"West Papuan Leaders Are Disappointed With The Result Of The Pacific Islands Forum Meeting"

"For immediate release 7 August 2009

WEST PAPUAN LEADERS ARE DISAPPOINTED WITH
THE RESULT OF THE PACIFIC ISLANDS FORUM MEETING

Leaders of the West Papua National Coalition for Liberation were in Cairns North Queensland to push hard for the PIF to grant West Papua Observer Status and also for the forum to discuss many other issues affecting West Papuan people. Meanwhile more human violations are occurring. PIF should never fail to address the issue of West Papua. After all PIF was established to address all the issues affecting the Pacific community, political or otherwise. It is important that leaders of the PIF raise these concerns in order to prevent further violence. Turning away from it will only make it worse. Prior to the PIF meeting they have taken part in a Civil Society Forum on Climate Change where all these issues were discussed and linked as inseparable part of climate change.

Vice Chairman of the West Papua National Coalition for Liberation, Dr. Otto Ondawame stated the coalition is not happy at all about the way the PIF treated West Papua. “This is hypocrisy; how could they concern themselves about human right and democracy issues in other parts of the world but ignore what is happening next door he asked? By not protesting or even mentioning the violence in West Papua you are infect encourage it to continue”, he said.

The PIF had clearly stated its concerns about the situation in West Papua during its 37th forum meeting in Fiji. We would have hoped that the PIF be consistent with its concerns because the situation is not improving at all. “Regardless of this setback our Coalition will continue to work for a peaceful and dignified solution to the West Papuan issue. We will never stop until once again we become part of the Pacific community as we were when we were member of the South Pacific Commission from 1947 – 1962”, said Mr. Rex Rumakiek, the Secretary General of the WPNCL.

For more information contact: Dr. John Ondawame, on 0439759026 and Rex Rumakiek on 0414247468.


WEST PAPUA NATIONAL COALITION FOR LIBERATION
P.O. Box 1571, Port Vila, Republic of Vanuatu, ph: + 678 40808; +61414247468; +61439759026
E-mail: morningstar@vanuatu.com.vu, awulkeweng@yahoo.com, rexruma@hotmail.com
"
ORIGINAL SOURCE: Received via e-mail

"Borneo Tribe Mounts New Blockades Against Rainforest Destruction"

"Dozens of Penan tribespeople armed with blowpipes and spears have erected blockades across the roads cut by logging companies deep into their forest in Borneo. The blockaders are calling for an end to logging on their land.

Survival International is calling for recognition of the hunter-gatherer Penan tribe’s land rights and a halt to all development on their land without their consent.

Malaysian police are at the blockades, but no arrests have been reported.

One Penan man told Survival, ‘This piece of forest is the only place left for us to hunt and find food. But there’s only a little bit left. Last night I went hunting and came back with nothing. If we can’t save this bit of forest, we will have nothing to eat.’

The Penan live in Sarawak, in the Malaysian part of the island of Borneo. They have been struggling for more than twenty years to stop the companies clearing their forests. Some have been successful, but many have seen their forests devastated, their rivers polluted and the animals and plants they rely on for food disappear.

Now, where the valuable trees have all been taken, the companies are starting to clear the land completely for oil palm plantations. Palm oil is used in many foods and cosmetics, and increasingly for biofuels.

Survival sent action bulletins to thousands of supporters worldwide last week, asking them to write to the Malaysian government in support of the Penan.

Survival’s director Stephen Corry said today, ‘The logging and oil palm companies are robbing the Penan not just of their forests but of their food and water. It is essential that the Malaysian government recognizes the Penan’s rights to their land and stops allowing the companies to take everything in sight.’

The notorious Malaysian company Samling is logging in the Long Daloh area, and a subsidiary of the company KTS is logging in the Ba Marong area.

Survival researcher Miriam Ross visited the Penan earlier this year, and is available for interview.

Visit Survival’s webpage about the Penan.

For more information and images please contact Miriam Ross:
T (+44) (0)20 7687 8734 or (+44) (0)7504543367
E mr@survival-international.org
"

ORIGINAL SOURCE: Survival International

*Photo Credits: Andy Rain & Nick Rain of Survival International

Six Kalahari Bushmen Imprisoned For Hunting

"Six Kalahari Bushmen in Botswana have been arrested and jailed, charged with hunting inside the Central Kalahari Game Reserve.

The Molepolole court is expected to rule on the charges on Monday. The case relates to two incidents, one earlier this year and the other in 2007.

