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Monday 17 December 2007 - The impact of gold and silver exploitation in indigenous territories
Guatemala - This urgent action for the Maya's in Guatemala is closed, signatures are sent to: see below
On November 12, 2007, a politically manipulated criminal case was initiated against the “Goldcorp 7”. Charged with assorted “crimes” are seven Mam-Mayan farmers from the very villages (in the municipality of San Miguel Ixtahuacan, department of San Marcos) that are being gravely harmed by Goldcorp’s open pit, cyanide-leeching mine. In this extensive report can you read about the effects of the 'Marlin mine'.
Goldcorp Inc. refused to negotiate with the communities compensation for the harms and damages they are suffering. Soon after the meeting, Goldcorp/ Montana Exploradora company security guards attacked the community representatives with rocks, firing guns in the air, trying to illegal detain one of the leaders. These seven Mam-Mayan farmers were taken by the police and they are in trial since November 2007.
This trial exemplifies Goldcorps’ disregard for the lives and wellbeing of the communities affected by the operations of its “Marlin” mine, and the biased manner with which the Guatemalan justice system persecutes social movements, while maintaining impunity for human rights abuses committed by economically powerful actors.
The seven Mayan farmers on trial were among a group of 28 villagers who on January 10, 2007 approached Goldcorp / Montana seeking dialogue in relation to grave damages the communities neighboring the Marlin mine suffer. The Mayan farmers testify that the company rejected dialogue, insulted them and that the villagers were attacked by Goldcorp security officers at the exit of the mine. Security officers attempted to abduct one person, fired gunshots and threw rocks at the group.
Mine company security officers have a history of violence and intimidation of the population of San Miguel, including the March 13, 2005 murder of the son of a family who actively rejected the mine. Though the January 10, 2007 attack by security officers occurred in front of numerous witnesses, it has not been prosecuted.
Following the violent, negative response to the request for dialogue, over 600 villagers peacefully blocked the road into the mine, a protest which lasted 12 days.
Goldcorp presented charges against 22 of the 28 Mayan Mayan farmers who sought dialogue, and 7 of those were arrested and are being charged with the following crimes:
Antonio Felipe Bamaca Hernández, René Pérez Velázquez, Cristóbal Eduardo Pérez Hernández, Pedro Alejandro de León Castañón, and Patrocinio Vicente López Hernández are being charged with coercion. Goldcorp claims they forced mine workers to remain inside the mine installations against their will for the 12 days that the protest lasted. They are also charged with instigation to delinquency, claiming that they instigated the neighbors to protest against the mine and block the road into the mine. These charges carry a potential sentence of 1.5 to 6 years in prison.
Fernando Basilio Pérez Bamaca and Francisco Salomón Bamaca Mejía are charged with the same offenses and in addition are charged with threatening mine workers and a minor (Fernando Perez) and grave (Fransico Bamaca) injuries to security officers from rocks the security officers claim they threw. Fernando Perez faces 2 to 9 year sentence and Francisco Bamaca faces a 3.5 to 14 year sentence.
Furthermore Goldcorp/ Montana claims to have spent approximately Q800,000 in relation to the protests, including Q5,000 in munitions for the police, which indicates they have the intention of requesting damages and take most everything the poor Mayan farmers might own.
Given the financial and logistic support Goldcorp/ Montana provided to the police to break up the January 2007 protests, it is suspected that Goldcorp/ Montana may also have provided similar support during the Army and Police repression of the December 2004 Solola protests that resulted in the extrajudicial assassination of Raul Castro, a grave human rights abuse which has not been prosecuted. If true, Goldcorp would be complicit in this human rights violation, as would also be the World Bank Group, that invested in Goldcorp’s “Marlin” mine project.
The fact that Goldcorp/ Montana provided munitions to the police clearly ought to be considered illegal. No charges have been filed in Guatemala.
