And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: X-Sender: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Message-Id: <v04011700b30ee5d68cad@[128.253.55.17]> Date: Fri, 12 Mar 1999 10:42:22 -0500 To: Recipient List Suppressed:; From: Native Americas Journal <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: 5,000 U'WAS IN COLOMBIA SAY THEY WILL COMMIT SUICIDE IF OCCIDENTAL DRILLS The following article is provided by Native Americas, published by the Akwe:kon Press at Cornell University. For more information on how to stay informed of emerging trends that impact Native peoples throughout the hemisphere visit our website at http://nativeamericas.aip.cornell.edu. 5,000 U'WAS IN COLOMBIA SAY THEY WILL COMMIT SUICIDE IF OCCIDENTAL DRILLS By Bruce Johansen/Native Americas At least 5,000 U'was, a semi-nomadic Native tribe in Columbia's mountains, have stopped exploration for oil in their homeland by threatening to walk, en masse, off a 1,400-foot cliff to their deaths. Occidental Petroleum seems to have been stymied, at least for a time, by the ultimatum. The threatened mass suicide became an issue at Oxy's 1997 shareholders' meeting in Santa Monica, near Los Angeles, as a representative of the U'was toured the United States in the company of several environmental groups. "This oil belongs to the land, and cannot be taken from it," Roberto Cobaria told audiences in the United States. U'wa land is estimated to hold 1.5 billion barrels of oil, most of which Oxy would like to export to the United States. Oxy, which has approval from the Colombia's government, asserts that the U'was have been forced to risk their lives by local anti-government guerrillas who are looking for publicity. Oxy's spin doctors have not studied the U'was' history, however. Four centuries ago, a portion of the tribe jumped off a sacred cliff rather than submit to Spanish colonial rule. Oxy already operates the Cano oil field in Colombia, which delivers an average of 180,000 barrels of oil a day. This field, which makes Colombia self-sufficient in oil, is being depleted, thus the government's interest in opening a new oilfield at Samore, in the region that the U'was call home. The government also is looking for a way to control the countryside, where its authority is challenged not only by political opposition and environmental activism, but also by drug-inspired criminal activity. Under Colombian law, the U'was have no claim to the area in which Occidental wishes to drill. The land lies outside reservation boundaries as defined by the central government, but inside territory utilized by the U'was as they migrate. A Colombian administrative law judge dismissed the U'was' claim to the land in 1997 under a legal doctrine that sanctions the government's claim to all mineral rights within its borders. Exploration rights to the U'was territory are held by Oxy, which includes Shell Oil as an equal partner. In 1998, however, Shell announced its intention to sell its 37.5 per cent share in the Samore area. Shell also is selling its interests in another Colombian field, the Cano Limon Project, which was bombed 65 times in 1997, costing the company $85.6 million in lost revenues and spilling more that 200,000 barrels of oil. Colombian oil developments are an increasingly popular target of guerrillas, which increases risk to the environment. At the Cano Limon pump station operated nearby in Colombia by Oxy and Shell, roughly 1.5 million barrels of crude oil have been spilled into the rainforest in the last decade (the Exxon Valdez disaster involved only 36,000 barrels). Much of this was due to sabotage by guerrillas, who represent another major threat to the U'was. In response, Oxy and Shell pay a war tax of $1 per barrel (about $180,000 a day) to the Colombian military in return for military protection of its installations at Cano Limon. The Colombian military is known for its human rights abuses, and militarizing the U'was' territory will introduce organized violence into the area. One U'wa woman told The Guardian of London, (Sept. 20, 1997) "I sing the traditional songs to my children. I teach them that everything is sacred and linked. How can I tell Shell and Oxy that to take petrol is for us worse than killing your own mother? If you kill the earth, then no one will live. I do not want to die. Nobody does." The U'was have taken their case to the Organization of American States with a petition to the Inter American Human Rights Commission. On Oct. 7, Martin Wagner of the Earth Justice Legal Defense Fund represented the U'was at the OAS in Washington, D.C., saying: "Whether it's by the pollution of the land they consider sacred, the increased violence this project will inevitably bring, or by their own hand, oil development means the death of the U'was." (www.moles.org/ProjectUnderground/drillbits/971007/97100703.html) &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& Tsonkwadiyonrat (We are ONE Spirit) Unenh onhwa' Awayaton http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/ &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