Botswana High Court Judge Justice Phumaphi ruled in 2006 that forbidding the Bushmen from hunting for food was ‘tantamount to condemning [them] to death’. The historic ruling recognized the Bushmen’s right to live on their ancestral land, and condemned the government’s repeated evictions of Bushmen, its ban on hunting and its destruction of their water source.

The Botswana government has not granted a single hunting license for the reserve since 2001, despite the High Court ruling that its hunting ban was unlawful and unconstitutional. At least 75 Bushmen have requested licenses.

Many Bushmen have returned home since the 2006 ruling, but many are still trapped in relocation camps which they call ‘places of death.’ The government has largely ignored the High Court ruling, continuing to deny the Bushmen access to water and refusing them permission to hunt.

Survival’s director, Stephen Corry, said today, ‘Jailing six Bushmen for hunting is an outrageous act of hypocrisy by the Botswana government, which is still refusing to respect the ruling of the country’s own High Court that the Bushmen must be allowed to live freely on their land. Forbidding them from hunting for food is illegal.’

For more information and images please contact Miriam Ross:

T (+44) (0)20 7687 8734 or (+44) (0)7504543367
E mr@survival-international.org
"

ORIGINAL SOURCE: Survival International

*Photo credits: Stephen Corry of Survival International, 2004

20 Indians, 7 Police Dead After Peruvian State Attacks Eco-Defense Blockade

"Reports indicate that up to twenty Indian protesters and seven police officers have died after an Indian blockade of a highway in northern Peru was violently broken up by the authorities today. The number of people injured is believed to be significantly higher.

Survival urges President Garcia and the Peruvian government to withdraw all armed forces from the areas where indigenous peoples are protesting, and to recognise and respect their land rights. The use of army units to quell these protests is merely inflaming an already volatile situation, and does nothing to address the Indians' fundamental and justified concerns."

ORIGINAL SOURCE: Survival International

Ogiek Tribe To Become 'Conservation Refugees'

"The hunter-gatherer Ogiek tribe of Kenya could become the latest in the world’s growing tide of ‘conservation refugees’ if Kenya’s government acts on its threat to evict them from their land in the name of conservation.

The Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga have said that their government plans to remove the Ogiek from their ancestral land in the Mau forest.

Ever since colonial times, they have resisted attempts to evict them from the Mau forest. They depend on the forest, where they gather honey, hunt antelope and pigs and grow vegetables.

More than 60 Ogiek leaders met recently to oppose the government’s plans. ‘We will resist any attempt by the government to remove us from our ancestral land. Mau is our home. Our ancestors are here. We will not be intimidated,’ said Ogiek Councillor Paul Leswagei."

ORIGINAL SOURCE: Survival International

New Report Reveals Five Uncontacted Tribes Most At Risk

"One year after photos of uncontacted Amazon Indians made headlines around the world, a new report from Survival International reveals the five uncontacted tribes most at risk of extinction.

They are:

* Indians of the Pardo River, Brazil
* The Awá, Brazil
* Indians between the Napo and Tigre Rivers, Peru
* Indians of the Envira River, Peru
* The Ayoreo-Totobiegosode, Paraguay

These groups are all experiencing the invasion of their lands – by loggers, ranchers, colonists and oil companies – and all are at grave risk of being decimated by diseases to which they have no immunity.

The Awá, Rio Pardo Indians and Envira River Indians are all falling victim to the blight of illegal hardwood logging which is penetrating even the remotest parts of the Amazon.

The Ayoreo-Totobiegosode of the Chaco scrub forests in western Paraguay, on the other hand, are experiencing the illegal clearance of their forests by cattle ranchers. Satellite photos taken over the past year have revealed huge areas illegally cleared in the Indians’ heartland.

In the far north of Peru, the Indians living between the Napo and Tigre Rivers are caught in the middle of Peru’s oil boom. In recent years 75% of Peru’s Amazon has been carved up into oil and gas exploration concessions. Peru’s President has denied the existence of isolated Indians in the Napo/Tigre area, despite abundant evidence of their existence."

ORIGINAL SOURCE: Survival International

ConocoPhillips Poses 'Deadly' Threat To Uncontacted Tribes

"One of the United States’ largest energy companies, ConocoPhillips, could constitute a ‘deadly’ threat to uncontacted tribes in northern Peru, says a new report by AmazonWatch and Save America’s Forests (SAF).

