- 12-11-2009 - Algemeen
UNCONTACTED TRIBE’S FOREST BULLDOZED FOR BEEF
The only uncontacted tribe in South America outside the Amazon is having its forest rapidly and illegally bulldozed by ranchers who want their land to graze cattle for beef.
The Ayoreo-Totobiegosode is the only uncontacted tribe in the world currently losing its land to beef production.
The ranchers’ operations were exposed by satellite photos taken on 1 November. Since 2 November, an ad by Survival International publicising the deforestation has been playing on a major Paraguayan radio station, Radio Nanduti.
The ranchers, from Brazilian company Yaguarete Pora S.A., are operating on the tribe’s land in Paraguay despite having their licence suspended by the Environment Ministry in August for previous illegal clearance.
They are clearing the forest, the home of the Ayoreo-Totobiegosode tribe, using bulldozers alleged to belong to Jacobo Kauenhowen, owner of a large bulldozer business in a nearby Mennonite colony.
‘This is a serious threat to the Totobiegosode. The illegal deforestation carried out by Yaguarete in Paraguay is continuing without any control whatsoever,’ said the Paraguayan NGO GAT, which is working to protect the Ayoreo’s lands.
Last year Yaguarete, together with another Brazilian company, River Plate S.A., destroyed thousands of hectares of the tribe’s land.
Some of the Totobiegosode have already been contacted and have relatives among those who remain uncontacted.
Survival director, Stephen Corry, said today, ‘The Totobiegosode are the most vulnerable uncontacted tribe in the world. A tragedy is unfolding right before our eyes – and the satellite camera’s lens. President Lugo must not sit back and watch as Paraguay’s most vulnerable people see their homes and livelihoods annihilated.’
source : Survival International
- 12-11-2009 - Algemeen
REPRESSION OF AMAZON INDIAN MOVEMENT CONDEMNED WORLDWIDE
The Peruvian government’s unprecedented attempt to destroy Peru’s Amazon Indian movement has been condemned by indigenous leaders around the world.
The wave of condemnation comes after it was revealed that the government plans to disband Peru’s national organisation for Amazon Indians, known by its Spanish acronym AIDESEP.
‘We Bushmen of Botswana support the Indians of Peru and think that the government of Peru and the oil companies should not forget the indigenous peoples. If you destroy their land, you destroy the Indians themselves,’ said Jumanda Gakelebone, from First People of the Kalahari, a Bushman organization in southern Africa.
‘Peru's government should sit down and talk respectfully to AIDESEP as the legitimate representatives of the country's Amazonian Indians, not try to attack them through the courts,’ said Armand MacKenzie, from the Innu Council of Nitassinan in Canada.
‘It is outrageous. I condemn Peru's government for trying to destroy the voice of Peru’s Amazon population,’ said Lal Amlai, a Jumma man from Bangladesh.
‘If you target AIDESEP you’re targeting all indigenous people – not just those in the Amazon or Peru but all over the world,’ said CAOI, an organization representing indigenous people in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. CAOI called the attempt to disband AIDESEP ‘absurd’ and further evidence of the government’s ‘racist’ policies.
AIDESEP has been vigorously opposing the government’s attempts to open the Peruvian Amazon to oil, gas and mining companies. The proposal to disband it was made by Peru’s Ministry of Justice just three days after armed Peruvian police attacked a peaceful indigenous protest in northern Peru, which was part of Amazon-wide protests coordinated by AIDESEP. The attack led to more than thirty deaths and two hundred people injured.
AIDESEP was founded in 1980 and represents 350,000 indigenous people in the Peruvian Amazon.
source : Survival international
- 12-11-2009 - Algemeen
Old forests in Finnish Lapland preserved
Timber in Lapland
An agreement between a Finnish state-owned forestry company and the environmental organization Greenpeace has led to the preservation of large areas of old forest in Northern Finland.
After reaching an agreement with a state-owned forestry company on preservation of old forests in Lapland, Greenpeace Nordic has decided to withdraw from Finnish Lapland and move its target area to Indonesia.
According to the website Forest.fi, a long standing dispute between state-owned forestry company Metsähallitus and Greenpeace concerning old wilderness-like forests in Central, or Forest Lapland was over when an agreement was reached in the end of October.
The agreement covers some 44.200 hectares of forest land. Of them, 6.600 hectares will remain available for normal multiple-use forestry. 2.700 hectares remain in restricted forestry use, and 35.000 hectares are excluded from forestry operations.
The solution prevents future felling of 1.7 million cubic meters of wood.
The final agreement was reached in a steering group which consists of, in addition to Metsähallitus and Greenpeace, the Regional Council of Lapland, Lapland Regional Environment Centre, Finnish Reindeer Owners’ Association, and representatives from the forest industry and the Sámi Parliament.
- 12-11-2009 - Algemeen
Isolated Amazon Indians die in ‘swine flu epidemic’
Seven Yanomami Indians in Venezuela have died from an outbreak of suspected swine flu in the last two weeks. Another 1,000 Yanomami are reported to have caught the virulent strain of flu.
The Venezuelan government has sealed off the area, and sent in medical teams to treat the Yanomami. The regional office of the World Health Organization has confirmed the presence of swine flu.
There are fears that the epidemic could sweep through the Yanomami territory and kill many more Indians.
The Yanomami are the largest relatively isolated tribe in the Amazon rainforest, with a population of about 32,000 that straddle the Venezuela-Brazil border. Due to this isolation they have very little resistance to introduced diseases such as flu.
In the 1980-90s, when goldminers invaded their land, one fifth of the Yanomami in Brazil died from diseases such as flu and malaria introduced by the miners. Their future was only secured after a major international campaign led by the Yanomami themselves, Survival International and the Pro Yanomami Commission.
Health care is already extremely precarious on both sides of the border. Many Yanomami communities have no access at all to health care and this mountainous, forested region presents many challenges in the provision of emergency medical aid.
The Yanomami territory lies on the border of northern Brazil and southern Venezuela and is the largest indigenous territory in tropical rainforest in the world.
Last month Survival published a report highlighting the special threat that swine flu presents to indigenous people around the world.
Stephen Corry, director of Survival said, ‘The situation is critical. Both governments must take immediate action to halt the epidemic and radically improve the health care to the Yanomami. If they do not, we could once more see hundreds of Yanomami dying of treatable diseases. This would be utterly devastating for this isolated tribe, whose population has only just recovered from the epidemics which decimated their population 20 years ago.’
- 12-11-2009 - Algemeen
INDIGENOUS OVERTAKE UN OFFICE
Some 150 indigenous farmers took over a UN office in the southeastern Mexican state of Chiapas to demand the release of three jailed leaders, their group said.
The Tzotzil Indians, who also sought "refuge as internally displaced persons" during the move, took this "desperate measure to attract attention and secure the release of three comrades," the Emiliano Zapata Farmers' Organization (OCEZ) said in a statement.
