UN Special Rapporteur on Indigenous Rights, James Anaya, issued a report , September 20, 2011, finding that one of the most significant sources of abuse of the Rights of Indigenous peoples world wide is extraction of natural resources and other major development projects in or near their territories. He stated to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, “In its prevailing form, the model for advancing with natural resource extraction within the territories of indigenous peoples appears to run counter to the self-determination of indigenous peoples in the political, social and economic spheres .” Anaya’s report was based on answers to a questionnaire he distributed to governments, indigenous peoples and organizations, business corporations and other actors, he cited conflicting viewpoints on the potential adverse impact and benefits of such activities as mining, forestry, oil and natural gas extraction and hydroelectric projects in indigenous territories. He said he had made it a priority to reconcile the differing views and courses of action to ensure the full protection of indigenous rights and promote best practices through a broad dialogue with governments, indigenous peoples’ organizations, corporate actors and international institutions, in which consensus-building would be a key element. He found that, “The lack of a minimum common ground for understanding the key issues by all actors concerned entails a major barrier for the effective protection and realization of indigenous peoples’ rights.” He identified some positive developments including a new Peruvian law compelling private companies to consult indigenous communities before going ahead with major projects such as mining. Among key concerns, Mr. Anaya included the gradual loss of control by indigenous peoples over lands, territories and natural resources; water source depletion and contamination for drinking, farming and grazing; the adverse effects of water and airborne pollution on overall community health; and an increase in infectious diseases spread by interaction with workers or settlers. A further concern was the adverse impact on indigenous social structures and cultures, including alarming rates of alcoholism and prostitution previously unheard of among such peoples, imported by illegal loggers or miners, non-indigenous workers and industry personnel in specific projects, and increased traffic due to the construction of roads and other infrastructure. Anaya noted “Submissions by indigenous peoples and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) also reported an escalation of violence by government and private security forces as a consequence of extractive operations in indigenous territories, especially against indigenous leaders. A general repression of human rights was reported in situations where entire communities had voiced their opposition to extractive operations.” The report is available in several languages at: http://www.un.org/Docs/journal/asp/ws.asp?m=A/hrc/18/35 (“Indigenous peoples suffer abuses in race for natural resources – UN rights expert,” UN News Center, September 20, 2011, http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=39637&Cr=indigenous&Cr1). In September, Anaya published his a report concerning his correspondence with the Mexican government regarding mining concessions it has issued , where mining permits have not yet been issued and mining has yet to begin, within Mexico’s Wirikuta Natural and Cultural Reserve, an area that is sacred to the Wixárika (Huichol) people, noting that the government of Mexico authorized 22 mining concessions including 6.327 hectares without consultation with the Huichol Indigenous people (although the Mexican government claimed it had received consent), 69% of which lay within the protected Wirikuta Natural and Cultural Reserve, that was established in 1994 by the Mexican government. These concessions cover sacred sites of the highest importance to the religion and traditions of the Huichol people (“Campaign Update – Mexico: UN Special Rapporteur Dialogues with Mexican Officials on Mining in Wirikuta Reserve,” Cultural Survival, September 12m 2011, http://www.culturalsurvival.org/news/mexico/campaign-update-mexico-un-special-rapporteur-dialogues-mexican-officials-mining-wirikuta).
The UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, James Anaya, released his annual report on his communications with governments concerning 25 cases of specific violations of human rights of Indigenous Peoples in 15 countries. For some cases the Special Rapporteur has provided detailed observations with specific recommendations or descriptions of other follow up measures he has taken.
The 25 cases include:
Chile: Situación de los presos mapuche en una huelga de hambre y la aplicación de la ley antiterrorista en su contra
; Chile: Situation of the Rapa Nui people on Easter Island
; Costa Rica: Situation of the Térraba people and the hydroelectric project El Diquís
; Ethiopia: Situation of the Gilgel Gibe III hydroelectric project on the Omo River
; Guatemala: Situation of social and environmental problems generated by the Marlin mine; Israel: Situation of unrecognized Bedouin villages in the Negev desert
; Malaysia: Situation of the Long Teran Kanan village and native customary rights in Sarawak
; México: Situación del supuesto otorgamiento de concesiones mineras en la región de Wirikuta, Real de Catorce, San Luis Potosí, donde se encuentran sitios sagrados del Pueblo wixárika (huichol)
; Thailand: Exhumation of Hmong graves at Wat Tham Krabok
; United States of America: Situation of the Native Americans in relation to artificial snowmaking from recycled wastewater in the San Francisco Peaks. One can see the report on the individual cases at the web site, or read the full report at: http://unsr.jamesanaya.org/cases-examined/communications-cases-examined-2010-2011-full-report (“Report on Communications Sent, Replies Received and Follow Up,” UNSR, August 29, 2011, http://unsr.jamesanaya.org/notes/report-on-communications-sent-replies-received-and-follow-up).
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, in his message for the International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples, in New York, August 9, 2011, noted that Indigenous Peoples' Issues are more prominent than ever on the global agenda, but some statistics are alarming. He stated, "The world's indigenous peoples have preserved a vast amount of humanity's cultural history. Indigenous peoples speak a majority of the world's languages, and have inherited and passed on a wealth of knowledge, artistic forms and religious and cultural traditions. On this International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples, we reaffirm our commitment to their well-being. The landmark United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, adopted by the General Assembly in 2007, lays out a framework for Governments to use in strengthening relationships with indigenous peoples and protecting their human rights. Since then, we have seen more Governments working to redress social and economic injustices, through legislation and other means, and indigenous peoples' issues have become more prominent on the international agenda than ever before. But we must do even more. Indigenous peoples still experience racism, poor health and disproportionate poverty. In many societies, their languages, religions and cultural traditions are stigmatized and shunned. The first-ever United Nations report on the State of the World's Indigenous Peoples in January 2010 set out some alarming statistics. In some countries, indigenous peoples are 600 times more likely to contract tuberculosis than the general population. In others, an indigenous child can expect to die 20 years before his or her non-indigenous compatriots. The theme of this year's Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples is indigenous filmmakers, who give us windows into their communities, cultures and history. Their work connects us to belief systems and philosophies; it captures both the daily life and the spirit of indigenous communities. As we celebrate these contributions, I call on Governments and civil society to fulfill their commitment to advancing the status of indigenous peoples everywhere." For more information go to: www.cs.org.
The First Nation chiefs of New Brunswick filed suit against the federal government for reducing welfare benefits, October 19, 2011, when unemployment is over 50% per cent, in many First Nation communities, and the government is doing little to get people back to work or provide job training. Kelly Lamrock, a former New Brunswick attorney general and part of the chiefs’ legal team, stated. “The federal government is behaving unconstitutionally. By singling out certain provinces for deeper cuts, they are discriminating against New Brunswickers and discriminating against First Nations people.” The reductions in benefits are a result of a new federal rule that detaches social assistance rates from rent and heat expenses. Instead, recipients are paid the same rate province-wide, in an equation that will no longer include individual factors such as employment opportunities or the cost of food and shelter in the calculations determining need (“ New Brunswick First Nations Sue Federal Government over Welfare-Benefits Slash,” Indian Country Today, October 21, 2011, http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2011/10/new-brunswick-first-nations-sue-federal-government-over-welfare-benefits-slash/).
In a disagreement among first Nations, at least 230 First Nations in Saskatchewan, Quebec and Ontario, in August, pulled out of regional meetings being held by the national panel that was formed to map out a new education system for aboriginal peoples. Assembly of First Nations (AFN) national chief, Shawn A-in-chut Atleo, worked with Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada (AAND) to create the panel, but a number of First Nation leaders object that the panel’s end goal of crafting “one-size-fits-all education legislation” will not take into account the diversity of First Nations languages and cultures or respect First Nations’ right to control their children’s education. They were also concerned panel’s terms of reference do not refer to the signing of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), an omission that they see as undermining First Nations’ right to education under the Treaty. Vice Chief Lyle Whitefish of the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations (FSIN) said in a statement announcing the split, “We want our Treaty Right to Education upheld. The Chiefs Legislative Assembly Resolution #1771 rejects the national panel whose stated purpose and process will diminish the federal government’s Treaty obligations with respect to education.” This represents something of a break with the “Unfortunately, the AFN, our own national First Nations organization, is not listening to us, and appear to have been co-opted by the federal government in supporting a process that will only serve to create legislation that weakens our Treaty right to education,” Whitefish said. The much-heralded panel was announced in December 2010 by Atleo and what was then known as Indian and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC), now Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development (the name change is an issue under contention). Panel members were announced in March, but the selection process was criticized for a lack of transparency, the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN) reported at the time. Whitefish said that the FSIN, which represents 74 nations across Saskatchewan, is consulting directly with elders and communities to get their vision on what a true treaty-based education system would look like. First Nations in Saskatchewan, Quebec and northern Ontario will compile a parallel report for the AFN and AAND (“ 230 First Nations Pull Out of National Education Panel,” Indian Country Today, August 11, 2011, http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2011/08/11/230-first-nations-pull-out-of-national-education-panel-46780).
Ten Chiefs of the Mi’gmag and Wolastoqiyik (Maliseet) First Nations of New Brunswick, and the federal and provincial governments, including Minister of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development John Duncan and New Brunswick Premier David Alward, who is also the minister responsible for the Aboriginal Affairs Secretariat of New Brunswick, laid the groundwork for negotiating treaty rights, self-government and consultation in signing the Mi’gmag Wolastoqiyik/New Brunswick/Canada Umbrella Agreement, on September 9, 2011. The Umbrella Agreement was developed over years, setting an atmosphere of good faith and commitment. It sets out a plan to identify key priorities and negotiate a tri-party agreement for consultations with New Brunswick First Nations. Much of the work will be done via a coordinating committee that will oversee the negotiation process. Issues to be addressed include lands and resources, governance and jurisdiction, economic development and sustainability, health, education and social and cultural development (“New Brunswick Chiefs Sign Negotiation Agreement with Feds, Province,” Indian Country Today, September 12, 2011, http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2011/09/12/new-brunswick-chiefs-sign-negotiation-agreement-with-feds-province-53355).
The Ontario courts began an investigation, in August, 2011, headed by former Supreme Court Chief Justice Frank Iacobucci, of complaints from Nishnawbe Aski Nation (NAN) and others that First Nations are underrepresented on juries in the province (“Ontario to Review First Nation Underrepresentation on Juries,” Indian Country Today, August 12, 2011, http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2011/08/12/ontario-to-review-first-nation-underrepresentation-on-juries-47089).
The Supreme Court of Canada ruled unanimously in upholding two lower courts as it ruled that that the Lax Kw’Alaam Band , does not have a constitutional right to sell fish products commercially, though it may take fish for tribal member use. The seven-judge panel ruled that in precontact times the band had not traded fish and thus had no preexisting right to such trade ( Wawmeesh Hamilton, “ Supreme Court Says Lax Kw’Alaams Cannot Commercially Sell Their Fish,” Indian Country Today, November 21, 2011, http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2011/11/21/supreme-court-says-lax-kw’alaams-cannot-commercially-sell-their-fish-63871).
Following the signing of an agreement by Quebec Premier Jean Charest , August 8, 2011, Okalik Eegeesiak, President of the Qikiqtani Inuit Association (QIA), an organization representing the Inuit from the Baffin Region, High Arctic and Belcher Islands, said that this constitutes “an important step towards building a more meaningful relationship based on trust between Inuit communities and government in Nunavik.” She said, on August 9, that the next step is for Ottawa to follow the Quebec government’s example and acknowledge the damage done by the slaughter of sled dogs in the 1950s and 1960s (“ Qikiqtani Inuit Association Wants Ottawa to Apologize for Dog Slaughter,” Indian Country Today, August 11, 2011, http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2011/08/11/qikiqtani-inuit-association-wants-ottawa-to-apologize -for-dog-slaughter-46739).
Ontario Superior Court Justice Mary-Anne Sanderson ruled, in August, in favor of the Grassy Narrows First Nation (Asubpeeschoseewagong Netum Anishinabek) of northwestern Ontario, that for 11 years has been battling against clear cut logging on it territory, as justice Sanderson held that the province of Ontario, which had authorized logging on the nation’s lands, had no authority to do so, as logging and mining rights are established by treaty and, therefore, are a federal and not provincial issue (“Grassy Narrows First Nation Wins Anti-Logging Court Case,” Indian Country Today, August 17, 2011, http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2011/08/17/grassy-narrows-first-nation-wins-anti-logging-court-case-47870)
The Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation (ACFN) is suing Shell Canada for C$1.5 million, charging that the conglomerate has held back on promised funds meant to mitigate the effects of oil sands development on its territory (“ Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation Suing Shell Canada,” Indian Country Today, December 1, 2011, http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2011/12/01/athabasca-chipewyan-first-nation-suing-shell-canada-65520).
Habitat for Humanity Canada began a partnership, December 6, 2011, with the Assembly of First Nations (AFN) aimed at helping alleviate the housing crisis that afflicts a hundred or more reserves, by organizing the building of new homes, while, celebrity homebuilder Mike Holmes, host of the HGTV show Holmes on Homes, has also joined AFN advising how on how to build smarter (“Habitat for Humanity To Partner With First Nations on Housing, HGTV’s Mike Holmes Weighs In,” Indian Country Today, December 9, 2011, http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2011/12/09/habitat-for-humanity-to-partner-with-first-nations-on-housing-hgtv’s-mike-holmes-weighs-in-66604).
The Organization of American States (OAS) has published a guide "Participation of Indigenous Peoples in the Inter-American System: Mechanisms and New Tools Proposed," summarizing the participation mechanisms that exist for Indigenous Peoples in different areas of the Organization , including the possibility of registering as civil society bodies, attending the meetings on the Proposed American Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, participating in the human rights protection and promotion system, and participating in the Summits of the Americas process. The report can be downloaded at: http://svc.summit-americas.org/sites/default/files/Brochure%20Indegenas_4_EN_WEB%20%282%29.pdf (“ OAS Releases a Guide on Participation of Indigenous Peoples in the Inter-American System,” cultural Survival, October 4, 2011, h ttp://www.culturalsurvival.org/news/none/oas-releases-guide-participation-indigenous-peoples-inter-american-system).
There is evidence that members of the Mexican military, as well as of the police, are involved in the drug trade in Mexico (Randal C. Archibold, “Rights Groups Contend Mexican Military Has Heavy Hand in Drug Cases,” The New York Times, August 3, 2011). In addition, there are numerous reports of troops and police undertaking alleged “drug raids” during which they engage in large scale theft.
The U.S. has expanded its role in Mexico’s drug war, sending new CIA opertives and retired military personnel to Mexican military bases to collaborate with authorities, and the Obama administation is considering employing private security personnel as well (“U.S. Widens Its Role in Battle Against Mexico’s Drug Cartels,” The New York Times, August 7, 2011).