The manner in which the District Attorney’s office has prosecuted this case demonstrates bias in favor of the company. Four of the five offenses with which the seven campesinos are charged (Incitation to Delinquency, Threats, Coercion, and Minor Injuries) are minor offenses. The Guatemalan legal system encourages District Attornies to resolve minor offenses through alternative, non-judicial mechanisms, such as negotiation, especially when, as in this case, the supposed offenders have no prior record of offenses and there are related special conditions that aggravated the situation.
This bias in prosecution converts the justice system into another form of repression against the social movement.
To:
Robert Zoellick
President, World Bank Group
1818 H Street NW
Washington, DC 20433
investigations_hotline@worldbank.org
Kevin McArthur- President and Chief Executive Officer
Goldcorp Inc. Head Office:
Park Place
Suite 3400-666 Burrard Street
Vancouver, B.C. V6C 2X8
E-mail: info@goldcorp.com
Monday 17 December 2007 - Politically motivated arrest of indigenous leader
Philippines - This urgent action for the Cordillera People in the Philippines is closed, signatures are sent to: see below
On October 1, 2007, Jose "Joe" Cawiding was arrested in Baguio city by elements of the Philippine National Police. Cawiding is the Secretary General of the Metro Baguio Tribal Elders Assembly (MBTELA), and is also a local mediator of the Supreme Court Philippine Mediation Center. Previously, he has served as a Coordinator of Bayan Muna for Baguio-Benguet.
Cawiding has been falsely accused of being a member of the revolutionary group the New Peoples Army (NPA), and charged, together with other alleged NPA members, with eight (8) counts of murder and one (1) frustrated murder. These charges are related to a July 14, 2003 ambush of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) troops staged by members of the NPA operating in Mt. Province. Shortly after the incident, the NPA issued a statement claiming responsibility for the attack.
At the time of the ambush, Cawiding was in Baguio City, participating in the Bayan Muna National Council meeting at the Teachers' Camp.
Three years later, in 2006, Jose Cawiding was among those listed in the AFP's Order of Battle, and was targeted for extra-judicial killing. He and his wife, Jeannette Ribaya-Cawiding - leader of Tongtongan Ti Umili (People's Forum), were subjected to intense military surveillance for three months, a monitoring process that typically precedes assassination. Through the help of their neighbors, they successfully evaded the assassination attempt against them.
Jose Cawiding has been an active leader of the Cordillera mass movement for more than two decades. He started as a leader of the urban poor youth in Baguio city, and later became an organizer of the Itogon-Interbarangay Alliance, which spearheaded resistance to the Benguet Corporation's open pit mining operation. Later, he joined the Cordillera Peoples Allaince (CPA) Elders Desk and became active in the electoral process as the BAYAN MUNA Coordinator of Baguio-Benguet.
His arrest and detention is clearly politically motivated to intimidate the people's mass movement. With this alarming development, it is imperative for us to raise a public outcry denouncing this incident as a transgression of human rights. We cannot allow political prosecution and extra judicial killings to continue. We shall remain ever vigilant and demand that the government respect our human rights and fundamental freedoms.
To:
Sec. Raul Gonzalez
Department of Justice (DOJ)
DOJ Main Building
Padre Faura Street, Manila, Philippines
Telephone: +63. 02. 521. 8344
Email: ssad@doj.gov.ph or www.doj.gov.ph
Friday 30 November 2007 - Guatemala Nickel mining in Guatemala
This urgent action for the Maya's in Guatemala is closed, signatures are sent to: see below
The Maya Qeqchi communities living in Izabal and Alta Verapaz Guatemala are affected by mining operations of the Canadian company Skye Resources through their fully owned subsidiary CGN.
An open letter of August 12, 2005, signed by representatives of 20 Indigenous communities demanded, among other things, for the immediate suspension of the illegally granted license and of all of CGNs mining exploration activity in the territory of the Qeqchi Mayan communities affected by the mining project. To this day, Skye/CGN has still not carried out consultations as requested by communities or respected the demands for a suspension of activities in the region.
