Yahoo – AFP,
21 Nov 2015
 |
| Eddie Vedder from Pearl Jam performs during the fourth annual Global Citizen Festival in Central Park Manhattan on September 26, 2015 in New York (AFP Photo/Kena Betancur) |
Rio de
Janeiro (AFP) - US rock group Pearl Jam donated proceeds from a concert in
Brazil to victims of a toxic mining spill that killed 12 people and was the
country's worst environmental disaster.
The group's
singer Eddie Vedder interrupted a show Friday night in Belo Horizonte, capital
of the southeast state of Minas Gerais -- where the disaster occurred November
5 -- and called for the mining company involved to be severely punished.
As seen on
a video on the news website G1, the group got a standing ovation when Vedder
said the take from that concert would go to victims of the disaster.
It struck
when a dam collapsed at the waste reservoirs of an iron ore mine, unleashing a
torrent of yellowish muck that all but buried a village, left 280,000 people
without water and smothered thousands of fish, turtles and other animals.
Besides the
12 dead, another 12 people remain missing.
The mining
facility is owned by Samarco, a joint venture between the mining giants BHP
Billiton of Australia and Vale of Brazil.
Environment
Minister Izabella Teixeira said Friday it was the worst environmental disaster
in Brazilian history and that it will take 30 years to clean the basin of the
Doce River, into which the sludge flowed.
Samarco has
already been hit with damages, fines and frozen funds totalling more than $400
million.
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