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EDICOLA / KIOSK | LADINBy Yvonne Bangert, Ulrich Delius, Sarah Reinke, Kerstin Veigt
Göttingen, August 2006
Contents
Indigenous peoples: Who they are and their position in international law [ top ]
Indigenous peoples are the guardians of the cultural diversity
of the earth. Their wealth consists in their many languages and
cultures, the wisdom of their religions and of their way of
coping with nature. Where they live the diversity of plants and
animals is particularly large. The English word "indigenous" was
used by the Working Group on Indigenous Populations of the United
Nations (UNWGIP) in 1995, to denote peoples who were the first to
populate and use a particular territory, who maintain their own
cultural identity, which can include language, social
organisation, religion, spirituality, means of production, laws
or self-government institutions or which see themselves as
different and closed off from other groups and are recognized as
such by other groups. It is estimated that these comprise between
350 and 400 million people belonging to the approximately 5,000
indigenous peoples in 75 countries.
The largest group is made up of the Adivasi in India with some
70-80 million people, followed by the indigenous peoples of the
American continent numbering more than 40 million. Indigenous
peoples are the Tuareg in the Sahara countries, the pygmies in
the central African rain forests, the Penan in Malaysia, hill
peoples in Bangladesh and Burma, the Ainu in Japan, Siberian
indigenous peoples in Russia, the Maori in New Zealand,
aborigines, the inhabitants of the Pacific islands, the Inuit in
Alaska, Canada, Greenland and Siberia or the Saami in Scandinavia
and on the Russian Kola peninsula, to name but a few. In the past
three decades the situation of the indigenous peoples in
international law has changed radically. In 1976 the first
international representation of interests of the World Council of
Indigenous Peoples, founded by Indians from North, South and
Central America, Saami from Scandinavia, Maori from New Zealand,
Inuit from the Arctic and Aboriginal Peoples from Australia and
received the status of advisory body at the United Nations. In
1977 a large Pan-Indian delegation was received in Geneva for the
first time at the United Nations. Some delegates from all parts
of the continent came to Germany afterwards at the invitation of
the Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV), where they could
disperse the clichés of the Hollywood and Karl May Indians
before audiences of several thousands. From 1983 onwards the UN
Working Group on Indigenous Populations (WGIP) at its annual
conferences offered the indigenous peoples a forum and the
opportunity of meeting each other and their supporters and of
using the institutions of the UNO for their concerns.
Ten years later from the Vienna World Conference on Human Rights
(1993) emerged the International Decade for Indigenous People,
which was opened by the Plenary meeting in December 1994 and
started in January 1995. Notable successes of this decade were
the nomination of the Mexican Rodolfo Stavenhagen as first
Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights and
fundamental freedoms of indigenous peoples and the creation of a
Permanent Forum for Indigenous Issues (PFII) seated in New York
City, which is made up equally of representatives of the
countries concerned and the indigenous people and which sat for
the first time in May 2002. The Working Group for the Draft
Declaration (WGDD) did not however manage to achieve its goal of
putting a declaration for the human rights of in indigenous
peoples to the vote at the UN Human Rights Commission by the end
of the decade in 2004. Many national states did not want to
extend the generally accepted individual right to a collective
right of the native peoples as groups or peoples and interpreted
their wish for sovereignty in the sense of self-government as
secession.
The Second UN Decade for the Indigenous Peoples beginning in 2005
brought about the big change. The UN Human Rights Council (HRC),
which replaced the UIN Human Rights Commission, followed at its
first meeting in June 2006 the appeals of the UN General
Secretary, Kofi Annan, Special Rapporteur Stavenhagen and various
indigenous delegates, accepting after a crucial vote - also with
the vote of Germany - the Declaration. Only Canada and Russia
voted against the motion. 12 other states abstained, three did
not take part in the vote. The Declaration has now been sent to
the UN Plenary Assembly to be finally passed at its next meeting.
Of course other majorities could eventuate. For this reason it is
important for intensive lobbying to continue - also on the part
of the GfbV - in order to win UN members for the Declaration. The
future of the WGIP and the Institution of the Special Rapporteur
is uncertain, for the Human Rights Council HRC has not yet
decided on their retention and the fundamental modus of including
the indigenous peoples and their human rights in its work. Here
too we shall be working hard for the protection of the interests
of the indigenous peoples. We are of the opinion that a special
rapporteur is necessary in this regard. But we shall also join
with other human rights NGO's in asking the HRC to ensure that
the states in their country reports make policies towards
indigenous peoples a matter of obligatory concern.
The Convention (No. 169) concerning Indigenous and Tribal
Peoples in Independent Countries of the International Labour
Organisation (ILO), which came into force in September 1991
retains its validity. This was until now ratified by 17 states
(Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Costa Rica, Denmark, Ecuador, Fiji,
Guatemala, Honduras, Dominica, Columbia, Mexico, the Netherlands,
Norway, Paraguay, Peru and Venezuela), among them with Norway,
Denmark and the Netherlands also three European countries. In 44
articles the basic standards are drawn up for handling the
relationship between the majority society and the indigenous and
tribal peoples. Particular importance is attached to the right to
cultural identity and to communal structures and traditions (Art.
4), the right to land and resources (Art. 13-19), the right to
employment and commensurate work conditions (Art. 20), the
procedure of consultation as such and the right to be involved in
the kind of development on the specific lands (Art. 6 and 7). On
the EU level the Convention is seen as a signpost for the
planning and carrying out of development projects. The European
Parliament called on the EU governments in 1994 already (with a
motion for a resolution A3- 0059/94) to join the ILO Convention.
In 1998 the EU Commission passed a strategy paper with particular
reference to an improved cooperation in the future between the EU
and the indigenous peoples. In the same year the Council of
Ministers passed a corresponding resolution (13461/98).
In the Federal Republic of Germany the ratification of the ILO
Convention 169 has also been an issue for a long time. In 1996
already the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and
Development (BMZ) put forward a favourable expression in a
strategy paper towards the consideration of the ILO Convention
169 in German foreign, economic and development policy. The
Ministry still holds its positive view today. The Kohl government
did no see any obstacles in terms of international law either,
but did not proceed with ratification since it was assumed that
the Convention was only addressed to states within whose borders
indigenous peoples lived. However it is only right and proper for
Germany, a country without any native population of it own, to
ratify the Convention for with its foreign, economic and
development policy the Federal Republic also exercises an
immediate influence on the conditions of life of members of
indigenous peoples and communities. The involvement of German
firms and banks in the construction of dams or of oil pipeline
projects are examples of this just like the import of mineral oil
or natural gas. For this reason Germany is called upon to
exercise responsibility for the consequences of such projects.
One which aroused particular attention in 2005 was the Baltic Sea
pipeline, which the former Chancellor Schröder agreed upon
with the Russian President Putin. German companies are making
large profits from the pipeline. The gas, for the export of which
it is being built, comes from the land of native peoples in
Siberia. This is reason enough, for Germany as the partner of
Russia should bind itself by rules for the fair treatment of the
Siberian indigenous people.
So the German Parliament called on the government in 2002 with a
resolution of the then governing party SPD and Bündnis
90/Die Grünen to ratify the Convention. Since in the
following years no serious attempt was made to implement this
resolution the members of Parliament Thilo Hoppe, Hans-Christian
Ströbele and the party Bündnis 90/Die Grünen - now
as opposition party - brought a new motion before Parliament,
calling on the government to ratify the ILO Convention 169, which
in its first reading was sent to the Committee for Economic
Cooperation and Development. There is no mistaking the fact that
the indigenous peoples are all over the world coming out of the
shadows. It is no longer possible simply to overlook them. This
should however not make us blind to the fact that all the
mechanisms of the United Nations mentioned here are dependent on
the good will of the national states, for - with the exception of
the ILO Convention 169 - it is always a matter of declarations of
intent of the governments. They can on a moral level be demanded,
but it is not possible to sue for them in a legal sense or to
bring breaches before a court of law. The indigenous peoples will
therefore also be needing a strong lobby among human rights
experts and NGOs to make governments fear for their image and
possible loss of face.
Russia's wealth - A curse for the Russian indigenous population [ top ]
Anchored in the constitution, these are not implemented at the
regional level. The ILO Convention 169 has not so far been signed
by Russia, although the indigenous NGO RAIPON (Russian
Association of Indigenous Peoples of the North) has called for
this for a long time.
Khanty, Mansi and Nenets in West Siberia
In the autonomous district of the Khanty and Mansi there live
about 6,500 Mansi, 12,000 Khanty and 1,100 Nenets. Traditionally
they all live from hunting, fishing and reindeer-breeding. In the
south and west of the district the Mansi have for the most part
given up their traditional way of life, in the north and
particularly in the east however they are still trying to live in
the same way as their forebears did. But it is precisely in the
east, in the districts of Nizhnivartovski, Surgutski and
Nefteyuganski that the drilling of oil has increased. For this
reason severe conflicts arise between the indigenous and the
Russian majority population, which supports the exploitation of
the resources. Culturally the Mansi are closely related to the
Khanty, with whom they live together in many areas. Their
environment is being destroyed and so many Mansi have been forced
bit by bit to give up hunting and fishing. Since the 1960s the
oil reserves in the district of the Khanty and Mansi have been
exploited. Industrialisation took place rapidly, new towns have
been built and people from central Russia have poured into the
district. Mansi have been forcibly evacuated from the oil areas
and have had great difficulties to adjust to the new towns and a
new way of life. The suicide rate is high and life expectancy is,
not surprisingly, no more than 40 to 50 years. There are often
conflicts with the oil workers, who steal the reindeer and
poach.
The Khanty are divided into several sub-groups, living on the
rivers Ob and Irtysh. The relentless oil-mining and the
destruction of the environment which accompanies this has forced
many Khanty to give up their traditional way of life, to leave
their villages and to move to the towns, where they have found it
very difficult to settle down. Their culture has been in great
measure destroyed. For in the lands of the Khanty and Mansi with
their countless lakes, rivers, marshes and flooding areas, which
are all linked to one another, the creeping oil pollution can
hardly be stopped. Leaks in the pipelines have for years caused
large quantities of oil to flow into the sub-soil water and get
into the food chain. Many reindeer perish of lichen polluted by
oil. The gradual oil pollution of the whole environment causes
illnesses of humans and animals alike, particularly of the liver.
The disappearance of the stocks of fish, birds and wild animals
means the same for the means of sustenance for humans. The
following point must also be taken into account: after many years
of extracting mineral oil the natural pressure relaxes in many
places to such an extent that it no longer gushes out of the
ground by itself. For in Russia the usual procedure is for very
large quantities of water to be pumped into the ground together
with hydrochloric acid to force it up. This has for example in
the case of the river Kasym led to a considerable sinking of the
water-table. Since the rainfall in the boreal forest area is less
than in the temperate climate forest fires are in any case a
frequent phenomenon. Human action has led to a rapid
increase.
The Nenets are with some 35,000 people the largest indigenous
people in the Russian Federation. About 1,100 Nenets live in the
Autonomous District of the Khanty and Mansi, 21,000 on the Yamal
peninsular, which is in equal measure affected by the gas mining.
