I: [noomc-it] (Fwd) (en) [colombia] URGENT ! U'was land invaded by OXY

["nello" <margiotta at tightrope.it>]

> Date sent:      Sat, 22 Jan 2000 01:29:26 +0100
> Subject:        (en) [colombia] URGENT ! U'was land invaded by OXY
> Priority:       normal
>
> November 30 International Day of Action - http://www.n30.org
>
>
> reminder:
> The U'was are indegenous people in Colombia on whose land oil drilling was
> approved to a multinational called OXY by the colombian government.
> The U'was have threatened with mass suicide rather than see mother earth
> desecrated.
>
> the following is:
> - the urgent communique by the U'was
> - a call to action by rainforest action network
> - a short article from the Financial Times
> - a brief article with more background + contact addresses
>
> Communique from the U'wa People
> January 20, 2000
>
> URGENT URGENT URGENT
> COMMUNICATION TO THE NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL PUBLIC
> OXY INVADES U'WA TERRITORY
> THE COLOMBIAN ARMY HAS 5000 AGENTS IN THE SERVICE OF
> OCCCIDENTAL
>
> On January 19, 2000 more than 5,000 agents of the Colombian Military,
> heavily armed, invaded our traditional territory, exactly at Cedeno, where
> Oxy's oil drilling site Gibraltar 1 is situated. Faced with opposition
> presented by the U'wa people, headed by our representative and indigenous
> leader Roberto Cobaria, military forces declared that "the oil will be
> extracted even over and above the U'wa people." Also police forces were
> dispatched to the zone for the security of Occidental's engineers.
>
> Since the 15th of November 1999, more than 250 U'wa people have occupied
> Cedeno, part of our ancestral territory, resisting the exploitation
brought
> on by Oxy. Now we are being surrounded by the 5000 military agents and
> Colombian police who have put at risk our physical integrity.
>
> With this deed, Occidental and the Colombian government are insisting on
> ignoring our territorial rights over land we have occupied for thousands
of
> years. We are the owners of the territory on which they aim to exploit
> petroleum, without recognizing the constitutional rights of community
lands
> for our ethnic group which are inalienable, non-negotiable, and
irremovable,
> protected by public laws over collective property.
>
> In this way, the Colombian government headed by the Minister of Mining and
> Energy with the compliance of INCORA, in a shadowy process is seeking to
> declare U'wa territory a special petroleum reserve zone with the false
> argument that the national petroleum industry is covered by the law as a
> public utility or social interest, with the sole purpose of permitting and
> facilitating petroleum exploitation by the multinational corporation
> Occidental. We are making an urgent call to the national and international
> community, and to all groups who have supported us, to mobilize against
this
> last attempt to trample upon the U'wa nation,  which threatens our
existence
> and culture. WE U'WA WILL NOT CEDE OUR CULTURAL, HISTORIC AND
> ANCIENT
> RIGHTS.  WE PREFER GENOCIDE SPONSORED BY THE COLOMBIAN
> GOVERNMENT RATHER
> THAN HANDING OVER OUR MOTHER EARTH TO OIL COMPANIES.
>
>
>
>
>
> From:           "Patrick Reinsborough" <rags at ran.org>
> To:             <RAGS at ran.org>
> Subject:        URGENT COMMUNIQUE! Colombian Military Invades U'wa
> Land!
> Date sent:      Fri, 21 Jan 2000 12:00:46 -0800
>
> No-WTO
>
> CALL AL GORE'S CAMPAIGNS HQ IN NEW HAMPSHIRE! 603-622-8303
>
> AL GORE HAS HALF A MILLION DOLLARS WORTH OF OCCIDENTAL
> STOCK.  DEMAND THAT
> HE USE BOTH HIS PERSONAL AND POLITICAL INFLUENCE TO DEMAND
> THAT THE
> COLOMBIAN MILITARY AND OCCIDENTAL PULL OUT OF U'WA LAND!