The OCEZ is a land rights group inspired by Zapata, a key figure in the Mexican Revolution that broke out in 1910.
The three prisoners were arrested last weekend by the police and army on charges of using the group for drug and arms trafficking.
Food and clothes were provided to the farmers who spent the night and still remain at the UN building in San Cristobal de las Casas.
Calls to the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) were not immediately returned.
The farmers accuse the government of Chiapas, Mexico's poorest state where Zapatistas launched an armed rebellion in 1994, of seeking to "criminalize social struggle."
Source: AFP: 10/31
- 12-11-2009 - Algemeen
Indigenous Guarani occupy FUNAI headquarters
While Guarani communities in Brazil continue to reclaim their lands and face even more evictions—one leading to the disappearance of two indigenous teachers on Oct. 29—two days ago, more than 50 Guarani People occupied the headquarters of FUNAI, Brazil’s Federal Authority of Indigenous Affairs, in the southernmost state of Rio Grande do Sul.
The move comes in response to FUNAI’s failure to publish a detailed report about the Gurani’s traditional lands, some 4019 hectares in Rio Grande do Sul.
FUNAI told the Guarani that they would publish the report by September, 2009. However, as the month rolled by, with two Guarani communities in the nearby state of Mato Grosso do Sul being torched and brutally assaulted by gunmen, the Guarani of Mato Preto found themselves empty handed.
The report is a necessary step in the demarcation process, which officially began for the community in 2004.
Ever since the demarcation began, perhaps even farther back, the community has been living in a “roadside camp”, like so many other Guarani who’s lands have been usurped by cattle ranchers, settlers and various others. There are at least 21 roadside camps in Mato Grosso do Sul alone.
As for the Guarani of Mato Preto, they live along edge of a railway line, in plastic bag tents, with little access to food and no security. According to CIMI, the indigenous advocacy branch of the National Conference of Brazilian Bishops, CIMI, right now the community’s survival is completely dependent on food assistance programs.
Conditions aside, “the community is small but cohesively aware of Traditionalism and territory” says CIMI. And they’re all working together to have their lands finally demarcated.
- 12-11-2009 - Algemeen
Guarani Kaiowá teachers found dead in Mato Grosso do Sul
Members of the indigenous comunity Po´i Kuê informed that in the afternoon, today 4 November, the bodies were found of two Guarani Kaiowá teachers. Olindo Verá and Genivaldo Verá had disappeared on October 30 when a group of armed man attacked the community. The attack happened close to the city of Paranhos, in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul.
The two teachers were part of a group of 25 indigenous from the aldeija Pirajuí that on October 29 had returned to their ancestral land, or Tekohá in guarani, that they have been claiming for years. They call there land Po´i Kuê. The following day, a group of armed man arrived in a truck, shooting at the community, harassing them and forcing them out of the area. Various indigenous got hurt. The Federal Police is investigating the violence.
Demarcation
The area Po`i Kuê is presently occupied by a ranch, or fazenda in portuguese, called Triunfo and is located in the municipality of Paranhos in the border region with Paraguai. This area is one of the 26 indigenous lands in Mato Grosso do Sul that are supposed to be studied by the Federal Authority of Indigenous Affairs, FUNAI, in order to be demarcated. The task force for this study had been installed in June 2008 already, but political pressure in combination with threats and physical harassment by armed men made their work impossible.
Eviction
The attack is the next in a series of violent events in Mato Grosso do Sul. One week ago, indigenous of the Terrena people occupied a part of their traditional land in the municipality of Sidrolândia and were expulsed by force as well. Various Terena got hurt in the actions. In the beginning of October, a Guarani kaiowá community was evicted of the land that they had reoccupied two years ago, and which should have been studied and demarcated by the Funai, because of a court order. Though the area is still to be demarcated, armed guards of the ranch set fire to village, destroying the housing material and belongings that the community had not managed to move yet.
Confinement
The Guarani Kaiowá people face probably the worst situation of all indigenous peoples in Brazil. As the largest indigenous population outside the Amazone region, they live confined in small parcels of land, facing unemployment, poverty, discimination, threats and exploitation in the sugarcane fields. As a result, they live an extremely violent reality, with internal violence, high numbers of suicide, child malnutrition. Their traditional lands have been taken by farmers, most of them producing soy beans, sugar cane and cattle for export. For example, the area of the Pirajuí community (aldéia) where the teachers came from houses about 3000 persons, but has been reduced to 2.118 hectares over the years.
source : CIMI Newsletter
- 02-11-2009 - Algemeen
Peru plans to disband national indigenous organisation
The Peruvian government is planning to disband Peru’s national organisation representing indigenous people in the Amazon, known by its Spanish acronym AIDESEP.
The unprecedented proposal for AIDESEP’s dissolution was made by Peru’s Ministry of Justice. It is based on the claim that AIDESEP is ‘flagrantly violating’ its charter and undermining ‘public order’.
In an interview on Peruvian radio on 24 October AIDESEP’s acting president, Daysi Zapata, said indigenous communities would march to the capital city, Lima, if the government did not back down within twenty days.
AIDESEP’s president, Alberto Pizango, currently in political asylum in Nicaragua, said, ‘The government is showing that it is against indigenous people, who are only claiming the right to live with dignity. The government can’t silence indigenous people by dissolving AIDESEP. We are very angry about this. If the government really wanted to solve its problems, it would not be persecuting indigenous leaders nor trying to dissolve an organisation that was founded in 1980 and which is the legitimate voice of Peru’s indigenous movement and deserves enormous respect.’
The proposal to disband AIDESEP was made just three days after armed police attacked a peaceful indigenous protest in Bagua, northern Peru, which formed part of Amazon-wide protests coordinated by AIDESEP. The attack led to more than thirty deaths and two hundred people injured.
The proposed dissolution has been condemned by one of Peru’s leading human rights organisations which described it as ‘arbitrary’, ‘outrageous’, and ‘heightening’ social conflict in the Amazon.
AIDESEP has been summoned by the Public Prosecutor’s office to a hearing on 5 November.
Survival Director, Stephen Corry, said today, ‘No more proof is needed to see that Peru’s government is attempting to completely destroy Peru’s indigenous movement. We urge the Ministry of Justice to withdraw the proposed dissolution and get on with its real job – dispensing justice.’
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© Survival International, 2009 | Registered charity no. 267444 | 501(c)(3) registered nonprofit
- 02-11-2009 - Algemeen
Ogieks will not be evicted from the Mau forest
The Secretariat of Mau task force committee said last week that the Indigenous Ogieks will not be evicted from their ancestral land in Kenya’s Mau forest.
As reported by NTVKenya, the announcement came as Prime Minister Raila Odinga was in Europe seeking more financial support for the Mau.
In July of this year, Prime Minister Odinga said that every single forest dweller would be evicted from the Mau, including the Ogieks.
Giving them until mid-September, Odinga said the forest population had one chance to voluntarily abandon their homes. If they refused to leave, they would be arrested.