Laura Carlsen, “NAFTA Is Starving Mexico,” Anericas Program, October 20, 2011, http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/5617, discusses, “Since the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) became the law of the land, millions of Mexicans have joined the ranks of the hungry. Malnutrition is highest among the country’s farm families, who used to produce enough food to feed the nation. As the blood-spattered violence of the drug war takes over the headlines, many Mexican men, women, and children confront the slow and silent violence of starvation. The latest reports show that the number of people living in “food poverty” (the inability to purchase the basic food basket) rose from 18 million in 2008 to 20 million by late 2010. About one-fifth of Mexican children currently suffer from malnutrition. An innovative measurement applied by the National Institute for Nutrition registers a daily count of 728,909 malnourished children under five for October 18, 2011. Government statistics report that 25 percent of the population does not have access to basic food. Since the 2008 food crisis, there has been a three percent rise in the population without adequate access to food. The number of children with malnutrition is 400,000 kids above the goal for this year. Newborns show the highest indices of malnutrition, indicating that the tragedy begins with maternal health .” The other side of NAFTA is that in the last 15 years Mexico has become second only to the United States in morbid obesity. Child obesity, overweight, and diabetes now constitute major health problems are taking a toll on the poor, who have switched to high sugar and fat diets, as well as the well to do, alongside the more traditional problem of hunger. The International Journal of Obesity finds that worldwide the spread of what they call “the Western diet” (“high in saturated fats, sugar, and refined foods but low in fiber) has meant that “the burden of obesity is shifting towards the poor.” The NAFTA generation reflects the paradigm so eloquently described by food researcher and activist Raj Patel of “stuffed and starved”. “With another food crisis looming due to rising international prices, Mexico could face food riots as well as the spread of starvation and its consequences over the coming year. Unless the riots turn violent or spark more widespread social upheaval as they did in Arab countries, it’s not likely that the news media will pay any attention.” NAFTA has created a model of food insecurity. “The nation that was slated for prosperity when it signed NAFTA has become an international example of severe structural problems in the food chain, from how it produces its food to what and how much (or how little) it consumes. Mexican malnutrition has its roots in the way NAFTA and other neoliberal programs forced the nation to move away from producing its own basic foods to a “food security” model. “Food security” posits that a country is secure as long as it has sufficient income to import its food. It separates farm employment from food security and ignores unequal access to food within a country. The idea of food security based on market access comes directly from the main argument behind NAFTA of “comparative advantage.” Simply stated, economic efficiency dictates that each country should devote its productive capacity to what it does best and trade liberalization will guarantee access across borders. Under the theory of comparative advantage, most of Mexico was deemed unfit to produce its staple food crop, corn, since its yields were way below the average for its northern neighbor and trade partner. Therefore, Mexico should turn to corn imports and devote its land to crops where it supposedly had a comparative advantage, such as counter-seasonal and tropical fruits and vegetables.” “The cultural and human consequences of declaring entire peasant and indigenous communities obsolete were not a concern in this equation. Seventeen years after NAFTA, some two million farmers have been forced off their land by low prices and the dismantling of government supports. They did not find jobs in industry. Instead most of them became part of a mass exodus as the number of Mexican migrants to the United States rose to half a million a year. In the first few years of NAFTA, corn imports tripled and the producer price fell by half. Conversion to other crops turned out to take years in most cases. Prices were volatile and harvests unreliable. It was not feasible at all on many small, often rocky plots where corn guarantees a subsistence diet for farm families. Niche markets failed to grow to much more than 2% of total agricultural production. The areas that adapted successfully to industrial agriculture and agroexport crops are characterized by flagrant violation of the labor rights of migrant farm workers, widespread pollution and water waste, and extreme concentration of land and resources. For the hungry, this means that prices set on the international market determine who eats and who starves. Mexican consumers now pay more for tortillas and food in general. Price hikes on the international market push basic food out of reach for the millions of poor in the country.” NAFTA has created food dependency, with uncertainty amidst rising and fluctuating prices. 42% of the food consumed in Mexico is imported. Prior to NAFTA, the country spent $1.8 billion dollars on food imports. It now spends a whopping $24 billion. Rural researcher Ernesto Ladrón de Guevara notes that in some basic foods, the dependency on imports is dramatic: 80% in rice, 95% in soybeans, 33% percent in beans, and 56% in wheat. The country is the world’s number-one importer of powdered milk. NAFTA decimated Mexico’s once-thriving dairy sector, and the market takeover by transnational powdered milk is linked to the crisis in infant malnutrition. Mexico imports one third of its food consumption, a figure that belies the reliance on imports because the sheer volume of consumption is so large. Ladrón de Guevara states that it has gone from importing around 250,000 tons before NAFTA to 13 million tons. Transnational traders often favor imports over national production because of the attractive credit arrangements offered by the United States, making it “a double business—importing corn and money.” The U.S. department of agriculture estimates that if current trends continue Mexico will acquire 80 percent of its food from other countries (mostly the United States). “The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization calls a country food dependent when the cost of its imports exceeds 25 percent of total exports. Peasant farmer organizations have criticized the definition as ludicrous in an oil-producing country that nonetheless has seen serious erosion in its capacity to feed its people and guarantee access to basic foods for all.” “The corporate takeover of Mexico’s food system has led to the food and health catastrophe. Transnational food corporations not only import freely into Mexican food markets, they are now the producers, exporters, and importers all in one, operating inside the country. Since NAFTA, corporations have gobbled up human and natural resources on an almost unbelievable scale. Livestock production has moved from small farms for local markets to Tyson, Smithfield, and Pilgrims Pride. The massive use and contamination of water and land has led to health and environmental disasters across the country. Millions of jobs have been lost to concentration and industrialized farming methods. Take the case of Corn Products International (CPI). The transnational filed a NAFTA claim against the Mexican government in 2003, claiming a loss to its business due to a tax levied on high fructose corn syrup in beverages. Mexico’s reason for imposing the tax was to save a sugarcane industry that provided jobs for thousands of citizens and played a crucial economic role in many regions. The government was also frustrated by its failure under NAFTA to access the highly protected U.S. sugar market. A 2008 NAFTA tribunal ruled that Mexico had to pay $58.4 million to CPI. The government paid up on January 25, 2011. CPI posted $3.7 billion dollars in net sales the year of the decision. The fine paid by the Mexican government could have provided a year’s worth of the basic food basket to more than 50,000 poor families. CPI’s wholly owned subsidiary Arancia Corn Products is among the most powerful food transnationals operating in the country, along with Maseca/Archers Daniel Midland and Cargill. Large agribusiness companies allegedly played a key role in the 2007 tortilla crisis by hoarding harvest as the international price went up, artificially drying up the national market and selling at nearly double the price they paid for the harvest. That crisis brought tens of thousands of poor Mexicans out into the streets to protest a 50% rise in the price of tortillas. NAFTA and other FTAs give corporations the power to define what we eat, what we buy at the store, who will have a job and who won’t, and whether a village sustained by local food production will survive or witness the end of generations of livelihoods.” “Mexican organizations have begun to come together after years of divisions to respond to the food crisis and fix the badly broken system. They recently succeeded in reforming the Mexican constitution to include the right to food. Now the battle is on to adapt the rural budget to make that right a reality. Small farmer organizations have joined with family farm organizations in the United States and Canada to call for the renegotiation of NAFTA to remove basic foods and agricultural production from the agreement. They recognize, though, that the Obama administration’s about-face in its stated commitments to fair trade reforms have left little political space for change. Instead, peasant organizations in all three countries are looking to grassroots efforts and movements to fix the food system before the crisis worsens. As Mexican organizations struggle for programs to address threats to food and agriculture, U.S. organizations are seeing an opportunity to join their demands to the Occupy Wall Street movement across the country. One of the grievances listed in the OWS Declaration of the New York City General Assembly reads: “They (large corporations) have poisoned the food supply through negligence, and undermined the farming system through monopolization.” Food activists are now bringing issues of corporate concentration in food, commodity speculation and price hikes, and free trade to the general protests.” “As the crisis deepens, citizen movements are again heating up and seeking each other out across borders to protect their health, their livelihoods and their rights. In the future, what we eat, how we eat, and if we eat will depend on their efforts.”
Cultural Survival received a letter from Mexico’s Office of Mining, in early December, saying it has assigned a special commission to consider the protests of the Wixárika (Huichol) people against mining and other environmentally destructive projects within the Wirikuta Natural and Cultural Reserve. The Wixárika case is being considered by a commission coordinated by the National Commission for the Development of Indigenous Peoples (CDI), with representatives of the Ministries of Governance (SEGOB), Economy (SE), Agrarian Reform (SRA), Environment and Natural Resources (SEMARNAT), Agriculture (PA), and the state governments of San Luis Potosi, Durango, and Nayarit. The commission’s objective is to “dialogue with the Wixárika people to hear their concerns directly and find a solution to the problem, respecting the rights of everyone involved.” The letter asserts that the mining concessions issued to First Majestic Silver company (which overlap the Wirikuta Reserve) were issued legally. But, the director observed, this is only the beginning of a long legal process which will be scrutinized by his office. No mining activities have been approved to date. The letter is available in Spanish at: http://www.culturalsurvival.org/files/letter%20in%20Spanish%20from%20Mining%20General%20.pdf (Campaign Update – Mexico: Mining Office Replies to Cultural Survival,” Cultural Survival, December 7, 3011, http://www.culturalsurvival.org/news/mexico/campaign-update-mexico-mining-office-replies-cultural-survival).
Guatemala continues to be plagued by corruption and increasing drug trafficking. With elections approaching, ICY, “Guatemala’s Elections: Clean Polls, Dirty Politics.” Latin America Briefing N°24, June 16, 2011, http://www.crisisgroup.org/en/regions/latin-america-caribbean/guatemala/B024-guatemalas-elections-clean-polls-dirty-politics.aspx, comments, “Guatemalans go to the polls in September 2011 to elect a president, the Congress and local officials. The vote itself is likely to be reasonably free, but violence and unregulated campaign finance imperil the country’s political institutions. Deteriorated security, drug traffickers’ brutality and polarized politics leave candidates especially vulnerable to attacks. An exorbitant campaign, meanwhile, threatens to indebt office-holders to powerful financial interests, including organized crime, deepening corruption and widening the gulf between citizens and their politicians. State security agencies should redouble efforts to prevent bloodshed, especially in the most dangerous municipalities; politicians and parties must fully reveal who funds them, and the Public Prosecutor’s office, electoral authorities and donors should press them to do so. The presidential contest will probably pit Otto Pérez Molina, former head of military intelligence, against Sandra Torres, recently divorced wife of incumbent Álvaro Colom, though legal hurdles could still halt Torres’s bid and leave the ruling party scrambling for a replacement. Pre-election violence has already claimed candidates, their families, party activists and electoral staff, mostly at the hands of unidentified gunmen. As drugs cartels battle over transit routes, competition in those areas for the local government posts whose collusion facilitates trafficking may be particularly fierce. Mudslinging and harsh rhetoric from both major parties have set the tone for an ugly campaign. Polarization between the camps, in both the capital and some municipalities, raises the specter of disputed results. A flawed registration exercise, while unlikely to seriously impact the quality of the elections, could give losers a pretext for challenges. Unregulated political finance poses a threat more subtle than violence but as dangerous to political life. Reforms have required parties to limit campaign spending and reveal their financial backers, but politicians disregard the new rules with impunity. Recent election campaigns have been among the costliest, per capita, on the continent, and spending in 2011 looks set to outstrip even previous records, skewing the playing field and – worse still – leaving politicians beholden to shadowy business and criminal interests, many of which are vested in continued lawlessness and a weak state. Political parties provide no protection. Fragmented, disorderly, unrepresentative and largely ideology-free, they offer little to link state and society beyond populism and patronage. Unrestrained money in politics contributes to a rotten and exclusive system that reasonably free voting every few years does little to hide, let alone reform.” “Priorities ahead of the September polls are: politicians and the media must tone down inflammatory campaign rhetoric, with candidates instead articulating their policies and how they plan to reverse endemic violence, impunity and inequality; the electoral authority, the Tribunal Supremo Electoral (TSE), and security agencies should identify municipalities exposed to violence and bolster security measures in those areas. Local TSE branches should broker pacts in which mayoral candidates pledge to avoid violence, respect rules and use only legal, peaceful means to challenge results. Local electoral and other officials in municipalities most likely to have contested results should offer additional opportunities for dispute resolution; the TSE should clarify how citizens issued faulty new ID cards can vote and provide breakdowns of the number of voters in each municipality alongside data from 2007 to allay fears that inflated data may facilitate rigging; the TSE must publicize, ideally each week, its estimates of parties’ campaign spending. Other government departments should cooperate with it to help reveal party finances. The Public Prosecutor’s office should exploit new provisions in the penal code to force the main parties to reveal who has paid for their campaigns and prosecute those who fail to comply; international actors, in particular major donor nations, should press political leaders to reveal their spending and financial backers, as well as for more moderate campaign language, public articulation of their policies, acceptance of results and post-election reforms; and the Organization of American States (OAS) should beef up its planned observation mission, especially as the European Union (EU) will not send observers. The U.S. and EU should complement the OAS mission by funding other international observers and supporting the extensive efforts of national monitors. After the elections, the new legislature should reform the Law on Elections and Political Parties, in particular adding safeguards to better check the use of money in politics. The legislative agenda is already packed; indeed fiscal reform and laws governing the Public Prosecutor’s appointment, public officials’ immunity and injunction power (amparo) are priorities. But bolstering political finance rules is crucial. Much of the rot in Guatemalan politics enters through unregulated election campaigns, and the year after polls, before re-election concerns start to consume politicians’ agendas, offers the best shot at closing those gaps.
