KEY POINTS:
NEW YORK - A group of Colombians has sued top banana producer Chiquita Brands International, alleging it supported paramilitary organisations in Colombia they said terrorized and killed their relatives.
The suit, filed in federal court in Newark, New Jersey, seeks class action status and unspecified damages against Chiquita for "funding, arming, and otherwise supporting terrorist organisations in Colombia, in order to maintain its profitable control of Colombia's banana-growing regions."
Between the early 1990s and 1997, Chiquita funded and helped arm violent guerrilla groups, including the paramilitary organisation Autodefensorias Unidas de Colombia, also known as the AUC, the suit said.
The unnamed Colombian plaintiffs, who include family members of trade unionists, banana workers and political organizers, said the AUC killed their relatives and thousands of others to control regions containing banana plantations.
Chiquita has admitted paying off violent guerrilla groups, including AUC and the rival FARC paramilitary group. The AUC is accused of carrying out massacres during Colombia's long-running guerrilla war before it began disarming in 2003.
Chiquita spokesman Mike Mitchell said the company, headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, had not yet seen the specifics of the latest lawsuit.
"We were a victim of extortion in Columbia. We were forced to make these payments to protect the lives of our employees," he said. "We will certainly defend ourselves against any suits of this nature vigorously."
In a March agreement with the US Justice Department, Chiquita agreed to pay a US$25 million fine to settle a criminal complaint accusing it of paying the AUC more than US$1.7 million from 1997 to 2004. The US government has declared the AUC a foreign terrorist organisation.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs said the suit was the most comprehensive filed in the United States so far because it sought class action status. In June a civil damages suit was filed against Chiquita in Miami by Colombian relatives of 22 people, a week after a similar suit was filed in Washington.
The suit was filed under the Alien Tort Claims Act, which allows residents in other countries to sue for human rights abuses committed by US entities.
- REUTERS
