03.12.2008

The award of the ‘Indian Entrepreneur of the Year’ prize to Vedanta chairman Anil Agarwal has been met with derision from the Dongria Kondh tribe, whose sacred mountain Vedanta plans to destroy.

Vedanta plans to turn the Dongria Kondh’s sacred mountain into a vast open pit mine, which will destroy a swathe of untouched forest. The tribe say they will lose everything if the mine goes ahead.

Dongria Kondh spokesman Jitu Jakesika said today, 'Why are they giving him a prize? They should award Anil Agarwal a prize for the worst human rights in India.'

Ernst & Young’s ‘Global Code of Conduct’ states, ‘We reject unethical or illegal business practices in all circumstances. We avoid working with clients and others whose standards are incompatible with our Global Code of Conduct.’

Survival’s director Stephen Corry said today, ‘Unethical business practices apparently do not include gross human rights violations, forced eviction of tribal peoples, or a corporate indifference to the “severe and lasting damages that its activities inflict on people and the environment”. These are all charges that the Norwegian Government found proved against Vedanta only last year.’

Vedanta’s deplorable human rights record prompted the Norwegians to dispose of their $13 million stake in the company. Edinburgh-based investment managers Martin Currie and the BP Pension Fund have also recently sold their holdings.

For more information please contact Miriam Ross at Survival International on (+44) (0)20 7687 8734 or (+44) (0)7504 543 367 or email mr@survival-international.org

01.12.2008

A man from the remote Jarawa tribe on the Andaman Islands in India is missing and presumed dead following a conflict with a group of poachers who were fishing illegally on their land. Police have arrested the poachers.

The Jarawa man, called Hotelle and thought to be about 18 years old, was severely beaten in the conflict on 19 November. He was last seen struggling to keep afloat whilst the poachers continued to attack him. One of the fishermen was also killed by members of the tribe.

The poachers were camping near one of the Jarawa’s huts. When the Jarawa demanded some of the fish that had been caught in their reserve, the fishermen threw boiling water at them and beat them with sticks. The Jarawa killed one of the fishermen with their arrows, and the fishermen attacked a Jarawa man by beating him when he jumped into a river in an attempt to escape.

The invasion of their land by poachers poses a serious threat to the Jarawa, who number 320 and have only had friendly contact with the outside world since 1998. Poachers risk bringing in diseases to which the Jarawa have no immunity, and are rapidly depleting the wild foods on which the Jarawa are totally dependent. Entry to the Jarawa reserve by outsiders is illegal without a special permit, but poaching is now widespread.

Watch the first-ever filmed interview with a Jarawa talking about the invasion of their land by poachers Survival’s director Stephen Corry said today, ‘This tragedy must surely galvanise the Indian government to act to keep poachers off the Jarawa’s land. The Jarawa have hunted and fished on their land for 60,000 years, but the number of poachers has become so great that they pose a serious threat to the tribe’s survival. Now two men have died in the conflict. Poaching must not be allowed to continue.’

For more information please contact Miriam Ross at Survival International on (+44) (0)20 7687 8734 or (+44) (0)7504 543 367 or email mr@survival-international.org

28.11.2008

An indigenous leader from Ecuador has spoken about the ‘terrible consequences’ of first contact between his tribe and the outside world.

Ehenguime Enqueri Niwa, from the Waorani tribe, spoke publicly at a high-profile conference in Paraguay intended to help protect other tribes from suffering a similar fate to his own.

‘We were contacted by American missionaries,’ Enqueri recalled. ‘They made us wear clothes. That was when the polio arrived. It affected all of our group. Only 30 people escaped. Everyone was so angry.

‘Wao, our language, is being lost. Our culture is not being practiced. The education we receive is in Spanish. We feel like we’re disappearing.

‘We are against making contact with uncontacted tribes. They live peacefully, with their own way of life and their own food.

‘It’s identical to what is happening in Peru. For centuries the Waorani have defended their territories, but now the biggest threats are oil exploration, loggers and miners.’

The Waorani were contacted in the 1940s by American missionaries. Enqueri’s father was one of the first members of the tribe to be contacted and was also involved in the killing of five of the missionaries – an event that made world headlines at the time.

The conference in Paraguay was organised by CIPIACI, a federation of indigenous organisations set up to protect uncontacted tribes in South America.