Meanwhile, there is a source of hope against what has been a long term deteriorating situation in Guatemala, ICG, “ Learning to Walk without a Crutch:
The International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala,” Latin America Report N°36, May 31, 2011, http://www.crisisgroup.org/en/regions/latin-america-caribbean/guatemala/036-learning-to-walk-without-a-crutch-the-international-commission-against-impunity-in-guatemala.aspx, finds, “Since it began operations in September 2007, the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (Comisión Internacional contra la Impunidad en Guatemala, CICIG) has brought a degree of hope to a country deeply scarred by post-conflict violence and entrenched impunity. As homicide rates sky-rocketed and criminals fought for territorial control and dominated or corrupted multiple levels of state agencies, the novel independent investigating entity created by agreement between the government and the UN Secretary-General responded to fear that illegal armed groups had become a threat to the state itself. Much remains to be done, however. During the next years the commission should establish the strategic basis for dismantling the illegal security forces and clandestine security organizations (Cuerpos Ilegales y Aparatos Clandestinos de Seguridad, CIACS) over the long term and building Guatemalan justice capacity, including by supporting national ownership of the commission’s functions and embedding them within the judicial system. CICIG’s formal mandate is to support and assist domestic justice institutions in the investigation and prosecution of crimes committed by CIACS, to identify their structures, operations and financing and ultimately to dismantle them. At the same time, CICIG has sought to strengthen the weak judicial system in order to put an end to impunity, a task made infinitely more difficult by the complex relationship between elements of state institutions, political parties, the private sector and the CIACS. On 13 January 2011, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon confirmed a second two-year extension of CICIG’s original mandate, to 4 September 2013. The commission has achieved notable and unprecedented short-term successes, evidenced by positive outcomes in a series of high-impact legal cases, dismissal and prosecution of several senior officials, removal of a compromised attorney general and the selection of a respected successor. It has encouraged the adoption of norms for election of Supreme Court judges and helped generate public awareness about impunity, CIACS and organized crime. It contributed directly to the creation of a Special Prosecutor’s Office that assists its work (Unidad Especial de la Fiscalía de Apoyo a la CICIG, UEFAC) and has supported greater professionalism in the Public Prosecutor’s Office (Ministerio Público, MP), the institution charged with the investigation and prosecution of crimes in Guatemala. It has also pushed through a limited number of important legal reforms. However, the core elements of the mandate – dismantling the CIACS and consolidating sustainable institutional transformation – remain unmet, and it is uncertain whether sufficient progress has been achieved or at least the foundations have been laid to guarantee those goals will be accomplished. Severe structural constraints and the resistance of diverse spoilers, as well as limitations imposed by the commission’s own mandate and strategies, have been restraining factors. Such institutional transformation as there has been will remain isolated exceptions, unless further legislative reforms are adopted to extend them throughout state institutions. Moreover, there is a serious question about the degree to which the Guatemalan state and broader society are prepared to exercise ownership of CICIG and sustain its achievements. Clear measures need to be taken to reduce the possibility that continuation of the mandate will only make the justice system more dependent on external mechanisms. National ownership of the commission’s functions and objectives is crucial to guaranteeing its long-term impact. Assuring a sustainable legacy through the transfer of technical capacities from CICIG to national institutions should be a priority during the next two years. CICIG has provided a crutch. The justice system must now learn to walk on its own and increasingly assume the responsibilities with which CICIG has been charged.” ICG proposes: “For creation of effective, professional and well-resourced national rule of law institutions: To the Government of Guatemala: 1. Support CICIG’s mandate through the strengthening of a well-funded and trained rule of law sector, including by: a) enforcing and supporting, as appropriate, the removal of tainted officials from key rule of law institutions, such as the Public Prosecutor’s Office, the judiciary and the National Civil Police, applying administrative and disciplinary measures where appropriate and prosecuting, where possible, any officials linked to CIACS; b) strengthening financially and technically the units of the Public Prosecutor’s Office (MP) and the National Civil Police mandated with identifying and prosecuting those linked to or participating in the CIACS, including through the establishment of an independent criminal investigation unit within the MP, as well as other institutions, such as the criminal defense system and the judiciary; c) establishing an adequate career system for the public service in general and the police and MP in particular, and ensuring dignified salaries and benefits; and d) obtaining passage of key legislation proposed by CICIG, such as the reform of the Statutory Law of the Public Prosecutor’s Office and an enhanced fiscal regulation. 2. Reviving and implementing the National Agreement for the Advancement of Security and Justice signed in April 2009 as an element of the roadmap for judicial reform processes. To the Congress of Guatemala: 3. Priorities passage of key legislation proposed by CICIG, including reforms to the Statutory Law of the Public Prosecutor’s Office, ensuring an independent, transparent selection mechanism for the office of Attorney General; the Law on Injunction (Amparo), Habeas Corpus and Unconstitutionality; the Law on Immunity of Public Officials; the Immigration Law, with specific reference to human trafficking, including illicit trafficking of migrants; and laws related to disciplinary measures in the justice system and pleas in criminal proceedings. To the Attorney General: 4. Improve the MP’s capacity to detect prosecutors and other staff linked with CIACS by establishing an effective, independent internal affairs unit, in close coordination with the UEFAC, and improve its human resources policies by creating an adequate system of benefits and protection. To the International Community: 5. Present common conditions to the government for future cooperation, including adoption of a national agenda for the justice system and fiscal reform and retention by the president elected in September 2011 of Attorney General Claudia Paz y Paz, at least through the critical two-year period of CICIG’s mandate. For strengthening the work of CICIG: To the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG): 6. Consolidate CICIG’s achievements in specific cases, expand its intervention in institutional reform to combat impunity and build capacity, including by: a) focusing its prosecutorial activity on dismantling the CIACS as its first strategic priority publicly and clarifying its criteria for case selection and its general plan of investigations over the next two years; b) mapping out CIACS structures, locations and activities and sharing the information with the attorney general; and c) expanding its intervention in the interior so as to confront CIACS at local and regional levels. 7. Evaluate CICIG’s activities, impact and strategy together with Guatemalan stakeholders, including civil society organizations and public institutions, and independent international experts. To the International Community: 8. Maintain and strengthen coordinated donor support to CICIG by: a) ensuring it has all required financial and technical resources, including a fully funded two-year budget; and b) backing the evaluation of CICIG, its achievements and limitations, with pertinent indicators and in constant dialogue with all stakeholders, including Guatemalan public institutions and civil society organizations. For coherently transferring capacities from CICIG to national institutions: To the Government of Guatemala: 9. Establish a high-level commission, under the president’s authority and with the participation of public institutions, CICIG and civil society representatives, to establish a transfer strategy, including a budget, institutional mechanisms, benchmarks and timelines. To the Congress of Guatemala: 10. Pass fiscal reform and complementary legislation to guarantee an adequate budget for the public sector. To the Attorney General: 11. Use the UEFAC as a seedbed to build and transfer capacities within the MP, including by enhancing its role and authority and requiring all MP units, such as the Special Unit for Crimes against Life, to collaborate with it when requested and immediately disciplining those that do not. 12. Establish and follow a roadmap for transferring CICIG information, resources and techniques, including by: a) building an efficient, transparent information system that protects sensitive data on CICIG investigations; and b) expanding the prosecutorial activities of all appropriate MP units, in collaboration with CICIG and UEFAC. To the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG): 13. Establish and pursue a proactive strategic plan to transfer knowledge and capacities to Guatemalan public institutions, including working together on establishing a model for selecting and investigating high-impact cases and appointing UEFAC personnel. To The International Community: 14. Reinforce donor coordination on the long-term funding priorities of national justice institutions and in particular monitor the strategic plan to transfer CICIG capacities to them.
The drug violence situation has become so desperate in Guatemala, as gangs and Mexican drug cartels run amuck, capturing territory and corrupting institutions to keep Guatemala a safe haven for cocaine, guns, money laundering and new recruits, that many Guatemalans are asking for a strong military back in their villages, despite very bad memories of the army’s genocidal role in the 36 year civil war . Josefina Molina, 52, said, “It’s even scarier now than during the war. The danger used to be in the mountains — now it’s everywhere.” In the country’s Presidential election, the three top contenders all called for a stronger, crime-fighting military, borrowing heavily from the Mexican model of attacking the drug cartels head-on, even though that strategy has claimed more than 40,000 lives without yielding peace. But the question worrying many is whether the new government will get tough without violating human rights. Meanwhile many areas and neighborhoods employ civilian patrols, which so far have been insufficient to curb the violent crime wave (Damien Cave, “Desperate Guatemalans Embrace an ‘Iron Fist’,” The New York Times,September 9, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/10/world/americas/10guatemala.html?ref=todayspaper).
On October 12, 2011, Dia de La Raza, or Colombus Day in Guatemala, thousands Mayas, Garifunas, and Xincas, despite heavy rains, undertook their annual march through the capital of Guatemala City in remembrance of their ancestors and to demand of the government that the rights of Indigenous Peoples be respected. This year, the community radio movement joined forces with CONIC, the National Coordinator for Indigenous Peoples and Campesinos, as well as many other grassroots Indigenous groups to demand the approval of a series of bills that have been entered into Congress by Indigenous representatives, that have been marginalized over the past five years. The long list includes the Radio Project’s Law of Community Media 4087 that would legalize community radio, as well as the Law of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the Law to Protect Sacred Sites, and the Law of Consultation, and the Law Against Mining, all which have been ‘prioritized’ by congressional leaders but have yet to be scheduled on congressional agenda to be brought to a vote. Community Radio stations that serve Indigenous communities in their own languages covered the event live via cell-phone broadcast (“ Community Radio Movement Protests Columbus Day in Guatemala,” Cultural Survival, 10/12/2011, http://www.culturalsurvival.org/news/guatemala/community-radio-movement-protests-columbus-day-guatemala).
The Maya Q'eqchi community of Agua Caliente, El Estor, Izabal, filed a petition, August 19, 2011, with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights against Guatemala for violating their rights to property, self-government, due process of law, and judicial protection . The community of 385 people has been fighting to protect their nickel-rich lands and resources from exploitation for more than 40 years. A former subsidiary of HudBay Minerals from Canada, Compañía Guatemalteca de Níquel, was awarded a license to extract nickel from lands belonging to 16 Maya Q’eqchi’ communities, including Agua Caliente, without consulting the communities. In February 2011, Guatemala’s Constitutional Court ruled in favor of Agua Caliente, recognizing their rights to collective property, and ordered corrective actions. Guatemala, however, has not fully complied with court orders. Having exhausted all of the state processes, the community is seeking justice through the regional human rights system (“Maya Q’eqchi’ File Petition with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights against Guatemala,” Cultural Survival, August 25, 2011, http://www.culturalsurvival.org/news/guatemala/maya-q-eqchi-file-petition-inter-american-commission-human-rights-against-guatemala).
The community radio movement in Guatemala won a partial victory in the fight for democratic access to radio frequencies in Guatemala, with the congress's failure to vote approval on the bill 4404, which would have extended the current radio frequencies allocated to the mass media, with no mention of community radio, for another 25 years. The bill can come up again in 2012 when the newly-elected Congress takes office. Meanwhile, the effort continues to pass legislation legalizing community radio, which broadcasts to Indigenous communities in their own languages (“Community Radio Gains Time in Fight against Further Monopolization in Guatemala,” Cultural Survival, December 10, 2011, http://www.culturalsurvival.org/news/guatemala/community-radio-gains-time-fight-against-further-monopolization-guatemala).
The violence surrounding the 2008 coup in Honduras has increased the divide and struggle in the country. Particularly since late last summer, struggles over land have been a major issue, with workers seizing land and setting up homes and farms on plantations of the ultra wealthy, particularly in the fertile valley of Bajo Aguán , near Honduras’s northern coast. At least 15 people have been killed in land battles in several weeks in late summer weeks, alone, including two of the workers’ leaders, and people in the valley are fearful that the unrest could spread. In an exceedingly divided country, the government appeared to move a step forward to negotiating a solution in early September, when Congress approved a mechanism to guarantee bank loans that would allow the farm workers to buy seized land. An estimated 4,000 families will be eligible for 15-year loans to buy more than 11,000 acres. However, the 1,400 families camped on the Marañones plantation since last year have been left out of the latest pact. Without a land title, they fear they could be evicted at any time. The presence of hundreds of troops sent to the valley after the latest round of violence could also set off more conflict. The day before the congressional vote, soldiers and police officers surrounded Marañones and two other plantations, in an rehearsal for a massive raid. The conflict in the valley goes back to the early 1990s, when wealthy landowners bought up plantations from farmer co-operatives. Farm worker groups argue that these purchases were illegal because members of the co-operatives were tricked by their leaders or signed deals they did not understand (Elizabeth Malkin, “In Honduras, Land Struggles Highlight Post-Coup Polarization,” The New York Times, September 15, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/16/world/americas/honduras-land-conflicts-highlight-polarization.html?_r=1&ref=world). In late October, the Honduran Supreme Court, in a 12-3 vote, cleared six army generals accused of overthrowing President Manuel Zelaya and flying him to Costa Rica in 2009, rejecting abuse of authority charges against the now-retired generals, Romeo Vásquez, Luis Prince, Venancio Cervantes, Miguel García, Juan Pablo Rodríguez and Carlos Cuéllar (“ Honduras: Court Clears Six Generals in Overthrow of President in 2009,” The New York Times, October 21, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/21/world/americas/honduras-court-clears-generals-in-overthrow-of-zelaya.html?ref=todayspaper).
The Contentious Administrative Court of Costa Rican ruled, September 12, 2011, that the ancestral lands of the Bribri people of the Keköldi Reserve must be returned to them . The Bribri live in the Talamanca Canton in Limón Province of Costa Rica and number between 11,000-35,000 people. Keköldi Reserve was created in 1977 on the Caribbean coast, after non-Indigenous groups began settling on the land. International Labor Organization’s Convention 169, which Costa Rica ratified in 1993, was referenced in the decision (“Costa Rican Court Rules in Favor of the Bribri,” Cultural Survival, September 21, 2001, http://www.culturalsurvival.org/news/costa-rica/costa-rican-court-rules-favor-bribri).