There are 20,000 Ogieks living in the Mau forest.
According to latest reports, the eviction of squatters and legal settlers, which does include members of the Ogiek, will begin about four weeks from now.
Various government officials have said force will not be used in the evictions and that the settlers “will not be pushed out like criminals.”
It won’t be long before we know if there’s any truth to these statements.
- 02-11-2009 - Algemeen
Indigenous Hondurans face persecution and great risk after coup
The coup government of Honduras is severely repressing opposition, curtailing constitutional rights, allowing excessive police violence which could be linked to several deaths, beatings and disappearances.
Those leaders are engaged in the seizing of media outlets across the country and persecution of indigenous peoples, particularly those involved in the almost daily protests according to two groups of international human rights observers who conducted investigations in July and August.
The most recent report came from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, a branch of the hemispheric Organization of American States. The report, published Aug. 22, listed the following charges: “… repression imposed on protestors through the use of military patrols, the arbitrary applications of curfews, detentions of thousands of people; cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment and bad conditions of detention.
“Of particular gravity is the death of four persons and various other wounded people caused by firearms. An exhaustive investigation into these deaths is necessary, considering that the commission has received information that could link these deaths with actions by agents of the government.”
The observers interviewed hundreds of Hondurans – including indigenous peoples. Those interviewed ranged from people with charges of abuse as well as officials of various levels of government, including representatives of the coup leadership. The two reports also noted the flow of information had been controlled by order of the coup government. In their press statement, the IACHR made special note of that issue.
“The control of information is exercised through the temporary closing of some communication media, the military occupation of those same media, the prohibition of emitting broadcasts about the coup by certain television stations during that time, the selective cutting of electrical services to audio-visual media that were reporting on the coup and aggressions and threats against journalists with different editorial positions.”
The IACHR said military squads occupied schools and universities during and after the time of the coup. The IACHR and the International Observation Mission of the Situation of Human Rights in Honduras – which conducted its investigation a few weeks before the commission – noted that among those interviewed were indigenous peoples. One of the mission observers spoke about how the coup was negatively affecting many Native people.
The overall situation of indigenous people in Honduras after the coup is “precarious and very risky” according to Marcia Aguiluz who participated in the mission that included 15 “independent professionals” from 13 countries.
Aguiluz, a staff attorney for the Center for Justice and International Law, spoke about the indigenous Hondurans when visiting their Washington, D.C. office in August, after she had taken part in the International Observation Mission. CEJIL is an international human rights nonprofit agency that litigates human rights cases before the IACHR and recommends actions to be taken.
The mission team interviewed government officials, politicians, human rights advocates, union members, social movement members, indigenous leaders, journalists, the Honduran Attorney General, the director of the National Police and various demonstrators from across the country between July 17 and July 28. Mission participants included judges, attorneys, journalists, sociologists, political analysts and human rights experts from Germany, Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Colombia, Costa Rica, Denmark, El Salvador, Spain, Nicaragua, Peru, Sweden and Uruguay.
In an Aug. 7 interview, Aguiluz spoke about some of their findings in regards to the problems confronting the indigenous people of Honduras.
“We held a meeting with the Front of Resistance against the Coup, which contains all of the diverse sectors and movements that oppose it (coup). In that meeting we spoke with Bertha Cáceres, director of the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras, one of the strongest indigenous organizations in the country. They are very involved in the struggle, principally because they feel they have never been heard or taken into account.
“With President Zelaya and his proposed referendum, the indigenous people saw a chance of becoming part of the decision making process in the country. Bertha said her wish was to ‘allow for the building of their concept of truth and justice’ which had been prohibited by the powerful classes of Honduras. Currently, their situation is precarious and very risky, many of them are being persecuted because they have protested against the coup, also they are under threat and due to their peaceful actions of resistance they have abandoned their homes, finding refuge in Tegucigalpa with the help of other organizations.”
In the final part of the interview Aguiluz urged the international community to “stay informed” and to understand that the coup had caused institutional damage to the country and that fundamental rights were being hurt as well.
“A large percentage of the population – including indigenous peoples – are being threatened by the de facto regime, who are impeding their ability to express themselves as well as repressing them and not protecting their rights. … In Honduras right now, the people are completely unprotected.”
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© 1998 - 2009 Indian Country Today
- 02-11-2009 - Algemeen
Ecuador to Europe: Pay us not to drill in Amazon
Ecuador's president is in London this week to promote a unique proposal: pay his country $3 billion not to drill for oil in a pristine Amazon reserve.
Germany and Spain have expressed interest in President Rafael Correa's idea, which environmentalists say could set a precedent in the fight against global warming by lowering the high cost to poor countries of going green.
"This is the first time the government of a major oil-producing country has voluntarily offered to forego lucrative oil extraction in order to help combat climate change," said Dr. Matt Finer, staff scientist for Save America's Forests and author of a study on Correa's initiative.
But Correa's idea is two years old and he has yet to receive a firm cash commitment.
Under the plan, rich countries would pay Ecuador at least half the revenues that the 850 million barrels of heavy crude oil estimated to be in Ecuador's remote Yasuni National Park would be expected to generate over the next 10 years or about $3 billion.
Ecuador says not drilling for the oil would keep 410 million metric tons of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere, a figure that has caught the attention of green-conscious governments in Europe.
But this month, Germany contradicted Ecuador's claims that it had already committed $50 million over 13 years to the initiative.
"The amount of a potential donation and the method and period over which it would be paid have yet to be determined," a German government official told the Associated Press last week in Berlin, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter.
The official said Germany supports the idea but its participation is dependent on recruiting other donors and expanding the amount of land protected from development under the initiative.
Correa's proposal would block drilling in three oil fields in Yasuni, but it does not explicitly prohibit development in the rest of the park. It was declared a biosphere reserve by the United Nations and is home to Amazon Indian tribes living in voluntary isolation.
In Ecuador, companies can drill in national parks if a president deems it a matter of national interest.
While Spain is still considering how much to donate, it has already spent $200,000 to help Ecuador set up a fund to implement the project, Spain's top Latin America official, Juan Pablo de Laiglesia, told Ecuador's El Comercio newspaper this month.
Ecuador's foreign minister, Fander Falcon, says the international trust fund will be ready by mid-November. United Nations Development Program spokeswoman Carolina Azevedo said Ecuador has requested technical support to manage the fund.
Ecuador is an OPEC member that depends on oil for a third of its national budget. The three oil fields in Yasuni represent 20 percent of its crude oil reserves.
Correa is scheduled to meet with the British Parliament members Wednesday to discuss the proposal and plans to travel to Canada, France, Sweden, Belgium and the United States in November.
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Associated Press writer Andrew Whalen in Lima, Peru, contributed to this report.
© 2009 Hearst Communications Inc.