This petition supports their call for:
Skye/CGN to initiate an immediate suspension of all activities until a full, impartial investigation is conducted and until proper consultations have been carried out with the Indigenous communities affected by the mining project
the Government of Canada to conduct an inquiry into this matter, investigating the broader implications of actions that are symptomatic of Canadian government policy that privileges Canadian extractive industries operating abroad over the human rights and development needs of local communities.
Those familiar with Guatemalan history know that the country is infamous for its record of repression, corruption and flagrant violations of human rights. During the 36-year armed conflict, which officially ended 10 years ago, it is estimated that over 250,000 people were killed or disappeared -- 80% of whom were indigenous people.
Canadian mining investment is implicated in this bloody history. Subsoil rights to the lands where the recent evictions took place were granted to INCO by a Guatemalan military government in 1965. INCO's activities were facilitated by brutal and repressive military dictatorships that massacred and repressed the local indigenous people. Both the United Nations Commission for Historical Clarification in Guatemala (CEH) and the Nunca Mas (Never Again) report by the Human Rights Office of the Archbishop of Guatemala, found INCO (through EXMIBAL -- the Guatemalan mining company 80% owned by INCO) complicit in grave human rights violations against opponents of the mining project, including threats and assassinations.
It is within this historical context and through the recent illegal evictions that Skye Resources advances its plans for the Fenix nickel mine in the region. It does so despite local indigenous peoples' claims that they were never previously and freely consulted, as required by the International Labor Organizations Convention 169 concerning Indigenous and Tribal Peoples in Independent Countries, ratified by Guatemala in 1996.
Furthermore, Skye has never produced property titles to many of the lands it claims to own -- casting doubt upon the legality of the recent evictions.
The serious human rights violations and developmental harms that for decades have accompanied nickel mining near El Estor are but a few examples amongst many -- from Guatemala to Ghana, from Colombia to the Congo -- of the complicity of Canadian mining companies, the Canadian government and by extension, the Canadian public, in political, socio-economic and cultural rights violations. For years, Canadian governments have promoted and funded harmful mining operations through the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT), the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), Export Development Canada (EDC) and the Canada Pension Plan (CPP).
Many of the mining activities supported are at complete odds with the locally-controlled integral development envisioned by local communities and indigenous peoples.
Photo by James A. Rodriguez
To:
Ian Austin, President & CEO
Skye Resources
Suite 1203 - 700 West Pender Street
Vancouver, BC, V6C 1G8
Thursday 19 July 2007 - New York - United Nations UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples at great risk
Sign this online petition!
This urgent action is closed, signatures are sent to the UN
New York - For more than 30 years Indigenous peoples have come to the United Nations to advocate for the recognition of their rights as peoples. This has finally resulted in the adoption of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples by the UN Human Rights Council on 29 June 2006. The principles and provisions of this Declaration enjoy wide support among the states and Indigenous peoples’ organizations that had actively participated in the drafting process. The Declaration would mark an important step toward addressing the deep-rooted prejudice and discrimination that has led to widespread human rights violations against Indigenous peoples worldwide.
In December 2006 the Declaration was considered for its final adoption by the UN General Assembly. However, the General Assembly, upon request of the African Group, then decided to defer consideration of the Declaration to facilitate for further consultations. Meanwhile the African States have put forward a proposal which would significantly change the text of the Declaration and severely undermine the rights of Indigenous peoples. An alternative proposal has been brought forward by Mexico, Norway, and other co-sponsors to enable adoption of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples by the UN General Assembly before the end of their current session. The Declaration is in great danger and this is the time to take action in support of its adoption by signing this online petition.
For more info:
* United Nations
* Amnesty Canada
* History of the Declaration
Tuesday 3 July 2007 - Protest against unjust Peace Accord in the Philippines
This urgent action is closed, 650 signatures are sent to: see below
Philippines - In 1996 the Government of the Philippines and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) reached a Peace Accord in western Mindanao, the second largest island in the Philippines. After decades of violent conflict war was about to end so it seemed, and indigenous peoples in the area hoped that peace was finally to return to their lives and communities. But things turned out quite differently. A former MNLF-commander had been given a concession to log 5.500 hectares of forest in the indigenous areas, in exchange for dropping arms. A massive logging operation started in 2002, and continues until today. The Téduray and Lambangian inhabiting the area had not become beneficiaries, but victims of an unjust peace accord.
