São Paulo. Representatives of VW do Brasil have left what is now the third hearing in the case of slave labor at the former VW fazenda Vale do Rio Cristalino and have declined further participation in the process.
As the daily newspaper Folha de São Paulo reports, the company representatives present insisted that Volkswagen was not responsible for the events on the property.
A handover of a petition signed by almost 3,000 citizens from Germany, which was planned on site at the same time and which demands compensation from VW for the former slave workers, did not take place because the negotiating group was forbidden to accept it.
The petition was also to be sent to the VW Board Member for Integrity and Legal Affairs, Dr. Manfred Döss, but could only be handed over to the spokesman.
In a press release published on Friday and available to amerika21, Günther Schulz from the Brazil Initiative Freiburg eV said: “VW’s behavior is shameful, our petition signed by almost 3,000 citizens was completely disregarded and shows how the boardrooms about the civil society is thought of”.
According to prosecutors Rafael Garcia, VW has declined to pay R$165 million in compensation to the victims and their survivors, as well as a fund to help find others who were affected .
“We regret Volkswagen’s attitude of not respecting workers who have been enslaved and deprived of their dignity and freedom for more than a decade,” the prosecutor said after the meeting.
On the cattle farm Fazenda Vale do Rio Cristalino, which was operated by VW, between 1974 and 1986 serious crimes were committed against hundreds of workers. They were used in slavery-like conditions to clear the rainforest. The priest Ricardo Rezende Figueira started the case and for years collected testimonies and evidence of the atrocities committed there (america21 reported).
With reference to the annual general meeting of the group on May 10 in Berlin, at which the remuneration and bonus payments of the board of directors are to be increased by up to 27 million euros, Christian Russau from the critical shareholders notes: “This money is for the former slave laborers.”