- 02-11-2009 - Algemeen
Commodity Colonialism – Oil Palm development in Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea (PNG) is a nation that does not easily fit with our society’s dominant ideas of development, property, and conservation. Many Papuans have little interaction with the cash economy; although categorized by development indexes as poor, these Papuans have never known food scarcity or landless poverty. Individual land holdings are rare – most land is held in communal agreements based on complex family, tribal, and political ties – but the nation has seemed to avoid the everyman for themselves, tragedy-of-the-commons dynamic Western thinkers have predicted for such communal agreements. For generations, PNG did not have a single national park or government protected conservation area, but the country has resisted the devastating rates of forest destruction that has plagued other tropical nations.
PNG’s unique geography, people, and ecosystems just do not fit very well into Western models of just about anything. But, in a trend seen all over the world, that is not stopping the World Bank and multinational agribusiness giant Cargill from forcing PNG to accept their investment-extraction-profit model.
After multiple rounds of multi-million dollar investment, and the creation of three massive oil palm estates, observers in Papua are beginning to see the effects of imposing a foreign model of development on PNG: increases in deforestation, heightened land conflicts, alcohol abuse, AIDS, and the emergence of landless poverty, a once unknown phenomenon.
After a month of detailed research, drawing from anthropological studies, societal and environmental impact assessments by the World Bank, and courageous field work carried out by the International Accountability Project, RAN has just released a case study on Cargill’s oil palm operations in PNG: Commodity Colonialism: A case study on Cargill’s oil palm operations in Papua New Guinea, laying out the truly dangerous effects of oil palm on this unique nation.
RAN is committed to providing impacted communities a voice at the table. A few weeks ago we sponsored a trip for Matilda Pilacapio, a PNG environmental activist and landowner from Cargill’s Milne Bay plantation, to come and dialogue with Cargill management in Minnesota.
An article on Matilda was featured over on Mongabay, a number of speaking events, and in a video interview right here on the Understory
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Rainforest Action Network
- 02-11-2009 - Algemeen
Brazilian senator condemns dispossession of Guarani Indians
Senator Marina Silva has given a strong speech in the Brazilian congress following her recent visit to Mato Grosso do Sul state where she attended a large meeting of Guarani Indians.
Silva said that the Guarani faced serious problems, and explained that many are living in road-side camps, hoping that their land rights will be recognised.
She singled out Dourados indigenous reserve where 13, 000 Indians live on just 3, 500 hectares of land. Overcrowding has lead to illness, murder and violence amongst the Indians, and suicide.
The suicide rate of the Guarani is 145 per 100,000 inhabitants, one of the highest in the world.
Silva indicated that the majority of suicides amongst young Indians is a result of a lack of ‘feeling of belonging’, and that a ‘social apartheid’ exists as the Guarani cannot exercise their rights.
‘There’s no place for them in the world of the white people and there’s no place for them in the world of the Indians’, she added.
Many Guarani children do not have access to healthcare and are malnourished.
Silva has said that she will report to President Lula and will request a meeting with the Justice Minister to discuss the situation of the Guarani.
Meanwhile, senator Eduardo Suplicy has suggested that the Minister of Social Development should help to find solutions to the high rate of suicide amongst the indigenous population.
Heavy rains and resultant floods are currently further worsening the livelihoods of the Guarani, especially those on living in road-side camps.
Survival International has opened a fund to support the Guarani, in association with the film ‘Birdwatchers’, which stars Guarani-Kaiowá Indians. All donations will go towards helping them defend their rights, lands and futures.
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© Survival International, 2009 | Registered charity no. 267444 | 501(c)(3) registered nonprofit
- 02-11-2009 - Algemeen
Brazilian authorities to search for uncontacted Indians in Amazon
Brazil’s Indian affairs department, FUNAI, has announced it will embark on a two month expedition to search for uncontacted Indians in the Amazon rainforest.
The expedition in the Javari Valley indigenous territory in the western Amazon will start in November.
This area is home to almost 4,000 Korubo, Mayoruna, Marubo, Matis, Kanamari and Kulina Indians, the majority of whom have been contacted over the last decades. FUNAI thinks that more uncontacted indigenous groups could be living in this densely forested area than anywhere else in Brazil.
Elias Bigio, coordinator of FUNAI’s uncontacted Indians unit, said, ‘We do not know how these people live, which language they speak, how they hunt or about their culture.’ He said that FUNAI’s policy is not to contact them but to confirm their existence and to map out their lands.
The expedition comes as a result of signs that the number of uncontacted Indians in the Javari Valley may be decreasing. A flight over the forest in July identified two huts in a Korubo settlement, a significant decrease from the nine huts and 300 individuals identified at the end of the 1990s.
Fransciscato Rieli, coordinator of the expedition, said, ‘One of our most exciting moments was in 1988 when we helped map the 400,000 hectares of the Masako tribe in Rondônia.’ The 1988 expedition was the first to be carried out under FUNAI’s current policy of not contacting uncontacted Indians, and instead focusing on mapping out and protecting the tribes’ lands.
In recent year the tribes of the Javari Valley have suffered from appalling health problems, especially a virulent form of hepatitis and epidemics of malaria. Indians leaders have regularly denounced Brazil’s health foundation which has failed to deal with the crisis.
Earlier this year Nobel Peace Prize laureate Adolfo Perez Esquivel wrote to President Lula urging him to intervene. BBC presenter Bruce Parry visited the Matis who told him member of their community were dying from diseases.
Survival is campaigning for the right of uncontacted tribes to remain uncontacted and for their territories to be recognized and protected.
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© Survival International, 2009 | Registered charity no. 267444 | 501(c)(3) registered nonprofit
- 02-11-2009 - Algemeen
Amazonian natives say they will defend tribal lands from Hunt Oil with "their lives
Indigenous natives in the Amazon are headed to the town of Salvacion in Peru with a plan to forcibly remove the Texas-based Hunt Oil company from their land as early as today. Peruvian police forces, numbering in the hundreds, are said to be waiting in the town.
The crisis has risen over an area known as Lot 76, or the Amarakaeri Communal Reserve. The 400,000 hectare reserve was created in 2002 to protect the flora and fauna of the area, as well as to safeguard watersheds of particular importance to indigenous groups in the region.
Despite its protected status, in 2006 the Peruvian government granted concessions within the reserve to two oil companies, Hunt Oil and the Spanish company Repsol.
According to FENAMAD (the Native Federation of the Madre de Dios) protections had been slowly and systematically stripped from the reserve without indigenous groups' input. In addition, FENADMAD contends that Hunt Oil has violated international standards and the Peruvian constitution by going ahead with their operations without approval from the indigenous groups.
Hunt's director of environmental health and safety for Lot 76, Silvana Lay, disagrees. He told the Indian Country Today that “we weren’t going to come in until the Master Plan was approved. We waited two years, and during that period we met with the communities and gave information. We have the signatories of everybody saying the work can go ahead – within the rules, of course. And then we received a call saying the work cannot go ahead.”
However, indigenous groups say that Hunt Oil only met with two communities: the Shintuya and the Puerto Luz, leaving others who use the reserve out in the cold.
