Day 278 - 11 Jul 96 - Page 14
1
2 Q. Well, I have got to deal with the words in the leaflet,
3 that is why I specifically put them to you. What I want to
4 know is whether you are saying or not that McDonald's has
5 ever used lethal poisons to destroy Central American
6 rainforests?
7 A. Them, personally, I do not know. I believe this to be
8 true and I certainly believe that they have involvement in
9 it. There are lots of things that I personally do not know
10 because I am not pretending to be somebody who has gone
11 over to Third World countries and seen what is going on
12 there, who has been to tropical rainforests and seen what
13 is going on there or has analysed McDonald's own food and
14 seen what is going on with that, who has worked in
15 McDonald's, and so on. The point is that they are all
16 things that I have heard from other people, that I have
17 read in other magazines, newspaper articles, documentaries
18 and so on. And so I believe them to be true.
19
20 MR. RAMPTON: Even though, in the 6 years or whatever it is, 5
21 and a half years -- no, 6, never mind, 5 or 6 years since
22 the writ was issued -- you have not been able to lay hands
23 on any evidence whatsoever that McDonald's uses lethal
24 poisons to destroy vast areas of rainforest, you still
25 believe it?
26 A. Yes, I believe that McDonald's make use of land, make
27 use of cattle from land which has been cleared using lethal
28 poisons, yes.
29
30 Q. Now then, can we pass to something completely different?
31 A. And the reason we may not have a witness specifically
32 on particular issues is that because, as you know, your
33 clients sued over a whole wide range of issues. We are
34 unwaged, we do not have the resources to go around the
35 world taking witness statements from every single person
36 and carrying out on-the-spot investigations. It has been a
37 mammoth task getting the evidence, bringing all the
38 witnesses to court, and I think we have put up a very good
39 case and I personally am convinced that all the major
40 criticisms in the fact sheet are true.
41
42 Q. Mr. Secret, for example -- or is he Mr Secrete? -- would be
43 very well placed, Miss Steel, would he not, to supply you
44 with information, to put you in touch with people, if there
45 was even a shadow of truth in the allegations made against
46 McDonald's in the fact sheet in relation to rainforest,
47 would he not? So would Dr. Mombier?
48 A. We have been in touch with various people, and Peter
49 Heller filmed people destroying rainforests in Costa Rica
50 and they were using lethal poisons. And when we telephoned
51 them, they had obviously been threatened and told to shut
52 up because the things that they had said on film they were
53 now too scared to say.
54
55 Q. Well now, let us pass, if we may, to something else.
56 Mcspotlight. That Miss Steel is a web site on the Internet
57 based in Holland is it not?
58 ?
59 A. I don't know where it is based.
60