The report, titled ‘ConocoPhillips in the Peruvian Amazon’, details how the energy giant owns a ‘mega-concession’ of 10.5 million hectares to explore for oil in Peru. This is a larger territory than that occupied by any other US oil company in the entire Amazon basin.

In addition to the threats posed to uncontacted tribes, AmazonWatch and SAF express their concern for the possible consequences on other, contacted indigenous peoples and the environment. The region, rich in plants, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals, has been identified as one of the world’s ‘mega bio-diversity hotspots’.

The report explains that uncontacted tribes live in ‘voluntary isolation’ and ‘have a made a conscious decision to avoid forced contact, given the violence, decimation by disease, and cultural devastation’ that usually follows first contact. It also details evidence of uncontacted Indians in the area where ConocoPhillips is working, including several sightings of them and footprints, trails and spears belonging to them.

AmazonWatch and SAF make several recommendations to ConocoPhillips, including the complete withdrawal of the company from the 10.5 million hectares.

Read the report."

ORIGINAL SOURCE: Survival International

Bostwana Renews Assault On Bushmen

"Botswana’s government sent trucks full of police and wildlife scouts into the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR) yesterday to confiscate goats from Bushmen who have returned to their ancestral homes.

The Bushmen, whose goats had been confiscated in 2002 when they were unlawfully evicted from the reserve, only received their livestock back in recent weeks.

The Attorney General had promised the Bushmen that they could take their goats back to their homes in the reserve, and government vets had certified the animals as free from disease.

But officials from the Ministry of Environment, Wildlife and Tourism have targeted the Bushmen’s small herds, apparently concerned that they do not fit in with the image of the CKGR they wish to promote. The government is promoting a scheme to build a tourist lodge near the Bushman community of Molapo in the reserve – the same community now being targeted.

Goats provide the Bushmen with an essential source of nourishment, particularly during the dry season. This need is even more acute since the government has barred the Bushmen from using their old water borehole.

Jumanda Gakelebone of the Bushman organisation First People of the Kalahari said today, ‘As Bushmen of the CKGR we were thinking that our issues with the government could be solved and come to an end. The position that the Ministry of Tourism is taking means there are no negotiations. We as Bushmen appeal to the nation of Botswana and say that the battle between the government and the Bushmen of the CKGR is starting. For two years we tried to talk with the government. Now our campaign is beginning again.’"

ORIGINAL SOURCE: Survival International

New Website Refutes Vedanta's Propaganda

"An exposé of the ‘lies’ of British FTSE-100 company Vedanta Resources was launched today by Survival International.

http://www.survival-international.org/behindthelies/vedanta

Vedanta plans to build a massive bauxite mine on land sacred to the Dongria Kondh tribe in India. If it goes ahead, swathes of forests will be lost, rivers polluted and the Dongria Kondh destroyed.

However, while hundreds of Dongria Kondh and neighbouring tribespeople mount large-scale protests against the mine, Vedanta’s PR machine (London PR firm Finsbury and ‘corporate social responsibility’ consultancy CO3) has launched a sustained offensive against the tribe’s efforts to stop the mine.

A host of anonymous pro-Vedanta videos have appeared on the internet in recent months in which grateful Dongria Kondh express their thanks to Vedanta for providing them with healthcare and education. Vedanta propaganda, spread in the local media, makes claims that tribal people have ‘demanded that their land should be taken’ by Vedanta and that mining will improve the quality of the rivers and forests.

Much of this material has been manipulative; some has been completely untrue. For example, Vedanta has stated that there are no Dongria Kondh villages within 12 kilometres of the proposed mine. In fact, there are more than sixty.

Survival gave Vedanta advance notice of the exposé website and invited it to provide evidence to support its claims, but the company failed to do so."

ORIGINAL SOURCE: Survival International

Indian Government Approves Bauxite Mine On Dongria Kondh Land

"The Indian government has given Britain’s Vedanta Resources final approval to start a controversial bauxite mine in the hills of the Dongria Kondh tribe.

The tribespeople, furious that the lush hills where they live will be devastated, have mounted a series of blockades and large-scale protests in recent years. They say the mine will end their way of life forever, and have vowed to block Vedanta from destroying the top of their mountain, which they hold sacred.

The Indian ministry for environment and forests has now granted Vedanta the environmental clearance it requires to start mining. The mine, in the Niyamgiri hills in Orissa, eastern India, could begin operations within weeks.

Dongria Kondh spokesman Lodu said, ‘If the government give the mountain, we will say ‘sell your own mountain’. This is the Dongria Kondh’s hill, it is not yours to sell.’