A large part of the Nenets population lives in nomad tents to the
present day or in small villages in the tundra or taiga. Reindeer
breeding is the most important element of their culture, which is
likewise threatened by the drilling of oil and gas. The German
natural gas company Wintershall AG and the Russian Gasprom
founded in 2003 a joint venture company (Achimgas) for the mining
and development of the Achimov formation of the deposit Urengoi
on the Yamal peninsular. The Urengoi gas-field, which was
discovered in 1966, is one of the largest continuous natural gas
sources in the world. It lies in the Autonomous District of the
Yamal Nenets nomads, 200 km south of the Ob Bay. Mining began in
1978. From January 1984 export to Western Europe began through
the Urengoi - Ushorod (Ukraine) natural gas pipe-line. The
current annual production of natural gas is about 200.000 million
cubic meters.
A railway line on the Yamal peninsular is planned to link the
gas-fields Kharassavei and Bovanenko with the town of Labytnang
near Salekhard. About eight pipe-lines are to be laid along the
railway, which is to provide the connection to the existing
natural gas pipes further in the south or in the Barents region
so that Western Europe can also be supplied from the Yamal
peninsula. Since the nineties of the 20th century the Nenets
nomads see themselves confronted with the consequences of the
climate change. The amount of rainfall has increased, which
immediately freezes, covering the reindeer moss with a layer of
ice so that the animals can no longer reach it. Today the
situation of the reindeer nomads is like a race against time.
They must bring their growing herds to new pastures which are
getting smaller all the time. Since the beginning of the eighties
large areas of the southern Yamal peninsular has therefore been
showing signs of over-grazing. Russian scientists estimate that
the herds of the reindeer breeders are one and a half to twice as
large as the soil of the Yamal peninsular can cope with.
Indigenous peoples on Sachalin and
Kamchatka
On the island of Sachalin in the far east of the Russian
Federation there live 650,000 people, among whom are 3,150
members of the Nivkhi, Nanais, Oroks, Orochi and Evenks. They
live for the most part as subsistence farmers, fishermen,
reindeer breeders or gatherers of wild plants. They are not
usually sufficiently qualified for jobs in the oil industry. The
Nivkhi are in the main traditionally fishermen.. They live in the
north of Sachalin. With about 2,000 members they are the largest
group of native inhabitants on the island. In the 1930s fishery
was collectivised. The Nivkhi were supposed to settle down and
work in fish farms, which were artificially kept alive by state
subsidies, although they were unprofitable. The children of the
farm workers were like those of the other indigenous groups
educated in state boarding-schools. There they soon forgot their
own language and also a great deal of their culture since the
education was conducted solely on Russian lines. The
approximately 1,000 Evenks living on Sachalin are traditionally
partially settled reindeer breeders. Domesticated reindeer are
used as animals for riding or transport purposes, wild reindeer
are hunted. The Evenks also were made in Soviet times to settle
and forced into collectives. Their social organisation and their
cultural traditions suffered as a result. In the meantime serious
attempts are being made to bring nomadism and the linked
subsistence economy back to life. The reindeer is still the most
important means of transport.
The approximately 130 Oroks are also traditionally partially
settled reindeer breeders, but also hunters and fishermen. The
Oroken in the north of Sachalin were forcibly collectivised in
1932 and settled in the area of the collective farm Val, which
had specialised in reindeer breeding. The Oroks living in the
south gave up reindeer breeding in the 19th century and settled
as fishermen. Up to the Second World War this part of Sachalin
belonged to Japan. The Oroks were viewed on both sides of the
frontier with distrust. When Sachalin at the end of the war was
taken over by the Soviet Union some of them feared being dragged
off into Soviet work-camps and were evacuated to the island of
Hokkaido in Japan. The approximately 170 Nanais are traditionally
settled fishermen and hunters. Most of them live on the mainland
and only a small group on Sachalin. Today it is mainly elderly
people who go fishing. Most have changed over in the course of
the collective farm economy to agriculture and animal husbandry.
Many Nanais are also working in qualified professions, such as
teachers.
The Orochi also were traditionally fishermen and hunters. Most
of them live in the south of the Khaborovski Kray on the
mainland. In the 19th century a group of them moved to the island
of Sachalin, where today some 210 Orochi live. The have settled
in villages and live from vegetables and animal husbandry. Many
also hunt and fish. Hunting for furs has decreased sharply as the
result of strict regulation by hunting licences. Off the coast of
Sachalin lie the largest reserves of oil and gas yet to be
exploited in the world. The oil reserves are estimated at 13
billion barrels (one barrel contains 159 litres). The oil and
gas-fields which have already been opened are Sachalin 1 to
Sachalin 6. They are drawing the large investors among the
international oil multi-nationals to Russia: Exxon-Mobil,
Chevron-Texaco, BP und Royal Dutch/Shell have joined together
with other oil companies.
The consortium of Shell, Mitsubishi and Mitsui is at present
planning to extend the project Sachalin 2. The second phase of
the project includes the construction of two new oil and
gas-platforms in the north of Sachalin together with the
construction of two 800 km long pipe-lines, which will go down
the whole island. 10,000 million dollars are to be invested for
this purpose. The pipe-lines are to link the existing and planned
oil-rigs in the north-east of the island with a harbour in the
south near the capital Yuzhno-Sachalinsk, from where mineral oil
and natural gas are to be pumped to North America and Japan.
These are to run partly on the sea-bed, partly on land. Planned
also is the construction of a pipe-line over 200 km long for the
block Sachalin 1 in the north of the island. Planned also is the
construction of a liquid natural gas production plant (LNG) to
liquefy natural gas and a corresponding harbour in the Aniva Bay.
Sachalin 2 is thus the largest oil and gas project in the world
with also the largest volume of investment.
Gradually resistance is gathering against the oil-mining by the
multi-nationals. Representatives of the indigenous peoples and
also of their umbrella organisation of 43 indigenous peoples in
Siberia RAIPON have tried to press their demands in talks with
the Russian authorities and representatives of the companies.
These negotiations failed however in December 2004. Thereafter
the native peoples saw no other way of defending their rights and
the natural resources of their island than blocking the
construction work and the roads leading there. They have also
written to the banks which are mainly involved in the financing
of these projects, the European Bank for Reconstruction and
Development in London and to other banks giving credit to the oil
industry in Tokio, London and Washington, asking them to mediate.
They know that they cannot prevent the oil-mining. What they want
is a compromise enabling them to maintain an independent economy
and allowing them to participate in the decisions of the oil
companies.
Self-government of the indigenous groups in
Russia
RAIPON was founded in 1990 as the "Association of the Peoples of
the North in the USSR". RAIPON is the umbrella organisation for
43 indigenous peoples, who make up a total of 200,000 persons.
The umbrella organisation consists of 34 sub-organisations having
their offices in the Russian regions. From there information
flows to the head-office in Moscow, where it is fed into
campaigns and lobby strategies. RAIPON is also a member of the
Arctic Council. Information on the organisation and its work can
be found on the internet page www.raipon.ru. A second important
organisation is LIENIP / Lauravetian, which was founded during
the past UN decade for Indigenous Affairs. LIENIP is an
information centre for indigenous groups. On the spot training is
provided in people's right and the ways in which these rights can
be upheld. The organisation is very concerned to train
multipliers, at the present moment in the centres in Altai,
Karelia and Krasnoyarsk. Further information can be found on the
internet page www.indigenous.ru. There are apart from these other
smaller connections which partly function as sub-organisations of
individual indigenous groups.
The GfbV was one of the first human rights organisations to give
indigenous representatives from the former Soviet Union a voice
and it has devoted three issues of the magazine "bedrohte
Völker - pogrom" to their problems. We have supported book
publications and campaigns for the indigenous peoples of Siberia,
lobby work at the German Parliament, UN, the Council of Europe
and involved oil companies and banks and created public opinion
with human rights campaigns. We have also given representatives
of the indigenous peoples the opportunity, by invitations and
accompanying them, to put forward their own cases at European
institutions. We have exercised practical help for survival for
the Itelmenen on Kamchatka with our project for the
reconstruction of the fishing fleet of this indigenous
community.
Finland: Sámi demand protection for their livelihood as reindeer breeders [ top ]
The 7,000 Sámi, who live within the Finish borders,
hope that the Finish government will this year find a legal
solution to the question of land rights, which has long been
controversial, and ratify at the same time the Convention (No.
169) concerning Indigenous and Tribal Peoples in Independent
Countries better known as ILO Convention 169. With the massive
deforestation of the old forests in the north of the country by
the state timber industry Finland has since the beginning of the
nineties disregarded the culture and the traditional land use of
the Sámi. It is particularly the Sámi
reindeer-breeding which is dependent on the intact habitat
forest. In the autumn of 2005 the Finish government stopped the
tree-felling in the Nellim region on the recommendation of the UN
Human Rights Commission following the request for help from three
Sámi to this body. However nothing other than the
constitutional recognition of their rights can provide real
protection for the Sámi, their culture and means of
supporting themselves.
It is a frightful picture with which the Sámi are
confronted in the primeval forests of Kessi in the eastern part
of the region of Inari in the North Finish Lapland: the trees
have been marked. Markings for forest aisles and felling areas
show the future of the forests of Kessi, which have grown over
centuries. The state timber company Metsähallitus is
preparing the resumption of tree-felling here in August 2006. The
Sámi themselves have no rights of tenure on the land of
their ancestors and its natural resources because 90% of Finish
Lapland belongs today to the state. Forestry is also in the hands
of the state. For the approximately 40% reindeer-breeders among
the Sámi this forest is the winter pasture-land for their
animals. Reindeer-breeding is deeply entrenched in their culture
and still has high social, cultural and economic meaning.
Although the state timber company is aware of the importance of
the forests of Kessi for the reindeer cooperatives, it has
neither consulted them nor begun negotiations with them. Pekka
Aikio, President of the Finish Sámi Parliament and a
reindeer-breeder, who in February 2006 was invited to Germany by
the Society for Threatened Peoples, explains why the traditional
reindeer economy of the Sámi is not possible without the
native forests. "It is not just a matter of the trees alone, but
of the whole food chain. The long beards on the trees play a
particular role. It is only very old forest which has this
lichen. When the snow in the spring lies two metres high the
reindeer can find no other fodder. The forest is a garden and its
only fruit is this lichen. This is the only way in which the
herds can survive the long cold season. For two to four months
this is their only nourishment".
Since the 1990s the state has stepped up tree-felling in the old
forests of Inari. The companies which work with timber -
Metsaliitto, M-Real, Metsa-Botnia, Stora-Enso and UPM - have
taken their timber from this region. The tree-felling has
increased to such an extent that the traditional reindeer herds
will disappear if Finland does not at last take the legal demands
of the Sámi seriously and change its mistaken policies.
Finland is supposed to be the country which has the largest
forest area in the EU, but barely 5% of the original forest still
remains. The other much younger forests are forest plantations
which are useless for reindeer husbandry. With the disappearance
of the forest the basis of existence of the Sámi
reindeer-breeders has been struck a blow from which it can hardly
recover and the productivity of the herd has declined very
noticeably. The Finish government declares that it has placed
extensive forest areas in Lapland under the protection of the
state. But a large part of the native forests which are important
for the Sámi lie outside the protected zones. Moreover in
some protected zones tree-felling is certainly permitted, for
reference is made solely to the areas in which the most valuable
wood is to be found, regardless of whether tree-felling is
permitted or not. The Finish government appears to place its
economic interests above the rights of the indigenous people and
environmental sustainability. It is interesting to note that it
did take action last autumn to stop the policy of radical
deforestation. Yet it required the combined protests of
Sámi and environment activists and the recommendation of
the UN Human Rights Commission to bring about a temporary halt to
the deforestation. It is true that a success could be registered
and the winter pasture secured for the moment, but the plans
which are now being made to continue the deforestation show
clearly that what is needed is a fundamental solution to the
forest conflict and the questions of land rights and the use of
land.