The International Crisis Group, “Cutting the Links Between Crime and Local Politics: Colombia’s 2011 Elections,” Latin America Report N°37, July 25. 2011, http://www.crisisgroup.org/en/regions/latin-america-caribbean/andes/colombia/37-cutting-the-links-between-crime-and-local-politics-colombias-2011-elections.aspx, warns, “Deeply entrenched connections between criminal and political actors are a major obstacle to conflict resolution in Colombia. Illegal armed groups seek to consolidate and expand their holds over local governments in the October 2011 governorship, mayoral, departmental assembly and municipal council elections. The national government appears more willing and better prepared than in the past to curb the influence of illegal actors on the elections, but the challenges remain huge. The high number of killed prospective candidates bodes ill for the campaign, suggesting that the decade-old trend of decreasing electoral violence could be reversed. There are substantial risks that a variety of additional means, including intimidation and illegal money, will be used to influence outcomes. The government must rigorously implement additional measures to protect candidates and shield the electoral process against criminal infiltration, corruption and fraud. Failure to mitigate these risks would mean in many places four more years of poor local governance, high levels of corruption and enduring violence. Decentralization in the 1980s and 1990s greatly increased the tasks and the resources of local government, but in many municipalities, capabilities failed to keep pace. This mismatch made local governments increasingly attractive targets for both guerrillas and paramilitaries. Violence against candidates, local office holders and political and social activists soared. With a largely hostile attitude to local governments, guerrillas have mainly concentrated on sabotaging and disturbing the electoral process. By contrast, paramilitary groups, particularly after the formation of a national structure under the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), used their links with economic and political elites to infiltrate local governments and capture public resources. That peaked in the 2003 local elections. Since then, and particularly after the official demobilization of these groups in 2006, the influence politicians linked to paramilitaries enjoyed has weakened but not disappeared. The October elections are the first test of how democratic institutions under the government of President Juan Manuel Santos cope with the growing power of new illegal armed groups and paramilitary successors (NIAGs), now acknowledged as the country’s biggest security threat. These organizations, which the government calls BACRIM (criminal gangs), are unlikely to have a unified stance towards the elections. Some will be content with minimal relations to local politics to guarantee their impunity, access to information and freedom of action. But NIAGs are rapidly evolving into larger, more robust criminal networks, so some could develop a more ambitious political agenda. Several advocates of land restitution for the victims of Colombia’s long-running armed conflict already have been assassinated, suggesting that this major Santos initiative is likely to be met by alliances between criminals and some segments of local economic elites, in defense of the status quo. Meanwhile, frequent attacks against prospective candidates and civilians suggest that the weakened FARC wants to prove it is not a spent force. Colombia is better prepared than in the past to take on these challenges. Impunity is decreasing, as judicial investigations into links between politicians and paramilitaries have resulted in the conviction of some two dozen members of Congress. Investigations and indictments are now moving down to the local government level, albeit slowly and unevenly. In July 2011, the government signed into law a far-ranging political reform, paving the way for the imposition of penalties on parties that endorse candidates with links to illegal armed groups or face investigation for drug trafficking and crimes against humanity. Election financing rules and anti-corruption norms have also been stiffened, although shortcomings in the legal framework remain. Over the long term, these changes should favor more competitive and cleaner local elections, but in the short term, their impact will, for a number of reasons, be limited. The approval of the political reform law less than four months ahead of the elections has heightened uncertainty, and time is running short to apply some of the innovations. More broadly, political parties remain weak, and there are doubts whether they can even effectively determine their own nominees in all cases. Meaningful competition is unlikely to emerge in regions where the political and economic environment is heavily biased towards elites formerly linked to paramilitaries. Clientelism continues to be a drag on local politics, while links between criminals and politicians are frequently difficult to expose because of deep-seated popular mistrust of unresponsive local authorities. Guaranteeing the conditions for free, fair and competitive elections remains the dominant immediate challenge for the government. But more needs to be done to protect local government from the influence of illegal armed groups over the long term. The National Electoral Council (CNE) must be strengthened and become more independent. Congress needs to update and simplify Colombia’s diverse electoral rules. Political parties must establish stronger internal structures and develop a culture of accountability. These changes will ultimately be insufficient, however, if local government continues to lack the institutional capacities to guarantee democratic, clean and efficient management of its affairs.” ICG recommends: “To provide the conditions for safe and secure local elections: To the Government of Colombia: 1. Review methods and criteria currently applied to identify security threats, link its risk assessments to those provided by civil society organizations and rigorously implement measures to provide security to candidates and political organizations, without discrimination. 2. React in a timely manner to all threats to candidates or social activists, as well as to early warning reports from the ombudsman office, and ensure that officials who fail to act comprehensively on threats or early warning reports face legal consequences. To reduce the influence of politicians linked to illegal armed actors: To Political Parties: 3. Screen prospective candidates rigorously before endorsing them and reject all with a questionable past, including those who are close relatives of politicians linked to paramilitaries or who are put forward by politicians linked to illegal armed actors. To prevent illicit campaign financing and electoral crimes and improve transparency: To the National Electoral Council (CNE): 4. Direct Sectional Electoral Guarantee Tribunals to make more active use of their competence to audit campaign accounts during the electoral process. To Political Parties and Candidates: 5. Voluntarily and publicly report campaign contributions and campaign spending well ahead of the elections. To the Government of Colombia: 6. Launch a campaign immediately to increase awareness among political organizations, candidates, contributors, media and civil society of campaign finance rules and the changes introduced in the 2011 political reform. 7. Provide additional resources to the National Civil Registry to ensure that the biometric voter identification system can be used in the 2011 elections, at least in the departments at highest risk of electoral fraud. 8. Improve, through the interior and justice ministry, public access to the records of the Immediate Reaction Unit for Electoral Transparency (URIEL), making it easier for the electorate to hold institutions accountable for follow-up on complaints. To the Government and Congress of Colombia: 9. Provide additional resources to the attorney general’s office to ensure that a dedicated unit for electoral crimes becomes operational and produces concrete results as quickly as possible. To maintain a level playing field for all candidates: To the Offices of the Attorney General, the Public Prosecutor and the Comptroller and to Courts: 10. Prosecute and if applicable impose sanctions expeditiously against unlawful interventions of incumbents in the electoral campaign. 11. Monitor closely the execution of public reconstruction works following the heavy rainstorms and follow-up rigorously on accusations of misuse of those resources by local incumbents for political purposes. To guarantee that political rights of vulnerable populations are protected and promoted: To the Government of Colombia: 12. Communicate clearly ahead of the elections that access to state subsidies and support programs such as Families in Action is a right, not a political favor. To the Government and Congress of Colombia: 13. Introduce instruments and mechanisms that more effectively protect political rights of internally displaced persons (IDPs), including considering the possibility to grant them the opportunity to cast absentee ballots away from their original residence, as well as introduction of seats reserved for them in local governments. To strengthen scrutiny and reporting of the electoral process and confidence in the results: To the Government of Colombia, the Office of the Attorney General and Electoral Institutions: 14. React in a timely way to threats to journalists, not only by providing protection, but also by swiftly investigating the origin of threats and prosecuting those responsible for them. 15. Ensure that journalists and civil society organizations have equal and unhindered access to all official electoral information. 16. The government should invite the Organization of American States (OAS) to send an electoral observer mission, equipped with an extensive mandate, so as to ensure international scrutiny, including during the pre-electoral and the post-electoral stages, focusing on: a) departments and municipalities exposed to high risks of violence and/or electoral fraud; and b) ballot counting, in particular if the procedural changes in the political reform law are implemented for the October elections. To Candidates and Campaign Officials: 17. Pledge publicly to respect the work of journalists during the campaign and contribute to an informed electoral debate.
Survival International reported, in September, that armed members FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) hijacked the first attempt to provide medical aid by boat, owned by the National Indigenous Organization ONIC, to Colombia’s near-extinct and nomadic Nukak Indians . The Nukak Indians have little or no access to health care. In August the United Nations listed the tribe as one of 35 groups in immediate danger of extinction (http://www. survivalinternational.org/news/7657).
Conflicts have arisen between the government of Evo Morales, South America’s first Indigenous president, and some Indigenous people on the Bolivia. In September, local Indigenous people protest the building of a road through a national park and their territory, Isiboro-Secure (TIPNIS), (without consultation) that would connect the states of Cochabamba and Beni. Police attacked marchers walking to the nation’s capitol to protest the building of the road. President Evo Morales responded to complaints by freezing construction of the road, condemning the police operation, and fired Vice Minister of the Interior Marcos Farfan who was named as the official responsible for the violence. President Morales also said that the future of the road would be decided by people of the two Bolivian states that encompass the TIPNIS, and which the road will connect. This does not satisfy the people of TIPNIS reducing their say as they are a small part of a large population that includes some of Morales’ staunchest allies who also support the road . Bolivia’s 2009 constitution states indigenous communities have the right to be consulted on legislative and administrative projects that may affect them before the projects are underway, and leaders from the TIPNIS indicated they would continue their 350-mile trek to Bolivia’s administrative seat in La Paz as soon as marchers could regroup, while Bolivia’s largest union organization, the Bolivian Workers’ Center, planed a nationwide strike in solidarity with the TIPNIS marchers. The two month march to the capital by more than 1,000 indigenous people from Bolivia’s lowlands resulted in the Bolivian government passing a law banning the highway . However, the conflict has continued, with disagreements over how to respect the environment and indigenous rights while moving one of Latin America’s poorest countries out of poverty. Leaders from the TIPNIS say the government ignored their constitutional right to be consulted on the road planned across their land, and presented itself as a defender of the environment against preparations to cut through a well-preserved Amazon national park. Raul Prada, was once a prominent government supporter who helped frame the country’s 2009 constitution, who has become an outspoken critic, commented, “The whole government discourse on the environment has collapsed. It was a discourse they created for summits,” Prada said. “But when it came to making that reality in Bolivia they couldn’t.” For Prada, the TIPNIS conflict is a potent symbol of the break between government speech on the environment and indigenous rights, and its plans to develop the country through investment in roads, mining and gas extraction. On the other side, the government argues the road is crucial to building the national economy by better linking eastern and western Bolivia. It also contends rerouting the road is not viable because costs would rise beyond what current funding from Brazil permits. Bolivia’s indigenous population is far from monolithic. There are indigenous and multicultural groups that support the road, including the country’s largest rural union organization and coca growers, part of the president’s key support base. Days after TIPNIS marchers returned to their Amazon homes these groups threatened to march on La Paz, while others said they would begin to clear a route with machetes. Members of Morales’ party have called for strict limits on the economic activity TIPNIS residents can engage in, and suggested an audit to determine if original communal territories (TCOs by the Spanish acronym) like the TIPNIS should have their lands reduced, according to local media. The government also revoked the operating licenses for several businesses within the park. TCO leaders accuse the government of seeking to punish them for resisting the road plan. The government has denied that claim on several occasions. The next phase of the conflict centered on a conference Morales called for December 12-14 between unions, other social groups and the government to debate key points on the political agenda for 2012–but the country’s two most powerful indigenous organizations, CIDOB and CONAMAQ, boycotted the conference, holding a separate meeting. TIPNIS people say the conflict is resolvable, if only the government will listen. For more information on pressures over land use in Bolivia go to the earlier report: http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2011/04/bolivia-looks-to-land-redistribution/ ( Sara Shahriari,“ Bolivian Police Tear Gas Indigenous Marchers (Update),” Indian Country Today, September 27, 2011, http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2011/09/bolivian-police-tear-gas-indigenous-marchers/; and, Sara Shahriari, “Tensions Between Bolivian Government and Indigenous Groups Deepen,” Indian Country Today, December 13, 2011, http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2011/12/13/tensions-between-bolivian-government-and-indigenous-groups-deepen-67414).
Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa is offering not to allow drilling for the estimated 850 million barrels of oil in Yasuní National Park is one of the richest places on earth, with a wealth of flora and fauna—some found nowhere else on earth—in its forests, and home to the Tagaeri and Taromenane, tribes that continued to shun contact with the outside world, preventing an estimated 400 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions, if the world’s wealthiest countries, which consume the most fossil fuels, compensate it for the loss of revenue, paying half of the projected loss of revenue, $3.6 billion in donations by 2024. A ban on drilling in the Yasuní-ITT oil field would only partly satisfy environmentalists and defenders of indigenous rights, as another oil lease near that field also overlaps territory used by the semi-nomadic Tagaeri and Taromenane, and the government plans to auction off a dozen more leases in the central and southern Amazon, affecting as many as seven other communities of Indigenous Peoples U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon praised the project in late September, when Correa traveled to New York with a delegation to develop support for the proposal. Germany initially was favorable to the plan, but later backed away from it, likely because of Europe’s financial difficulties ( Barbara Fraser, “Oil Discovery in Ecuador Prompts Plan to Protect Indigenous Territories,” Indian Country Today, December 7, 2011, http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2011/12/07/oil-discovery-in-ecuador-prompts-plan-to-protect-indigenous-territories-66219).
Dr. Skye Stephenson , “ The House of Wisdom: Ecuador’s Intercultural University and Its Challenges,” Cultural Survival, December 12, 2011, http://www.culturalsurvival.org/news/ecuador/house-wisdom-ecuador-s-intercultural-university-and-its-challenges, reports, “The Indigenous Peoples of Ecuador, who comprise fourteen nationalities and eighteen pueblos, have been at the forefront of many key human rights struggles in recent decades that have had an impact far beyond their own nation. A key goal of their united Indigenous movement has been the establishment of an intercultural university. After many years of development, the Universidad Intercultural Amawtay Wasi “the House of Wisdom” (UIAW) was launched five years ago receiving accreditation for its unique education offerings based upon Andean ancestral knowledge. Now, the Ecuadorian government is threatening to withdraw that accreditation and potentially close down the university.” In addition, the National Council of Higher Education (Consejo Nacional de Educación Superior – CONESUP) also denied UIAW’s request to open more academic programs in Indigenous communities who had petitioned for them. UIAW turned to the Constitutional Court of Ecuador for support and received a favorable decision in December 2009. The Court resolution stated that CONESUP must function in agreement with Convention 169 of the ILO (articles. 2, 3, 4, 5 y 27) and the Ecuadorian Constitution such that “UIAW can and should develop its own model of higher education based upon its own learning principles grounded in Indigenous knowledge, which can serve as an innovative influence in the national system of education.” At the same time, UIAW looked regionally across Latin America for support and helped established the “Network of Indigenous and Intercultural Universities of Abya Yala.” Other founding members include the universities URACCAN (Nicaragua), UNAIIN (Colombia) and several in Bolivia. This organization serves as a forum to share experiences and provide mutual support around intercultural Indigenous universities. In October 2011, UIAW also submitted a petition to the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Peoples, calling upon the UN to support the UIAW’s efforts to offer university degree programs for Indigenous people of Ecuador. In early 2012, the accreditation team will return to the Universidad Intercultural Amwatay Wasi for a final review and decision, based upon recommendations made in their October visit. The evaluation team has a new name – The Council for the Evaluation, Accreditation and Assurance of Quality University Education (CEAACES) – but to date there is nothing else new about them. The team members have still not indicated how they plan to incorporate the intercultural viewpoint in their analysis, despite the pronouncement by the Ecuadorian Constitutional Court. In the meantime, UIAW has continued to offer its academic programs to an increasing number of Indigenous people and communities, and will be graduating its first cohort of students with degrees in ancestral architecture, sustainable agriculture, and intercultural education in 2012. UIAW President Rector Sarango believes that international pressure and letters of support could help them at this critical time.
For more information about the university, see www.amawtaywasi.edu.ec. For information contact Dr. Skye Stephenson, Head of the U.S. Donor Board for UIAW at sstephenson@keene.ed u.
On September 6, 2011, Peru’s President Ollanta Humala, who in July became Peru’s first elected left wing President signed, a historic law guaranteeing Indigenous Peoples the right to prior consultation about any mining, logging, or petroleum projects affecting them and their territories. President Humala said he wanted Indigenous People to be treated like citizens who must be consulted where their interests are involved. The bill was unanimously approved by Congress on August 23, 2011. It is intended to ensure that Peru’s local laws are in compliance with the International Labor Organization’s Convention 169 (“Peru's President Signs Prior Consultation Law,” Cultural Survival, September 11, 2011, http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iOsDnWQAA-DKWFlbJVdwgEwASb2w?docId=CNG.3436150c1957d7472594d4ffcf236421.01). In October, President Humala accelerated an anti-corruption campaign firing 30 police generals – two-thirds of the national police leadership (Simon Romeo, “30 Police Generals Ousted in Peru Anti-Corruption Drive,” The New York Times, October 11, 2011).
The government of President Ollanta Humala of Peru announced in August, that it was temporarily suspending coca eradication in valleys around Tingo Maria, a major coca producing area, opening the possibility of a shift in coca policy by the government. Peru has been experiencing an increase in coca production to the point it is approaching the level of production of Columbia (Peru: Some Anti-coca Work Halted,” The New York Times, August 18, 2011).