Vedanta is already operating a bauxite refinery at the foot of the mountain. Hundreds of people have lost their homes to the refinery, which has been condemned by government officials for its ‘alarming’ rate of pollution."

ORIGINAL SOURCE: Survival International

Canadian Oil Company To Explore Uncontacted Tribes’ Land

"A Canadian oil company has signed a deal with Peru’s government allowing it to explore land inhabited by one of the world’s last uncontacted tribes.

The company, Petrolifera, has reached an agreement to explore almost four thousand square kilometres of a remote part of Peru where uncontacted Cacataibo Indians live. Two local organisations, the Instituto del Bien Comun (IBC) and FENACOCA, have previously asked the government to turn the area into a reserve for the Indians.

The uncontacted Cacataibo have been split into two groups by a highway that connects the remote Amazon to Peru’s capital city, Lima. The highway was built in the 1940s and since then it is believed that the two groups have been unable to meet each other.

Petrolifera already has a license to work in land nearby where uncontacted Cacataibo also live. They have conducted seismic tests using dynamite there, and the IBC and FENACOCA have appealed to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to stop them. Despite this the Petrolifera CEO, Richard Gusella, has described his company as a ‘poster child’ for companies interacting with local communities.

According to an IBC spokesman, Petrolifera’s seismic tests led to a number of sightings of uncontacted Indians by company workers."

ORIGINAL SOURCE: Survival International

Indigenous People: 'Mother Earth In Climate Crisis'

"A statement by indigenous representatives from around the world describes ‘Mother Earth (as) no longer in a period of climate change, but climate crisis.’

The statement, known as the Anchorage Declaration, was released after indigenous people from the Arctic, North America, Asia, the Pacific, Latin America, Africa, the Caribbean and Russia met in Anchorage, Alaska for the ‘Indigenous Peoples’ Global Summit on Climate Change’.

‘We are deeply alarmed by the accelerating climate devastation brought about by unsustainable development,’ the Declaration says. ‘We are experiencing profound and disproportionate adverse impacts on our cultures, human and environmental health, human rights, well-being, traditional livelihoods, food systems and food sovereignty, local infrastructure, economic viability, and our very survival as Indigenous Peoples.

‘Mother Earth is no longer in a period of climate change, but in climate crisis. We therefore insist on an immediate end to the destruction and desecration of the elements of life.’

The Declaration lists fourteen specific calls for action. These include reducing levels of global carbon emissions; indigenous participation in climate change debate; the recognition of indigenous peoples’ rights in schemes to ‘Reduce Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation’ (REDD); the abandonment of ‘false solutions’ to climate change such as nuclear energy, ‘clean coal’ and agrofuels; the recognition by governments of indigenous peoples’ rights; and the return and restoration of ‘lands, territories, waters, forests, sea ice and sacred sites’ taken from indigenous peoples by governments in the past."

ORIGINAL SOURCE: Survival International

Guarani Suicide Rates Rising

"A report released this week reveals that the suicide rate among Brazil’s Guarani-Kaiowá Indians is on the increase.

The Brazilian indigenous rights organization CIMI, which is linked to the Catholic church, has released its annual report ‘Violence against indigenous peoples in Brazil – 2008’. It documents assassinations, suicides, land conflicts, negligence by authorities and racism against Indians.

One of the most shocking statistics highlighted is the suicide rate of the Guarani-Kaiowá in Mato Grosso do Sul state. Thirty-four Guarani-Kaiowá killed themselves in 2008 – seven more than in 2007.

Forty-two Guarani were murdered last year, mostly in internal conflicts. Many observers believe this is directly linked to the fact that most Guarani communities have almost no land. Alcoholism is rife, and the communities are crammed into small reservations where it is virtually impossible to plant, hunt or fish.

‘Cattle are worth more than children, sugar cane more than a forest,’ says Guarani Kaiowá spokesman Anastacio Peralta.

The anthropologist who organized the report, Lúcia Rangel, says, ‘There is tremendous resistance at all levels of non-indigenous society against recognizing Guarani-Kaiowá land rights. This resistance is growing and results in strong prejudice and racism against the indigenous people.’

The report also highlights the huge risks posed by logging and dams to Brazil’s uncontacted tribes. It says the very survival of a group of 60 uncontacted Awá, whose forest is being rapidly destroyed by loggers, is now at stake.

Four groups of uncontacted Indians will see their lands flooded by the Madeira hydroelectric dam planned in Rondônia state.

