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COLOMBIA:
Indians Negotiate
Reparations for Damages Caused
by Dam
Yadira Ferrer*
BOGOTA, (Tierramérica) - Marta
Domicó, a 20-year-old
Embera-Katío Indian, weaves
beaded necklaces near the gate
of an old brick mansion in the
Bogotá city centre that is the
headquarters of the Colombian
National Indigenous Organisation
(ONIC, in Spanish), and where
she has been living, crammed in
with some 450 members of her
indigenous community, since Dec.
22.
Domicó and her partner Francisco
Rubiano came to the capital with
their two sons -- one is three
years old, the other seven
months -- to demand that the
government comply with the
agreements signed in 2000 to
mitigate the environmental and
social impacts of the Urrá dam,
built in the northern department
of Córdoba that is the ancestral
home of the Embera-Katío.
''I have many necklaces,
bracelets and earrings, but the
people aren't buying much,''
Domicó told Tierramérica as she
set aside a basket holding 'chaquiras'
(clay beads), thread and
needles, to put warmer clothes
on her younger son. The two
children have suffered bouts of
flu, fever and diarrhoea since
they arrived in Bogotá.
''The cold here really affects
us because we are accustomed to
temperatures of 30 degrees
(Celsius) that we normally have
in Córdoba,'' she said.
Marta misses her kitchen back
home, with its mud walls and
palm roof, and her plots of
plantain, corn and rice -- but
she says she will remain in the
capital until the government
responds to the Embera-Katío
demands.
Indigenous community leader
Belisario Domicó said in a
conversation with Tierramérica
that the group, which includes
184 children under age 16, has
been living at the ONIC
headquarters since being kicked
out of the Environment Ministry,
the building they first occupied
when they arrived in Bogotá more
than three months ago.
The national government promised
in 2000 to take actions to
alleviate the impacts caused by
the Urrá dam, built in the 1990s
by the government-run company of
the same name. But the
government has not honoured that
promise, said Domicó.
Another indigenous leader, who
requested anonymity, told
Tierramérica that the steps
taken by the government ''are a
long way from contributing to
prevention, mitigation,
compensation or reparations for
the harm caused to our people.''
On Mar. 14, 72 days after the
government suspended dialogue
with the Embera-Katío in
reaction to the takeover of the
Environment Ministry,
representatives from the
Interior Ministry and from the
Ombudsman and Attorney General's
offices renewed contact with the
Indians to seek a solution.
The parties agreed to negotiate
behind closed doors, but
Tierramérica learned that
progress has been made towards a
new agreement, which could
include modifying the
environmental permit that was
granted to Urrá for operations,
and conducting a new study of
the dam's environmental impacts.
According to the sources, it was
agreed that a consultation would
be conducted with the local
communities to facilitate a
transition phase, and that the
government would finance the
development of a plan to improve
the indigenous community's
quality of life.
''We are going to hold a
consultation to determine how
the community wants us to use
the resources that may be given
as compensation for the damages
incurred,'' said Belisario
Domicó.
The Indians say that with the
filling of the reservoir and the
rerouting of the river they lost
the fishing resources that were
a staple of their diet, and they
also lost a large portion of
their cropland.
The Embera-Katío also demand
greater protection from the
irregular armed groups that are
fighting in their territory, and
from harassment by powerful big
landowners who want the Indians
to abandon the fertile lands
they live on.
The International Court of Human
Rights asked the Colombian
government in April 2000 to
hammer out an agreement with the
Embera-Katío on measures to
protect their land, after
finding that at least 300
Indians from that community had
been assassinated by illegal
armed groups since 1995.
Humanitarian missions from the
United Nations in Colombia
reported that right-wing
paramilitaries and left-wing
guerrillas alike have tortured
and murdered indigenous leaders,
accusing them of collaborating
with the other side. The armed
groups, clashing in the
decades-long Colombian civil
war, have demolished houses and
destroyed fishing boats,
forcibly displacing some 800
Embera-Katío Indians.
The Colombian Interior Ministry
said that possibly this week
negotiations would be finalised
and the protesting Embera-Katío
in Bogotá might begin returning
to their territory.
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