Saturday 25 October 2008, San José, Costa
Rica
COLOMBIA:
Uribe Agrees to Talks
with Indigenous
Protesters
By Constanza Vieira*
BOGOTA - "The police did
fire" on indigenous
protesters, said
Colombian President
Álvaro Uribe, who
yielded to pressure to
meet next Sunday with
the leaders of a
two-week-long
demonstration by native
groups.
On Wednesday night, the
rightwing president
acknowledged an incident
that was videotaped by
protesters in the La
María indigenous
reservation in the
southwestern province of
Cauca and broadcast by
the U.S. cable news
network CNN. The video
shows a masked,
uniformed police officer
shooting in the
direction of the
demonstrators.
But with respect to the
three indigenous people
killed since the
protests began on Oct.
12 -- one on Oct. 14 and
two on Oct. 21 -- Uribe
maintained that they
weren’t shot by the
security forces, but
were killed by
explosives used by "the
terrorists," as he
refers to the leftist
Revolutionary Armed
Forces of Colombia (FARC)
guerrillas, who he
accuses of infiltrating
the peaceful
demonstration.
National police chief
General Óscar Naranjo,
meanwhile, said that "up
to 700 police" have been
deployed against the
protesters, although
last week he said the
police numbered 1,000.
Naranjo identified the
police sniper by name,
and said he opened fire
because "250 indigenous
people" were throwing
explosives from a nearby
ditch.
The indigenous movement
roundly rejects
allegations that
participants in the
demonstration have used
explosives.
On Thursday evening,
Uribe personally called
the cell-phone of one of
the leaders of the
demonstration, named the
National Minga of
Indigenous and Popular
Resistance ("minga" is a
traditional indigenous
meeting for the
collective good), Daniel
Piñacué, to inform the
organisers that he would
meet with them Sunday in
Cali.
Although the thousands
of demonstrators have
already made half of the
98-km trek northwards
from La María to Cali,
the capital of the
province of Valle del
Cauca, Uribe had
originally scheduled his
Sunday meeting with the
leaders at 9:00 AM in
Popayán, the capital of
the neighbouring
province of Cauca, 130
km south of Cali.
The Regional Indigenous
Council of Cauca (CRIC)
had responded earlier
Thursday to Uribe’s
initial agreement to
talks by protesting in
an open letter that the
meeting with the
indigenous community
leaders should not take
place far away from the
rest of the people
participating in the
Minga.
The leaders are also
insisting that the talks
take the form of a
public debate, and that
the agenda include the
questions of human
rights, an end to
attacks on indigenous
communities and
occupation of their
territory, the adoption
of the United Nations
Declaration on the
Rights of Indigenous
Peoples, a repeal of
laws that threaten
indigenous reservations
and thus the very
survival of native
groups, and compliance
with previous agreements
signed with social
organisations and
movements.
ALONG THE WAY
An assembly of 115
traditional indigenous
leaders, presided over
by local Guambiana
council member Ayda
Quilcué, was held
Wednesday in Santander
de Quilichao in Cauca
province, 60 km from
Cali, to organise food
and water supplies for
the roughly 30,000 men
and women now taking
part in the Minga.
The protesters took the
assembly’s advice to
rest up and regain their
strength, under
improvised tents in the
midday heat, and amidst
smoke from cooking fires
and the aroma of food.
They were also waiting
for the arrival of
another 6,000 to 7,000
members of the Awá,
Pasto, Pijao,
Embera-Katío,
Embera-Dovida,
Embera-Chamí, Zenú,
Kankuamo, Wayúu, U'wa,
Barí, Mokaza,
Quillacinga, Kamentzá,
Tule, Muisca, Sikuani,
Coreguaje, Sáliba and
Inga native ethnic
groups from 20 of
Colombia’s 32
departments (provinces).
Although entire family
groups are taking part
-- grandparents,
parents, siblings,
uncles, aunts and
cousins -- children, who
did participate in a
similar Minga march to
Cali four years ago, are
noticeably absent this
time around.
"The harsh clashes with
the security forces that
occurred over the last
two weeks in La María
led to our decision that
they should not take
part, so they have
returned home," one
father told IPS.
Welcomed by applause
from local residents,
the Minga participants
filed into the town of
Villa Rica at noon
Thursday. In the
afternoon, the march was
joined by sugar cane
cutters who have been on
strike since Sept. 15
demanding basic rights
like stable job
contracts, a living
wage, and sick days.
