BERLIN (AP) — Swedish furniture giant Ikea will release a report this week addressing claims it benefited from forced labor in communist East Germany, the company and victims groups said Monday.
The report by independent auditors Ernst & Young looks into allegations that Ikea used East German suppliers who employed prisoners — some of whom were political dissidents — to manufacture goods for its stores from the 1960s to 1980s.
“We hope this will be a first step toward a broader investigation into the use of forced labor in East Germany,” Rainer Wagner, chairman of the victims’ group UOKG, told The Associated Press.
“Ikea is only the tip of the iceberg,” he said, noting that similar allegations have been leveled against West Germany mail order companies and former state-owned East German companies that were privatized after unification in 1990.
Wagner, who was himself imprisoned by East German authorities in the 1960s, praised Ikea for acting quickly on the allegations.
The company declined to discuss the findings ahead of Friday’s release of the report, which was commissioned after a Swedish television documentary in June repeated claims first aired in Germany last year. But spokeswoman Sabine Nold said Ikea took the allegations very seriously and strongly condemned any use of forced labor.
Wagner said his group has asked the German government, as the legal successor to the communist regime in East Germany, to consider compensation payments for the victims.
Many former prisoners carry psychological and physical scars from the oftentimes dangerous work they had to perform, he said.
In the town of Dessau, where Wagner was imprisoned from 1967 to 1969, inmates were forced to make goods out of sheet metal using hazardous machinery. One in ten lost fingers at work, he said.
“If someone refused they were locked in solitary confinement and given only bread and water for up to 42 days,” he said.
Ikea to release report on East German forced labor
ROMANIA
Recently, Romania Ikea bought 33,600 hectares of forest, from a private company in Prahova and Buzau, Vrancea, Botosani and Bihar, the first acquisition of its kind conducted globally Swedish group specializing in retail furniture and furnishings . According to Mediafax, Ikea bought the 33,600 hectares of forest from a Swedish company, Greengold, led by former US partners Harvard University in Romania, and becomes the largest owner of forests in Romania.
Tens of thousands of hectares of forest in Buzau county and four counties became the property Swedish concern Ikea.
Recently, Romania Ikea bought 33,600 hectares of forest, from a private company in Prahova and Buzau, Vrancea, Botosani and Bihar, the first acquisition of its kind conducted globally Swedish group specializing in retail furniture and furnishings . According to Mediafax, Ikea bought the 33,600 hectares of forest from a Swedish company, Greengold, led by former US partners Harvard University in Romania, and becomes the largest owner of forests in Romania.
Manages own forests
Romania is the first country where Ikea Group will coordinate its own activities owned forest management, through a Romanian company, IRI Investments Ltd, part of the Ikea Group. “Ikea Group decided to invest in forestry operations. This decision facilitates access to sustainably managed wood raw material (…). The investment in forests is a way to diversify our assets. With this acquisition, Romania became the first country Ikea Group which will manage their forest operations and we intend to be an example of sustainable management of forests “, told Mediafax Frederik de Jong, Chairman of the Board, IRI Investments SRL. The group eventually hold such in Romania – World Premiere – both timber resources, as well as a direct relationship with local manufacturing of furniture or finished products in stores.
Stores in Romania
In Romania Ikea cooperates with over 20 suppliers, which mainly produce sofas, armchairs, tables, chairs, baby items and ceramic products. Ikea Group’s retail division is represented in Romania by two stores opened in Bucharest.
Anonymous ask:
How the Swedish Corp will administrate the forest of Romania?
Is close no the Problems in Germany or we mst begin to DOX Ikea for wird moves?
What Swedish Government know about this and how much money from Swedish People taxes are on roll to meke the ECO desaster in Romania?
What the Plan of IKEA will be now or IKEA is part from AGENDA 21 like WALMART?
How Ikea can move over the law in one poor Colony like Romania?
ANONYMOUS AND ACTIVISTS OF THE EARTH WILL LOOK AND DOX THIS PROBLEM TO THE FUTURE!
EXPECT US!