A document written by FENAMAD further alleges that the Environmental and Social Impact Study conducted by Hunt Oil and approved by the federal government is "completely irresponsible and [does] not describe any reality for the area. It was approved illegally and unconstitutionally, in spite of the observations made by a group of professionals from civil society in Madre de Dios."
On September 13th of this year representatives of indigenous groups released a statement that said "the entry of Hunt Oil and Respol into the interior of the Amarakaeri Communal Reserve to execute seismic projects is not accepted, a decision that will be respected by the Peruvian State, Hunt Oil and Repsol, who have been present witnesses to this decision."
However, Hunt Oil has continued its seismic surveys inside the reserve. It is their unwillingness to halt activities that has prompted the indigenous groups to travel to Salvacion and, according to statements made by the indigenous groups, forcibly remove the US-corporation from their land.
"The most vulnerable ecological and cultural areas are now being invaded by seismic lines, whose impacts are irreparable. The area of intervention is one of very high biological value from a worldwide perspective and its surface and underground hydrological system have great cultural significance for the Harakmbut, which makes this a vital space for the subsistence of not only the indigenous communities, but the greater population of the Amazon Basin," the document by FENAMAD states. "For that reason, all of the beneficiary communities of the RCA have taken the position of impeding the entrance into the oil block and defending the protected area with their lives."
FENAMAD's statement may be a portent: in June a clash between native peoples and Peruvian police over exploitation of the Amazon turned bloody. Thousands of indigenous people blocked roads to protest new rule changes that made it easier for foreign companies to extract oil, gas, minerals, and timber from the Peruvian Amazon, including tribal lands. During the ensuing clash, twenty-three police were killed and at least ten protestors, according to official numbers. Indigenous groups, however, say that hundreds remain missing and have asked for a Truth Commission to investigate the tragic incident.
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Copyright mongabay 2009
- 23-10-2009 - Algemeen
Climate change in Russia's Arctic tundra:
'Our reindeer go hungry. There isn't enough pasture'
For 1,000 years the indigenous Nenets people have herded their reindeer along the Yamal peninsula. But their survival in this remote region of north-west Siberia is under serious threat from climate change as Russia's ancient permafrost melts
It is one of the world's last great wildernesses, a 435-mile long peninsula of lakes and squelching tundra stretching deep into the Arctic Ocean. For 1,000 years the indigenous Nenets people have migrated along the Yamal peninsula. In summer they wander northwards, taking their reindeer with them, across a landscape of boggy ponds, rhododendron-like shrubs and wind-blasted birch trees. In winter they return southwards.
But this remote region of north-west Siberia is now under heavy threat from global warming. Traditionally the Nenets travel across the frozen Ob River in November and set up camp in the southern forests around Nadym. These days, though, this annual winter pilgrimage is delayed. Last year the Nenets, together with many thousands of reindeer, had to wait until late December when the ice was finally thick enough to cross.
"Our reindeer were hungry. There wasn't enough pasture," Jakov Japtik, a Nenets reindeer herder, told the Guardian. "The snow is melting sooner, quicker and faster than before. In spring it's difficult for the reindeer to pull the sledges. They get tired," Japtik said, speaking in his camp 25kms from Yar-Sale, the capital of Russia's Arctic Yamal-Nenets district.
Herders say that the peninsula's weather is increasingly unpredictable – with unseasonal snowstorms when the reindeer give birth in May, and milder longer autumns. In winter temperatures used to go down to -50C. Now they are typically -30C, according to Japtik. "Obviously we prefer -30C. But the changes aren't good for the reindeer and ultimately what is good for the reindeer is good for us," he said, setting off on his sled to round up his itinerant reindeer herd.
Japtik lives on the tundra in a reindeer-skin tent or chum (ital) with his wife, mother, and three-year-old nephew Albert. There is also baby Pasha. The Japtiks live with three other families; the group has around 600 reindeer. The family slaughters a reindeer every couple of weeks, eating it raw and with pasta. They also catch fish – slicing off filets of sushi-like whitefish, taken from the thousands of virgin-lakes across the peninsula.
Here in one of the most remote parts of the planet there are clear signs the environment is under strain. Last year the Nenets arrived at a regular summer camping spot and discovered that half of their lake had disappeared. It had drained away after a landslide. While landslides can occur naturally, scientists say there is unmistakable evidence that Yamal's ancient permafrost is melting. The Nenets report other curious changes - fewer mosquitoes and a puzzling increase in gadflies.
"It's an indication of the global warming process, like the opening of the Arctic waters for shipping this summer," says Vladimir Tchouprov, Greenpeace Russia's energy unit head. The melting of Russia's permafrost could have catastrophic results for the world, Tchouprov says, by releasing billions of tonnes of carbon dioxide and the potent greenhouse gas methane, that was previously trapped in frozen soil.
Russia – the world's biggest country by geographical area - is already warming at one and a half times the rate of other parts of the world. If global temperatures do go up by the 4C many scientists fear, the impact on Russia would be disastrous. Much of Russia's northern region would be turned into impenetrable swamp. Houses in several Arctic towns are already badly subsiding.
Many Russians, however, are sceptical that climate change exists. Others rationalise that it might bring benefits to one of the world's coldest countries, freeing up a melting Arctic for oil and gas exploration, and extending the country's brief growing season. Russia's scientific community seems sceptical of global warming and the Kremlin doesn't appear to regard the issue as a major domestic problem; public awareness of climate change in Russia is lower than in any other European country.
Western politicians, however, point out that it is in Russia's interests to take action on climate change and to push for ambitious targets at December's Copenhagen summit. "There is 5,000 miles of railway track built on permafrost. It could crumble as a result of melting," Ed Miliband, the secretary of state for climate change, pointed out during a recent visit to Moscow.
However, even Russians working in the Arctic are unconvinced that their country faces a serious climate-change problem. "It's rubbish. It's invented. People who spend too long sitting at home have made up climate change," Alexander Chikmaryov, who runs a remote weather station on the Yamal peninsula, said, standing in his dilapidated station strewn with rusting engine parts and a broken-down wind turbine.
Chikmaryov lives in Marresale, an outpost on the Yamal peninsula's north-west coast overlooking the Kara Sea. A small community of Nenets hunters live nearby; otherwise there's nobody for a hundred kilometres. The weather here is, not surprisingly, bitterly cold; the sea freezes nine months of the year. The word Yamal means "end of the world" in Nenets language, and in Marresale you see why.
In fact, Chikmaryov's own data suggests that global warming is a real problem here too. In 2008 the ice was 164cm thick; this year it is 117cm. Winter temperatures have gone up too – from lows of -50C in 1914, when the station was founded, to -40C today. Every year large chunks of the coast on which the station is precariously perched fall into the sea. On the beach there is a jagged layer of thawing permafrost.