Four leaders of the cane
harvesters’ strike have
been arrested, as well
as two well-known
advisers of leftwing
Senator Alexander López,
who is chairman of the
Senate human rights
commission.
In June, López called a
public hearing in the
Senate on the harsh
working and living
conditions of the sugar
cane workers. A month
earlier, Uribe had
suggested that he be
arrested for "inciting
class struggle." The
president made his
suggestion to a general
whose alleged ties to a
local drug trafficker
emerged in September.
A column of indigenous
women taking part in the
Minga was joined before
reaching Villa Rica by
two women’s peace
groups, the Ruta
Pacifica de las Mujeres
(Women’s Peace Route)
and the Organización
Femenina Popular
(Popular Women’s
Organisation, OFP).
The Minga participants
are listening to local
residents at every
village and town along
the way, and explaining
what they are demanding
of the Uribe
administration, such as
respect for the
"territorial integrity
and collective and human
rights of indigenous
people," which they say
are violated because
their natural
resource-rich lands are
coveted by transnational
corporations, landowners
and other economic
interests, and are
fought over by the armed
groups in the country’s
decades-long civil war.
They are also calling
for the repeal of
constitutional reforms
and laws that they say
infringe on their
rights, like the rural
statute, the mining
code, water laws and the
forestry law.
The Minga has now added
to its demands a public
clearing of their name
by the president, who
has called them
"terrorists" and has
urged that their leaders
be arrested and brought
to trial.
The police have accused
the Quilcué Council of
ties to the guerrillas,
and Uribe ordered the
trial of Nasa leader
Piñacué, indigenous
governor of the Calderas
reservation and director
of the Nasa de
Belalcázar radio station
in Cauca.
"It’s obvious that
President Uribe has it
out for our people, and
is vociferating against
us in the media,
offering rewards,
militarising our
territories, and
accusing our leaders,"
said a statement issued
by the CRIC.
UNDER PRESSURE
Uribe’s acknowledgement
that the police had
opened fire on the
demonstrators was
prompted by the video
broadcast around the
world. But why did he
agree to the protesters’
demand for talks?
On Thursday, public
employees and other
sectors took part in a
24-hour strike called by
the Central Unitaria de
Trabajadores (CUT)
central workers union.
And truckers, whose work
stoppage in August
caused severe economic
problems, joined the
Minga Wednesday and
announced that they
would also take part in
Thursday’s strike.
Since Monday, Uribe has
also been receiving
thousands of emails
calling on him to engage
in "Dialogue, Not
Violence!" -- an
Internet campaign by
Avaaz.org, an
international global
online advocacy network.
He also received
strongly-worded letters
Wednesday from Argentine
Nobel Peace Prize-winner
Adolfo Pérez Esquivel
and 32 members of the
European Parliament (MEPs),
at a time when the
Colombian government is
hoping for a free trade
agreement with the
European Union.
The signatories included
the vice president of
that body, Italian
lawmaker Luisa
Morgantini, and members
of the DAND Delegation,
which is handling
relations with the
Andean Community trade
bloc, made up of
Bolivia, Colombia,
Ecuador and Peru.
The MEPs from 13
different countries
expressed "deep
indignation about these
serious violations of
indigenous and trade
unionists' rights that
should not go
unpunished.
"We consider as
legitimate the claims of
the indigenous people
for the respect of their
land and autonomy, for
the survival of their
102 different peoples,
of which 18 are in
constant danger of
disappearance, and for
the indiscriminate
exploitation of natural
resources. Likewise we
recognise the legitimate
claims of the sugar cane
workers for decent
work," they added.
"We urge the Colombian
government to order the
police and army to
immediately stop the
repression against the
indigenous peoples' and
workers' movement," said
the MEPs, who also
condemned "the permanent
use of the pretext of
fighting against
terrorism to repress the
social movement in
Colombia."
For his part, Pérez
Esquivel said the police
crackdown on the Minga
was "brutal and
inconceivable," and
criticised Uribe’s "lack
of propensity to engage
in dialogue."
"To say there are
infiltrators in the
demonstrations and that
they are attacking the
police is of a naïvete
that is hard to
believe," he added in
his letter.
"In these
demonstrations,
indigenous people are
merely demanding respect
for their right to their
land, respect for the
autonomy of their
communities, and
fulfillment of
agreements signed with
the government," said
Pérez Esquivel. * With
additional on-site
reporting by Judith
Henríquez Acuña. |
|
|
|
|
|