> (see article below)
>
> FEB 3!  ORGANIZE AGAINST FIDELITY INVESTMENTS! FIND THE
> NEAREST ONE TO YOU :
>  http://personal400.fidelity.com/gen/centers/invstctr.html.tvsr
>
> CALL YOUR LOCAL REPRESENTATIVES AND TELL THEM TO VOTE
> AGAINST CLINTON'S $1.3
> BILLION MILITARY AID PACKAGE TO COLOMBIA
>
> FOR MORE INFORMATION CALL RAINFOREST ACTION NETWORK 1-800-
> 989-RAIN
> IF YOU ARE IN LOS ANGELES CALL ACTION RESOURCE CENTER - 310-
> 392-7656
>
>
> Communique from the U'wa People
> January 20, 2000
>
> URGENT URGENT URGENT
> COMMUNICATION TO THE NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL PUBLIC
> OXY INVADES U'WA TERRITORY
> THE COLOMBIAN ARMY HAS 5000 AGENTS IN THE SERVICE OF
> OCCCIDENTAL
>
> On January 19, 2000 more than 5,000 agents of the Colombian Military,
> heavily armed, invaded our traditional territory, exactly at Cedeno, where
> Oxy's oil drilling site Gibraltar 1 is situated. Faced with opposition
> presented by the U'wa people, headed by our representative and indigenous
> leader Roberto Cobaria, military forces declared that "the oil will be
> extracted even over and above the U'wa people." Also police forces were
> dispatched to the zone for the security of Occidental's engineers.
>
> Since the 15th of November 1999, more than 250 U'wa people have occupied
> Cedeno, part of our ancestral territory, resisting the exploitation
brought
> on by Oxy. Now we are being surrounded by the 5000 military agents and
> Colombian police who have put at risk our physical integrity.
>
> With this deed, Occidental and the Colombian government are insisting on
> ignoring our territorial rights over land we have occupied for thousands
of
> years. We are the owners of the territory on which they aim to exploit
> petroleum, without recognizing the constitutional rights of community
lands
> for our ethnic group which are inalienable, non-negotiable, and
irremovable,
> protected by public laws over collective property.
>
> In this way, the Colombian government headed by the Minister of Mining and
> Energy with the compliance of INCORA, in a shadowy process is seeking to
> declare U'wa territory a special petroleum reserve zone with the false
> argument that the national petroleum industry is covered by the law as a
> public utility or social interest, with the sole purpose of permitting and
> facilitating petroleum exploitation by the multinational corporation
> Occidental. We are making an urgent call to the national and international
> community, and to all groups who have supported us, to mobilize against
this
> last attempt to trample upon the U'wa nation,  which threatens our
existence
> and culture. WE U'WA WILL NOT CEDE OUR CULTURAL, HISTORIC AND
> ANCIENT
> RIGHTS.  WE PREFER GENOCIDE SPONSORED BY THE COLOMBIAN
> GOVERNMENT RATHER
> THAN HANDING OVER OUR MOTHER EARTH TO OIL COMPANIES.
>
>
> *****************************
>
> Financial Times, 1/19/00
> World News / Americas
>
>
>                   Gore attacked over Colombia oil project
>                   By Matthew Jones
>
>                                    Environmentalists and human
>                                    rights activists are accusing Al
>                                    Gore, the US vice-president and
>                                    candidate for the Democratic
>                                    party presidential nomination, of
>                                    hypocrisy over his shareholding
>                                    in an oil company prospecting in
>                                    Colombian rainforests.
>
>                   Mr. Gore has targeted the environmental and human
>                   rights vote as part of his election campaign and was
last
>                   week rated "the most knowledgeable" presidential
>                   candidate on green issues by the influential League of
>                   Conservation Voters.
>
>                   But the U'wa Defense Working Group, which represents
>                   the U'wa indigenous tribe from the north east of
>                   Colombia, says Mr. Gore is inextricably linked with
>                   Occidental Petroleum, the US oil group which plans to
>                   start drilling on its ancestral lands in the next few
>                   months in search of an estimated 1.5bn barrels of oil.
>
>                   According to Mr. Gore's official Public Financial
>                   Disclosure Report for 1998, the latest information
>                   available, the vice-president owned between $250,000
>                   and $500,000 in Occidental stock inherited from his
>                   father, Albert Gore Sr., who died in 1998. Mr. Gore Sr.
>                   became a board member of Occidental Petroleum after
>                   losing his Senate seat in 1970.
>
>                   According to the Center for Public Integrity, a
non-profit
>                   organization that analyses ethics in politics, Ray
Irani,
>                   the Occidental chief executive, made a donation of
>                   $100,000 to the Democratic National Committee in the
>                   early 90s following a stay in the Lincoln Room of the
>                   White House.