And there are other unnatural signs. On 15 August a large polar bear ambled into Marresale and started rooting through the station's rubbish bin. "It was 7pm. The bear was enormous. We set off a flare. It ran off," she recalled. Polar bear sightings are becoming increasingly common – with the bears apparently venturing south from their far-northern habitat in search of food. "They are an impudent lot. They aren't afraid of humans," Ludmilla says, gleefully recalling how one polar bear ripped the scalp from a Russian scientist living on Franz Josef Land.
Back on the tundra Japitik was rounding up his reindeer. Some were already back at the camp; their munching resembled the soft clicking of a thousand knitting needles. "I've lived all of my life in the tundra," he said.
"The reindeer for us are everything – food, transport and accommodation. The only thing I hope is that we will be able to carry on with this life."
- 16-10-2009 - Algemeen
Venezuelan Yukpa Indigenous Community Attacked, Two Murdered Following Land Grants
On Tuesday, the day after the national government granted more than 40,000 hectares of land to Yukpa indigenous communities in northwestern Venezuela, assassins attacked the community of Yukpa chief and indigenous rights activist Sabino Romero, killing two and injuring at least four.
Romero's son in law, Ever Garcia, and a young, pregnant Yukpa woman were shot dead in the attack. Romero received three bullet wounds and is currently in the hospital in stable condition, according to reports from the community. Romero's daughter, grand daughter, and nephew were also hospitalized with bullet wounds, and are now in the hospital in stable condition.
Romero was one of several Yukpa chiefs who led land occupations last year to demand that the government pay indemnity to the private estate owners and transfer the land to the Yukpa in the form of collective property, in accordance with the Venezuelan Constitution and indigenous rights laws passed by the government of President Hugo Chavez.
Since the land occupations began in July 2008, the Yukpa communities involved have been subject to repeated death threats and attacks by thugs believed to have been hired by large estate owners and their local government allies.
In August 2008, estate owner Alejandro Vargas participated in an attack on Romero's community, during which Romero's father, a community elder of more than one hundred years of age, was beaten and killed.
Vargas, a cattle rancher, in an attempt to justify his deadly raid on the Yukpa, accused Romero of stealing several head of cattle. He also claimed on one occasion to have paid bribes to local legal authorities for protection against prosecution, according to the victims of the attacks.
The Yukpa reported the attacks to local police, who said investigations were opened, but no suspects have been arrested.
The National Guard maintains a heavy presence and the government plans to build a new military base in the sparsely populated and conflict-ridden border zone, which is rich in coal deposits and affected by the spillover of refugees, guerrilla insurgents, and paramilitaries from the civil war in Colombia.
Romero and other Yukpa chiefs allied with him are openly opposed to the land grants issued by the government on Monday. They say the government did not effectively consult with the Yukpa communities about the proper demarcation of Yukpa land, and instead carved up Yukpa territory to protect large estate owners, preserve access to coal deposits, and preserve space for a military base in the region. Meanwhile, several other Yukpa chiefs have allied themselves with Minister for Indigenous Affairs Nicia Maldonado and supported the government's plan for indigenous land demarcation.
Housing and Credits Granted to Indigenous October 12th
In addition to the land titles issued on October 12th in celebration of Columbus Day, which the Chavez government officially renamed Indigenous Resistance Day in 2004, the government also gave houses, transport vehicles, and a variety of small business credits to semi-rural indigenous communities in the states of Amazonas, Bolivar, Anzoátegui, and Zulia.
Education Minister Hector Navarro and Agriculture and Land Minister Elias Jaua attended the inauguration of a bilingual public primary school in Anzoátegui state, where the local indigenous community will be able to study and learn in Spanish as well as their native language.
In the Amazon region, Presidential Chief of Staff Luis Reyes visited a community of approximately one hundred Piaroa families who received small houses of uniform suburban design that were built by the government. The government also gave the community vehicles to transport fruit from their farms to the market. In previous years, the community received credits to build a fruit processing plant and a radio station, and the government built a primary school and a local health clinic as well.
Venezuela's indigenous population constitutes less than two percent of the national population. Indigenous communities have gained substantial constitutional, legal, and parliamentary recognition since President Chavez took office in 1999.
- 16-10-2009 - Algemeen
Venezuela Grants Land to Indigenous Communities On Indigenous Resistance Day
Celebrating 517 years of indigenous resistance to invasion and colonisation Venezuela marked Indigenous Resistance Day on Monday with a street march through the capital, Caracas, the granting of title deeds to indigenous communities, and a special session of the National Assembly.
Across the Americas October 12 is widely celebrated as Columbus Day, the day in 1492 when Christopher Columbus, representing the Spanish Crown, first arrived in the Americas. In 2004 the Venezuelan government officially changed the name to Indigenous Resistance Day.
In Caracas, thousands of members of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), together with members of Venezuela's 44 indigenous groups, marched to the National Pantheon, in order to celebrate achievements for indigenous peoples under the Chavez government and claim their rights as the original inhabitants of the country.
A special session of the National Assembly then took place in the Pantheon, where the remains of 16th Century Indigenous Cacique (Chief) Guaicaipuro lie as well as those of Venezuelan independence leader Simon Bolivar, who fought against Spanish colonialism.
Also during a special ceremony in Zulia state, Venezuelan Interior Relations and Justice Minister, Tarek el Aissami, handed over title deeds covering some 41,630 hectares of land to three Yukpa indigenous communities in the Sierra de Perija National Park.
"Today we join in this celebration of Indigenous Resistance Day, the day of the dignity of the indigenous peoples of Latin America and particularly of the Bolivarian and Revolutionary Venezuela," stressed the minister.
Yupka community spokesperson Efrain Romero said, "It's historic to receive title to the lands we inhabit," and added, "We reaffirm our fight for this revolution to continue advancing (...) we reaffirm our support for President Hugo Chávez."
In recent years the Sierra de Perija region has been the scenario of a fierce conflict between large "landowners" and the indigenous communities who were forcibly driven off their lands during the Perez Jimenez dictatorship in the 1940s.
The situation came to a head in July 2008 when Yukpa indigenous communities occupied 14 large estates to demand legal title to their ancestral lands. Estate owner Alejandro Vargas and four others, armed with guns and machetes, responded by attempting to assassinate the Yukpa cacique (chief) Sabino Romero, who was leading the occupations, and beat and killed Romero's elderly 109-year-old father Jose Manuel Romero.
Then on August 6 hundreds of armed mercenaries, hired by large landowners, attacked the indigenous communities.
At the time Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez slammed what he described as the "ambiguous attitudes" of some government functionaries in dealing with the land demarcation process and ordered an investigation into the violent attacks.
"There should be no doubt: Between the large estate owners and the Indians, this government is with the Indians" Chavez said.
During his speech today El Aissami emphasised that the delivery of title deeds of land to indigenous peoples is one of the policies promoted by the National Executive to ensure comprehensive recognition of the ancestral territorial rights of indigenous peoples.