The political organ of the Sámi in Finland, the
Sámi Parliament, has repeatedly criticised the Finish
state for not granting the Sámi any rights of property
over land and resources. For it is only the official recognition
of the rights which can effectively give protection to the
Sámi, their culture, their way of life and their reindeer
breeding. In state studies on the rights of use and
administration in the traditional Sámi areas the question
of land ownership was omitted. The Finish Parliament has
stringently avoided tackling the question of the land rights of
the Sámi. The Sámi must like other Finish citizens
leave it to the courts to decide on matters of land rights. An
agreement is always postponed from the side of the state with the
argument that this matter must first be carefully examined and
that a legal study must be carried out. From the official point
of view the Sámi have voluntarily made over their land to
the state and profited from its measures, such as road-building.
The Sámi Parliament however sees the history of the
colonization of the land differently and demands rights to its
traditional habitat. As long as this is not granted, the
traditional area remains open to economic interests. It is
particularly with reference to the ruthless Finish foresting
policy that the Sámi are desperately anxious to see their
demands for land rights satisfied at last.
It is for the Sámi of the utmost importance that the
water and land rights be granted in the areas which have
traditionally been their home. Up to the present however Finland
has not been prepared to do this. Consequently it has not
ratified the ILO Convention 169, which is the only binding
agreement in international law which grants indigenous peoples
the basic rights for their survival. The signatory states to the
ILO Convention 169 recognize that indigenous peoples have the
right themselves to decide on their future, to have powers of
disposition over their land and resources, to be involved in
decisions affecting themselves, to have appropriate working
conditions and to be able to exercise their way of life and
culture without discrimination. The Finish government has argued
that it cannot ratify the ILO Convention 169 since the Finish
constitution does not grant any special rights to the Sámi
over their traditional area and since the land rights have not
been clarified. A new bill will shortly be put forward concerning
the basic recognition of the land rights of the Sámi.
"This law would be a significant step forward for the recognition
of our rights. It is important for us that the proposal be
accepted and put into practice", says Pekka Aikio.
Sámi organisation: The Sámi in
Finland elect the Sámi parliament every four years as
their political organ. Its 20 members have the task of
representing, preserving and furthering the rights and interests
of the Sámi. The Sámi Parliament has however only
an advisory function: www.samediggi.fi.
Canada: The Lubicon Cree Nation - the guilty conscience of Canada [ top ]
The Cree of the Lubicon Lake, who number today about 500, in
the Canadian province of Alberta, are in danger of finally losing
their land and their way of life. Although the negotiations
between them and the government of the province and of the
federal government in Ottawa have by no means been completed,
Alberta is already issuing licences for part of the controversial
land to be exploited. The Lubicon have made no land rights
agreements with the state, for when in 1899 Canadian officials
travelled through the land to make treaties with the First
Nations, the native peoples of Canada, they were quite simply
overlooked. Forty years later they were "discovered" and they
were promised a reservation, which they have never received. In
1979 mineral oil was discovered in the north of Alberta. The
province became the "Oil dorado" of Canada. However the supply is
now gradually running out so now the large-scale exploitation
planned is that of the tar sand reserves lying deep under the
land of the Lubicon. For this reason procedures will be needed
requiring a great deal of land, energy and water. "First the
river was blue, now it is brown. It is no longer possible to fish
in it or to drink the water. The air is bad. It all happened so
quickly." Elsie Fabian, 63, comes from an Indian community on the
Athabasca River. "It is terrible", she complains, "We are
surrounded by the mines." Within sight of her home tar sand is
being dug out, the new wealth of Canada. It has catapulted
Alberta to the same level as Saudi Arabia or Venezuela. For
synthetic mineral oil is obtained from tar sand.
Tar sand is a glutinous mixture of a tar-like bitumen, which is
extracted in stripmining or in so-called in situ procedures. The
largest reserves in the world are to be found in Venezuela and in
the north of Canada's province of Alberta. The three fields being
worked at present are Athabasca-Wabiskaw, Cold Lake and Peace
River. These Athabasca-fields contain ca. 286 cubic meters, or
1,7 trillion Barrel, together covering an area of about 140,000
sq. km and containing about 175 thousand million barrels of raw
tar sand. The layer of tar sand is normally 40 to 60 metres
thick, lying on a base of limestone. On top of the tar sand lie
layers of peat, clay and sand. They are excavated in
strip-mining. The skin is literally ripped off the soil. The
boreal primeval forests of the north, the marshes and
water-courses, the entire original landscape are being destroyed.
Hot water is forced into the sand, the resulting sludge is pumped
to an extraction plant, where it is stirred and the liquid
bitumen is siphoned off. Since bitumen is much thicker than
normal raw oil it must either be mixed with petroleum or
chemically cracked before it can be transported to a pipe-line to
be refined into synthetic oil or directly changed into mineral
products in specialised refineries. For every barrel of the
synthetic oil more than 80 kg of greenhouse gases are released
into the atmosphere and between two and four barrels of waste
water pumped into storage basins which cover 50 sq.km forest and
marsh area.
About 80 percent of the tar sand lies however so deep that it
cannot be extracted in strip-mining. Here the socalled in situ
procedure is used, i.e. hot steam is forced into the ground in
order to liquefy the bitumen layer underground, so that it can be
pumped up and processed. Problematic is the enormous consumption
of water and energy for the production of the steam, the disposal
of the waste water and the underground environmental damage
through the in situ procedure, which has not so far been
calculated. This procedure is also to be used in the traditional
land of the Lubicon Cree. They used to live from hunting and
their forests, lakes and rivers provided them with the prime
necessities of life. They also used to trade in furs. Nature
provided them with medicinal herbs. However the governments in
Edmonton and Ottawa gave permission for the trans-national oil,
natural gas and paper companies to work in the land of the
Lubicon. These destroyed the traditional subsistence economy of
the Indians without giving them any land in return to secure
their survival. The Canadian government persistently blocks the
land negotiations, thus denying the Lubicon Cree their right to
self-government and makes them dependent on state welfare. 94
percent of the Lubicon are now living from welfare payments. At
the beginning of the oil boom in 1981 the proportion was only 10
percent. "We never had any luxuries, but we never had to go
hungry either. Then they discovered oil and we were suddenly in
the way", said Bernard Ominayak, the chief of the Lubicon Cree.
Today about 1,700 pumps are in operation in a radius of 25 km
from Little Buffalo, the main settlement of the small people. The
land of the Lubicon Cree belongs to the richest in minerals in
the whole world. Apart from oil and gas expectations are that
there are also diamonds to be found in their traditional
hunting-grounds. The amount of raw oil from tar sand which is
worth extracting is estimated at 1.6 million Barrels.
At present it is not clear where the water and energy are to come
from for the production of the steam needed for the in-situ
procedure. There is among other things discussion of new atomic
power stations in Alberta, whose sole purpose is to be the
production of energy for the tar sand mining. There is also talk
of exploiting the three large gas-fields in the north of the
North-West-Territories and linking them through the gigantic
Mackenzie Valley Gas Pipeline with the north of Alberta in order
to use natural gas for the mining of tar sand. The destruction of
the economic basis of their way of life is accompanied by the
loss of many traditions handed down to them and the collapse of
their socio-cultural structure. The number of wild animals in
their huntinggrounds has shrunk by 90 percent. The resulting lack
of high-quality nourishment and the persistent lack of proper
medical treatment are partly responsible for the fact that
tuberculosis has broken out again among the Lubicon Cree. In
recent years there was a period when more than 20 premature and
still-births took place within 20 months. This means the loss of
practically a complete generation. The situation concerning
hygiene is absolutely dreadful as a result of cramped conditions
in old pre-fabricated buildings, lack of clean drinking-water and
absence of a sewage system. The Lubicon recipients of state
welfare must go up to 180 km to get clean (mineral) water.
In 1987 and again in 1990 The UN Human Rights Committee took up
the case of the Lubicon Cree. With reference to Article 27 of the
International Commission on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) it
stated in its final report that Canada was violating the basic
human rights of the Lubicon Cree. The economic opening up of
their lands constituted a "threat to the way of life and the
culture of the Lubicon Lake Cree" (Friends of the Lubicon; www.tao.ca/~fol/). The "Royal
Commission on Aboriginal People" too, instituted by the Canadian
government itself, confirmed the dreadful living conditions of
the Lubicon Cree and recommended the handing over to them of a
territory which would allow them their economic, cultural and
political development. In 2005 the Committee confirmed this
decision and saw now a violation of Article 1 of the Commission
on civil and political rights, which forbids its members actions
similar to genocide. The Lubicon Cree themselves call for the
setting up of a small reservation (250 sq. km), inclusive of a
community settlement, satisfying modest standards, an agreement
on forest and wild animals, protecting the area given over from
further complete destruction, compensation for minerals extracted
illegally of a sum sufficient to enable them to set up a
self-supporting community and regulations for self-government
within the framework of the Canadian laws. In return Canada or
the province of Alberta would receive the legally briefed
sovereignty over 9,750 sq. km of land extremely rich in
minerals.
However the government of the province of Alberta, which is very
wealthy on account of the minerals, and the federal government
are at variance on the question of competence for possible
settlements and they are constantly pushing the blame on each
other. Promises of the government of Premier Paul Martin, which
was voted out of office in January 2006, to deal at last with the
Lubicon question as a matter of priority, remained unfulfilled.
The government of Stephen Harper also, which is now in power, has
so far not shown any basic change of strategy either. In the
spring of 2006 the UN Committee for Economic and Social Rights
(ECOSOC) came also to the conclusion that Canada was infringing
the Commission on economic, social and political rights, calling
on Canada to end this situation immediately and to begin again
negotiations with the Lubicon Cree. Nothing has happened since
2003. Attempts of their Chief, Bernhard Ominayak, to enter into
talks with the government failed because the Minister did not
even acknowledge receipt of the four letters of the Chief. The
GfbV also and the more than 5,000 subscribers to the eMail
Newsletter appealed in the early summer to Premier Harper not to
permit any further extraction of tar sand before the land-rights
of the Lubicon Cree have been secured. Canada should not risk
losing the good reputation it has held up to now for the
treatment of its minorities. We have contributed to the fact that
a delegation of the Lubicon Lake Cree were able to appear before
the UN in Geneva. We have in our magazine "bedrohte Völker-
pogrom" documented the matter. We shall be continuing this
lobbying.