A dark scenario is unfolding, as ten years later new peace negotiations are going on. This time between the government and a faction of MNLF that did not accept the earlier accord and: the MILF (Moro Islamic Liberation Front). At stake for the latter are ancestral domain, self-governance and access to natural resources. None of the indigenous peoples in the territories claimed by MILF have been invited to the negotiation table, despite the fact that many of them have pending land claims themselves. Their very existence is, again, just ignored.
The Téduray and Lambangian organised a public protest in April 2006, in an ultimate attempt to change the course of events. More than 700 people defied heat, cold and fatigue and marched almost 100 kilometres through the denuded hills and remains of their ancestral forests. The march was to show the world the detrimental result of peace negotiations in which not all parties are recognised as stakeholder, and to grasp their last hope: international pressure. This should lead to a complete stop of the logging, and an invitation to the new peace negotiations.
Sent to:
* the President of the Republic of the Philippines, Mrs. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo
* the Peace Panel of the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP)
* the Peace Panel of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF)
* the Deputy-Governor for IP’s in the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao
* the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP)
* the Department of Environment and Natural Resources in the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (DENR-ARMM)
* the Office of Southern Cultural Communities in the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (OSCC-ARMM)
* the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) in the Philippines)
Photo: Geert van Kesteren
Wednesday 16 May 2007 - Illegal logging and destruction of life environment
This urgent action for the Penan in Malaysia is closed, 1.722 signatures are sent to: see below
Intense and continuing logging has taken place in Sarawak for the last 30 years or so. More than 95% of Sarawak's original forest cover has now been logged at least once. These forests are the residential area of the indigenous peoples Penan, originally nomads, who are dependant on the forest for food and shelter. There remain 200 or so nomadic Penans and lots more semi-nomadic Penans and have found shelter in villages. Their future looks dire in terms of their ability to continue in the manner they have been accustomed to for hundreds of years. These peoples see their area of living and food supply disappearing under the axes of the loggers, although they have never given any permission. A trail of destruction, among human culture and nature, in favor of good profits for an external party.
The mighty wood companies Malaysian Samling Group, Rimbunan Hijau and KTS Logging are the bad guys. The Samling Group holds 1.4 million hectares in the Malaysian state of Sarawak. On the recent occasion of its public listing at the Hong Kong stock exchange, 37 organizations from 18 countries asked investors and banks to shun the company for its failure to comply with basic environmental and social standards. Far away from our homes? No, because some of the closely involved organisations of the logging are the European banks Credit Suisse and the Britisch HSBC. The mighty wolves against the small pigs. What can we do about it?
The Penan try to put a halt to this destruction of their environment by blockades. The only instrument they have to stop the big logging machines. These blockades are wiped out by fire, chainsaws and guns of the logging companies and the police. The Penan who are present are being pushed aside violently. After raising the blockades at the Samling Road in May 2007, four communities and a nomad group of the Penan have constructed five new blockades. No change for success.
In Sarawak are at least a 100 indigenous communities who have taken the matter of their land rights and the illegal logging to court against the Malaysian government.
The Malaysian Timber Certification Council (MTCC) recently has threatened Samling, the Sarawak-based timber giant, to revoke its certification of 56'000 hectares of tropical forest in the Upper Baram region of Sarawak unless the company resolves a land conflict with blockading Penan communities by November 2007. MTCC chief executive officer Chew Lye Teng asked Samling to negotiate with the Penan community who defends one of Sarawak's last remaining tracts of primeval rainforest against the loggers. „If Samling fails to resolve the issue by November the council could revoke the company's certificate of sustainable management“, Associated Press quotes Chew. According to the CEO, the council's order was based on a survey earlier this year by an independent inspection company.