Sergio Rodríguez, a spokesperson for the Environment Ministry clarified that other areas belonging to Yukpa communities are yet to be demarcated but said the ministry, together with the indigenous communities and other agencies that comprise the National Demarcation Commission, "will continue to work to resolve the situation. Our goal is to provide land titles to those Yukpa sectors that lack them by the end of the year."
However, another dispute in the Sierra de Perija region between the Barí, Yukpa, and Wayúu indigenous peoples resisting coal mining on their lands on the one hand and the state-owned Corpozulia, still has not been fully resolved.
The government is also expected to hand over title deeds covering 5,310 hectares to the 366 strong Palital community, belonging to the Kari'ña ethnicity in the state of Anzoategui.
Speaking at the closing ceremony of the III Congress of the Great Abya Yala [the Americas] Nation of Anti-Imperialist Indigenous Peoples from the South in the remote Amazonas state, Minister for the President's Office, Luis Reyes Reyes, also granted credits to representatives of indigenous communities to assist in agricultural production.
Despite many unresolved issues, indigenous peoples have made significant advances in Venezuela over the last 10 years. The Bolivarian Constitution adopted in 1999, through Art. 8 specifically emphasises recognition and respect for indigenous land rights, culture, language, and customs. According to the constitution, the role of the Venezuelan state is to participate with indigenous people in the demarcation of traditional land, guaranteeing the right to collective ownership. The state is also expected to promote the cultural values of indigenous people.
Article 120 of the Constitution also states that exploitation of any natural resource is "subject to prior information and consultation with the native communities concerned."
In 2003 the government also initiated the Guaicaipuro Mission, a social program aimed at the promotion and realization of indigenous rights as recognised in the constitution.
Venezuela's indigenous people, who comprise approximately 1.6% of the population, also have three indigenous representatives in the National Assembly.
- 16-10-2009 - Algemeen
Truth Commission on Amazon massacre established
Peru’s Amazonian indigenous alliance AIDESEP hailed the government’s formation of an investigative commission on the June 5 massacre at Bagua as “an important step” towards reconciliation in the wake of June’s deadly unrest in the lowland rainforest.
But indigenous leaders in Peru’s Amazon region of Madre de Dios Sept. 13 issued a joint statement rejecting a Hunt Oil contract on their traditional territories. Antonio Iviche, president of the Native Federation of the Río Madre de Dios (FENAMAD), warned that if Hunt Oil doesn’t quit the territory, indigenous communities will physically expel them. The statement was released following a meeting with Hunt representatives at FENAMAD’s offices in the regional capital, Puerto Maldonado. Hunt is currently opening trails in preparation of seismic exploration within the local indigenous reserve, while FENAMAD has gone to court seeking an injunction to halt the work.
Iviche, a traditional Harakmbut leader, said the oil project threatens the forests and waters of the Amarakaeri Communal Reserve, established in 2002 for the use of local Harakmbut, Yine and Matsigenka communities. “The project will destroy the forest and affect animals we use for food. Instead of going to the supermarket for food or medicine, we go to the forest. We depend on it for our sustenance.”
Iviche also charges that – in violation of international standards and Peru’s constitution – Hunt is operating without the consent of the area’s Native inhabitants. “They never have consulted with the communities,” he said, adding that residents are overwhelmingly opposed to the operations.
“The directors are divided – the company has changed their discourse,” he said, referring to indigenous members of the reserve’s governing council. “But there is a firm position in all the communities against the oil activities.”
On Sept. 9, FENAMAD brought suit before the Madre de Dios Superior Court of Justice – the equivalent of a local district court – seeking an injunction against Hunt’s exploration work. “We have to attack on every level – using the courts but ready to defend our territory physically,” FENAMAD secretary Jaime Corisepa said.
At the end of the meeting, Iviche announced that if Hunt doesn’t withdraw from the reserve, the communities are prepared to carry out a “desalojo” – eviction.
Silvana Lay, a forestry engineer who serves as Hunt’s director of environmental health and safety for the Lot 76 project, defended the company’s position.
“We weren’t going to come in until the Master Plan was approved. We waited two years, and during that period we met with the communities and gave information. We have the signatories of everybody saying the work can go ahead – within the rules, of course. And then we received a call saying the work cannot go ahead.”
FENAMAD attorney Milton Mercado rejected Lay’s portrayal. “The only consultation has been with Shintuya and Puerto Luz,” he said, referring to the two communities whose titled lands Hunt actually intends to work in.
He said there has been no consultation with the other communities that have access to the reserve for hunting and gathering, and whose leaders make up the reserve’s governing council, known as the Administrative Contract Executive or ECA.
“The ECA has never signed any document allowing Hunt in the reserve,” he said. While the reserve’s Master Plan worked out by the ECA and Peru’s public lands agency allows oil exploitation in a general sense, it makes no reference to the Hunt contract. And this provision was added above the protests of the communities.
Consultation is mandated by the International Labor Organization’s Convention 169, to which Peru is a signatory. The principle is also enshrined in Article 6 of Peru’s constitution.
As tensions mount in Madre de Dios, dialogue between AIDESEP and the government of President Alan Garcia continues in Lima. Seven members of the commission to investigate the Bagua massacre have been chosen – three by AIDESEP, three by the executive branch, and one to represent Peru’s regional governments.
The move came after weeks of dialogue with AIDESEP, and growing international pressure. Days earlier, the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination issued a formal recommendation that the government of Peru open an “exhaustive, objective and impartial investigation, including indigenous representatives” into the deadly violence at Bagua.
There are still conflicting accounts of the violence that ensued when National Police troops broke up an indigenous road blockade at Devil’s Curve in Bagua district of Peru’s Amazonas region June 5. The official claim of 34 deaths including only nine Natives is in sharp contrast to as many as 40 deaths among indigenous rainforest inhabitants reported by AIDESEP.
Salomon Awanash, an Awajon leader from Bagua and AIDESEP spokesman emphasize that establishment of the truth commission is only a first step. The initial issue behind the June protest campaign that climaxed with the Bagua violence – Garcia’s controversial “legislative decrees” on land and resource use issued in preparation for the new Free Trade Agreement with the United States – remains unresolved.
“Of the 100 decrees issued by Garcia, none favor the indigenous peoples,” Awanash said. “If the government does not comply with our demands, we are ready to return to our paro.”
Awanash recalls that this struggle has been underway since Garcia released the decrees in April 2008 – and has resulted in some key victories.
“Decrees 1015 and 1073 were overturned last August following our protests, and later ruled unconstitutional by the congressional constitutional commission,” he said. “But we called a national paro this April that continued through June 5 with the events at Bagua and the lamentable deaths of indigenous people, police and the civil population.”
In the outcry over the Bagua violence, two more of Garcia’s decrees – 1090 and 1064 – were overturned by Peru’s congress. “These decrees would have directly affected indigenous lands and our rights, our flora and our fauna,” Awanash said.