The government of Peru, however, has continued to allow extraction opposed by Indigenous people and environmentalists. Survival International reported, August 18, 2011, that the government was permitting French oil company Perenco plans to build a $350m pipeline in northern Peru to transport $35 billion worth of oil from its block 67 project to the Pacific coast, while a detailed article published in US news outlet Truth Out alleges that government officials, environmental consultants and oil companies have been implicated in covering up the existence of uncontacted tribes living along the pipeline’s route. Perenco has rejected any suggestion that its work could endanger the lives of the isolated Indians, repeatedly citing a report by environmental consultancy Daimi to back up its claim that there is ‘no sign of any anthropological character (in block 67).’ However, freelance journalist David Hill tracked down researchers who had worked with Daimi in the region. Hill claims to have uncovered a trail of contradictions indicating that the report, which was funded by Perenco, was inaccurate and censored. A large body of evidence, including sworn testimonies of sightings, pathways, footprints and crossed spears, was ‘left out of the final report’. One forestry engineer involved in the investigation said, ‘Besides playing down the damage to vegetation and wildlife, they (Daimi) said there were no uncontacted groups. But there were footprints, signs of dwellings ... Perenco got everything it wanted’ ( style='text-decoration: none'>http://www.survivalinternational.org/news/7594). In October, Survival reports, Peru fired Raquel Yrigoyen Fajardo, its top indigenous affairs official of INDEPA, after she blocked a gas project she found to be illegal, that would allow Argentine gas giant Pluspetrol to enter land inhabited by uncontacted tribes. She was replaced as head of Peru’s government indigenous affairs unit INDEPA by a former lawyer who specializes in ‘business ethics,’ Arturo Zambrano Gustavo Chavez. Previous management at INDEPA had approved expansion plans for Pluspetrol’s project, known as Camisea, and sent them directly to Peru’s Ministry of Energy. Ms Yrigoyen Fajardo posted details on Facebook about her ‘abrupt departure’ from INDEPA. She said there was ‘no empirical basis’ why proper consultation had not been sought, stressing, ‘the worst thing is that this approval did not take into account the UN standards for the protection of indigenous peoples in isolation.’ Shortly after Yrigoyen was sacked, documents she submitted to INDEPA about the project’s cancellation were removed from the organization’s website (http://www.survivalinternational.org/news/7834).
Survival reported, September 14, 2011, that isolated Indians in southeast Peru were being ‘bribed’ with painkillers and pens, as workers from Argentine gas giant Pluspetrol sought to open up their land on the Kugapakori-Nahua Reserve to explore for gas, as even members of INDEPA – the government agency set up to protect Peru’s tribes – had put pressure on communities so research can be carried out in the reserve where they live. The reserve was created in 1990 to protect the territorial rights of vulnerable tribes. Enrique Dixpopidiba Shocoroa, a Nahua leader, said his tribe have been given medical equipment, stationery, and promises of temporary work. But some 15 tribes have chosen to resist contact in the Peruvian Amazon, and several are inside the reserve. All face extinction if their lands are opened up. This development came as Peru’s President Ollanta Humala approved an historic law designed to guarantee indigenous peoples the right to prior consultation about any projects affecting them and their land. Half of the Nahua died after their land was first opened up by Shell for oil exploration in the 1980s. Today, uncontacted tribes still living in the region are at extreme risk of succumbing to diseases brought in by outsiders ( http://survival-international.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b14580b05b832fb959c4ee444&id=da7d911911&e=CqQTrZoCrQ>http://www.survivalinternational.org/news/7697).
Peru’s cabinet chief, Salomón Lerner, resigned, in December, after failing to negotiate a resolution to simmering protests against the $4.8 billion Conga gold and copper mine proposed by Newmont, an American firm, and a Peruvian company, Buenaventura, in Cajamarca. Farmers in the northern region say the mine would contaminate water supplies. Peru’s economy has recently benefited from exports from other large mines, and royalties from mining projects finance social welfare programs . Peru’s president, Ollanta Humala, replaced Mr. Lerner with his interior minister, Óscar Valdés Dancuart, a former military officer. The change in cabinet leaders may indicate a shift in policy, as the President who has taken a conciliatory negotiating approach to problems may be about to take a harder line (Simon Romero, “Peru Official Steps Down Amid Fight Over a Mine,” The New York Times, December 11, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/11/world/americas/top-peruvian-official-quits-amid-protest-over-mining-project.html?ref=world).
UN Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, Kyung-wha Kang, noted on a visit to Paraguay last fall, that the government has made progress to protect and respect Indigenous Peoples’ rights in the country, though much more remains to be accomplished . Kang noted in particular, in a report by the UN Human Rights Office, the implementation of special offices within institutions of the government, such as the Ministries of Health and Education, as an important step. She stated that even with the improvements there is a long ways to go in helping an indigenous population where 91.5 percent of it lives in rural areas, mostly in the region of Chaco, which is difficult to access, also it lacks infrastructure, and sees its Indigenous Peoples working in slave-like conditions while living in poverty and facing discrimination when they try and move to urban areas. Women and children are usually the victims as they are forced into labor and sexual exploitation. Kang consulted with indigenous groups about the obstacles that hinder their progress. Besides, the difficult living conditions and labor issues, Indigenous Peoples face problems involving their everyday rights and possession and ownership of ancestral lands. The indigenous communities have been chased from their lands as a result of deforestation for livestock and agriculture, an issue the government has been slow to make progress with. She stated, “I encourage the government to increase efforts to ensure that Indigenous Peoples’ rights are respected, their participation in decision-making processes is guaranteed and their right to prior consultation is exercised.” Kang noted that there were a lack of an institutional autonomy, corruption, insufficient resources, and lack of authority over other state entities, all of which hinder making a real impact on public policies for the indigenous population (“Paraguay’s Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Slowly Improving,” Indian Country Today, November 10, 2011, http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2011/11/10/paraguay’s-indigenous-peoples’-rights-slowly-improving-62339).
Survival reported, November 3, 2011, that leaders of Paraguay’s Ayoreo tribe were calling on the government to stop cattle farmers from destroying their forests after signs of their uncontacted relatives were found on a ranch. The Ayoreo say they overheard uncontacted Indians on the ranch and on further inspection they found ‘fresh footprints and marks on the trees where (their) relatives had been searching for honey’. Most of Paraguay’s Ayoreo have been forced out of their forests but others, including family members of the contacted Ayoreo, avoid the outside world. This recent discovery is the second this year to be found on land belonging to Brazilian company River Plate S.A., in Paraguay’s northern Chaco region. The controversial company made international headlines after satellite pictures revealed it was illegally clearing forest claimed by the Ayoreo as their own. Earlier in 2012, Brazilian-owned firms BBC S.A and River Plate S.A. were caught red-handed illegally clearing land inhabited by uncontacted Ayoreo (http://www.survivalinternational.org/news/7851). In August, Brazilian beef barons, BBC S.A. and River Plate S.A, who have cleared vast tracts of Ayreo forest land, were holding Paraguay’s government to ransom over land inhabited by uncontacted tribes. Ayoreo Indians were granted legal title to the land in 2010, but ranchers have refused to hand it over unless the state allows them to deforest a large area of adjacent land that the ranchers also own. The companies have been caught illegally clearing land for cattle farming twice in early 2011 alone (http://www.survivalinternational.org/news/7611).
On August 3, 2011 the government of Paraguay officially returned almost 9,000 hectares of ancestral lands to the Indigenous community Kelyenmagategma of the Enxet people in response to a petition the filed before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in 2004.
The community filed their petition because they were displaced by force from their ancestral land, had been subject to living in deplorable conditions, and their personal safety was in imminent danger. In October 2004, the commission granted precautionary measures (calls for the government to take action) in favor of the Kelyenmagategma community to protect lives and physical integrity, to provide humanitarian support to displaced persons, and guarantee their return to their lands. The action this month was in belated response to those precautionary measures. Read the July 24, 2007 Admissibility Report here. The recovered property is located in the district of Villa Hayes and community leaders say the reclaimed territory is only a small part of what has been lost. The July 24, 2007 commission Admissibility Report is available at: http://www.cidh.org/annualrep/2007eng/Paraguay987.04eng.htm (“Paraguay Returns Ancestral Lands to Indigenous Community,” Cultural Survival, August 8, 2011, http://www.culturalsurvival.org/news/paraguay/paraguay-returns-ancestral-lands-indigenous-community).
While the murder rate in Brazil dropped by 47% between 1999 and 2009, in the country’s northeast, a poor region that benefited most from the wealth-transfer programs of former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva during his eight years in office, the murder rate nearly doubled in the same period, making this area the nation’s most violent, as increased affluence of the region has been accompanied by rising drug violence (Alexi Barroionuevo, “ As Prosperity Rises in Brazil’s Northeast, So Does Drug Violence,” The New York Times, August 29, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/30/world/americas/30brazil.html?src=me&ref=world).
For the second time, at the end of September, a Brazilian court ruling has blocked the construction of the Belo Monte Dam on the Xingu River, one of the largest Amazon River tributaries, that some environmentalists have estimated will displace 40,000 mostly Indigenous people. The first court ruling was overturned on appeal. The late September court decision is on the grounds that the project would harm fishing by indigenous communities. The decision will likely be appealed (“ Brazil: Again, Court Ruling Halts Giant Amazon Dam,” The New York Times, September 29, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/30/world/americas/brazil-again-court-ruling-halts-giant-amazon-dam.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper).
As drug traffickers have become an increasing menace along the Brazilian boarder with Peru, Survival reported, August 15, 2011, that Brazil was dispatching National Security Force agents to help protect a tribe of uncontacted Indians missing after suspected drug traffickers attacked a FUNAI guard post. Survival International reported that heavily armed drug traffickers from Peru had surrounded and ransacked the base in the western Brazilian Amazon. Fears for the Indians’ welfare grew after workers from FUNAI (the government’s Indian Affairs department) found a broken arrow inside one of the trafficker’s rucksacks. FUNAI made an over flight of the area to look for signs of the uncontacted Indians. It showed their village and plantations were in a good condition. But fears remain high, as there are still no confirmed sightings of the Indians themselves. Brazil’s National Security Secretary Regina Miki reportedly called this a 'crisis situation' requiring a 'permanent occupation by the Ministry of Defense'. Survival has written to Peru’s President urging him to prevent further invasions of the Indians’ land and to implement measures to protect the tribes. (http://www.survivalinternational.org/news/7585).
The Guarani Indians in Brazil continue to suffer land seizures, displacements, and numerous attacks, some deadly, and acts of terror. Many of the Guarani have been thrown off their lands, to which they are legally entitled in Brazil, and forced to exist in horrible conditions on the side of roads. Some have attempted to retake some of their land, as a number of Guarani activists attempt to gain public and international support for their people’s rights. Survival International reported, September 13, 2011, that ‘Trucks of men’ brutally attack tribal members, since the beginning of August, violently driving Guarani from their land, leaving them in fear of their lives. Among other things, the attacks have forced Guarani to make a perilous river crossing using a narrow cable to obtain food supplies. Guarani anthropologist Tonico Benites told Survival, ‘People’s lives are in imminent danger. A child could die at any moment.’ Those caught up in the violence have described how they were forced to run to safety after their huts were set alight, clothes burnt and families threatened. Gunmen are reported to have blocked roads, destroyed a bridge that provided access to the Indians’ camp, and surrounded the Guarani, preventing food and medical supplies from reaching them. The attacks follow attempts by the Indians to reclaim their ancestral land, which was seized by ranchers in the 1970s and has been occupied ever since. The Guarani also faced persecution in 2003 and 2009 when they made similar moves to reoccupy their land. Brazil’s government has condemned the violence, but done little to stop it. Survival has written to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) calling for urgent measures to be taken to protect the Guarani, and to Brazil’s Ministry of Justice, urging that Guarani land is mapped out and protected, as set out in Brazil’s own constitution. Survival reported further attacks, September 30, 2011, in which a Guarani man in his 20s has died of his wounds following a violent attack, allegedly by gunmen employed by Brazilian cattle ranchers, in the central-western state of Mato Grosso do Sul. He had been stabbed seven times and his body was covered with bruises. The attack occurred close to the São Luiz ranch, which ranch occupies the Guarani’s ancestral land, from where two Guarani witnesses say they saw men running into the forest after the incident. The deceased’s community, Y’poi, has been besieged since it reoccupied part of its land in 2010. The Guarani are trapped by the ranchers, who are restricting the Indians’ access to medical care. In 2009 UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay displayed her shock at the Guarani struggle, by describing the tribe as ‘astonishingly invisible.’ Survival reported, November 18, 2011, that Nísio Gomes, a Guarani shaman was shot dead by masked gunmen in front of his community, who were ordered to lie on the ground during the execution . Gomes is believed to have been the main target of this attack, although there are unconfirmed reports of children being kidnapped and a woman being killed. He was the leader of a group of Guarani Indians, 60 of whom returned to part of their ancestral land at the start of November, after being evicted by cattle ranchers. Members of the community say this is not the first time they have been attacked since their return, and that gunmen had been circling their roadside camp for several days. One Guarani Indian said, ‘We’ll stay on the camp. We’ll all die here. We will not leave our ancestral land.’ The killing of Nisio Gomes has startling parallels to that of Marcos Veron, a Guarani leader murdered by employees of a Brazilian rancher in 2003. On December 1, 2011, Survival reported, “Gunmen in Brazil are brazenly intimidating indigenous communities with a hit list of prominent leaders, following the high profile murder of Nísio Gomes last month. Reportedly employed by powerful landowners in Mato Grosso do Sul state, the gunmen are creating a climate of fear to prevent Guarani Indians from returning to their ancestral land. The tactics employed in recent incidents have been almost identical. Gunmen encircle vehicles transporting Guarani, force them to stop, and then verbally abuse and interrogate passengers about the names on the hit list. One Guarani leader told Survival International, 'They've pinpointed us and they're set to kill us. We're at great risk. Here in Brazil, we have no justice. We have nowhere left to run.'“ One Sunday, around 100 Guarani returning from a meeting in the district of Iguatemi were targeted. Guarani witnesses told Survival one of the four men involved was a local mayor. The Guarani said the men shouted insults such as, ‘We’re going to burn these buses full of Indians!’ Members of a government team were also present at the scene. Continued threats have also forced the son of an assassinated leader to flee his community. Survival’s Director Stephen Corry said, December 1, ‘This is yet another tragedy in a determined campaign to exterminate all Guaraní opposition to the theft of their land. The ranchers will stop at nothing to protect their interests, and it’s utterly shameful that the Brazilian government can’t stop these gunmen from acting outside the law.’ Gomes’ killers have yet to be arrested, but at the end of November, Brazil’s Public Ministry said six men had been charged with the murder of two Guarani teachers in 2009. The accused include a notorious Brazilian rancher who held the teachers’ community hostage, along with local politicians (http://www.survivalinternational.org/news/7692; http://www.survivalinternational.org/news/7752; and http://www.survivalinternational.org/news/7923).
