Friday 17 October 2008, San José, Costa
Rica
COLOMBIA:
Brutal Crackdown on
Indigenous Protest
By Helda Martínez*
BOGOTA (IPS) - More than
75 people were injured
and at least one was
killed in a crackdown on
indigenous protests
being held in different
areas of Colombia.
The protests began Oct.
12, Día de la Raza (Day
of the Race -- which
marks the anniversary of
Christopher Columbus’
arrival in the
Americas), in La María,
an indigenous reserve in
the southwestern
province of Cauca.
Demonstrators
participating in the
National Mobilisation of
Indigenous and Popular
Resistance, convened by
indigenous organisations,
blocked the Pan American
highway, the main
north-south artery in
Colombia, a branch of
which communicates the
country with Ecuador.
To clear the road, the
army and police went in
with helicopters and
armoured vehicles, and
opened fire with live
ammunition.
"It was terrible, and so
unfair. We had no
weapons. We only have
our ceremonial staffs
which symbolise
authority. At this
moment (midday on
Wednesday) they are
still shooting, although
they have removed us
from the Pan American
highway," Manuel
Rozental, a spokesperson
for local indigenous
groups, told IPS.
Nevertheless, "the
number of protesters is
growing. More people are
coming down from the
mountains to participate
in the demonstration,
and we estimate there
are at least 200,000
indigenous people
involved throughout the
country," said Rozental.
Active protests are
taking place in 16 of
Colombia’s 32 provinces:
La Guajira, Córdoba,
Sucre, Atlántico and
Chocó, on the northern
Caribbean coast; Norte
de Santander, Boyacá and
Casanare, in the east;
Meta, to the south of
Bogotá; Risaralda,
Caldas, Quindio and
Tolima in the centre of
the country; Cauca and
Huila in the southwest;
and Valle del Cauca, in
the west.
The indigenous
organisations have a
list of 12 demands that
they want to negotiate
in direct talks with
rightwing Colombian
President Álvaro Uribe.
Referring to the clashes
in Cauca, Vice President
Francisco Santos said
"what is going on there
is guerrilla
infiltration, and those
who are fighting are the
Grandchildren of Quintín
Lame," an indigenous
leader of the last
century who fought for
recognition of the
rights of native
communities.
Lame's name was adopted
by a group of young
indigenous people left
landless because the
reserves have not been
expanded. They use
explosives and other
violent methods in
protests, and are
disapproved of by their
traditional authorities.
However, the cabildos
(local indigenous
governing councils)
insistently deny any
links between the
indigenous people and
armed groups of any
kind.
Colombia has been living
through a civil war for
nearly half a century,
between insurgent groups
like the Revolutionary
Armed Forces of Colombia
(FARC), far-right
paramilitary militias
and government troops.
The indigenous people in
Cauca are demanding that
Uribe put in a personal
appearance in the area,
because "there are too
many precedents of
unfulfilled promises. At
the world summit of
indigenous peoples that
was held right there in
La María, in 2005, they
promised us talks, but
what they did was send
in more troops, to burn
and destroy," said
Rozental.
At a plenary session of
Congress on Tuesday
night, indigenous
Senator Jesús Piñacué
explained the
deep-seated reasons
behind the mobilisation,
and won support from the
International Affairs
Commission, and among
legislators of the
opposition Liberal Party
and Alternative
Democratic Pole (PDA).
On Wednesday, Piñacué
said that just as Uribe
has negotiated with drug
traffickers and
paramilitary forces, he
should enter into
dialogue with the
indigenous people.
Agriculture Minister
Andrés Felipe Arias
called Piñacué a
"terrorist." "I hope
this struggle that has
gone on for so many
years, and the specific
requests set forth by
the present mobilisation,
that we have been
waiting for with
humility and resignation
for five years, will be
met with solutions.
Meanwhile we will keep
on struggling, as there
is nothing else we can
do," Piñacué told IPS.
On Tuesday, the National
Indigenous Organisation
of Colombia (ONIC)
reported the alleged
forced disappearance of
two people from the
protest in La María to
the Inter-American
Commission on Human
Rights.
It also asked the
Organisation of American
States (OAS) for "urgent
intervention" by the
Special Rapporteur on
Freedom of Expression,
because at the height of
the protest the web page
belonging to the
Association of
Indigenous Authorities
of Northern Cauca (ACIN)
was disabled, and power
was cut off at the
headquarters of the
Regional Indigenous
Council of Cauca (CRIC),
from which ONIC's
virtual radio station,
Dachibedea, is
retransmitted.
More than 30 national
and international civil
society and human rights
organisations said that
the indigenous
demonstration is part of
the actions decided by
indigenous groups in
2001, and is "aimed at
expressing their
rejection of physical
and cultural genocide
and the various ways in
which their rights have
been trampled on and
violated."
In a communiqué, the
social organisations
stressed that indigenous
territories are coveted
for their natural
resources, and fought
over by the armed groups
in the civil war. They
are also strategic areas
for implementing
economic and
infrastructure projects,
the statement says.
This "violates the
autonomy, territorial
integrity and collective
rights of indigenous
peoples, through the
violation of sacred
areas, the loss of
cultures, and the denial
of the right of free,
prior and informed
consent," it says.
In the statement, the
social organisations
express great concern
that the Colombian
government has not
signed the United
Nations Declaration on
the Rights of Indigenous
Peoples, approved by the
U.N. General Assembly on
Sept. 13, 2007.
They also allege that
the Colombian state is
in breach of
International Labour
Organisation Convention
169 concerning
Indigenous and Tribal
Peoples, and of the
recommendations of the
U.N. Special Rapporteur
on the situation of
human rights and
fundamental freedoms of
indigenous peoples.
Since 2002, when the
Uribe administration
took office, 1,253
indigenous people have
been murdered and at
least 54,000 have been
expelled from their
ancestral lands,
according to ONIC.
*With additional
reporting by Constanza
Vieira in Bogotá.
|
|
|
|
|
|