The publication of the report coincides with the annual ‘Acampamento Terra Livre’ (Free Earth Camp). Hundreds of Indians from all over Brazil have camped for the past week in the capital Brasília, to lobby politicians on many issues including land rights, health and education."

ORIGINAL SOURCE: Survival International

Perenco And Peruvian Military Break Indigenous Blockade

"A gunboat belonging to Peru’s armed forces has broken through an Indian river blockade in the northern Peruvian Amazon.

The gunboat, together with at least one boat belonging to Anglo-French oil company Perenco, broke the blockade at 5:15 am on 4 May. The blockade, organised by local indigenous people, is on the Napo river, one of the main tributaries of the Amazon.

The blockade forms part of Amazon-wide protests by Peru’s indigenous people against government policies and the invasion of their territories by multinational companies.

Perenco holds the licence to work in a remote part of Peru known as Lot 67, accessible via the Napo River. It is an area inhabited by at least two of the world’s last uncontacted tribes – the company is under increasing pressure to withdraw from the project.

Less than a fortnight ago Perenco’s chairman, Francois Perrodo, met Peru’s president, Alan Garcia, in the presidential palace in Lima, pledging to invest US$2 billion in Lot 67. Just days later the government passed a law declaring Perenco’s work a ‘national necessity’."

ORIGINAL SOURCE: Survival International

Ranching Company Seeks License To Destroy Uncontacted Tribes' Land

"A Brazilian cattle-ranching company is seeking permission from Paraguay’s government to destroy forest inhabited by one of the world’s last uncontacted tribes.

The company, Yaguarete Pora S.A., has applied to Paraguay’s Environment Ministry for a licence to work in an area where uncontacted Ayoreo-Totobiegosode Indians live. Yaguarete own the land, but its licence to work there was withdrawn last year after the publication of satellite photos showing its destruction of the forest, and pressure from local organisations. Yaguarete also prevented an investigative team from the Environment Ministry from entering the area.

‘The Environment Ministry must not grant a new licence to Yaguarete,’ urged local Totobiegosode support organisation GAT. ‘If it does, the last of the uncontacted Totobiegosode could be wiped out.’

Yaguarete has recently announced its intention to maintain an ‘eco-reserve’ in a small part of the forest it has been destroying – a move denounced by Survival as ‘greenwashing of the most outrageous kind’."

ORIGINAL SOURCE: Survival International

Peruvian Government Determined To Rape Uncontacted Tribes' Land

"Peru’s government has shown its determination to permit work on uncontacted tribes’ land by passing a law declaring oil exploitation in northern Peru a ‘national necessity.’

The law refers specifically to an area of Peru’s rainforest called Lot 67, inhabited by at least two of the world’s last uncontacted tribes. The company working there is Perenco, and Lot 67 is believed to contain the biggest oil discovery in Peru in thirty years.

The law has been passed in the immediate aftermath of a meeting between Perenco’s chairman, Francois Perrodo, and Peru’s president, Alan Garcia. At the same time, indigenous protesters have blocked a major Amazon tributary, the Napo river, in order to prevent Perenco and other company boats from passing, mainly in protest against other government laws making it easier for companies to take over indigenous land. According to reports, at least one Perenco boat has broken through the blockade.

The law was passed by Supreme Decree this week. A Supreme Decree is issued by the president and ministers and does not need to be voted by parliament.

Uncontacted Indians are exceedingly vulnerable to any form of contact because they do not have immunity to outsiders’ diseases. Contact with Perenco workers would almost certainly decimate them."

ORIGINAL SOURCE: Survival International

Proposed Diamond Mine On Bushman Land Shelved Due To Recession

"The planned diamond mine at the centre of an international controversy over the forced relocation of Botswana’s Bushmen has been shelved due to the global recession. Demand for diamonds has collapsed in recent months, and all Botswana’s diamond mines closed in February for two months.

The diamond deposit, at a Bushmen community called Gope, was previously owned by De Beers. It lies inside the Central Kalahari Game Reserve. Soon after the significance of the find was confirmed, the reserve’s Bushmen were forced off their land by the Botswana authorities.

Survival International, the Bushmen and many others maintained that the reserve’s diamonds were the principal cause of the Bushmen’s eviction.

De Beers and the Botswana government consistently denied any intention to mine in the reserve. Dr Akolang Tombale, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Mines, for example, said in 2002 that, ‘no commercially exploitable mineral deposit has been discovered’. De Beers spokesperson Fleur de Villiers described the find as ‘sub-economic’ in 2002, and in 2005 De Beers’s head of public affairs Andrew Bone labelled it ‘un-economical’.