Meanwhile, Survival reported, September 6, 2011, Indians of the Guarani tribe in Brazil have demanded that energy giant Shell stop using their ancestral land for ethanol production. Shell is united with Brazilian ethanol company Cosan, in a joint venture company called Raizen. Some of Raizen’s ethanol, sold as a biofuel, is produced from sugarcane grown on the Guarani’s ancestral land. In a letter to the companies, the Indians warn that, ‘Since the factory began to operate, all our health has deteriorated – children, adults and animals’. The chemicals used on the sugarcane plantations are thought to be causing acute diarrhea amongst Guarani children, and killing fish and plants. The Guarani state, ‘We can no longer find many of the medicines which used to grow in the forest… the plants have died because of the poison’. They continue, ‘The growers never asked our permission or consulted us before planting on our land’. The Guarani’s letter can be downloaded at:
http://survival-international.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b14580b05b832fb959c4ee444&id=ee484a960f&e=CqQTrZoCrQ. The Brazilian government’s failure to uphold its own laws and map out and protect the Guarani’s land for their exclusive use has left it vulnerable to exploitation by sugarcane plantations. The current boom in sugarcane production is taking over the Guarani's ancestral land. Meanwhile, many Guarani live in appalling conditions, in overcrowded reserves or camped on roadsides. Dozens of Guarani have been assassinated after trying to reoccupy their ancestral land, and many more subjected to violence. The Guarani of Pueblito Kuê are the latest to suffer attacks, since they reoccupied their land at the beginning of September. Survival International’s Director, Stephen Corry, said September 6., ‘It’s a sad irony that people buy Shell’s ethanol as an ‘ethical’ alternative to fossil fuels: there’s certainly nothing ethical about its horrendous treatment of the Guarani. The Brazilian government needs to enforce its laws, and stop the wholesale destruction of the Indians' land’. Survival’s report to the UN, about the Guarani’s desperate situation can be downloaded at: http://survival-international.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b14580b05b832fb959c4ee444&id=01e6400713&e=CqQTrZoCrQ ( http://www.survivalinternational.org/news/7674).
Diego González, “The Qom, the Indigenous People Who Came to Buenos Aires,” Americas Program, June 15, 2011, http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/4890, reports, “For more than five months, indigenous Argentineans from the community of Primavera set up camp in the small plazas on The Ninth of July and Avenida de Mayo in Buenos Aires. They came from the distant town of Formosa to condemn the burning of their homes and the assassination of a Qom elder by the provincial police. They came trying to gain some clout by setting up camp at the center of things to make their situation more visible. But the presidency responded with silence and indifference. So they decided that they would begin a hunger strike and march along the 9th of July Avenue to block it. And then this past April 30, they received an official answer. The day was selected with surgical precision. It was during the afternoon with rain threatening in the distance. The guardians of the news were not on the alert since there would be no daily papers on Sunday, the first of May. In this sleepy ambience, the Buenos Aires legal system issued an order to clear the street. Generally the federal police, an arm of the ministry of the interior, ignore such orders. But in this case, the reaction was swift. A hundred troops surrounded the demonstration and forced the blockade to be lifted. That day, the Qom began the sixth day of their hunger strike.” At this point the conflict over the 1300 hectares that the community claims, which are currently controlled by the large landowners the Celía family and the state government, became too public for the President. Thus, on May 9, 2011, minister of the Interior Florencio Randazzo met with the Qom commission, which then asserted its demands for the return of expropriated lands that were theirs by law and tradition, and for justice for the 62-year-old elder Roberto López who had been murdered concerning the land claim. The ministry committed to a biweekly dialog to solve the conflict over the 1300 hectares that the community claims, but with regard to the murder, the minister said very little and even challenged the authority of the cacique that had led the five-month protest in Buenos Aires and suggested that his role as leader be put to a community vote. “The dispute over the lands in Formosa puts on the agenda the most important debate, that of the advancement of the extractive model (used in petroleum, soy production and mining) which does not restore indigenous rights. On April 27, three days before the Qom were forced off Avenue 9 of July, the president announced that he was sending to Congress a legal project to regulate the sale of land to foreigners. However, according to Aranda, “to regulate the foreign ownership of lands does not fight the heart of rural injustice: the concentration of the land.” According to the National Institute of Agricultural Technology , two percent of agroindustrial operations control half of the land of the country, while 57 percent of the small farmers, largely campesinosand small producers, have only 3 percent of the land . Another obstacle facing campesinos and Indigenous is the agroindustrial model which promotes the advance of monocultivation, especially of soy. More numbers: In 2001, 10 million hectares of soy were planted in the country. In 2003, the year in which Kirchnerismo took over, it had risen to 12 million hectares. Then after seven years of [the Kirchner] administration, the monocultivation of soy reached a record of 19 million hectares, or fifty-six percent of cultivated land. In spite of the fact that in 2008 rural landowners began a lockout against the government, the cultivation of soy had never before grown to such magnitude. What is certain is that the present model is one of neo-development that is trying to empower the industrial section of agroindustry over the ”agro” section. However, as always in the history of Argentina, renewing the industrial machine requires currency. And this currency goes straight into the public coffers by way of the sale of commodities, in this case, mainly soy. It deals with a model that runs along the limits of agriculture, and of the indigenous populations. According to the National Indigenous Campesino Movement (MNCI-Via Campesino) about 200,000 rural families have been expelled to make room for soy production. The government finds itself at a crossroads. Although the most likely outcome is that the sitting president will be reelected in October [which did happen], events like these demonstrate that “the model” is in a sense hostage to an economic project that generates consequences neither wished for nor sought in rural areas. But it also is hostage to the broad territorial alliances that guarantee governability but provoke ideological contradictions that are not always easy to disentangle.”
In Libya, in late August, the collection of rebel forces, including Berber militia, with NATO assistance, after a number of slowly achieved victories, captured Qaddafi’s stronghold in the center of Tripoli – already effectively liberated by uprisings in many of its neighborhoods as Qaddafi’s forces collapsed – sending Qadaffi into hiding as some of his family fled the country. As of August 31, some scattered fighting continued with pro-Qaddaffi groups around the North of the country, as the work of attempting to blend the divided insurgent factions into a collaborative functioning government and nation become the major concern of the day. This will not be an easy accomplishment. Libya has always been divided into tribal and other factions that Qaddafi manipulated to hold power, but which accelerated his downfall once his position was weakened. The division is obvious, at the end of August, in just insurgent occupied Tripoli, where the disparate brigades of different factions occupy separate parts of the city, each marked by that faction’s graffiti attesting to its key role in the victory. At least in two cases, interfactional violence has occurred. In the first instance, reported in May, there were a series of unsolved killings of people who formerly worked for the Qaddafi regime in the rebel stronghold of Benghazi, that appeared to be rooted in revenge and which raised the specter of a death squad, indicating that there still be a roll for NATO to play in protecting civilians. In the second, more recent instance, a leading general in the insurgent command was assassinated by a member of a rival faction, threatening wider interfactional violence, which the collective leadership was able to facilitate preventing. On September 11, 2011, two rival groups of anti Qadaffi militias, from different towns fought deadly pitch battle with each other. The task of building fractured groups into a peaceful, well working nation is a difficult one, but as it can only be successfully achieved by dispersing power among the factions, giving all major rolls in the new government and society, and going forward on the basis of mutual dialog (none of which has yet been attained in Iraq), success would most likely bring a well working society, though it would still take considerable time to build a participatory culture. In early September, the interim government was making a beginning of national integration by attempting to disarm and disband all militias, integrating many of their members into the national army and police. Meanwhile, largely unfounded roomers that Black African Mercenaries supported Qaddafi in the civil war have lead to an indiscriminate imprisoning of sub-Saharan immigrants in the country, without evidence as to whether they were mercenaries (David Kirkpatrick and Rod Nordland, “Tripoli Divided as Rebels Jostle to Fill Power Vacuum,” August 30, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/31/world/africa/31tripoli.html?_r=1&hp; Kareem Fahim, “ Killings and Rumors Unsettle a Libyan City,” The New York Times, May 10, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/11/world/africa/11benghazi.html; Rod Nordland, “Libya’s Interim Leaders Aim to Harness Rebel Fighters,” he New York Times, September 3, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/04/world/middleeast/04libya.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper;David D. Kirkpatrick, “Libyans Turn Wrath on Dark-Skinned Migrants,” The New York Times, September 4, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/05/world/africa/05migrants.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper; and “'12 die' in fight between rival anti-Gadhafi groups,” Ma’an New agency, September 11, 2011, http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=419314).
In a significant victory against the government that once evicted them from their ancestral lands, Botswana’s Bushmen are drinking water from a borehole well in the Kalahari Desert for the first time in nine years, Survival International said Monday. The government capped the well at Mothomelo in 2002 in an attempt to force the tribe out of an area rich in diamonds. In 2006, a court ruled the eviction illegal. But few Bushmen returned because the only water available was in handmade sand depressions. Survival International, which works for tribal people’s rights, said the Mothomelo well was redrilled and a solar pump installed by the Vox United charity working with Gem Diamonds, which mines in the Bushmen’s lands (“Botswana: Bushmen Reclaim Well in Ancestral Lands,” The New York Times , September 5, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/06/world/africa/06briefs-botswana.html?ref=todayspaper).
Survival International reported, in early October, that as part of a broader repression, around one hundred Ethiopian tribespeople from the Mursi and Bodi tribes were arrested and jailed for opposing the Gibe III dam, which would dislocate and destroy the way of life of tens of thousands of Indigenous people. Plans for the dam and irrigated land plantations nearby are gathering pace, along with rising repression and intimidation to any opposition. A policeman reportedly told one indigenous community that the government was, ‘like a bulldozer, and anyone opposing its development projects will be crushed like a person standing in front of a bulldozer.’ In a huge land grab, Ethiopia is leasing out large tracts of tribal lands in the South Omo region to foreign and state run companies for the growth of sugar cane, crops and biofuel plantations that will be fed by water from the dam. A climate of fear is growing in the region as opposition to these leases is being brutally suppressed by the country’s secret police and military. Survival has learned that security forces are encircling and intimidating indigenous communities whose grass huts are built on the land proposed for development. Those with criminal records over the last ten years are being arrested, and anyone caught voicing opposition, beaten or threatened with imprisonment. There are also reports of women being raped, and herds of cattle stolen. Survival International’s Director, Stephen Corry, said, October 6, 2011, ‘The Ethiopian government and its foreign backers are bent on stealing tribal land and destroying livelihoods. They want to reduce self-sufficient tribes to a state of dependency, throw all who disagree into prison, and pretend this is something to do with 'progress' and 'development'. It's shameless, criminal, and should be vigorously opposed by any who care about fundamental human rights.’ The Lower Omo Valley is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It contains two national parks, and is home to approximately 200,000 agro-pastoralists. One Suri pastoralist said the Gibe III dam, and tribespeople being driven from their land, signaled, ‘the end of pastoralism in southern Ethiopia.’ The UN has expressed growing concern over Ethiopia’s construction of the Gibe III dam, and the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) has given Ethiopia until the end of January 2012 to provide reliable evidence that independent assessments have been carried out, and that tribal people in the region have been properly consulted and given permission for the dam to be built and their lands to be developed. The UN body has written to Ethiopia with its concerns under its ‘early warning and urgent action procedure’. It has appealed for ‘constructive dialogue’ but noted how previous requests from the UN’s Special Rapporteur on indigenous rights had been ignored. The UN’s World Heritage Committee has also written to Ethiopia calling for it to ‘immediately halt all construction’ and for ‘all financial institutions supporting the Gibe III dam to put on hold their financial support.’
The Samburu community in Kenya has experienced a number of attacks by police, beginning in November, moving the community to go to court and winning a preliminary injunction against the government establishing a national park on their land, without consultation or their permission. The Samburu initiated legal proceedings against the former president Daniel Arap Moi (who sold the Elan Downs property to the African Wildlife Foundation for $2 million) and the African Wildlife Foundation, claiming their right to the land. The judge in the case declared that the status quo should be maintained, with the Samburu continuing their occupancy in the property, until the court reached a decision. Despite this ruling, in early November, the Kenya Wildlife Service announced that the property had been donated to the government by the Africa Wildlife Foundation and The Nature Conservancy and would become a new Laikipia National Park . Members of Parliament questioned the Minister for Forestry and Wildlife, Dr. Noah Wekesa, about the establishment of the National Park during a Parliament session on November 22, and Dr. Wekesa agreed that the establishment of the Park would be put on hold until the court announces its decision. The Kenya Wildlife Service was also enjoined in the case, along with former president Moi and the African Wildlife Foundation. The Samburu’s difficulties opened when the Kenyan police began a series of brutal evictions of the tribe, burning their villages, killing and stealing their animals and assaulting men, women and children. Survival International received reports of an elder being shot ‘in cold blood’, and of 2,000 Samburu families living in makeshift squats on the edge of the land and 1,000 others have been forced to relocate entirely. Conditions wee found to be appalling, and resources scarce. A Channel 4 documentary caught on camera the extreme nature of these evictions in the Eland Downs. Following waves of violence from the police, the Samburu began legal proceedings against AWF and ex-President Moi, to plead for their rights to the land. A subsequent court demand for no further harassment of the Samburu has been ignored. Survival has recently received reports that women and children have been sleeping in the bush, despite heavy rains, terrified of police violence. The land supports a wide variety of species, including rare zebras and black rhinos, and the head of AWF has described Laikipia’s protection as the perfect way to ‘stimulate tourism’. One community leader said AWF’s actions go ‘against the very interests of Kenya’s children, who ironically, remain the best wildlife conservationists.’ Survival wrote to the UN appealing for urgent action to be taken to put an end to the violence and provide assistance to the Samburu. In December, police released two Samburu elders who were beaten and arrested during a week of police violence against the community, as well as the Samburu people’s cows, goats, and sheep that survived the police round-up and impoundment. Samburu people report, however, that many of their animals were lost in the bush during the chaotic police round-up or possibly attacked by wild animals. Police were also seen roasting and eating some of the livestock. A report by the Transparency International, released in mid-December. ranks Kenya 154 out of 182 countries that were surveyed on the Corruption Perception Index. Their overall score improved only a fraction of a percent from last year, despite a zero-tolerance campaign by the current government administration in Kenya. The Kenyan police scored an 81 percent corruption rate, gaining the infamous title of the most corrupt institution in Kenya, as well as reaching in the top ten bribery-prone institutions within all of East Africa. After the police, the Ministry of Lands, and the Judiciary branch fell among the most corrupt institutions within Kenya. "At the moment, in Kenya as in many countries in Africa, the political leadership remains the greatest obstacle to effective anti-corruption initiatives," said Transparency International Kenya’s executive director, Samuel Kimeu, regarding the findings ( “Campaign Update - Kenya: Court Blocks National Park; Police Attack Samburu Community,” Cultural Survival, November 29. 2011, http://www.culturalsurvival.org/news/kenya/campaign-update-kenya-court-blocks-national-park-police-attack-samburu-community; http://www.survivalinternational.org/news/7946; “Campaign Update – Kenya: Elders and Livestock Released,” Cultural Survival, December 1, 2011, http://www.culturalsurvival.org/news/kenya/campaign-update-kenya-elders-and-livestock-released; and “Campaign Update- Kenya: Police, Courts Rank as Most Corrupt Institutions in Kenya,” Cultural Survival, December 9, 2011, http://www.culturalsurvival.org/news/kenya/campaign-update-kenya-police-courts-rank-most-corrupt-institutions-kenya).