USA: The Alaska National Wildlife Refuge is in danger [ top ]
For the roughly 7,000 Gwich'in Indians in Alaska the Alaska
National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) is holy, for here the cows of the
roughly 152,000 heads strong Porcupine Caribou Herd give birth to
bear their young and rear them. "We Gwich'in are caribou people",
says Sarah James, their spokesperson. "The porcupine herd is part
of our language, our songs and stories." Home of the Gwich'in are
15 villages lying south of the Brooks Mountain Range along the
trail of the porcupine herd in the north-east of Alaska and the
north-west of Canada. The Gwich'in Darius Kassi says: "Our whole
life revolves around the caribou. It provides us with more than
80 percent of our food." For this reason the Gwich'in call the
ANWR "Izhik Gwats'an Gwandaii Goodlit" - "the place where all
life begins".
For the US government of George W. Bush the ANWR, more
specifically "Area 1002" in the north, has become the object of a
bitter tug-of-war, for while Democrats, environmentalists and of
course the Gwich'in want at all events to keep it as a protected
area, the opening of the ANWR for the oil industry is for the
government and a majority of the Republican Party a matter of the
national interest. President Bush wants to use the oil from the
ANWR and other domestic sources to secure the independence of the
USA from oil imports from the Near East or Venezuela and to lower
the price of petrol. But for this purpose the amount of oil in
the ANWR is much too small. And since it would take at least ten
years for the first drop of oil to reach US American gas-stations
the exploitation of these reserves would have no effect on
present-day prices. If in Area 1002 oil should be drilled, the
way of life of the Gwich'in will come to an end, since it is
likely that the caribous will alter their trail so far to the
south-east that the majority of the Gwich'in will no longer be
able to reach them. The herd will find itself in areas where
there are worse fodder for the mother animals and more beasts of
prey to hunt the young. The birth-rate of the porcupine caribou,
which is already low, will most likely sink even further and
fewer of the young will survive than is the case today.
For the Gwich'in life without the cycle of life given by the
migration of the caribou is hardly imaginable. They use flesh and
fat for food, skin and leather for clothing and shoes, bones and
sinews for the production of commodities. The caribou place also
a stamp on their view of the world and their spirituality. They
are convinced that in every caribou a part of the heart of a
human being beats and that there is a bit of caribou in every
human being. Everything which brings the porcupine herd into
danger is therefore also a threat for the Gwich'in. For Alaska on
the other hand mineral oil is the most important source of
income. Apart from George W. Bush the Governor of Alaska, Frank
Murkowski, and the senators Ted Stevens and Lisa Murkowski from
Alaska are the most important advocates of oil drilling in "Area
1002". They want to put through oil drilling at all costs, but
they have only a part of the ruling party on their side and the
Democratic Party totally opposed. The advocates of oil drilling
have repeatedly failed to achieve the opening of the ANWR by
force of law. Every year since 1995 the Republican Party has
managed to put through a bill in the House of Representatives,
but his has always been turned down by the Senate, which must
also give its consent. The last bill was passed by the House of
Representative on 25th May 2006. The Senate has not yet voted on
the matter, but it appears most unlikely that it will pass the
bill.
A second path being taken by the oil lobby is the linking of
individual posts in the current budget with the expenditure or
proceeds from leases concerning oil drilling in the ANWR. At the
turn of the years 2005/2006, when voting took place on the
Budget, the ANWR was part of an item of the Budget which
otherwise related to funds for the troops in Iraq. It was the
hope of the oil lobby that the representatives would sacrifice
the protected area so that they would not appear unpatriotic by
turning down the complete item. But this went too far even for
many Republicans. The majority needed in the vote could not be
achieved. The tug-of-war for the ANWR is not now over, for in the
debates for the Budget of 2007 the ANWR is again on the agenda.
Here the Senate has agreed to a version in which oil drilling is
included. The House of Representatives has not yet voted on the
matter. In November 2006 the majority situation among the
delegates could change in the parliamentary elections in the USA,
for at present it seems likely that the Republican Party will
lose many votes. In this event the chances for the ANWR, the
Gwich'in and the caribous would look a great deal better.
Indigenous Organisations: The Gwich'in
International Council was founded in 1999 from Gwich'in in Canada
as lobby for the Gwich'in in Alaska (USA) and in Yukon Territory
and North West territories in Canada: www.gwichin.org. Gwich'in
Steering Committee works as a lobby for the Gwich'in in Alaska
and their struggle against the opening of the ANWR for the oil
business already since 1988: www.gwichinsteeringcommittee.org.
Mexico: Plan Puebla-Panama and Free Trade Area NAFTA endanger the survival of the indigenous people [ top ]
The roughly 10 million members of more than 56 indigenous
peoples see themselves in all parts of Mexico confronted with a
new dimension of land robbery and the loss of natural resources.
Basic needs such as water and land are not satisfied, while the
government - above all in the framework of the Plan Puebla-Panama
- is concerned with the exploitation of the natural raw materials
and mineral wealth, cheap labour factories, oil mining, road
building and dams. In many places the means of existence are
taken away from the indigenous peoples by the expropriation of
land and expulsions. Instead of implementing the "Agreement on
Indigenous Rights and Culture" of San Andrés agreed ten
years ago Mexico is systematically infringing the rights of the
indigenous peoples. When they defend themselves the state reacts
with repression, above all through the militarization of the
indigenous areas.
The emergence of a strong indigenous movement in Mexico goes
back to the rebellion of the Zapata movement (EZLN) in the
southernmost federal state of Mexico, Chiapas, which began in
January 1994 at the time of the coming into force of the North
American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). "Ya basta!" - "It's
enough!" This shout of the Tzotzil, Tzeltal, Tojolabal, Chol,
Zoque and Mam became a symbol of their demands for land, food,
education, freedom, justice and peace. It is an important concern
of the indigenous movement that the government should at last
implement the agreement of San Andrés, which was signed on
16th February 1996 by the Mexican government and the Zapata
movement (EZLN). It was supposed to anchor the basic rights of
the indigenous peoples of Mexico in the constitution and
guarantee them a voice in all programmes and economic projects
affecting them. This agreement has never been put into practice,
but instead the government passed in 2001 a native peoples law
(Ley Indígena), which instead of indigenous
self-determination created the basis for continuing the
privatisation of agriculture and expropriating indigenous land
for the infrastructure measures and large-scale projects in
connection with the "Plan Puebla-Panama" (PPP).
PPP is the abbreviation for a trans-national mega-project of the
Mexican president, Vicente Fox (2000-2006), which is supported by
the US government under George W. Bush and envisages an extensive
exploitation of the rich natural resources and the infrastructure
of the south of Mexico. Here, where the people are poorest, is to
be found also the natural wealth of the country: mineral oil,
precious metals, minerals, fresh water and a particularly large
biological diversity. PPP extends to the Mexican federal states
of Guerrero, Puebla, Veracruz, Oaxaca, Tabasco, Chiapas,
Campeche, Yucatán and Quintana Roo as well as crossing the
border to the other states of Central America. It envisages a
neo-liberal restructuring of the entire region: factories in the
low wage sector and industrial prawn farms, marketing the
biological diversity, oil mining and dam projects like "La
Parota" in the federal state of Guerrero. Thus a form of
development is being massively pushed forward, which is having
catastrophic effects on the indigenous peoples and destroying
their means of existence and way of life. The infrastructure and
development projects are undermining their economic, social and
cultural rights. The expropriation of land and the destruction of
the environment turn independent farmers into dependent
wage-earners for the trans-national companies.
Precisely in the south of Mexico maize and the tortillas made
out of maize are, for the poor sections of the community, not
only a basic food, but have a high cultural and religious
meaning. The descendents of the Maya still call themselves today
the "Maize people". "For the indigenous peoples of Central
America maize is our blood, our bones and our flesh. Without
maize we are nothing, a people without maize is a dead people. So
we shall not allow maize to be genetically manipulated and
deformed, its nature to be changed, it to be killed, or us to be
killed", said Aldo González Rojas of the indigenous people
of the Zapoteco in the federal state of Oaxaca. "Sowing and
eating the home-bred maize has become for us an act of resistance
against neo-liberal globalisation." But even quite elementary
basic rights such as the right to clean drinking-water cannot for
the indigenous peoples of Mexico be taken for granted. 327,000
Mazahua in the federal state of Mexico suffer, for example, from
an extreme lack of water, although they live on the river of
Lerma, which carries a great deal of water. The largest
drinking-water plant in Latin America pumps 19,300 l/sec from the
river, delivering it to Mexico City, which lies 130 km away. The
Mazahua have to resort to water-lorries or have to go
considerable distances to the remaining wells. Many wells have
dried up and the water of the small rivers is contaminated. The
waste deposits from the drinking-water plant are led directly
into the small river Malacatepec. So its water is now useless for
irrigating the fields, for the care of the animals, for washing
and bathing. Animals which have drunk this water have died. Three
years ago the Mazahua lost 300 hectares of agricultural land when
one of the seven dams supplying the drinking-water plant
overflowed. Demands for compensation from the Mazahua were
ignored. Since then the Mazahua have joined together in the
"Movimiento Mazahua para la Defensa del Agua" (Mazahua Movement
for the Protection of the Water).
The Mazahua are calling for the connection of the region onto
the drinking-water network, the return of the expropriated land,
compensation and the realisation of environmentally sustainable
projects like reforesting, in order to do something to even out
the environmental destruction. This includes also careful
treatment of the forest and resources, a higher standard of
living, dignity, health care and a better education in the native
language, which is steadily getting lost. Only in one of the five
districts concerned have any concessions of any kind been made.
However the Mazahua are not letting themselves get divided: "We
want water for all!" they demand. The final statement of the IV
Indigenous National Congress CNI (Congreso Nacional
Indígena) of May 2006 says: "We are fighting against the
exploitation of the mineral wealth, against the timber industry,
against the selling-out of our land, against the selling-out of
food by large chain-concerns like Wal-Mart and against the
privatisation of our water and the state laws which legitimise
the counter-reform of 2001. Since the betrayal of 2001, when the
Mexican state decided not to recognize any longer the rights of
the indigenous peoples, we have understood that we are alone and
that we must go about securing our rights and autonomy
ourselves." The indigenous peoples no longer believe in the state
and have begun to build up by themselves their local and regional
autonomous areas. With its policies Mexico infringes Convention
169 of the International Labour Organisation ILO of the United
Nations, which Mexico ratified in 1990. This document, so far the
only one in international law in which the basic rights of the
indigenous peoples are anchored, requires, for example,
consultation with the people concerned before the implementation
of economic projects and their participation in the various
planning stages.
Indigenous organisations: Congreso Nacional
Indígena CNI (Indigenous National Congress) www.laneta.apc.org/cni/mh.htm
(Spanish). Ejército Zapatista de la Liberación
Nacional EZLN (Zapata National Liberation Army) www.ezln.org.mx (Spanish).
Asamblea de Migrantes Indígenas de la Ciudad de
México (Union of Indigenous Migrants inh Mexico City) www.indigenasdf.org.mx
(Spanish). Movimiento Mexicano de Afectados por las Presas y en
Defensa de los Ríos" MAPDER (Mexican Movement of those
Affected by Dams and for the Protection of the Rivers) www.mapder.org (Spanish). Red de
Información Indígena (Indigenous Information
Network) (English and Spanish) www.laneta.apc.org/rci/ing/.
