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Survival International News
04.07.2009
An article in today’s Guardian newspaper alleges that a consultancy firm working for Anglo-French oil company Perenco ‘edited out’ evidence showing that uncontacted Indians are living in the area of the company’s project. The company has claimed that the tribes do not exist.
‘Certain nomadic groups are there,’ said one of the lead authors of the report. ‘There is no doubt in my mind that there are uncontacted groups there,’ said another consultant. ‘I was really upset when I saw the final report.’
The Guardian also quotes a forestry engineer who has investigated the impacts of seismic tests for oil exploration in the region where Perenco is working. ‘They said there were no uncontacted groups. But there were footprints, signs of dwellings.’
The Guardian article is available here.There is also a Guardian film.
Survival has also published a video in which eyewitnesses to the recent violence in Peru’s Amazon give a dramatic account of what happened. A PDF report of the eyewitness account is also available. The massive boom in oil exploration in the Amazon was one of the key concerns of the indigenous protests.
‘Certain nomadic groups are there,’ said one of the lead authors of the report. ‘There is no doubt in my mind that there are uncontacted groups there,’ said another consultant. ‘I was really upset when I saw the final report.’
The Guardian also quotes a forestry engineer who has investigated the impacts of seismic tests for oil exploration in the region where Perenco is working. ‘They said there were no uncontacted groups. But there were footprints, signs of dwellings.’
The Guardian article is available here.There is also a Guardian film.
Survival has also published a video in which eyewitnesses to the recent violence in Peru’s Amazon give a dramatic account of what happened. A PDF report of the eyewitness account is also available. The massive boom in oil exploration in the Amazon was one of the key concerns of the indigenous protests.
30.06.2009
Peru's government has given the green light to an Anglo-French company to drill for oil in the Amazon, just thirteen days after more than 30 people died in protests against the exploitation of the rainforest.
The project, located on land inhabited by two tribes of uncontacted Indians, is believed to be Peru’s biggest oil discovery in thirty years. The company, Perenco, a major gas supplier to the UK, has in the past denied any uncontacted Indians live there.
Until recently, Perenco had been blocked from entering the area by local indigenous protesters. With help from Peru’s armed forces, the company managed to break through the blockade on at least one occasion.
High-ranking figures in Peru’s government hope that Perenco’s project will transform the Peruvian economy. While protests against the company were taking place, Perenco’s chairman, Francois Perrodo, an Oxford University polo blue and scion of one of the wealthiest families in France, met Peru’s President Garcia in Lima and pledged to invest $2bn in the project.
The government’s green light comes just days after protests elsewhere in northern Peru were violently broken up by police, leading to the deaths of both police officers and indigenous protesters. The exact numbers are still unknown. Survival has issued an eyewitness account of the violence.
Perenco intends to build new platforms and wells involving airlifting in, amongst other things, 42,000 sacks of cement. It admits that ‘contamination of soil’, ‘contamination of water’ and the flight of game and birds are possible consequences of its work. All these are essential to the survival of the uncontacted Indians who live there. More seriously, the Indians face the very real threat of contagion from diseases to which they have no immunity.
Survival’s Director, Stephen Corry, said today, ‘Anyone who hoped that the dreadful violence of the past few weeks might have made Peru’s government act with a bit more sensitivity towards the indigenous people of the Amazon will be really dismayed at this news. The timing couldn’t be worse – the government is trying to present a more friendly image in public, but as far as the oil companies are concerned, it looks like business as usual.’
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
The project, located on land inhabited by two tribes of uncontacted Indians, is believed to be Peru’s biggest oil discovery in thirty years. The company, Perenco, a major gas supplier to the UK, has in the past denied any uncontacted Indians live there.
Until recently, Perenco had been blocked from entering the area by local indigenous protesters. With help from Peru’s armed forces, the company managed to break through the blockade on at least one occasion.
High-ranking figures in Peru’s government hope that Perenco’s project will transform the Peruvian economy. While protests against the company were taking place, Perenco’s chairman, Francois Perrodo, an Oxford University polo blue and scion of one of the wealthiest families in France, met Peru’s President Garcia in Lima and pledged to invest $2bn in the project.
The government’s green light comes just days after protests elsewhere in northern Peru were violently broken up by police, leading to the deaths of both police officers and indigenous protesters. The exact numbers are still unknown. Survival has issued an eyewitness account of the violence.