“Campaign Update – Ghana: Newmont Plans Second Phase of Gold Mine,” cultural Survival, September 9, 3011, http://www.culturalsurvival.org/news/ghana/campaign-update-ghana-newmont-plans-second-phase-gold-mine, notes, “Since Cultural Survival's Global Response campaign in 2003 to prevent gold mining in forests reserves in Ghana, one company has been successful in pushing their plans for the construction of a gold mine into reality. Newmont Mining Company, world renowned for human rights and environmental abuses, began construction on the Ahafo gold mine inside the Ghana Forest Reserves in 2008 . Since then, residents close to the mine have complained that the company has not held to their promises of adequate compensation. They also note such problems as "unemployment, poor road network, high cost of food stuffs, water pollution as well as the outbreak of malaria, typhoid and other water-borne diseases",(Ghana Business News). In September, Newmont was planning another, underground, phase of construction on the mine. The Subika Underground Mining Project is currently awaiting approval from the Environmental Protection Agency.
Residents urge the company to first comply with its compensation policy before beginning another round of construction which they believe will only lead to further problems that they are currently facing. If construction continues without attending to their complaints, residents are prepared to publicly demonstrate against Newmont.
The Hadza community of Domongo in Tanzania, one of the very few hunter-gatherer tribes in east Africa, was formally handed over land titles at a special ceremony, in November, in the first instance of the Tanzanian government has formally recognized a minority tribe’s land rights . Doroth Wanzala, the Assistant Commissioner for Land in the Northern Zone told those attending the ceremony, ‘We have resolved that the Hadza should be given official title deeds to ensure that the country’s last hunter-gatherers are not troubled by land-hungry-invaders, particularly in the wake of scramble for land.’ Naftali Kitandu, a Hadza representative said, ‘Invasion by other tribes who bring along herds of cattle and introduce farming in the valley has been threatening the survival of Hadza people who only depend on fruits, roots, honey and small animals for survival.’ Following the ceremony, one Hadza told Survival, ‘We are very happy. Now we need to make sure we get land titles for other Hadza communities.’ The Hadza are a small tribe of about 1,500 hunter gatherers living in north-west Tanzania. Until the 1950s they survived entirely by hunting and gathering. Living in small mobile camps, they had no ‘chiefs’ or formal political organization. Since then life has become increasingly hard as larger pastoralist tribes have encroached on much of their land, destroying much of the wildlife and plants on which the Hadza rely for their livelihoods. A number of NGOs, including the Ujamaa Community Resource Team, supported the Hadza’s long quest for land rights (“Tanzania: Hadza tribe celebrates first land titles,” Survival International, November 4, 2011, http://www.survivalinternational.org/news/7859?utm_source=Survival+International&utm_campaign=1f1099c6e4-E_news_December_2011_12_9_2011&utm_medium=email).
There are signs of a major war developing over disputed oil rich territory as — Northern Sudanese troops seized the contested town of Abyei, May 21, as the south prepares to become the world’s newest country (“North Sudan Is Said to Have Taken Contested Town on South Border,” The New York Times, May 21, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/22/world/africa/22sudan.html?ref=todayspaper). A few days later, Sudan was threatening to take two additional areas in the south: Blue Nile and Southern Kordofan States, two disputed areas with long histories of conflict that remain well armed. The North’s actions are in violation of the peace process and threaten to renew major fighting (Jeffrey Gettleman and Josh Kron, “Sudan Threatens to Occupy 2 More Disputed Regions,” The New York Times, May 29, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/30/world/africa/30sudan.html?ref=world). At the beginning of September, northern Sudan began a major offensive in Blue Nile, which lies along the disputed border of Southern Sudan, with whom Sudan has yet to reach agreement on how to share oil profits (Jeffery Gettleman, “Sudan Attacks Disputed Border State,” The New York Times, September 2, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/03/world/africa/03sudan.html?ref=todayspaper). In May, Northern and southern Sudanese officials agreed to a preliminary arrangement on demilitarizing the border between them, though some officials from both sides immediately expressed skepticism of the deal, particularly its ability to resolve the dispute over the contested Abyei area, and in light of late events it is unclear if the agreement has much meaning ( Jeffery Gettleman and Josh Kron, “ North and South Sudan Tentatively Agree to Demilitarize Disputed Border,” The New York Times, May 31, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/01/world/africa/01sudan.html?ref=todayspaper). In June, the UN authorized the deployment of 4200 Ethiopian troops to Abyei as peacekeepers (“Sudan: UN Authorizes Deployment,” The New York Times , June 28, 2011).
Jeffery Gettleman, “Brinkmanship in Sudan as a Deadline Nears,” The New York Times, June 5, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/06/world/africa/06sudan.html?ref=world, reported, “In the past few weeks, President Omar Hassan al-Bashir of Sudan, who has been accused of orchestrating a genocide in Darfur, seems to be steering his country back toward war. His troops and tanks violently annexed Abyei, a flashpoint town on the contested border dividing northern and southern Sudan. Then he sent thousands of soldiers into two other volatile areas, Blue Nile and Southern Kordofan, while continuing a crippling blockade of the south, strangling it of food and fuel. At the same time, renegade southern militias, widely believed to be armed by Mr. Bashir’s intelligence services, have stepped up their attacks, hitting army bases, snatching weapons and stretching southern troops thin as they scramble to meet all these threats, often hijacking United Nations vehicles to get to the battlefield. But diplomats and analysts believe that, rather than trying to start a major conflict, Mr. Bashir may instead be playing out a carefully devised strategy meant to ensure just one thing: that when southern Sudan declares independence next month, his northern government controls as much oil as possible, or at least is richly compensated .”
Sudan and South Sudan agreed, September 8, 2011, to pull back forces before the end of September from the disputed Abyei region, claimed by both sides, with representatives of the two countries meting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to try to reduce tensions along their border (Sudan and South Sudan to Withdraw From Disputed Border Region,” The New York Times, September 8, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/09/world/africa/09briefs-Sudan.html?ref=todayspaper).
With the session of Southern Sudan approaching in July, the Sudanese Army and its allied militias have undertaken a major offensive to crush rebel fighters in the Nuba Mountains of central Sudan, bombing thatch-roofed villages, executing elders, burning churches and pitching another region of the country into crisis, as tens of thousands of rebel fighters have refused to disarm, digging in the hills. The Sudanese Army has sealed off the area, threatened to shoot down United Nations helicopters, detained several United Nations peacekeepers, subjected them to “a mock firing squad.” Sudan is making it nearly impossible for aid agencies and monitors to work in the region. There are reports of the Sudanese army undertaking indiscriminate bombing and shelling, and executing civilians, indicating a possible ethnic cleansing. The Nubian rebels are demanding political reform and autonomy, a familiar demand around Sudan’s marginalized edges that has set off insurgencies in Darfur in the west, as well as eastern and southern Sudan. There are numerous divisions in northern Sudan. Non-Arab people in the Nuba Mountains, Darfur, Blue Nile State, Kasala and along the length of the Nile to Egypt have long been resisting an increasingly isolated government dominated by a small group of Arabs and led by President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, who has been indicted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court (Jeffrey Gettleman, As Secession Nears, Sudan Steps Up Drive to Stop Rebels,” The New York Times, June 20, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/21/world/africa/21sudan.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper; and Josh Kron, “Ethnic Killings by Army Reported in Sdanese Mountains,” The New York Times, July 20, 2011).
Earlier, before the independence of South Sudan, ICG, “ Divisions in Sudan’s Ruling Party and the Threat to the Country’s Stability,” Africa Report N°174, May 4, 2011, commented, “When the South officially secedes, on 9 July 2011, the North’s problems will change little. The National Congress Party (NCP) has not addressed the root causes of Sudan’s chronic conflicts and has exacerbated ethnic and regional divisions. Facing multiple security, political, social and economic challenges, it is deeply divided over the way forward. Its security hardliners see these as minor issues, not imminent threats to their survival, and remain committed to a military solution to chronic instability. Others call for internal party reform – a “second republic” – to address the NCP’s problems but are giving little thought to resolving those of the country. The party has mobilized its security apparatus to suppress any revolts, has decided to end the debate about Sudan’s diversity and identity, remains committed to an Arab-Islamic identity for all Sudanese and keeping Sharia and is ready to sub-divide key states to accommodate political barons. These are ad-hoc decisions that set the stage for continued violence that may not be containable and could lead to further fragmentation of the country. Power is now increasingly centralized in a small clique around President Bashir. However, this centralization is not reflected in the armed forces. Concerned about a possible coup, he and close associates have fragmented the security services and have come to rely increasingly on personal loyalty and tribal allegiances to remain in power. Meanwhile, their party has been allowed to flounder, having long ago lost its strategic vision and policy coherence. Deeply divided and more concerned with staying in power, the leadership more often reacts to events rather than implements a well-thought-out national program. This is best illustrated by the protracted, very public dispute between Nafie Ali Nafie (NCP deputy chairman for organizational affairs and presidential adviser) and Ali Osman Taha (second vice president of Sudan) and the wildly diverging statements made by party leaders in the run-up to the South’s self-determination referendum. The recent dismissal from his posts of the formerly powerful Salah Gosh reflects divisions within the NCP that have the potential to lead to the party’s collapse or a coup. Bashir, Nafie and the security hardliners have concluded that the opposition parties are very weak and reject their call for a more inclusive constitutional conference to draft a permanent constitution after the South secedes in July. They think they have the situation in Darfur under control and discount the possibility of conflict in the transitional areas of Southern Kordofan and the Blue Nile, believing that those regions are divided, and their military forces are not an imminent threat to Khartoum now that the South is focused on other issues. They continue to pursue divide and rule tactics to prevent the emergence of a unified counterweight to NCP dominance of the centre. Taha and more pragmatic allies are willing to negotiate with other political forces but are undermined by the security hardliners. They also seemingly remain committed to the party’s goal of imposing an Arab-Islamic identify on all of what remains of Sudan – an extremely divisive issue in a country that still includes hundreds of ethnic and linguistic groups. In the absence of accountability, the leadership enjoys absolute freedom and has institutionalized corruption to its benefit, in the process rewarding political barons who can deliver their constituencies by giving them lucrative government positions to maintain their loyalty. The governors of each state run their own patronage network within their respective regions. Despite the seemingly successful conclusion of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), the accord has failed to resolve the issues that drive chronic conflict in Sudan. It was intended to lead to the “democratic transformation” of the country. However, during its six year interim period (to end formally in July), the NCP resisted meaningful implementation of many provisions, because they would seriously threaten its grip on power. The opportunity to maintain Sudan’s unity and to establish a stable, democratic state was lost. Not surprisingly, Southerners chose separation when they voted in January 2011. The remainder of the country thus remains saddled with the “Sudan Problem”, where power, resources and development continue to be overly concentrated in the centre, at the expense of and to the exasperation of the peripheries. A “new south” is emerging in the hitherto transitional areas of Abyei, Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile that – along with Darfur, the East and other marginal areas – continues to chafe under the domination of the NCP. Unless their grievances are addressed by a more inclusive government, Sudan risks more violence and disintegration. The call by the opposition parties for a wider constitutional review conference suggests a way forward. Such a conference should be seen as a more extensive national consultative process, to accommodate the popular consultations in the transitional areas and the Darfur people-to-people dialogue. Those latter two processes, if run separately, will not lead to political stability and lasting peace in the whole country. The cardinal issue of governance must be addressed nationally. To encourage this, a united international community, particularly the African Union (AU), Arab League and the UN, should put pressure on the NCP to accept a free and unhindered national dialogue to create a national stabilization program that includes defined principles for establishing an inclusive constitutional arrangement accepted by all.
Southern Sudan, one of the world’s poorest and least developed nations, which became independent in July, has suffered from fighting between numerous armed factions — both before and after formal independence — and its security forces are widely known to be undisciplined and violent. Aid groups have recently complained about government security personnel hijacking humanitarian convoys. This situation was illuminated, August 20, when South Sudanese police officers beat up the head of the United Nations human rights division in South Sudan , Benedict Sannoh, when he refused to allow police to search his luggage in a hotel in the capital, leaving him in the hospital and drawing a sharp rebuke from the United Nations. The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights stated, “The High Commissioner considers this incident to be totally unacceptable. Unless those responsible are held to account, this will send a chilling message to all those working in the defense of human rights in South Sudan.” This is not the first time police officers have been accused of serious abuses. United Nations officials and witnesses said that police commanders and soldiers beat and raped police recruits at a training center outside Juba last year. The recruits were also subjected to harsh training exercises, leading to the deaths of as many as 100 people (Jeffrey Gettleman and Josh Kron, “South Sudan Police Assault U.N. Human Rights Official,” the New York Times, August 26, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/27/world/africa/27sudan.html?ref=todayspaper).
In China, while repression of Tibetans is ongoing, violence again has broken out in Xinjang Provence between Indigenous Uighurs and Han Chinese, most of whom have been encouraged by the Chinese government to move into the region. At the end of July, 14 people were reported to have died in the second major outbreak of fighting in several weeks in the city of Kashgar. Ethnic tensions continue to remain high in the province, where Han Chinese continue to move in, dominate economic life and government positions, and have placed curbs on traditional Uighur Muslim religious practice (Michael Wines, “14 Killed in Western Chinese City on Edge Over Ethnic Tensions,” The New York Times, August 1, 2011). In Mongolia, there were a series of demonstrations around the province by ethnic Mongolians, after two Mongolians, one in a group of 20 protesting a coal mine, were killed by a pair of Han Chinese drivers. Thee has also been anger over Chinese destruction of Mongolian Grasslands (Andrew Jacobs, “Anger Over Protester’s Deaths Leads to Intensified Demonstrations by Mongolians, The New York Times , May 31, 2011).
In a continuing series of self-burnings, two Tibetan monks set themselves on fire, in late September, in an ongoing protest against Chinese policy, and called for a free Tibet, at Kirti Monastery in a remote area of Sichuan Province, China (Edward Wong, “Two Tibetan Monks Set Themselves on Fire in Protest,” The New York Times, September 26, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/27/world/asia/two-tibetan-monks-set-themselves-on-fire-in-protest.html).
A 10-minute video from Cultural Survival shows Kuy villagers in Cambodia attempting to protect Prey Lang (“Our Forest”) as bulldozers tear it down for agro-industry expansion and mining projects. Kuy elder Ru Lark stated, “Our people are worried. How long can Prey Lang survive? Kuy people know we can look after it. It is part of our belief. We have lived here for many years, and the forest has not been lost. If the government can work with our communities, we know that we can save this forest.” The Kuy people have asked Cultural Survival to help them convince Cambodia’s government to halt the destruction and work with the Kuy to protect Prey Lang. The video can be viewed at: http://www.culturalsurvival.org/take-action/cambodia (“ Campaign Video – Cambodia: Kuy People Defend Prey Lang Forest,” Cultural Survival, November 8, 2011, http://www.culturalsurvival.org/news/cambodia/campaign-video-cambodia-kuy-people-defend-prey-lang-forest).
