The indigenous leaders said they would only accept donations that strengthen their ”organisational processes”, the affirmation of their ”autonomy and identity” and the preservation and conservation of their ”territories and rights.”

They will also accept ”the creation of special funds that address the needs of indigenous peoples” in keeping with their own plans as outlined and designed by each community as a whole. The leaders describe these plans as equivalent to the development plans of the ”western world”.

Last week, the IDB invited representatives of national and regional indigenous organisations to a two-day ”consultation workshop” in La Vega, a town near Bogota, as part of the process of gathering input for its Strategic Framework for Indigenous Development and Operational Policy for Indigenous People.

The IDB says the process, which also involves consultations with governments, donors and civil society, is aimed at drafting ”final documents that reflect the necessities, concerns and development visions of the indigenous peoples of the region”.

The documents are to ”allow for better use of Bank resources, the strengthening of an open dialogue between governments and indigenous actors and a better orientation of national and regional policies in support of development with identity and the protection of collective and individual rights of indigenous peoples.”

The two documents, which are still being drafted, are to be approved in February by the IDB board of directors in Washington, D.C.

The La Vega workshop was held to fulfil the IDB requirement to consult with local indigenous communities, which the Bank says it has already met in the rest of the countries of Latin America.

But in the view of indigenous people, a consultation process involves numerous assemblies of the entire community, in which each person is free to express their view and the elders sum up the proceedings and provide orientation to reach a consensus.

”Any contact, conversation or consultation must be the final result of an internal process of analysis and discussion by the communities and their authorities,” says the indigenous statement.

ONIC president José Evelis Andrade told IPS that while the policies of these international ”banks have failed to reduce poverty, they do not want to acknowledge that there are other kinds of economies, through which people can have access to development.”

”The banks are interested in generating profits and economic growth, but all they have done is aggravate the social situation, which is not ameliorated with that kind of economic growth,” he argued.

”In Latin America they have increased the foreign debt, and all we see is an increasingly bleak outlook. We want growth that does not generate this kind of debt burden and inequality. Under this system, the rich countries get richer and the poor countries get poorer,” complained Andrade.

Colombia's public debt is equivalent to 50 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

The statement issued by ONIC and AICO also rejects ”the IDB concept of 'development with identity' because it is synonymous with indebtedness, which could compromise and mortgage the future of our autonomy, our territory and our rights.”

According to the IDB, the concept of development with identity will help generate conditions that would enable indigenous people to gain access to financing.

But ”since we indigenous people only have our land to put up as surety, we would have to back the loans with our territory -- an aspect that worries us greatly,” said Andrade.

In his view, the banks have not lived up to their claim that they put a priority on economic and social growth. What we have seen instead, he said, is ”devastation, cultural deterioration and social problems.”

The banks ”have a need to finance infrastructure mega-projects, which for indigenous people have become sources of insecurity, environmental deterioration and destruction of the social fabric, not to mention the violence that the projects have generated in our territories.”

Colombia has the world's third-largest population of people displaced by violence, who total around three million.

Human rights activists say many people in rural areas have fled their land due to a campaign of violence and intimidation by paramilitary militias in areas where transnational companies are keen on building dams or highways, or producing agribusiness products. Indigenous people are often the targets of such violence.

A year ago, the IDB magazine BIDAmérica wrote that by late 2003, projects involving indigenous people as ”beneficiaries and participants” represented more than 20 percent of the Bank's total portfolio in Latin America.

The IDB says the Strategic Framework for Indigenous Development will help indigenous peoples deal with the challenges of globalisation.

In addition, the Bank says its aim is to foment exports of ”ethnic products” and help consolidate the economy in indigenous territories, through an increase in productivity and a reduction in discrimination in commercial and financial markets.

Colombia's laws and constitution make it one of the most advanced countries in Latin America in terms of recognition of the rights of indigenous peoples, who collectively own their ancestral territories, which cover a combined total of 27 million hectares, similar to the land area of the United Kingdom.

In their territories, indigenous authorities have the autonomy to manage internal affairs, including the administration of justice. The country's laws also state that the ethnic groups are free to follow their own lifestyles, implement their own health and educational models, and define their own priorities when it comes to public spending.

”Projects carried out with and for indigenous peoples cannot be implemented to the detriment of the environment, the ancestral, individual or collective rights of our peoples, our traditional economy, our worldview, and the guarantees of our ancestral knowledge,” says the statement issued by ONIC and AICO.