While the criminal court of Turin is hearing the testimonies of Italian victims poisoned at the Eternit factories in Casale Monferrato, Cavagnolo, Bagnoli and Rubiera, on March 16th, 2010, in the congress center of the region Piemont (Corso Stati Uniti, 23, Turin), the International Ban Asbestos Network is holding a one-day meeting to hear the testimonies of Eternit victims from Europe, Latin America and Asia.

During the 1960s, in cooperation with the executives of the French firm Saint Gobain, the Swiss Eternit Group opened the first large-scale asbestos mine in Brazil. It was the time of the military dictatorship. As a result of the collaboration of these two multinationals, Brazil became the world’s third largest producer of asbestos and one of the leading consuming countries. The Swiss Eternit Group also dominated the asbestos market in Nicaragua while the Belgian Eternit Group opened up asbestos markets in Peru and throughout Asia. In Latin America as in Asia, the working conditions at Eternit premises were and still are catastrophic, even if the asbestos operations have now been sold to local entrepreneurs.

Two former Eternit executives, Stephan Schmidheiny and Baron Louis de Cartier de Marchienne, are being tried on charges brought by Italian prosecutors in Turin for alleged complicity in manufacturing operations which led to the deaths of thousands of Italian workers and local residents.

The objective of the meeting on March 16 is to highlight the global responsibility the European Eternit executives have for the epidemic of asbestos related cancers and other diseases which has followed in the wake of Eternit’s asbestos operations. To this purpose, global activists will make their way to Turin to document the tragedies caused by Eternit in their countries and declare their support for the thosuands of Italians on whose behalf these proceedings are being brought.

Even if these testimonies cannot be part of the official trial, the judges hearing the case in Turin must be made aware of the horrendous impact Eternit has had and the hundreds of thousands of innocent people who have died as a result of the multinationals’ commercial exploitation of asbestos. On behalf of Eternit’s asbestos dead we cannot remain silent; for all those who have died and those who are suffering still, we will bear witness.

The participants are the spoke-persons of asbestos exposed & victims groups whose websites addresses appear at the end of the program.

Draft Program – March 15 &16, 2010
* Monday March 15, 2010

Monday is the day when the audiences of the Eternit trial are held. Participants of the meeting could assist the audience. A press conference at lunch time, with the participation of victims lawyers, will permit to present the meeting organized on march 16, and to highlight how much the asbestos victims’ testimonies are important to show the role played by the multinational corporation Eternit in Europe & other continents as well as in Italy.

*Tuesday March 16, 2010

9h Presentation : Annie Thébaud-Mony – International Ban Asbestos Network
Intervention of the officials:
Mercedes Bresso, chairman of the Piemont Region
Eleonora Artesio, Secretary of health of Piemont Region

9h30 Intervention of Bruno Pesce - Association of victims families, Casale Monferrato (Italy)

10h Davide Petrini, Doctor in criminal law, Piemont University, victims ‘ lawyer “The Eternit trial is at the begining, how will it end?”

10h30 Session I : Eternit & the epidemics of asbestos related diseases in Europe
Chair: Fulvio Aurora, Asbestos Exposed people Association, Italy
Round table - Eternit, history, Asbestos Issues and the Citizens’ Struggle in Europe,
Eric Jonckheere, Eternit victims’Association (ABEVA) in Belgium; Franco Basciani ex-factory Eternit of Niederurnen (Suisse); Tinka de Bruin & Bob Ruers, Etenit victims’Association Netherland; Jean Marie Birbès, Eternit victims’Association, Albi (France); Angel Carcoba, Comiciones operarias (Espagne), Laurent Vogel, European Trade Union Institute, Bruxelles

12h15 Session II: Eternit & the epidemics of asbestos related diseases in Latin America
Chair: Annie Thébaud-Mony, International Ban Asbestos Network
Round Table: Eternit, history, Asbestos Issues and the Citizens’ Struggle in Latin America
Mauro Menezes, ABREA (Brazilian Association of the Asbestos Exposed)
Eva Delgado, Asociacion frente al asbesto – Perou;

13h15 Presentation of a documentare film in progress on Eternit and the trial Niccolo Bruna

13h30: Lunch

14h30 Session III: Eternit & the epidemics of asbestos related diseases in Asia
Chair: Laurie Kazan–Allen, International Ban Asbestos Secretariat -London

14h45 Takehiko Murayama, Ban Asbestos Network Japan (BANJAN), Japan Occupationa
Safety and Health Resource Center (JOSHRC), Japan

15h15 Madhumita Dutta, Corporate Accountability Desk -The Other Media, India

15H45 Sanjiv Pandita, Asia Monitor Resource Centre (AMRC), Asian Ban Asbestos Network,
Hong Kong, China

16h15 Debate

17h15 Presentation & discussion of the « Turin Appeal » by the International Ban Asbestos
Network, appeal which will be adopted at the end of this meeting, 17 years after the “Milan Appeal” of the conference held in 1993 & 16 years after the “São Paulo Appeal” which founded the International Ban Asbestos Network.

Associations, networks & groups involved in the initiative
Ban Asbestos France
Associazione italiana esposti amianto
Association belge des victimes de l’amiante
International Ban Asbestos Secretariat
Asian-Ban Asbestos Network
Ban Asbestos Japan
Ban Asbestos India
Associação Brasileira dos Expostos ao Amianto
Asociacion frente al asbesto - peart@terra.com.pe
The Eternit Trial Report, Turin (Italie)
Health and safety department of European Trade Union Institute

(International Ban Asbestos Network, 03/03/2010)