For the first time, the government of Myanmar (Burma) allowed democracy activists to hold a public prayer vigil in Yangon, with riot police observing, but at the same time marchers were harassed or stopped by police elsewhere in the city protesting against the building of a major dam, and for release of political prisoners (“Myanmar: Activists Rally Without Arrests,” The New York Times, September 26, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/27/world/asia/myanmar-activists-rally-without-arrests.html?ref=todayspaper). This small, but perhaps important change, fits with the observations of ICG, “ Myanmar: Major Reform Underway,” Asia Briefing N°127, September 22, 2011, http://www.crisisgroup.org/en/regions/asia/south-east-asia/burma-myanmar/B127-myanmar-major-reform-underway.aspx. “Six months after the transition to a new, semi-civilian government, major changes are taking place in Myanmar. In the last two months, President Thein Sein has moved rapidly to begin implementing an ambitious reform agenda first set out in his March 2011 inaugural address. He is reaching out to long-time critics of the former regime, proposing that differences be put aside in order to work together for the good of the country. Aung San Suu Kyi has seized the opportunity, meeting the new leader in Naypyitaw and emerging with the conviction that he wants to achieve positive change. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) seems convinced that Myanmar is heading in the right direction and may soon confer upon it the leadership of the organization for 2014. This would energize reformers inside the country with real deadlines to work toward as they push for economic and political restructuring. Western policymakers should react to the improved situation and be ready to respond to major steps forward, such as a significant release of political prisoners. In a speech on 19 August, the president made clear that his goal is to build a modern and developed democratic nation. His initial views on what steps are needed were set out in his wide-ranging and refreshingly honest inaugural speech less than six months ago. Some observers have dismissed such talk as “just words”, but in a context of long-term political and economic stagnation they are much more than that. After 50 years of autocratic rule, they show strong signs of heralding a new kind of political leadership in Myanmar – setting a completely different tone for governance in the country and allowing discussions and initiatives that were unthinkable only a few months ago.” “ In recent weeks a series of concrete steps have been taken to begin implementing the president’s reform agenda, aimed at reinvigorating the economy, reforming national politics and improving human rights. The political will appears to exist to bring fundamental change, but success will require much more than a determined leader. Resistance can be expected from hardliners in the power structure and spoilers with a vested interest in the status quo. Weak technical and institutional capacities also impose serious constraints on a country emerging from decades of isolation and authoritarianism. It is urgent that those best placed to provide the necessary advice and assistance – the West and multilateral institutions – are allowed to step forward to provide it. Some observers are still urging caution, putting the focus not on how much is changing but on how much has yet to change. To be sure, a successful reform process is far from guaranteed. There are many fundamental steps that still must be taken, including healing deep ethnic divisions and overcoming the legacy of decades of armed conflict – something the government has yet to fully grapple with – together with addressing adequately ongoing allegations of brutality by the armed forces; the release of political prisoners; restoration of basic civil liberties; and the further lifting of media censorship. Western countries have indicated that they stand ready to respond to positive developments. At a very minimum, this should include a less cautious political stance and the encouragement of multilateral agencies – including the International Financial Institutions and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) – to do as much as possible under their existing mandate restrictions. Similarly, member states should support the broadest interpretation of the EU Council decision on Myanmar rather than the most cautious. As Naypyitaw sets its new course, these small political steps would help to facilitate the provision of ideas that could add momentum to the reforms now underway. There are already indications that key benchmarks many in the West have insisted on may soon be reached. Military legislators have, for example, supported an opposition motion in the lower house calling on the president to grant a general amnesty for political prisoners. If such a dramatic policy shift occurs, it would need to be reciprocated by those who earlier authorized sanctions. Failure to do so, or to shift the goalposts by replacing old demands with new ones, would undermine the credibility of these policies and diminish what little leverage the West holds. Internal progress on human rights and economic reforms that benefit the country’s citizens should be acknowledged and supported by the international community. Crisis Group has long held the view that sanctions on Myanmar – targeted and non-targeted – are counterproductive, encouraging a siege mentality among its leadership and harming its mostly poor population. The greater the pace of change, the weaker the rationale becomes for continuing them – or adding more. Many problems remain. There is ample evidence that the army continues to employ brutal counter-insurgency strategies, and in the absence of domestic accountability, calls for an international commission will remain. But it is far from clear that such a body, even if one could be established, would be the most effective way to address abuses at this time or whether its impact would rather be to cause retrenchment in Naypyitaw.”
While fighting continues between troops of the Myanmar government and several Indigenous groups, the government began negotiating peace, in December, with the Shan, Mon, Karen, Kayah and Kachin groups, with the government’s only condition being that the groups not demand to secede . Government spokesman said President Thein Sein had ordered an end to fighting with Kachin rebels in the north on Dec. 10, but skirmishes have continued because communicating with troops in remote areas was difficult (“ Myanmar: Talks With Rebels Open,” The New York Times, December 16, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/17/world/asia/myanmar-opens-talks-with-rebels.html?ref=todayspaper).
Indigenous peoples in Bangladesh, some of the poorest and most marginalized ethnic groups in the country, have long struggled for recognition and protection of their rights against a government that has often oppressed them and inflicted great harms upon them. On June 30, g overnment officials were considering removing the word “indigenous” from official documents, just as a constitutional amendment was passed recognizing “small ethnic groups,” without referring to them as indigenous. If the change is made, all textbooks and curriculums would be changed as well. The move was accepted by representatives from the Prime Minister’s office, Foreign Ministry, Ministry for CHT Affairs and others at a meeting on July 21. The next step was approval from the Cabinet. There are 45 indigenous groups in the country, most of them live in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT). The CHT is an area with some of the highest rates of infant and child mortality in the country, and a place where the government has supported non-Indigenous squatters taking Indigenous people’s land (“Bangladesh Government Looking to Drop ‘Indigenous Peoples’ for ‘Ethnic Minorities’,” Indian Country Today, September 13, 2011, http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2011/09/13/bangladesh-government-looking-to-drop-‘indigenous-peoples’-for-‘ethnic-minorities’-53459).
A municipal judge in the Philippines dismissed charges against nine Ifugao Indigenous people who are members of the Didipio Earth Savers Mulitpurpose Association (DESAMA), that has been opposing construction of an OceanaGold mine in their community, that has displaced Indigenous landowners and threatens the water supply in this agricultural region. DESAMA has long claimed that the charges were trumped up in an attempt to intimidate and harass Indigenous people who oppose the mining. The judge’s decision reinforces DESAMA’s opinion that the charges constituted a “Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation” (SLAPP) suit, a tactic aimed at eliminating public opposition to corporate projects (“Campaign Update – Philippines: SLAPP Suit Against Ifugaos In Didipio Dismissed: Philippines: Defend Indigenous Lands,” Cultural Survival, September 13, 2011, http://www.culturalsurvival.org/news/philippines/campaign-update-philippines-slapp-suit-against-ifugaos-didipio-dismissed). Meanwhile an Indigenous member of the Philippine legislature, Congressman Teddy Brawner Baguilat, Ifugao, citing the documented negative effects of mining operations on indigenous communities,introduced a bill that respects and protects the rights of Indigenous Peoples and their lands (“Campaign Update – Philippines: Indigenous Legislator Introduces Bill to Strengthen Free, Prior, and Informed Consent,” Cultural survival, September 12, 2011, http://www.culturalsurvival.org/news/philippines/campaign-update-philippines-indigenous-legislator-introduces-bill-strengthen-free-p).
The Soliga tribe in India won a landmark victory, in late October, becoming the first tribe in India to have their right to use their ancestral land recognized – even though it is inside a tiger reserve, according to Cultural Survival, November 2, 2011. In 1974 members of the Soliga tribe were evicted from their homes in the Biligirirangan Hills, Karnataka state, by a local government intent on protecting the state’s wildlife. But now the Soliga’s right to collect, use and sell forest produce from within the Rangaswami Temple Sanctuary reserve has been formally confirmed. The unprecedented move follows more than 30 years of debate in Karnataka state over how to reconcile tribal peoples’ rights with conservation. It brings an end to fears of eviction and bans on their right to hunt and cultivate. As recently as January, 1,500 Soliga thought they would lose their homes when the Sanctuary was re-classified as a tiger reserve in order to ‘protect’ 30 of the big cats. The Soliga insisted that removing them was not the solution, and told India’s Environment Minister to ‘give (them) poison’, rather than force them out. Under the Forest Rights Act, the Soliga will now have legal rights to use and protect as much as 60% of the reserve, including parts of the core area. The Soligas are now working on a proposal to manage the tiger reserve jointly with the Karnataka state authorities, using their traditional knowledge. About 20,000 Soligas live in Karnataka state, and have been inextricably linked to the Biligirirangan Hills for generations. Survival International’s Director Stephen Corry said November 2, ‘The Indian government is beginning to realize that tribal peoples are the best conservationists, by far. If only the rest of the world could catch on. >Evicting tribespeople from their ancestral land in the name of ‘conservation’ is not only illegal and destroys them, it also spells disaster for the local environment and wildlife’ (http://www.survivalinternational.org/news/7843).
Papua New Guinea’s government announced, in October, that it will restore the right of landowners to challenge in court any project they feel could be detrimental to the environment. The National Executive Council agreed to repeal the Environmental Amendment Act, passed by the legislature in May 2010, which denied landowners this right. Cultural Survival’s Global Response campaign joined Indigenous landowners in Papua New Guinea in calling on the government to revoke the amendments. The 2010 amendments were rushed through Parliament in a single afternoon with no prior disclosure by the government of former prime minister Michael Somare. They were aimed at landowners along the Rai coast who had just secured a temporary injunction preventing a Chinese company from dumping its mine and refinery waste into the Bismarck Sea. The amendments deprived the Rai coast landowners from seeking redress for any eventual economic losses or health problems that could be blamed on actions of the Chinese mining company. They also restricted public protests against development projects approved by the government. The repeal comes while the Rai coast landowners await a final court decision on their appeal for a permanent injunction against the dumping of mine and refinery waste into the sea. In announcing the government’s plan to repeal the amendments, Environment and Conservation Minister Thompson Harokaqveh said, “It is essential that the rights of the landowners to request review by the courts is maintained. I am committed to protecting the rights of landowners to ensure their livelihoods and way of life are protected while promoting environmentally sound economic development which will benefit all Papua New Guineans.” Papua New Guinea’s Supreme Court, in late August, had rejected an appeal by Indigenous landowners who asked for a temporary injunction to prevent a Chinese company from dumping its mine and refinery waste into the Bismarck Sea ( See Global Response’s original Action Alert here. CMRQUHFtR2PAFCw1zppjnyRvbU_Zuob7iYUvC2IlHrSf53zf6Xdfu1e5PFi2Lv-rP_IKJg) (“Campaign Victory – Papua New Guinea: Government Reverses Amendment to Environmental Act,” Cultural Survival, October 18, 2011, http://www.culturalsurvival.org/news/papua-new-guinea/campaign-victory-papua-new-guinea-government-reverses-amendment-environmental-; and “ Campaign Update - Papua New Guinea: Judge Refuses Landowners’ Appeal; Company Can Dump Waste into the Sea,” Cultural Survival, August 23, 2011, http://www.culturalsurvival.org/news/papua-new-guinea/campaign-update-papua-new-guinea-judge-refuses-landowners-appeal-company-can-d).
A new video by the Sacred Lands Film Project shows how Indigenous communities along the Ramu River in Papua New Guinea are reviving a traditional ceremony to protect the river, which flows from above the cite of a mine on the Rai coast to the sea . Although the film does not portray the threats to the life of the river from mining projects, it does show the Indigenous communities’ dependence on the health of the river and their commitment to be its guardians. (“Campaign Update – Papua New Guinea: New Video on Defending the Ramu River,” Cultural Survival, October 10, 2011, http://www.culturalsurvival.org/news/papua-new-guinea/campaign-update-papua-new-guinea-new-video-defending-ramu-river).
Repression in West Papua by the Indonesian military has been continuing . Survival International reported, October 21, 2011, “Violence comes exactly a year after a shocking video of Papuan men being brutally tortured by Indonesian soldiers. At least seven people are feared dead after Indonesian police opened fire on hundreds of West Papuans at an independence rally close to the province’s capital. Representatives from tribes all over West Papua were meeting to choose a new leadership and to discuss the political future of the region. West Papua has been ruled by Indonesia since 1963. Police have confirmed the bodies of five Papuans have been found, two dumped behind an army barracks and three in the mountains. Survival International has spoken to reliable sources from Papua who say at least another two have been killed; their bodies have not yet been found.” Tension mounted as Papuans held their Third National Congress in the town of Abepura. Armed soldiers and police surrounded the venue and, following a declaration of independence from Indonesia, the security forces stormed the stage, firing shots and using tear gas to disperse the crowd. Survival has been told by sources inside Papua that approximately 300 participants, including women and children, were arrested – many were savagely beaten as they were taken away. Most have since been released, but the leaders, newly elected at the meeting, remain in custody. Five have so far been charged with treason – a charge that has seen many Papuans sentenced for up to 20 years. Reverend Benny Giay has been a target of the US-backed Indonesian elite special forces, and has received numerous death threats for his role in exposing human rights violations in the region. He told Survival, ‘We want the Indonesian government to stop using terror, we need our rights. The Papuans demand a dialogue, mediated by a third party, to settle the conflict. The Indonesians are killing us, it’s time for dialogue.’ Survival’s Director, Stephen Corry said October 20, ‘This violence comes exactly a year after a shocking video of Papuan men being brutally tortured by Indonesian soldiers was released on the internet. It’s clear that the international outrage generated by that event has taught the Indonesian government nothing about respecting the rights of the Papuan people. Given the history of barbaric treatment at the hands of the army and police in West Papua, we are extremely concerned for the safety of those still in custody.’ Survival reported, November 30, 2011, that pro-independence Papuans were planning widespread rallies on December 1 to mark 50 years since they first raised their symbolic ‘Morning Star’ flag in a declaration of independence from Indonesia. A climate of fear surrounds the anniversary as Indonesia continues to brutally suppress any opposition, and hands derisory sentences to security forces implicated in the violence. For example, the main officers involved in brutally breaking up the October rally and killing 10 people have reportedly only received reprimands. It is now a treasonable offense to carry the flag, which has become an emblem of West Papua’s struggle for independence. The December 1, 2011 peaceful protests aimed to show there is still a strong movement to end almost half a century of occupation and flagrant human rights abuses. West Papua has been occupied by Indonesia since 1963, during which time an estimated 100,000 civilians have been killed under Indonesian occupation. One of the main rallies was to be held in the city of Jayapura, by the grave of former Papuan leader, Theys Eluay. He was killed in 2001 by the Indonesian military. The seven men convicted of his murder were only given minimal jail terms. Survival’s Director Stephen Corry commented, ‘Indonesia’s illegal occupation of West Papua is almost unparalleled in its brutality. It’s outrageous that the international community is turning a blind eye on almost half a century of ruthless oppression and unbridled violence against the Papuan people.’ There are growing calls for Australian monitors to enter West Papua ahead of Thursday’s rallies, and for Indonesia to allow foreign journalists back in (http://www.survivalinternational.org/news/7815; and
http://www.survivalinternational.org/news/7916).
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