>
>                   The campaign group is urging environmentalists not to
>                   vote for Mr Gore and to protest about his links to
>                   Occidental on the campaign trail.
>
>                   Neither the White House nor Mr. Gore's campaign team
>                   has responded to requests for comment.
>
>                   Stephen Kretzmann, U'wa campaign co-ordinator for
>                   Amazon Watch, a California-based environmental group,
>                   said: "This will not look good for Al Gore in the midst
of
>                   an election campaign. It is clear that he could stop the
>                   drilling with a phone call and if he doesn't do
something
>                   about this he will lose the environmental and human
>                   rights vote."
>
>                   The U'wa, who number 5,000, first hit the headlines in
>                   1996 when they threatened to commit collective suicide
>                   if Occidental's drilling plans were not halted.
>
>                   The drill site falls 600m outside the legally recognized
>                   U'wa Unified Reserve but the tribe claims it is within
>                   larger, traditional ancestral territory.
>
>                   The UDWG claims development of the site would be
>                   damaging to the tribe and the environment because of
>                   the likely increase in oil-related violence between
>                   different armed factions in the politically unstable
> region.
>
>                   It says Occidental's existing pipeline has been attacked
>                   more than 600 times in the last 12 years leading to 2.1m
>                   barrels of crude oil spilling into the soil and rivers,
> and
>                   that U'wa members and humanitarian workers have been
>                   killed or injured in the cross-fire.
>
>                   Occidental said earlier this month that it planned to
>                   start building roads to the test site at the end of
> January
>                   and would sink the first test well at the site in May.
>
>                   Ken Hufmann, Occidental's vice-president of investor
>                   relations, refused to comment on Mr. Gore's stock
>                   holding in the company or any political donations that
it
>                   had made.
>
>                   He would say only: "We're moving ahead with plans to
>                   drill the well but I have no specific dates."
>
> ******************
>
> Background info
>
>
> 4.1.U'wa Defense Working Group Action Alert!
>   ********************************************
> COLOMBIAN GOVERNMENT APPROVES OIL DRILLING ON U'WA LAND!
> U'WA THREATEN MASS SUICIDE RATHER THAN SEE MOTHER EARTH
> DESECRATED
>
> "We are seeking an explanation for this 'progress' that goes against life.
> We are demanding that this kind of progress stop, that oil exploitation in
> the heart of the Earth is halted, that the deliberate bleeding of the
Earth
> stop...we ask that our brothers and sisters from other races and cultures
> unite in the struggle that we are undertaking...we believe that this
> struggle has to become a global crusade to defend life."
>      - Statement of the U'wa people, August, 1998
>
> On September 21st Colombia's Environment Minister Juan Mayr announced
> he
> was granting a permit for Los Angeles based Occidental Petroleum to begin
> exploratory drilling on the U'wa ancestral homelands. The U'wa have
> denounced the government's decision as cultural and environmental
genocide.
> This permit removes the final legal obstacle to Occidental's plans to
drill
> and pushes the U'wa one step closer to their last resort pledge of
> committing mass suicide.
>
> For several years now the U'wa have been an inspiring symbol of ecological
> sanity and indigenous resistance to the oil industry's relentless invasion
> of the final remote corners of the planet. The U'wa have maintained their
> stand despite harassment, intimidation, a brutal assault on their
> spokesperson and the murder of three of their supporters. A worldwide
> solidarity movement forced Royal Dutch Shell to withdraw from the project
> and has stalled the efforts of LA-based Occidental Petroleum to begin
> drilling.  Until now.  With approval from the Colombian government
drilling
> on U'wa land is imminent.  A global solidarity movement is needed to
> pressure the Colombian government and Occidental to cancel the project.
>
> In Colombia where a 30 year civil war has claimed the lives of 25,000
> people this decade alone, oil and violence spread hand in hand. Oil
> installations are popular targets for the guerillas and as such bring de
> facto military occupations along with the inevitable ecological
devastation
> >from ongoing bombing. For the U'wa oil is the blood of Mother Earth and
> therefore to drill is the ultimate desecration of their ancient traditions
> of living in peaceful balance with the Earth.
>
> The U'wa remain strong in their determination to protect their culture and
> sacred homelands but they need your help.  It is our hope that activists
> around the world will answer this emergency call to resist the new
> colonialism of multinational corporations by taking action on behalf of
the
> U'wa.