Perenco intends to build new platforms and wells involving airlifting in, amongst other things, 42,000 sacks of cement. It admits that ‘contamination of soil’, ‘contamination of water’ and the flight of game and birds are possible consequences of its work. All these are essential to the survival of the uncontacted Indians who live there. More seriously, the Indians face the very real threat of contagion from diseases to which they have no immunity.
Survival’s Director, Stephen Corry, said today, ‘Anyone who hoped that the dreadful violence of the past few weeks might have made Peru’s government act with a bit more sensitivity towards the indigenous people of the Amazon will be really dismayed at this news. The timing couldn’t be worse – the government is trying to present a more friendly image in public, but as far as the oil companies are concerned, it looks like business as usual.’
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
30.06.2009
Peru’s government is gearing up to investigate the tragic violence in the Amazon last month that left more than 30 people dead, over a hundred injured, and many still missing.
A government committee has ten days to choose the investigating team, which will be led by members of the Catholic Church and is being created after a recommendation by the UN’s Special Rapporteur on Indigenous Peoples, James Anaya. Peru’s prime minister, Yehude Simon, has said that the team will include representatives from all sectors of society to avoid any accusations of bias.
The preparations are being made after continuing speculation about events in Bagua, northern Peru, where the violence took place. A high-ranking police officer recently suggested that soldiers from the Peruvian army escaped from their barracks to fight on the indigenous protesters’ side, but these claims have been dismissed by an Armed Forces spokesman.
Meanwhile, a Peruvian judge has rejected charges brought against Alberto Pizango, the leader of Peru’s national Amazon Indian organisation, AIDESEP, and four other AIDESEP leaders. The charges are likely to be re-filed. Pizango has had to flee the country and is currently a political exile in Nicaragua. Read Survival's eye-witness report on the events in Bagua.
A government committee has ten days to choose the investigating team, which will be led by members of the Catholic Church and is being created after a recommendation by the UN’s Special Rapporteur on Indigenous Peoples, James Anaya. Peru’s prime minister, Yehude Simon, has said that the team will include representatives from all sectors of society to avoid any accusations of bias.
The preparations are being made after continuing speculation about events in Bagua, northern Peru, where the violence took place. A high-ranking police officer recently suggested that soldiers from the Peruvian army escaped from their barracks to fight on the indigenous protesters’ side, but these claims have been dismissed by an Armed Forces spokesman.
Meanwhile, a Peruvian judge has rejected charges brought against Alberto Pizango, the leader of Peru’s national Amazon Indian organisation, AIDESEP, and four other AIDESEP leaders. The charges are likely to be re-filed. Pizango has had to flee the country and is currently a political exile in Nicaragua. Read Survival's eye-witness report on the events in Bagua.
30.06.2009
The founder and chairman of a Malaysian timber company that has logged the forests of the Penan tribe for decades has been given an honorary knighthood.
Tiong Hiew King, the billionaire founder of the Rimbunan Hijau Group, has been awarded the honorary knighthood by the British monarch Queen Elizabeth II, reportedly for services to commerce, the community and charitable organizations in Papua New Guinea, where his company also operates.
The hunter-gatherer Penan tribe of Sarawak, in the Malaysian part of the island of Borneo, have been struggling for more than twenty years to prevent logging companies, including Rimbunan Hijau, destroying the forests they rely on for their survival.
The Swiss organization Bruno Manser Fund has dubbed Tion Hiew King ‘Knight of the Chainsaw’.
Source: Bruno Manser Fund
Tiong Hiew King, the billionaire founder of the Rimbunan Hijau Group, has been awarded the honorary knighthood by the British monarch Queen Elizabeth II, reportedly for services to commerce, the community and charitable organizations in Papua New Guinea, where his company also operates.
The hunter-gatherer Penan tribe of Sarawak, in the Malaysian part of the island of Borneo, have been struggling for more than twenty years to prevent logging companies, including Rimbunan Hijau, destroying the forests they rely on for their survival.
The Swiss organization Bruno Manser Fund has dubbed Tion Hiew King ‘Knight of the Chainsaw’.
Source: Bruno Manser Fund
22.06.2009
The Peruvian Congress has voted to repeal two controversial Amazonian laws after protests that led to the death of an unknown number of policemen and indigenous people.
The Congress voted to repeal the laws at the end of last week. The laws undermined indigenous peoples’ rights and made it easier for outsiders to take control of their land.