Ecuador: Huaorani [ top ]
The approx. 2,500 Huaorani live in a part of the Ecuadorian
rain forest which overlaps the world-famous Yasuní-
National Park. On account of the very great diversity of its
fauna and flora the Yasuní was declared a national park in
1979 already. In 1989 the UNESCO declared the park a biosphere
reserve. Some Huaorani groups like the Tagaeri and Taromenanes
live in voluntary isolation and refuse all contact with the
outside world. The Huaorani are now being overrun by an invasion
of illegal timber companies and trans-national corporations like
the Brazilian Petrobas and the Spanish-Argentine Repsol YPF. The
exploitation of timber, oil and other resources has been
accompanied by massacres which have so far gone unpunished.
Wherever the Huaorani go through their traditional rain forest
area in the Yasuní National Park and nearby to hunt and
collect, to fish or farm the land, they come today across
drill-holes, contaminated rivers, roads and cleared forest.
Illegal tree-fellers cut down the trees, trans-national and
national oil companies divide up the area into blocks, which they
then exploit. The Spanish-Argentine firm Repsol YPF is in Block
16, the French Perenco in Block 7 and 21, agip from Italy in
Block 10, the Brazilian Petrobas in Block 31 and Andes Petroleum,
consisting of the Chinese state company CNPC and Sinopec, in
Block 17. The Ecuadorian companies Tecpecuador and Petroecuador
took over in May 2006 Block 15 from the US American Occidental.
The Ecuadorian government is also looking for investors for a new
block, called ITT (Ishpingo-Tapococha-Tiputini) in the east of
the Yasuní Park. The Ecuadorian military is safeguarding
the oil wells and shows resolute reactions in cases of protests
against the oil drilling and pollution of the ecosystem.
Nevertheless some of the Huaorani, who live spread out in 37
communities over the three provinces Orellana, Napo and Pastaza,
are trying to assert themselves with political resistance against
the massive destruction of their life. "Even if the government
offers no protection of the Yasuní Park we are here to
defend our land!" says the Huaorani spokesperson, Moi Enomenga.
He founded the Huaorani Association ONHAE in 1990, which calls
for the oil companies to clean the contaminated areas and
criticises the Ecuadorian government for dealing with them
without bringing the Huaorani into the decision-making. The
Huaorani receive no compensation for the destruction of their
environment and health or for the loss of land and the
contamination of their basic food. The resistance locally is
mainly conducted by the Huaorani women, who have organised
themselves in the women's organisation AMWAE. Alicia Cahuiya,
President of the AMWAE, says: "We notice the effects of the
oilmining in many ways. The water is contaminated, there are many
illnesses and the animals in the forest are badly affected. We
are active as mothers, who want to protect the children and the
forest. And we will stand for no more oil-mining in our
communities."
Last summer the ANWAE could chalk up a partial success. Following
their intensive protest campaigns Petrobas abandoned its project
of building a road along the River Napo. Alicia Cahuiya and Moi
Enomenga want more. They want to make sure that Petrobas and the
other oil companies leave the area and that the oil-mining is
stopped. This was also the aim they pursued at this year's
meeting of the Permanent Forum for Indigenous Issues of the UN in
May 2006 in New York. "I am fighting against the influence of the
oil companies and so I am also fighting against the government,
with paper as a weapon, so that we can live in peace. I would
like to unite the organisations into a stronger force so that
they can help us to defend our territory. Otherwise we shall soon
be gone. We need the support of international public opinion to
make us respected. We must take over control to make sure that no
more strangers force their way into our territory," says Moi with
conviction.
However the changes have divided the Huaorani. Some are working
for the tree-fellers and leading them through the area in order
to secure their survival by earning money. Other groups, like the
Tagaeri and the Taromenans have decided against all contact with
a world which only approaches them to destroy and they live in
voluntary isolation. However the intervention of the oil
companies is threatening the area deep in the forest, to which
they have withdrawn, since it overlaps Block 17. The biggest
problem so far is presented by the illegal treefellers, who
profit from the roads of the oil companies and market the timber
through Colombia. The Tagaeri and Taromenane use their hunting
arrows and spears to keep intruders out. In mid-April they
attacked tree-fellers who were working in their forest and killed
one of them. This provoked a massacre of about 30 Tagaeri and
Taromenane. The Inter-American Human Rights Commission called on
the Ecuadorian government in May 2006 to provide protection for
the Tagaeri and Taromenans.
The life of the Huaorani has changed rapidly since the fifties.
The first to come into the area were missionaries from the
"Summer Institute of Linguistics". Their evangelisation was
followed by the oil companies. In the eighties Texaco built a
road 100 km long through the forest, which in accordance with the
contemptuous expression for the Huaorani as "aucas" (savages) was
called the "Auca Road". In 1985 already the Ecuadorian government
gave out the first licence for Block 16 to the US oil company
Conoco (today ConocoPhillips). In the nineties Maxus opened the
Huaorani area for extensive oil-mining. In 1990 the Huaorani
after resistance campaigns in the framework of the indigenous
umbrella organisation CONAIE were promised an area of 672,000
hectares as a Huaorani area, bordering on the Yasuni National
Park - but with the proviso that oil companies may operate here.
The resistance against oil-mining could therefore mean the loss
of this land. Indigenous organisations: ONHAE -
Organizacion de la Nacionalidad Huaorani de la Amazonia
Ecuatoriana (Organisation of the Huaorani People of the
Ecuadorian Amazon Area) www.onhae.org (Spanish). AMWAE:
Associación de Mujeres Waorani de la Amazonia Ecuatoriana
(Association of the Waorani Women of the Ecuadorian Amazon Area)
www.saveamericasforests.org/Yasuni/Indigenous/AMWAE/index.htm
(English and Spanish).
Brazil: The Indigenous Peoples without land rights condemned to extinction [ top ]
"Indigenous peoples feel abandoned and persecuted by public
authorities: on one hand there is a total lack of dialogue with
the Government, and on the other hand a conflictual relationship
with FUNAI. The President of FUNAI asserts that the trusteeship
regime still exists, in blatant violation of the law, makes
discriminatory statements against the Indians, decides who is
Indian and who is not in violation of the Indigenous and Tribal
Peoples Convention, 1989 (No. 169), and does not provide the
assistance required. Finally, the police threaten and kill
leaders and members of the Indigenous communities and the
judiciary largely keeps guaranteeing the impunity of the police,
while criminalizing the actions of Indian leaders", said the
report of the UN special rapporteur on racism, race
discrimination, xenophobia and other forms of discrimination,
Doudou Diéne, in October 2005 when he carried out a
journey through the country. The ILO is a member organisation of
the UNO. Its Convention 169 is the only instrument of
international law guaranteeing the rights of indigenous peoples.
The situation of the indigenous peoples of Brazil, who in 235
groups number more than 730,000 persons, remains catastrophic.
Poverty and the theft of land have driven more than half of them
into the slums of the city centres. With reference to the
population of Brazil as a whole 15.5% live in extreme poverty,
while among the indigenous population the proportion is 38%
(figures from the most recent survey made by the Brazilian
Institute for Geography and Statistics of 2000).
The lives of the indigenous people who still live outside the
towns are marked by constant uncertainty. They rely on the secure
tenure of land in order to be able to maintain their way of life,
which is closely linked to nature. However the court case dealing
with the Indian claims is proceeding very slowly. The case of
marking off the Indian land should have been completed by 1993
according to the constitution, but, says Diéne, by the end
of 2005 this had only been done in 37% of the cases. The
government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has started on
average six cases per year since 2003 and more than 200 other
cases have not been started. But even the secure tenure of land
is no protection against arbitrary action. In the following
instance the FUNAI recognized in 1967 as the property of the
Tupinikim and Guarani 18,070 hectares of land in the federal
state of Espirito Santo, north of Rio de Janeiro on the coast of
Brazil. But the Indians can only really use 7,061 hectares. The
remaining 11,009 hectares are held by the Aracruz Celulose
Company. It uses in Espirito Santo a total of 150,000 hectares
for the planting of eucalyptus monocultures for the production of
cellulose. The Indians have now been waiting since May 2005 for
the Brazilian Minister of Justice to finally recognize their
ownership of the remaining 11,009 hectares of land by a
demarcation law.
Four expert commissions of the FUNAI have in the past ten years
established that this land has since time immemorial been used by
the Tupinikim and Guarani. Studies of the FUNAI show that the
physical and cultural survival of the Indians depends on the
undisturbed use of this land. However the Aracruz Celulose is not
prepared to part with it and has lodged a protest with the FUNAI
against the demarcation of the area. The chief customer of the
Aracruz is the US company Procter & Gamble, which manufactures
for example Tempo paper handkerchiefs, nappies and toilet paper
with cellulose from Brazil. The threat against the Tupinikim and
Guarani Indians by the increase of the eucalyptus monocultures on
their traditional land was the subject of a conference in the
port of Vitória on 1st June 2006, which ended with the
"Declaration of Vitória". This declaration calls on the
government to abide by the Articles 231 and 232 of the
Constitution of 1988, in which the rights of the indigenous
people of the country are laid down, and to abide by the
requirements of the Convention No. 169 of the ILO. The
"Declaration of Vitória" also calls on the Brazilian
Minister of Justice to seal without further delay the demarcation
of the Indian land and for the FUNAI to follow its own studies
and to place itself unequivocally on the side of the Indians. The
Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV) has supported this call and
has this summer started an eMail campaign with these demands in
its Newsletter and on the GfbV website.
Under Lula da Silva, who was elected President of Brazil in
October 2002 and who was seen as the real ray of hope for the
disadvantaged of Brazil, the situation of the indigenous peoples
has not significantly improved. On the contrary, a report of the
Conselho Indigenista Missionário CIMI, the most important
human rights organisation in Brazil for the indigenous peoples,
states that land conflicts have increased again since 2003. While
there were still 26 violent conflicts over land in 2003, the
number in 2004 was already 41 and alone in the first six months
of 2005 31 cases. The majority of the cases took place in the
federal state of Mato Grosso do Sul, which borders on Paraguay
and Bolivia. Tree-fellers, rice-growers and large land-owners are
forcing their way illegally into the Indian land. The fate of the
Guarani Kaiowá in this federal state is tragic. They were
traditionally nomads and live today on small parcels of land,
often beside roads and sometimes also with other indigenous
groups on their already demarcated land. They are not used to
living cooped up together on a small piece of land, from which
they cannot even feed themselves. Many men must for this reason
look for work in far away towns. Many Guarani Kaiowá
cannot stand this life and commit suicide. In 2003 there were 22,
in 2004 18 and in 2005 28 who sought refuge in the world of their
ancestors in the "land without evil", as they call it.
The number of murders of indigenous people is also remarkably
high. 38 Indians suffered violent deaths in the year 2005, 28 of
whom in Mato Grosso do Sul. Another example is provided by the
Xukuru in Pernambuco, north of Bahia on the coast. They had, said
special rapporteur Diéne, big problems in achieving the
recognition of their land titles because their land also drew the
attention of investors on account of its beauty. In 1998 the
leader of the Xukuru was murdered. His son and heir also received
threats of murder and in 2003 just managed to escape an attack,
in which two of his friends were killed. In spite of the
intervention of the Inter-American Commission for Human rights
nothing was done to give him protection. The UN special
rapporteur had several meetings with Indian communities which
were threatened with extinction and it was in vain that he
attempted to secure the assistance of the FUNAI in getting back
their land. The government of Brazil is still living off the
liberal image, which the constitution and the fact that Brazil
has ratified the ILO Convention 169 appear to give. But reality
does not live up to this nice picture.