Furthermore, recently a Japanese newspaper have accused the minister of Sarawak, Abdul Taib Mahmud, of accepting bribes for the wood export. Already in March 2007, the Japanese media and Malaysiakini reported offshore under-table payments made to a Hong Kong-registered company said to be linked to the Sarawak chief minister’s family. RM32 million in ‘kickbacks’ were allegedly paid by nine shipping companies to a Hong Kong-registered company Regent Star said to be linked to Sarawak Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud’s family. The minister disaffirms.
The Penan do what is in their power, but they are too weak a party in the unfair fight which have far reaching consequences for their survival. The Penan would therefore like to invite you to support them. They have no access to political lobby. Nevertheless, it is shown that international pressure can lead to results. For this case, your signature has value! You are a prospect of the involved European banks, so they don't want to be into a negative spotlight. Your signature shows the world that you do not agree with the illegal logging activities in Malaysian Borneo!
Please sign the petition.
More information on:
Bruno Manser Fonds and Forest Alert Fonds
Photo: Sander van Hulsenbeek
Friday 1 December 2006 - Land conflict between Indians and Aracruz Cellulose
Author: Geertje van der Pas.
(This urgent action is closed - 352 signatures are sent to Exmo. Sr. Ministro da Justiça Márcio Thomaz Bastos - Esplanada dos Ministérios, Bloco T, Ministério da Justiça, 4º. Andar; CEP 70064.900- Brasília- DF; Brasil)
Brasil - Since 1979, the Tupinikim and Guarani have been fighting for the recovery of their lands, a right guaranteed by the Brazilian Constitution. The indigenous peoples have a conflict with Aracruz Cellulose, which is the biggest producer of cellulose in the world. Aracruz invaded the indigenous areas in sixties and has planted eucalyptus trees on it.
At the moment the indigenous communities and their supporters are asking for international support, because the Minister of Justice of Brazil has to decide about the demarcation of the indigenous areas of the Tupinikim and Guarani. On 12 October expired the legal period for the Minister of Justice to make this decision.
On 12 September 2006, the Brazilian Minister of Justice, Márcio Thomaz Bastos, already received from the FUNAI (National Indigenist Foundation) the recommendation to declare 11,009 hectares of lands in Espirito Santo as Tupinikim/Guarani indigenous territories.
To justify this recommendation, FUNAI sent to the Minister four anthropological reports realized since 1994, as well as the opinion papers in which they reject the challenges presented by Aracruz Celulose both in 1998 and in 2006.
The Minister of Justice had a legal period of 30 days to decide on the issue, according to decree 1.775/1996 that rules about the administrative procedure for demarcation of indigenous lands.
This means that the Minister has an historical opportunity to correct the error of ex-Minister of Justice Iris Rezende in 1998 - the reduction of the Tupinikim/Guarani territory -, proven by the Federal Public Prosecution Service of Espirito Santo in May 2005, and finally solve the land conflict between Aracruz and the indigenous communities.
In September Aracruz started to carry out a latest propaganda campaign by which they try to urge their (out-sourced) workers, students of schools and private universities and the regional population in general, to declare themselves against the indigenous communities.
Central message is that the Indians, especially the Tupinikim, who are native from this region, are supposed to never inhabited the region and actually have nothing to do with Indians.
Aracruz also put its discriminatory information in a folder and on internet in Portuguese and English, while also enormous outdoors with discriminatory sentences are spread in the town of Aracruz, such as: "Aracruz brought progress, FUNAI brought the Indians"
Result of this campaign of Aracruz is that Indians are being discriminated now on the streets, in shops and at schools in the town of Aracruz. The State and Federal Public Prosecution Services have started processes against Aracruz about this latest action. Law 7.716/1989, that deals with crimes resulting from prejudice regarding race or color, determines that the practice, the induction and the incitement of ethnic prejudice is considered crime, and the responsible persons/companies must undergo punishment, signifying prison from 1 to 3 years and a fine.
For More Information:
FASE/ES: fasees@terra.com.br
CIMI: G.vanderpas@cmc.nu
Sign the Petition and contribute to this case!
Source: Cimi
Cimi
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