>
> In an amazing show of solidarity events were held in 20 cities in 10
> countries around the world on October 12 (Day of Indigenous Peoples) to
> demand that the Colombian government and Occidental Petroleum cancel
> their
> plans - a very respectable number taking into account the fact that the
> actions took place only 20 days after Occidental Petroleum got green light
> >from the Colombian government to drill for oil on the sacred ancestral
> homelands of the U'wa people.  Events ranged from activists scaling
> buildings to drop banners, demonstrations, guerilla theater, delegations
> meeting with Colombian officials, letters of protest being delivered,
> teach-ins, a 24 hour vigil and a statement of solidarity from the
> communities of the Narmada Valley in India who are fighting to protect
> their land from being flooded by a mega-dam.  More details and pictures
can
> be found on the RAN website - www.ran.org.
>
> CONTACT OCCIDENTAL AND THE COLOMBIAN GOVERNMENT (Sample
> letters can be
> obtained from <rags at ran.org>):
> Dr. Ray R. Irani, President and CEO, Occidental Petroleum; 10889 Wilshire
> Blv., LA, CA 90024, USA. Fax 310.443.6690, ph. 310.208.8800
> Presidente Andres Pastrana; Casa Presidencial, Bogota, Colombia, fax
> +571.334.1940 (direct) or through the Colombian Embassy in your country
>
> ORGANIZE A DEMONSTRATION/EVENT AT A COLOMBIAN CONSULATE:
> We need to show
> Occidental AND the Colombian government that activists around the world
> will stand with the U'wa to prevent the destruction of their culture and
> homeland . The best way to do this is to have a strong presence at
> Colombian consulates and embassies around the world. If you live near a
> consulate please call them up and ask for a meeting with the ambassador or
> consul.  Organize a vigil, demonstration or direct action. Please send
> information about what you are planning to do or have done to
> <rags at ran.org>.
>
> CONNECT THE U'WA WITH YOUR WORK AGAINST THE WORLD TRADE
> ORGANIZATION OR
> OTHER FORMS OF CORPORATE DOMINATION: The next three months
> will be the
> critical time for the U'wa.  As many activists around the world are
> organize around the next World Trade Organization meeting (Nov 29-Dec
> 3)the
> U'wa will be fighting for their lives against the same system of uncheck
> corporate expansion. Use the U'wa resistance as an example of the emerging
> global resistance to corporate domination. Connect the U'wa struggle with
> your ongoing campaigns - whether its environmental justice,
> anti-militarism, indigenous rights or fighting globalization.  Use the
U'wa
> struggle as an example on the November 30th day of action against
> globalization.  See http://go.to/n30 or email N30contacts at angelfire.com
for
> details.
>
> Fact sheets and other campaign materials are available on the RAN website
> WWW.RAN.ORG
> Please call or email for hard copies, additional information and to
> coordinate your local actions with other supporters. Contact Patrick
> Reinsborough at <rags at ran.org> or call us in San Francisco, USA at
> 415-398-4404.
>
> U'wa Defense Working Group Members:
> Amazon Watch, Action Resource Center, Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund,
> EarthWays Foundation, International Law Project for Human Environmental &
> Economic Defense, Project Underground, Rainforest Action Network, Sol
> Communications
>
>
> ______________________________________________________________________
> To unsubscribe, write to n30-unsubscribe at listbot.com
> Start Your Own FREE Email List at http://www.listbot.com
> ------- End of forwarded message -------
>
> -----------------------------------------------------------end
> -------------------- Message Forwarded by :
> Giorgio Ellero
> <glr_y at iol.it>
> --------------------
> "
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Inviare msg: noomc-it at egroups.com
> Iscriversi : noomc-it-subscribe at egroups.com
> Cancellarsi: noomc-it-unsubscribe at egroups.com
> Supporto tecnico: noomc-it-owner at egroups.com
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Virgilio People
> Home page del gruppo: http://virgilio.egroups.com/group/noomc-it
> http://virgilio.egroups.com - VIRGILIO PEOPLE - Crea gratis il tuo gruppo
in Rete
>
>


-------------------------------------------------------------------------
This email server is running an evaluation copy of the MailShield anti-
spam software. Please contact your email administrator if you have any
questions about this message. MailShield product info: www.mailshield.com