Chile: Mapuche without rights - Indian leaders are turned into "terrorists" [ top ]
The Mapuche, who with about 1.3 million people make up almost
ten percent of the 15.8 million inhabitants of Chile, are
fighting for their land, which they have for decades collectively
and effectively managed. They are the largest of the indigenous
peoples of Chile. At the end of the 19th century with the
emergence of the states of Chile and Argentina their land was
divided up into more than 3.000 small reservations. Through the
land reform under the government of Salvador Allende (1970-1973)
they did receive back 700,000 hectares. However after the putsch
of the dictator Augusto Pinochet, who ruled Chile between 1973
and 1989, they were for the most part once more dispossessed.
Where once their primeval forests grew the large land-owners are
today planting in timber plantations fast-growing trees, like
pines and eucalyptus, above all for the cellulose industry.
Neither of these are native species. Eucalyptus uses up an
enormous quantity of water, damages the soil, lowers the
watertable and so leads to erosion.
Meanwhile all plantations and 70% of the tropical forests are in
private hands. The two companies Arauco S.A. and EMPRESAS CMPC
S.A., which is 55% in the hands of the industrialist family
Matte, are responsible for 47% of the timber-felling. Arauco is
also well-known through its subsidiary Mininco. Small and
medium-sized firms play hardly any role. "The procedure of the
timber industry and of the state is a clear violation of the
economic, social and cultural rights of the Mapuche", said the
special correspondent of the United Nations for indigenous
issues, Rodolfo Stavenhagen, in his report following a visit to
Chile in 2003. Mapuche who defend themselves against the theft of
land are criminalised. Some of their spokespeople have been
sentenced to high fines and long terms in prison in accordance
with the controversial Anti-terrorism Law (Ley 18.314). Michelle
Bachelet, who was elected President of Chile in January 2006,
announced in her election campaign that the improvement in the
situation of the indigenous peoples of Chile would be one of her
principal tasks. But neither has she done anything so far to
abolish the Anti-terrorism Law, which is vigorously criticised by
human rights experts, nor has she even provided the possibility
of early release on probation, nor has she provided the native
peoples of Chile at long last with basic rights and a place in
the Constitution by ratifying the Convention 169 of the
International Labour Organisation.
The Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV) has long been
supporting Mapuche who have been sentenced and imprisoned as
terrorists in accordance with the Ley 18.314. It calls for the
law to be abolished, for all sentences pronounced against Mapuche
on its basis to be revised and for those sentenced to be released
immediately. Four of them - Patricia Troncoso Robles (36),
Patricio Marileo Saravia (31), Jaime Marileo Saravia (27) and
Juan Carlos Huenulao Lienmil (39) - received punishments of ten
years imprisonment each and extremely high fines of more than 400
million Chilean pesos (approx. 620,000 euros), which must appear
cynical to the Mapuche, who are often in bitter poverty. So they
are held responsible, for example, for damage to timber
companies, when piles of wood or forestry machinery are set
alight or sabotaged during land sit-ins. The blame cannot
normally be proved against the accused. But they are still
sentenced, for the Anti-terrorism Law allows the use of so-called
"faceless", i.e. anonymous witnesses, whose statements cannot be
challenged by the defence. The anonymity of the witnesses
encourages denunciations as well. The Mapuche appearing before
court do not have the right to interpreters for their language of
Mapudungun. A fair trial in accordance with the constitution is
therefore hardly possible.
On 13th March 2006 Patricia Troncoso Robles, the brothers
Patricio Marileo Saravia and Jaime Marileo Saravia, together with
Juan Carlos Huenulao Lienmil, began a hunger strike to draw
attention to their desperate situation and to reach a revision of
their sentences. The GfbV supported this demand with a call to
the approximately 5,000 subscribers to our eMail Newsletters to
appeal to President Bachelet on behalf of the four prisoners,
asked the Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development,
Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul, who represented Germany at the
inauguration of the President of Chile, and Foreign Minister
Frank-Walter Steinmeier at his visit to Chile following his
nomination, for their intervention.
The world-wide attention drawn by the hunger-strike did then
lead to the public declaration of the newly appointed Minister of
the Interior, Andrés Zaldivar Larrain, in the spring of
2006 that the law 18.314 would no longer be applied in cases
against the Mapuche. But the already existing sentences were not
examined. Those sentenced remained in custody and so continued
their hunger-strike. It was only when a commission named after
their chairperson, the parliamentary delegate, Alejandro Navarro,
on which four Mapuche also sit, brought in the counter-proposal
that the law 18.314 be extended to allow for early release on
probation that the four Mapuche broke off their hunger-strike for
the time-being. In a state of complete exhaustion they were
admitted to hospital in Temuco. There they were also cared for by
the GfbV representative, Vicente Mariqueo, who saw to it that the
four Mapuche could be treated by a doctor of their confidence.
Mariqueo is himself a Mapuche, who survived the Pinochet
dictatorship in exile in Great Britain and who is building up a
GfbV office in Temuco, the heartland of the Mapuche.
The four prisoners now pin all hopes of finally being freed on
the Ley Navarro, but the debate has come to a standstill.
Meanwhile two months have passed and the law has still not been
passed. So it seems to be only a matter of time before Patricia
Troncoso Robles, Patricio Marileo Saravia, Jaime Marileo Saravia
and Juan Carlos Huenulao Lienmil take up the hunger-strike again
and the Mapuche in Chile go on to the streets with demonstrations
of solidarity, as they did in the spring of 2006.
Central Africa: Pygmies ignored and neglected [ top ]
250,000 indigenous people in the Central African countries are
lumped together under the pejorative name of "pygmies". Batwa,
Efe, Mbuti, Baka and other groups live in the present-day
boundaries of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Republic
of the Congo, Gabon, the Cameroons, Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda and
the Central African Republic. Through the large-scale
deforestation programmes in the forests, in which they have for
thousands of years as hunters and collectors led a semi-nomadic
life, the "pygmies" have in many places been robbed of their
means of existence and driven out. In the majority societies they
are counted as "sub-humans" and discriminated and exploited. They
are at the same time - e.g. in matters of health and schooling -
completely ignored. They are as the poorest and most vulnerable
groups especially exposed to violence and war. Many governments
do not even recognize the "pygmies" as citizens.
The indigenous hunter and collector cultures of Central Africa
have belonged for thousands of years to the tropical
rain-forests. These form the indispensable basis of their way of
life. However the Central African forests are being cleared on a
large-scale by trans-national companies, such as the German-Swiss
Danzer (Reutlingen), the German Feldmeyer (Bremen), the Dutch
Wijma and the French Rouchier, Thanry and Becob. The greater part
of the timber is exported to Europe. These deforestation
programmes mean that the pygmies are for the most part being
driven out and live today without any land of their own,
alienated from their original way of life and pushed to the edge
of society. Where protected nature parks and reserves are set up
the protection of the native inhabitants has not been considered.
So the last surviving Batwa living secretly as hunters and
collectors and the Twa in Ruanda were driven out of their forests
in the nineties and the Parc des Volcans in Ruhengeri and the
Gishwati National Forest was turned into a national park. In 1998
the Batwa had then to leave their inherited land without being
given any compensation or support when the Nyungwe National
Forest in Cyangugu was turned into a national park and a military
area. Since then they have lived in extreme poverty as beggars,
from the sale of their pottery or earn their keep as
day-labourers in agriculture. Some 33,000 Batwa pygmies live
today in Rwanda, thus forming the third and smallest ethnic group
in the country. "Our rights have been disregarded. The Twa have
always been driven out of their habitat without compensation. We
have received no education. Our culture is threatened," says
Kalimba Zephyrin., spokesperson of the Batwa organisation
"Communauté des Autochtones Rwandais" (CAURWA).
Through the genocide in Rwanda in 1994 the situation of the
Batwa has deteriorated even more. A third of the Batwa did not
survive the massacre. But they are not even recognized as
victims. For the Rwandan government there are no minorities or
indigenous peoples. They argue that they want to prevent in this
way a "divisionism" and a possible "ideology of genocide". So the
government has not officially recognized the Batwa organisation
CAURWA, which was founded in 1995. For the government their
political work as explicitly "indigenous" and Batwa organisation
contradicts the constitution and is seen as constituting a
criminal offence. This has led to the Batwa being ignored by
state programmes and projects. They are excluded from all spheres
of social life and political participation, which are shared only
by the Hutu and Tutsi. So CAURWA assumes that only a change of
politics, recognizing the Batwa as an indigenous minority, can
improve their situation. CAURWA is working above all for a
greater degree of political self-determination of the Batwa. The
organisation is also concerned with creating new socio-economic
possibilities for coping with the new conditions of life.
In all eight countries pygmy groups are faced with the rigid
stereotype of being backward, uncivilised sub-humans. It is in
society simply "not done" for them to eat with members of the
majority societies or for them even to sit near them. Apart from
this discrimination and segregation the pygmies are often denied
basic political and civil rights, as for example in Rwanda, the
Republic of the Congo and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Most pygmies are not even recognized as citizens. In the
constitution they are not mentioned at all. "Although the pygmies
are the ones who have lived in the Congo the longest, a census
has never been held to find out their numbers. They have received
neither identity cards nor certificates of birth, marriage or
death", criticises Dieudonnée Kapupu Diwa Mutimanwa of the
pygmy umbrella organisation "Ligue Nationale des Associations
Autochtones Pygmèes du Congo" LINAPYCO (National
Association of Indigenous Pygmy Organisations in the Democratic
Republic of the Congo). So they have very few opportunities to
defend themselves against violence and injustice.
The wars in Central Africa lead to a great deal of violence
against the indigenous minorities in this region. The
approximately 150,000 Batwa and Bambuti in the Democratic
Republic of the Congo are exposed to murder and rape through the
continuation of the conflicts between the warring factions, above
all in the eastern provinces of Ituri, South Kivu and North Kivu.
Bambuti, deep in the forest are at the mercy of the marauding
rebel groups and are sometimes even victims of cannibalism by MLC
soldiers (the militia of the largest rebel group). In Ituri there
is a great deal of coltan and gold. In the Kahuzi Biega National
Park, where coltan is mined, some of the Batwa are driven out of
the park, while others work unpaid in obtaining the raw
material.
The individual organisations in the various countries are
concerned on the one hand with the merciless chopping down of
their forests and the expulsions from their habitat, e.g. through
recognition of their land rights, on the other with the
amelioration of the present situation, e.g. access to education,
health services and new sources of income. In order to improve
their human rights situation and their position in society the
pygmies must be recognized in the constitution as a minority and
they must be protected as a minority. The Batwa must be allowed
to participate as citizens in political decision-making. They
must become actors in their own societal and economic development
and their socio-cultural institutions must be given the necessary
support. Men and women who have been driven from their land must
be given a corresponding piece of land in compensation. They must
be given the opportunity to continue their lives in adequate
conditions. Batwa land must be officially registered in order to
avoid fresh expulsions in the future.
Indigenous organisations:
La Communaute des Autochtones du Rwanda
(CAURWA), P.O. Box. 3809 Kigali, Rwanda
Tel.: 00 250 77 640, E-Mail: heritiers@yahoo.com, www.heritiers.org/caurwacartedevisiteangl.html
(English and French).
