(Zaman Al Wasl)- LafargeHolcim Group for Cement refused on Wednesday what is said the its operation in Syria in 2013-2014 contributed to funding ISIS.
The company considered the major in international cement manufacturing said in a statement, “the group completely rejects any hints the company is funding organizations classified as terrorists.”
Two human rights defender groups said on Tuesday they field a legal complaint against Lafarge Cement in Paris which became part of LafargeHolcim Group and its headquarter is in Switzerland.
The human rights group said some of Lafarge Holcim work in Syria maybe makes it involved in funding ISIS and in war crimes.
ISIS seized tons of toxic Hydrazine material from Lafarge Cement in 2014: documents
ISIS seized tons of toxic Hydrazine material from Lafarge Cement in 2014: documents
LafargeHolcim said the group commissioned some law companies to investigate the “claims” adding that the “investigation will say whether the rules were followed and whether operations should be amended.”
-The Case Origin-
After Zaman al-Wasl’s published an exclusive report about oil ties between French Lafarge Cement company and ISIS, the veteran Le Monde published a report assuring the involvement of Lafarge based on Zaman al-Wasl documents despite ignoring Zaman as main source.
Frederic Jolibois, CEO at Lafarge Cement Syria, refused to comment on the summary letter sent by Zaman Al Wasl, “our company does not reply to rumors and guessing” confirming that Lafarge was keen to protect workers and safety was their priority, therefore they had evacuated to plant situated in Jalibeh town, 160 km away from Aleppo, in September 2014.
Zaman al-Wasl the first internationally to open the file of Lafarge connection with ISIS. Zaman al-Wasl displayed a series of emails from big officials in the company revealing that Lafarge is involed in buying fuel from “NGOs” in the areas outside regime control.
In July 13, 2014, Mamdooh al-Khalid, Manager of Lafarge Syria and sales manager, wrote to Bruno Pescheux, General Manager of Lafarge warning him about buying Fuel from non-governmental company in areas out of the regime’s control, as the matter had become under light and too controversial at the time and if the regime had discovered that the matter, it might have taken procedure.
On 14th of the same month, Pescheux replied to Mamdooh and agreed on his points about illegal fuel buying and gave him points to highlight in case the Syrian regime discovered that, and advised him to mention that Lafarge had done its best to get fuel from the government, and wondered about the previous requests for fuel from Homs refinery.
In the second part of Zaman al-Wasl investigation, Islamic State seized tons of toxic Hydrazine material after seizing control of Lafarge Cement Syria in Aleppo province in September 2014, the material that might had been used later in the ISIS explosives-laden vehicles.
Sources hinted to Zaman Al Wasl that effort was done to conceal the fact of capturing tonnes of Hydrazine material by the Islamic State and no one knows what has been done with it.
Hydrazine is an inorganic component appears as a colorless flammable liquid with an ammonia-like odour. It is highly toxic and dangerously unstable unless handled in solution. It is mainly used as a foaming agent in preparing polymer foams, additionally, it is used in various rocket fuel and a precursor for blowing agents. It is used within both nuclear and conventional electrical power plant steam cycles as an oxygen scavenger to control concentrations of dissolved oxygen in an effort to reduce corrosion.
At the time when the Islamic State controlled the plant of cement, it is expected it had had significant storage of Hydrazine which was used in Electricity generators, and ISIS seized the whole amount.
Sources provided emails between Ahmed, the Jordanian Risks managers who requested approval of Mamdouh Khalid, the Syrian manager of the plant, for payments of 435 thousand Syrian pounds, to buy Hydrazine and Rasin.
Sources revealed that Lafarge Cement Syria had illegally obtained Hydrazine from Turkey in 2013 via Jarablus crossing- point taking advantages of negligence in the Environment department, as the director of the department had forgotten reminding the manager Mamdouh Khalid about near run-out of Hydrazine, which forced the company to look for quick alternative to provide the material under circumstances of economic punishments against Syria regime, they found Turkish market the quickest source for Hydrazine.
French cement company in Syria buys oil from ISIS: documents
French cement company in Syria buys oil from ISIS: documents
In regard to the storage of Hydrazine in the plant after controlling it by the Islamic State, sources mentioned that fighters have uninstalled all equipment and took all parts from the plant, and transferred them to Raqqa, but no one knows what happened to Hydrazine, especially that the YPG fighters were not able to enter all parts of the plant, fearing that ISIS would have put explosive inside.
Zaman Al Wasl contacted Frederic Jolibois, CEO at Lafarge Cement Syria, to ask about seizing huge amount of Hydrazine by the Islamic State, he refused to comment saying: “our company does not reply to rumors and guessing.”
Hydrazine was not the only dangerous material in the French Cement plant, there was radiating materials inside many laboratory equipment as well as Gama matrix Device in the crasher and density measuring device, which all were under regular supervision by the Atomic Energy Commission in Syria.
Sources confirm that no one has an idea about the fate of those devices and the radiating material inside them, as inexpert moving of those devices could distribute dangerous radiation and harmful to people and the environment.
Lafarge Cement Syria that was established in Jalibeh town, between Ras Alain and Ain Arab "Kobani", 160 km away from Aleppo, has since 2013, been under many controlling bodies with different agendas.
The plant had become out of areas controlled by the Syrian regime in 2013 when it was taken by People‘s Protection Units “YPG”, the armed wing of the Democratic Union party “PYD” which is the Syrian branch of Kurdistan Workers’ Party “PKK”.
However, in September 19, 2014, the Islamic State “ISIS” managed to control the plant, to lose it again and YPG controlled it in Spring 2015.
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