacceptable,\u201d\u00a0the internal inquiry concluded.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose responsible for the Syria operations appear to have acted in a manner they believed was in the best interests of the company and its employees. However, the investigation revealed significant errors in judgment that are inconsistent with the applicable code of conduct.\u201d<\/p>\n

In June, Le Monde said Lafarge made a deal with IS which allowed the French to operate on their territory. The company\u2019s trucks were allowed to pass through checkpoints set by IS, among others, the paper\u00a0reported.<\/p>\n

LafargeHolcim is the world\u2019s leader in building materials and one of the biggest players in the cement, aggregates, and concrete industries. Around 90,000 employees are working for the group in more than 80 countries.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.rt.com\/news\/379228-french-company-armed-groups-syria\/<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RAEL\u2019S COMMENT: The proof that French (and other) mega capitalist multinational companies are supporting terrorism.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":71,"featured_media":280949,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-273735","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rael.org\/cs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273735","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rael.org\/cs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rael.org\/cs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rael.org\/cs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/71"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rael.org\/cs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=273735"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rael.org\/cs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273735\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rael.org\/cs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/280949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rael.org\/cs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=273735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rael.org\/cs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=273735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rael.org\/cs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=273735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}