Soon after the Bushmen won an historic court case in 2006 which established that they had been forced out of the reserve against their will, De Beers sold the Gope deposit to Gem Diamonds. In 2007 Gem Diamonds valued the Gope deposit at $2.4bn, and announced its intention to open the mine as soon as possible.

Gem has now admitted that the mine is on hold.

Survival’s director Stephen Corry said today, ‘Throughout the Bushman evictions and court case, the Botswana government endlessly repeated two mantras: the ‘relocations’ were voluntary; and there were no diamonds worth exploiting in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve. Both were completely untrue. The court ruled that the evictions were forced, and the sale and assessment of the billion-dollar Gope diamond deposit showed up the lie of the second."

ORIGINAL SOURCE: Survival International

Penan Slam French Hotel Group's Cooperation With Borneo Loggers

"Members of the Penan tribe in Borneo have written to the CEO of Europe’s foremost hotel chain, ACCOR, asking him to end his company’s cooperation with the loggers who are destroying their forests.

ACCOR is building a 388-room hotel complex in Kuching, Sarawak, with Malaysian logging company Interhill. The Penan have been protesting since the late 1980s against Interhill’s destruction of their land.

Seventy-seven Penan have signed the letter to ACCOR CEO Gilles Pélisson. ‘Interhill is extracting timber from our forests against our declared will and without our consent,’ says the letter. ‘Without our forest, we, the Penan, cannot survive.’

The Penan’s letter continues, ‘Despite our repeated protests, Interhill does not respect our boundaries, continues to encroach on our traditional land and disregards our native customary rights. This is why we have started to map our land and will soon file a court case against Interhill.’

‘We depend on the clean water from our rivers, the wild boar we hunt in the forest and the fruits and jungle produce we collect from the old trees, the sago palms and the rattan vines. Many of us are affected by severe health problems caused by logging and have suffered because we lost our fishing grounds and hunting has become much more difficult.’

Sign the petition against ACCOR’s cooperation with Interhill"

ORIGINAL SOURCE: Survival International

Tribes Protest Against Vedanta

"Several hundred tribespeople today staged a protest against FTSE-100 company Vedanta, as it bids massively to expand its controversial aluminium refinery in Lanjigarh, Orissa.

The refinery occupies land belonging to the Majhi Kondh tribe, and lies at the foot of the Niyamgiri hills, home of the isolated Dongria Kondhs. Both tribes took part in the protests.

The refinery has already been condemned by government officials for regularly breaching safety standards, and emitting ‘alarming’ pollution. Over a hundred families lost their homes to their refinery. Many more lost their farm land and with it their food-security and self sufficiency.

Vedanta’s refinery expansion project is integrally linked to its plan to mine the Dongria Kondh’s mountain home. Vedanta’s mine is needed to provide the refinery with a nearby, and cost efficient, source of bauxite – the raw material for aluminium.

One Dongria Kondh man told Survival, ‘Mining only makes profit for the rich. We will become beggars if the company destroys our mountain and our forest so that they can make money. We cannot give our mountain, it is our life. And other tribes will also suffer, those who live on the rivers that come from our mountain.’

Today’s protest is just the latest in a string of demonstrations against Vedanta’s activities. In January Dongria men and women joined other local communities to form a human chain around their sacred mountain."

ORIGINAL SOURCE: Survival International

Brazilian Indians Launch Petition Against Missionary Abductions Of Their Children

"A group of Brazilian Indians have launched a petition against a draft law that would facilitate the theft of indigenous children by evangelical missionaries.

The draft law, backed by missionary organization ‘Youth with a Mission’, would allow the Brazilian authorities to remove indigenous children from their families and communities if suspicions of ‘harmful traditional practices’ were raised.

‘Youth with a Mission’ is using a film implying that infanticide is widespread among Brazilian indigenous peoples to drum up support for the law. The film, ‘Hakani’, has been watched by more than 450,000 people on YouTube.

In fact, infanticide among Brazilian Indians is very rare.

The Indians say that evangelical missionaries are taking children from indigenous communities on the pretext of ‘saving’ them from infanticide.

In a letter addressed to the human rights commission of the Chamber of Deputies in the Brazilian congress, the Yawalapiti and Mebengokré Kayapó Indians urge them not to approve the law, saying it is destructive and intrusive."

ORIGINAL SOURCE: Survival International