But AIDESEP is still demanding the repeal of several other decrees – 1089, 1020 and 994, according to Awanash.
So far, the Garcia administration has only met two demands – that the government recognize AIDESEP at the dialogue table, and establishment of the Bagua investigation commission. More general demands for a sustainable development model for the Amazon that includes education, health, environmental protection and indigenous participation on decision making may be met with a national plan for the rainforest, scheduled to be released at year’s end, when the truth commission is also to turn in its findings.
More immediate outstanding demands are for restitution to the families of those killed at Bagua, and what Awanash calls a “halt to the persecution.”
With charges stalled against the commanding generals at Bagua, 41 AIDESEP leaders are facing charges related to the incident. Eight have been detained – and one, Santiago Manuin, remains in the hospital, gravely wounded. Three, including AIDESEP president Alberto Pizango, are in exile in Nicaragua. The remainder are in hiding. AIDESEP said any violence by its followers was in self-defense, and wants all charges dropped.
Awanash stresses that every government proposal in the talks must be taken back to regional leaders for discussion. “We are leaders, but we do not make decisions. Every decision is taken in coordination with the base.”
Despite the high price paid at Bagua, the fact that indigenous leaders are now speaking face-to-face with cabinet ministers is unprecedented, Awanash notes.
“For the first time in our history as Peruvian indigenous peoples, we have been recognized by the government since the events of June 5. The government has always maintained that the Amazon is vacant, that there is nobody there – only forest, water and natural resources. Since June, we have been recognized at a national and international level, and we are exercising our rights.”
Awanash said the process by which the decrees were promulgated violated international principles on indigenous rights. “The government proposals were made without consulting the communities. We have the right to be consulted on the development of our lands.”
While consultation is the fundamental principle, he goes further – virtually dismissing the possibility of corporate exploitation of Peru’s indigenous lands.
“There is no international corporation that complies with our demands. Whatever development takes place on our lands, we want it to be under the control of our communities. We want collective development, in which all are equal participants.”
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© 1998 - 2009 Indian Country Today
- 16-10-2009 - Algemeen
Second Guarani village burned in Mato Grosso do Sul
On the morning of Sept. 18, the Guarani community of Apyka’y was violently attacked by a group of ten armed men.
One Guarani was injured after the men fired randomly toward their village camp, situated along the BR-483 highway in Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil. Several others were “beaten with fists and knives”.
The attackers are believed to be security guards, hired by the ranchers that occupy the Guarani’s land. According to Survival International, “the Guarani-Kaiowá of Apyka’y have tried several times to return to their tekoha or ancestral land, which they were forced to leave a decade ago when it was occupied by ranchers. After the Indians’ latest attempt to reoccupy their land, the rancher got an eviction order from the courts, and the community was evicted in April 2009.”
They’ve been living by roadside ever since. However, with no immediate access to water, the community had no choice but turn to the ranch for a supply. The security guards were apparently hired to stop the Guarani from collecting water.
Now, without any water or land, it would appear the Guarani can’t even be displaced. After the Guarani were attacked, the gunmen set fire to their camp and warned them to abandon the area or they would be killed. The Guarani are deeply concerned that an attack may be imminent.
This is the second Guarani village to come under attack in less than a week. Just four days earlier, on Sept. 14, the Guarani community of Nanderu Laranjeirawas was forced to abandon their ancestral lands, also in Mato Grosso. That same night, the community watched on as their village was burned to the ground.
- 16-10-2009 - Algemeen
Officer arrested over alleged killing of Awa Indians
A human rights prosecutor ordered the arrested of an officer in the Colombian Armed Forces for his alleged role in the killing of five indigenous Awa Indians.
Lieutenant Alberto Williams Echeverry was given a detention without bail for his involvement in the deaths of the five Indians on August 9, 2006. The Lieutenant then attempted to pass the dead Awa off as FARC guerrillas 'killed in combat', reported Colombian media on Wednesday.
Allegedly also linked to the killings is Army Sergeant Alexander Guerrero Castellanos.
In August 2009, 12 indigenous Indians were slaughtered while sheltering in a supposed 'safe house' in a region about 700km southwest fo the Colombian capital, Bogota. Members of the tribe to which these 12 belonged have repeatedly claimed that they were being targeted because they had witnessed the murder of one of their community at the hands of the Army.
However, Colombian authorities have denounced the FARC guerrilla force and the drug traffickers as those responsible for attacks on the indigenous population.
There are currently 102 indigenous tribes living throughout Colombia - their communities and culture are supposedly protected by the national government.
At present the majority of the Awa, one of the tribes to have suffered most as a result of the Colombian Armed Conflict, are concentrated across 21 sheltered settlements in the south of the country. The Awa, along with innumerable others throughout Latin America are at a serious risk of disappearing altogether due to civil conflict and exploitation and disregard for their basic rights.
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Copyright © 2009 Colombia news | Colombia Reports
- 15-10-2009 - Algemeen
Obituary : Innu Daniel Ashini
Columbus Day - October 12, 2009 fighter for the rights of his peoples deceased Arctic Peoples Alert received the sad news that Daniel Ashini passed away in Nitassinan on Columbus Day, October 12, 2009. His family and the Innu Nation are losing a brave, strong, diligent and dedicated advocate for the rights of his peoples. In 1986 the Dutch Royal Air Force stopped the extreme low flying exercises with F-16's over Nitassinan (part of Labrador and Quebec), the home of the Innu ( "Montagnais-Naskapi Indians"). Since that time, the Foundation Innu Support Group (forerunner of Arctic Peoples Alert) had regular contact with the Innu Nation. Soon we came in to contact with the heavy warrior, Daniel Ashini. On October 12, 1992 he was one of the four Innu who, with fifty supporters, occupied the runway of Volkel air force base in the south of The Netherlands. For the occupation of the runway of the Goose Bay air force base during the visit of the Dutch Defense Minister, the late Relus ter Beek, Daniel was sentenced to prison a few days. One of the moments to remember was the encounter between hunters who spoke the same "language", the burly Daniel Ashini from the wintry Nitassinan and small, slender David Kruiper (San, Bushmen) from the warm southern Africa, during their participation to the 50th session of the UN Human Rights Commission in February 1994, Geneva, Switzerland. Following the withdrawal of the Dutch low flying exercises over Nitassinan, Arctic Peoples Alert has focused on all indigenous Arctic peoples. Daniel Ashine, the late Penote Michel (1954-2006) and many known and unknown members of the Innu Nation are always in our thoughts. Many times we tell our unique experiences, here or in Nitassinan, in Europe or around the Arctic Circle. Via St. Niklaas, Belgium and Helsinki, Finland we were informed of the death of Daniel Ashine. He struggled with health for some time. He died before his fiftieth birthday of a heart attack in the hospital in Happy Valley Goose Bay, Labrador. With their tireless efforts they paid a price with their early pass away. We wish the family and the Innu Nation the strength they need. Govert de Groot Arctic Peoples Alert
1959-2009