Ligue Nationale des Associations Autochtones Pygmees du
Congo, Avenue Kwango n. 7, B.P. 10306 Kinshasa 1,
Kinshasa- Kintambo, Republique Democratique du Congo
Tel.: 0024 39866 8491, Email: linapyco@yahoo.fr.
Mali and Niger: Nomads are threatened with starvation [ top ]
3.5 million Tuareg and Peulh nomads live in Niger and Mali. The existence of nomad society is periodically threatened by famine, overgrazing and the destruction of the herds, conflicts with farmers on land and grazing rights, impoverishment and lack of support by the authorities.
Tens of thousands of Tuareg and Peulh nomads found themselves
after the famine of the summer of 2005 left with nothing. In
several parts of Niger 80 percent of their animals had either
died as a result of the drought or had to be slaughtered.
Particularly decimated were the herds of sheep, which made up the
greater part of their stock of animals. For the sheep as
ruminates perished miserably since they ate with the grass, which
was very short, also sand, which they cannot stomach. More
resistant were by contrast the herds of camels and goats. The
forced slaughter of many animals led to a drop in prices on the
cattle markets, with the result that the nomads could not from
the meagre proceeds buy sufficient food for the months ahead. For
on the markets the prices for millet and other foodstuffs had
risen drastically as a result of the scanty supply and through
speculation.
"We had nothing more to eat, but with these vouchers we can now
get rice and oil again", said Joda Horty. The old cattle breeder
of the Peulh had like many others in her village Oumdou Bammo
lost almost all her cattle. The 60-year old was too weak to work
for the exchange of the vouchers. But younger cattle breeders in
her village worked in the so-called "Food for Work" programmes of
the aid organisation OXFAM. So they got rid of the corpses of
starved animals, built fire aisles to protect their pasturelands
from fires or took part in projects for the protection of the
environment.
Without assistance the nomads could not survive in the summer of
2005. However the humanitarian support had its drawbacks. So
cattle-breeders, who traditionally were proud of their
independence, became beggars of international food aid. The loss
of their cattle-herds thus destroyed not only the economic means
of life of the nomads, but also their traditional culture and way
of life. After the great famine catastrophes in the Sahel in the
years 1973/74 and 1984/85 the nomads had already had to fear for
their existence. At that time the Tuareg had waited in vain for
years for the aid programmes which had been promised and finally
in the spring of 1990 they took to arms against the governments
of Niger and Mali. In the face of increasing poverty and the lack
of help from the state the Tuareg rose again in May 2006. Thanks
to the mediation of Algeria the conflict could be swiftly brought
to an end so that the Mali government concluded an agreement on
3rd July 2006 with the rebels in which it promised large-scale
assistance for the north of the country.
Also in the summer of 2005 help for the starving in the Sahel
came only very slowly. It should be noted that this tragedy was
to be expected. In the autumn of 2004 already aid organisations
had warned of an oncoming drought and shortage of food. When
journalists pointed out in the spring of 2005 the impending
catastrophe the Niger government accused them of causing panic
and spreading lies. Journalists were dismissed and reprimanded.
Even at the height of the tragedy the state President Mamadou
Tandja still denied what was happening. Yet it was his government
with its mistaken agricultural and economic policies which must
be seen as partly responsible for the extent of the famine.
Tuareg organisations call for special support programmes apart
from the setting up of grain stores for the nomads. The animal
breeders should in this way receive free food for the cattle
remaining, while the purchase of weakened animals should be
financed and the restocking of new herds supported. Some aid
organisations have taken up the appeals of the Tuareg and
developed special programmes for their support. They warn of the
longterm effects of the loss of the herds, for this costs the
nomads the entirety of their savings, with the result that they
are now dependent on help from their fellow-citizens and from
abroad. Nothing has changed a year after the famine, for the
building up of new herds takes years to achieve.
For many of the regions suffering from the persistent aridity
the nomadic way of life is the only type of economy which could
be seriously taken into consideration from an environmental point
of view, causing no long-term destruction of the soils. The great
flexibility of the nomads and the low cost of managing the herds
were for a long time favourable for the extension of this branch
of the economy. A quarter of all the land in the world is still
today used by nomads, whose 20 million households produce 10
percent of the meat consumed in the world. However the growing
demands for hygiene, the drop in the demand for milk products and
the increasing competition from cheap meat imports from
industrial countries are threatening the means of existence of
the nomads.
Australia: Howard government continues the tutelage of the aborigines [ top ]
The majority of the approximately 500,000 indigenous people of
Australia, i.e. the Aborigines and Torres Straits Islanders are
being forced increasingly by the present government's policies
into the role of supplicants, who are living on the edge of the
white dominated society in an alarming social situation. Their
everyday life is characterised by health problems, addiction and
domestic violence. Alcoholism and sniffing of petrol or glue are
widespread. Life expectation lies 17 years below that of the
majority society. They lack education and employment.
Racism towards the native people is also reflected in an
over-proportionate share of indigenous inmates in the prisons and
in conflicts concerning uranium mining and other economic uses of
the land, which is for them of central religious importance. The
action of the state against the identity, self-representation,
their own institutions and political self-determination of the
indigenous Australians in 2005 with the dissolution of the
semi-official indigenous self-government organ "Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islanders Commission" (ATSIC) reached a new climax.
For 15 years the Aboriginal Australians had with the ATSIC a
self-governed political organ. Many aborigines themselves saw the
need for reform in the ATSIC, but instead of taking with them the
necessary steps towards its reconstitution the government quite
simply abolished the Commission. Now - no longer from the
nonindigenous side, but also through the institutions set up by
the government - above all through the National Indigenous
Council (NIC) on the national and regional level, like the
Indigenous Cooperation Centres (ICC) - decisions will be taken
about the indigenous and their affairs. Silenced once more the
aboriginal people see themselves disappointed with the end of the
ATSIC, their hopes dashed of a self-determined and improved life
situation. The paternalistic treatment of the indigenous people
by the government continues.
The various studies of government, science and indigenous
organisations on the situation of the aboriginal people come to
the same conclusion: the living conditions of the indigenous
Australians are incomparably worse than those of the majority
population. Aborigine organisations have repeatedly pointed out
the double standard in the Australian health service and the bad
nutrition resulting from poverty, which is then reflected in the
alarmingly low expectation of life and the high infant mortality
rate. The number of aborigine babies dying at birth is twice to
four times that of the national average. Many children die of
illnesses which can be traced back to insufficient nourishment.
Unemployment in aborigine communities is three times that of the
dominant society and in rural areas whole communities are
dependent on state assistance. Alcoholism and other addictions
are widespread. Adequate living conditions remain for many
unattainable on account of the fundamental lack of basic
commodities and infrastructure and a rate of homelessness which
is 20 times that of the majority. In central Australia murder is
the most frequent cause of death of aborigine women, who like
children are very frequently the victims of domestic
violence.
In June 2006 a discussion broke out on the social misery and the
high rate of violence in the aborigine communities. Instead of
seeing them as the result of a more than 200-year old violent
history, in which the politics of Australia towards the native
peoples was aimed at the destruction of the aboriginal people,
the present liberalconservative government under John Howard is
looking for the cause of the serious social situation cynically
in the culture of the aborigines themselves. So the Minister of
Health, Tony Abbott, speaks in favour of a "new paternalism"
towards the native people. It is time, says Abbott, for the
government to exercise control over the indigenous communities.
So it is now planning to install administrators to supervise the
indigenous communities. This view of violence and social
inequality confuses cause and effect. The government is
patronising the aborigines instead of admitting the serious
mistakes and omissions of its indigenous politics and finding
together with the aborigines ways for them to be able to take
over more responsibility for their lives. The paternalistic road
of the government reminds the aborigines of the practices of the
Christian missionaries and other strategies of assimilation and
tutelage in their history. Even the idea of removing children
from communities with high rates of violence is circulating in
government spheres. However the present lack of direction, the
structural and direct violence in the native communities can be
traced back to the traumatisation of the "Stolen
Generations".
Some 100,000 aborigine children were torn from their families and
communities between 1910 and 1970 to assimilate them in state and
missionary institutions and to train them over the generations
into 2nd class "whites", to servants in household and
agriculture. Many of them were not even five years old when they
were taken away from their families. In addition to this mental
violence most of the children suffered physical and sexual abuse,
the traumata of which are carried down from generation to
generation. As late as 2002 more than one third of the aboriginal
Australians reported that they had either been taken away
themselves as children or had relatives who suffered this fate.
Many of these children never found their families again. The fact
that today only 20 percent of the aborigines speak a traditional
language is a visible factor of the forced uprooting, violence is
another.
The aborigines are outraged by the fact that the Howard
government after the abolition of their political
selfadministration organ ATSIC on the national level now wants to
institutionalise at the local level as well the tutelage and
withdrawal of rights. Since the Howard government, which came to
power in 1996 and has now had since 2004 the majority both in the
Lower House as well as in the Senate, the rights and
possibilities of the indigenous Australians of having a voice -
beginning with the curtailment of the land rights in 1998 - have
been increasingly cut back. Progress in the "reconciliation
process", to which the Australian government had made a call in
1991, and which was intended to bring about a new relationship
between black and white, was once again rendered null and void
with the end of the indigenous self-administration in the ATSIC.
Even in the Permanent Forum for Indigenous Issues of the UN in
May 2006 Australia spoke out against the right of the indigenous
people to self-determination. A really effective change on the
international, national and local level must however start with
the aborigines being heard at all and being taken seriously and
being allowed to represent their interests themselves. Australia
is a long way from this.
India: The Andamans and the Nicobars in India [ top ]
India's government boasts that it gives special protection to
the small indigenous peoples living on the Andamans. Yet when in
the spring of 2006 an epidemic of measles broke out among the 322
Jarawa it became clear how little is in fact being done for the
survival of this ethnic group, which is 60,000 years old. For
weeks the authorities ignored all warnings of aid organisations
and human rights workers and played down the extent of the
epidemic. The Jarawa who were admitted to hospital suffered from
"heat blisters" according to the dry explanation of the Indian
authorities. It was only when doctors confirmed that it was
really a matter of measles that India in May 2006 sent a doctor
to the indigenous people, who were threatened with extinction. In
the meantime more than 50 children have been admitted to hospital
with symptoms of measles.
The Indian authorities have learnt nothing from the experience
of the measles epidemic, which threatened in 1999 to wipe out the
Jarawa. Then too the authorities denied at first the outbreak of
the epidemic, to which at last 108 Jarawa fell ill, one third of
the members of this people. Illnesses like measles which have
been brought in can prove fatal for indigenous peoples living
particularly remote. In the Amazon region several peoples have
died out as a result of such illnesses which have been brought in
from outside in the past decades.
Indian environmentalists and ethnologists are greatly concerned
for the survival of the Jarawa. In a letter to the chairperson of
the Indian Congress Party, Sonia Gandhi, they are protesting
against the intrusion of poachers and settlers into the protected
areas of the indigenous. It is reported that the intruders
smuggle in tobacco and alcohol and expect sex in return from the
women of the Jarawa. Following the construction of a 75 km long
road, which has been criticised sharply by environmentalists and
human rights workers, through the protected area of the Jarawa
this threat has noticeably increased. Although the Supreme Court
of India prohibited normal public traffic on this road in the
year 2002, the road is still not closed.