Peru’s Amazon Indian organisation, AIDESEP, described the government’s decision as ‘historic’. ‘Our struggle and the lives of our indigenous brothers and sisters have not been in vain,’ said AIDESEP’s vice-president, Daysi Zapata Fasabi. ‘(This decision) shows that our struggle is a just one and that no one is manipulating us.’
Peru’s president, Alan Garcia, admitted that the laws were passed without consulting the Amazon’s indigenous inhabitants and that a ‘succession of errors’ was made in the government’s handling of the protests.
The government’s official figure is that 24 policemen and 10 indigenous people were killed during the protests, but those figures are disputed by local sources. According to reports, the mayor of local town Bagua has said that up to sixty indigenous people are still missing.
The United Nations Special Rapporteur for Indigenous Peoples, James Anaya, has issued a call for an independent investigation into the violence. For photos and eyewitness testimonies, see here.
The Congress voted to repeal the laws at the end of last week. The laws undermined indigenous peoples’ rights and made it easier for outsiders to take control of their land.
Peru’s Amazon Indian organisation, AIDESEP, described the government’s decision as ‘historic’. ‘Our struggle and the lives of our indigenous brothers and sisters have not been in vain,’ said AIDESEP’s vice-president, Daysi Zapata Fasabi. ‘(This decision) shows that our struggle is a just one and that no one is manipulating us.’
Peru’s president, Alan Garcia, admitted that the laws were passed without consulting the Amazon’s indigenous inhabitants and that a ‘succession of errors’ was made in the government’s handling of the protests.
The government’s official figure is that 24 policemen and 10 indigenous people were killed during the protests, but those figures are disputed by local sources. According to reports, the mayor of local town Bagua has said that up to sixty indigenous people are still missing.
The United Nations Special Rapporteur for Indigenous Peoples, James Anaya, has issued a call for an independent investigation into the violence. For photos and eyewitness testimonies, see here.
Blog
05.09.2008, Johanna Havemann, 0 Comments
Survival ist die einzige internationale Organisation, die indigene Völker weltweit unterstützt. Sie wurde im Jahr 1969 gegründet, nachdem ein in der britischen Sunday Times erschienener Artikel von Norman Lewis die Massaker, Landenteignungen und Völkermorde im brasilianischen Amazonien beleuchtete. Wie viele andere Grausamkeiten unserer Zeit geschah die rassistische Unterdrückung der brasilianischen Indianer im Namen des „Wirtschaftswachstums”.
Heute hat Survival Anhänger in 82 Ländern. Wir arbeiten auf drei sich gegenseitig ergänzende Arten für die Rechte indigener Völker: Aufklärung, Lobbyarbeit und Kampagnen. Außerdem bieten wir den indigenen Völkern eine Plattform, auf der sie die Außenwelt direkt ansprechen können. Wir arbeiten eng mit lokalen, indigenen Organisationen und konzentrieren uns auf die Völker und Gruppen, die am meisten zu verlieren haben, in der Regel die, die gerade erst mit der Außenwelt in Kontakt gekommen sind.
Wir glauben, dass die öffentliche Meinung die wirksamste Kraft für Veränderungen darstellt. Ihre Stärke wird es Regierungen und Firmen immer schwieriger und letztendlich unmöglich machen, indigene Völker zu unterdrücken.
>> http://www.survival-international.de/ueberuns
Heute hat Survival Anhänger in 82 Ländern. Wir arbeiten auf drei sich gegenseitig ergänzende Arten für die Rechte indigener Völker: Aufklärung, Lobbyarbeit und Kampagnen. Außerdem bieten wir den indigenen Völkern eine Plattform, auf der sie die Außenwelt direkt ansprechen können. Wir arbeiten eng mit lokalen, indigenen Organisationen und konzentrieren uns auf die Völker und Gruppen, die am meisten zu verlieren haben, in der Regel die, die gerade erst mit der Außenwelt in Kontakt gekommen sind.
Wir glauben, dass die öffentliche Meinung die wirksamste Kraft für Veränderungen darstellt. Ihre Stärke wird es Regierungen und Firmen immer schwieriger und letztendlich unmöglich machen, indigene Völker zu unterdrücken.
>> http://www.survival-international.de/ueberuns
Goal: Wir sammeln Spedengelder für den Druck des Info-Comics "Da habt ihr's!" Beleuchtet wird sogenannte "Entwicklung" und ihr Einfluss auf indigene Völker.
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