The 30,000 native inhabitants, who do not live in such seclusion
on the Nicobar Islands, also have very great problems. In the
tsunami catastrophe in December 2004 they suffered the most
victims among the inhabitants of the island group with 3,000
people dead. But things got even worse. A mistaken programme of
reconstruction left them after the natural catastrophe beggars
and slum-livers. They asked in vain for tools because they wanted
to rebuild their wooden houses, which are traditionally covered
with palm leaves and bamboo. Instead they were without any
discussion herded in tin huts, which are not suited to the
climate and are rejected by the native inhabitants. No regard is
paid to the customs and habits or to the traditional social
order. So India is using the natural catastrophe to assimilate
the indigenous Nicobars. An old culture going back many centuries
is threatened with extinction.
The indigenous peoples on the Andaman and Nicobar Islands live in an archipelago in the Indian Ocean with more than 500 islands, which are administered by India. Only 36 islands are regularly inhabited. Among the indigenous inhabitants are some particularly remote groups of often no more than a few dozen people (51 Andamans, 322 Jarawa, 99 Onge, 389 Shomps, 100 Sentinelese), which are seen as the peoples most threatened in the world. On account of the threat these groups are under the special protection of India and the law forbids any contact with them from the outside. And then on the Nicobar Islands there are about 30,000 Nicobars, who are certainly indigenous people, but who maintain a lively contact with the immigrants coming from India.
Borneo: Survival of Penan and other indigenous peoples threatened by clearance of the tropical forest [ top ]
With blockade campaigns against tree-fellers the Penan native
inhabitants have been defending themselves against the
destruction of their habitat in the Malay province of Sarawak
since the end of the 80s. The Penan erected barricades for the
first time on 16th June 2006 in the region on the central Baram
River in order to prevent tree-fellers from clearing the forest.
The authorities sent police and riot police in order to arrest
those responsible for the road blocks. On 5th July employees of
the timber company cleared the blocked roads. However some roads
remain blocked by the Penan.
A large part of the tropical forest has in spite of the
resistance of the native residents already been cleared in the
past few years. Today only a small number of the approximately
10,000 Penan lives as semi-nomads. Most of the native residents
have settled down, not least on account of the continuing
destruction of the tropical forest, because their habitat has
steadily decreased in size. But apart from the Penan, who are
very well known in Europe, there are other peoples like the
approximately 5,000 Punan, who still live today a semi-nomadic
life in Sarawak.
At least 2.7 million hectares of rain-forest were lost through
clearances in Malaysia in the 90s. In this one decade the
south-east Asian country lost more than 13 percent of its forest
area. Today only 20 percent of the Malaysian rain-forest remains
intact, so the habitat of the semi-nomads is steadily shrinking.
For if the forest dies, the semi-nomads can no longer feed
themselves from hunting wild pigs, monkeys and birds or
collecting wild fruit. Traditionally the Penan did not eat
vegetables or roots, but they did eat sago flour, which they
obtained from palm trunks. They only stayed for a few weeks at
one place and lived there in small huts made of tree-trunks and
palm leaves looking like wind-breaks. When they had felled the
old sago palms and harvested the wild fruit they moved on. But
most of these native inhabitants, who had now settled down, had
to give up this traditional way of life since there is hardly any
more wild fruit and the wild animals are steadily disappearing as
result of the deforestation. So the timber companies have not
only destroyed the ecological balance of the rain-forest, but
also deprived the indigenous peoples in Sarawak of the means of
their existence.
Representatives of 27 Penan groups from various regions of
Sarawak met on 29th May 2006 in Long Belok and passed a joint
resolution drawing attention to their alarming situation. In
their joint paper the following points were made. The timber
companies are ruthlessly chopping down the remainder of the
tropical forest in Sarawak. The native inhabitants are being
filled with fear and panic to make them give up their resistance
to the wiping out of their habitat. The timber companies are
continuing their deforestation in areas which the Penan nomads in
the regions Sungai Bareh and Magoh have been officially promised
by the authorities. The Malaysian timber companies systematically
disregard Malaysian law, but the authorities take no action.
Instead of this the timber companies wash their hands of all
guilt and build up their position by encouraging the questionable
certification of all timber exports from Malaysia. With the seal
of quality the Malaysian timber certification council is trying
to dispel all doubts abroad that the extensive clearances are
ecologically sound and meet the agreement of the indigenous
peoples. On 6th December 2005 64 NGOs from 21 countries called to
the European Union and the European timber industry not to
recognize the controversial certification of the Malaysian
timber.
While many Penan have been forced to give up their semi-nomadic
way of life, the Kelabit are still fighting against the intrusion
of the tree-fellers in their living area. The Kelabit, who live
in the Bario highlands on the Baram River, inhabit the last areas
for retreat for the indigenous peoples in Sarawak. But here too
the rain-forest will soon be pushed back, as the Malaysian
company Samling has recently obtained a concession for the
clearance of several million hectares of forest.
In the Malayan Province of Sarawak on the island of Borneo live 27 different ethnic groups. The Orang Ulu or Dayak, as the indigenous peoples are collectively called, make up 5.5 percent of the 2.2 million inhabitants of Sarawak. To them belong among others the peoples of the Penan, Punan, Iban, Bidayuh, Kayan, Murut, Kenyah and Kelabit. These indigenous peoples are threatened by the advancing clearance of the tropical forest and the destruction of their habitat.
Discrimination and persecution of Vietnam's native people continue [ top ]
The leaders of the state in the state media certainly do their
best to give the impression that the ethnic minorities are
particularly cared for and that they can play an equal part like
everyone else in the social and political life of the country. In
reality however poverty in Vietnam is incomparably greater among
the native inhabitants. While in 1998 only 31 percent of the
majority population lived according to the official statistics
below the poverty line, 75 percent of the native peoples
complained to the International Development programme of the
United Nations (World Food Programme) about the poverty of their
living conditions. There is in their settlements a lack of
schools, hospitals, roads and telecommunications. The degree of
illiteracy is by comparison very high.
In the light of the continuing poverty, of the expropriation of
land by coffee-planters and state development planners, the
destruction of their natural conditions of life, the religious
persecution and the state policy of assimilation towards the end
of the nineties the native peoples living in the mountainous
region in Central Vietnam became more and more dissatisfied. The
desperation concerning the growing threat and loss of rights
overflowed in February 2001 into public protests, which were
directed primarily against the expropriation of land and the
violation of their religious freedom. More than 200 native people
were arrested, many of them being tortured. Churches were closed,
all public meetings forbidden and systematically the whole area
was closed off for months from the world outside. In December
2002 all Christmas services and other meetings of the native
people in the mountainous area were forbidden. Time and again the
native inhabitants are arrested for their participation in
protests. Many of those arrested had to wait for months for their
case to be called, until at last in an unfair trial without an
independent lawyer with the exclusion of the public they were
sentenced to long terms in prison for "threatening national
security" or "illegal migration" to Cambodia.
On 22nd June 2006 six more "montagnards" were sentenced to terms
in prison of between five and seven years for their planned
escape to Cambodia. In July 2006 more than 350 montagnards were
in custody for political reasons. During the Easter weekend 2004
there were new disturbances. Thousands of indigenous people
called in the provinces of Dak Lak and Dak Nong an end to the
religious persecution, freedom of movement and the recognition of
their land rights. Once again the Vietnamese security forces
reacted with disproportionate force. Dozens of people were
killed. The true extent of the violent suppression of the
protests is still unknown, since the Vietnamese authorities
persistently refuse any enquiry into the incident. Nine native
inhabitants were for their participation in the protests on 13th
August 2004 sentenced to terms in prison between five and twelve
years. On 22nd November 2004 ten further native inhabitants were
sentenced for participation in the demonstrations and
"endangering national security" to terms in prison of up to ten
years.
The living standard of the indigenous population shows scant
signs of improvement because as a result of the migration of
millions of people from the plains into their regions they are
constantly being pushed back into more barren land. More than ten
million people have been moved by the state into their territory
or have settled of their own accord in the mountainous area. The
montagnards accounted in 1940 for 99 percent of the population in
the region, but today they make up barely 30 percent of the total
population in the highlands. The coffee boom has tempted since
1996 more than 400,000 members of the majority population to
settle in the Dak Lak province. The farmers who traditionally
lived from the subsistence economy are steadily being driven out
by the new settlers from the plains, who take over the most
fertile tracts. For with the support of the World Bank and the
international donor countries Vietnam has since the nineties been
expanding agricultural production for export and setting up huge
plantations for coffee, cashew-nuts and pepper.
The largest coffee-growing region lies today in the highland
province Dak Lak in the centre of the country. The cultivation
area has increased from 21,828 hectares in the year 1975 to
163,000. The province earns with its exports 800,000 US dollars
per day, but only a few cents come into the hands of the
indigenous population. Coffee is one of Vietnam's most important
exports. Dak Lak alone exported in 2004 more than 320,000 tons of
coffee, while in the seventies the coffee exports for the whole
of Vietnam came to no more than 6,000 tons per annum. By 2004 the
figure had reached more than 800,000 tons. Vietnam intends to
raise production to a million tons of coffee. The export of
coffee alone brought Vietnam in the year 2004 revenue of 594
million US dollars, an increase of 18 percent on the results for
the previous year. Vietnam's highland provinces export coffee to
59 countries, of which Germany and the USA are the most
important. 47 percent of Vietnam's coffee production is exported
to the EU.
The coffee boom has led to serious damage being done to the
environmental equilibrium in the highlands of central Vietnam.
Settlers have cleared away more than 74,000 hectares of forest
since the middle of the nineties for the setting up of new
plantations. Vietnam's forests have a wide diversity of wild life
and are the home of some ten percent of the total stock in the
world. However this world nature inheritance is in great danger
as in the past ten years alone the cultivation area for coffee
has been extended by 38 percent. Some 50 percent of the
agriculturally used land is exhausted by deforestation, erosion
and planting which is so intensive that it damages the
environment. In the interests of short-term profit-maximisation
coffee has for the most part not been planted in the shade of
trees. Nature's revenge for this exploitation is that the soil,
which lacks nourishment, needs increasing amounts of
fertiliser.
The disturbances in the native population in the years 2001 and
2004 make it clear that the indigenous peoples of Vietnam are not
prepared to accept any longer without resistance their
marginalisation. In the light of continuing religious persecution
and the increasing destruction of the means of life of the
indigenous peoples the situation in the highlands of central
Vietnam will only settle down when the authorities recognize the
freedom of worship which is guaranteed them in the constitution
and the rights of the indigenous peoples. It is in particular the
land rights of the native inhabitants which must be respected and
the further extension of the plantation economy should only occur
in close agreement with the indigenous population.
The 53 ethnic minorities of Vietnam account today for some 12 million people. Some of these ethnic groups like the Odu comprise only 200 people, others, like the Tay have more than 1.5 million. Three quarters of these ethnic communities which do not belong to the majority group of the Kinh live today fairly remotely in the mountainous region of north-west or central Vietnam. Since most of these indigenous communities live in mountainous areas they have been called since the days of French colonialism "Montagnards", i.e. mountain people. They often differ very considerably in their languages, culture and traditions. But in spite of their very rich culture they are often written off by the majority as under-developed" savages" (moi).