And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
From: "Patrick Reinsborough" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: THE U'WA NEED YOUR HELP! APRIL 28-30
Date: Mon, 5 Apr 1999 14:15:46 -0700
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Please circulate to your networks.
Background information on the U'wa struggle and the recent murders of three
indigenous rights activists in Columbia below.
JOIN THE INTERNATIONAL WEEK OF ACTION FOR
T H E U' W A P E O P L E
FRIDAY, APRIL 30
PROTESTS AT COLOMBIAN CONSULATES AND EMBASSIES AROUND THE WORLD TO COINCIDE
WITH THE OCCIDENTAL PETROLEUM SHAREHOLDER'S MEETING
Columbia Consulates are in the following U.S. cities:
Boston, Atlanta, New York, San Francisco, Houston, New Orleans, Chicago,
Miami, Washington D.C. and San Juan,
Puerto Rico
EVENTS IN LOS ANGELES :
REPRESENTATIVES OF THE U'WA PEOPLE WILL BE DIRECTLY CONFRONTING OCCIDENTAL
PETROLEUM
* Wednesday, April 28:
March and Demonstration at Occidental Petroleum in Los Angeles
-- Starting at Myerhoff Park, UCLA campus
-- 12 noon
* Friday, April 30
Indigenous Prayer Circle and Protest at Occidental Shareholder Meeting in
Los Angeles
-- Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, 4th and Pico Streets, San Monica
-- 8:30 am
Please call or email for additional information and to coordinate your local
actions with the network
RAINFOREST ACTION NETWORK
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> www. ran.org 415-398-4404
AMAZON WATCH --for information on Occidental Shareholders Meeting
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> www.amazonwatch.org, 310-456-1340
PROJECT UNDERGROUND --for protests at Colombian embassies internationally
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> www.moles. org 510-705-8981
U'wa Defense Working Group Members:
Amazon Coalition, Amazon Watch, Action Resource Center, Earthjustice Legal,
Defense Fund, EarthWays Foundation, International Law Project for Human
Environmental & Economic Defense, Project Underground, Rainforest Action
Network, Sol Communications
Background on the U'wa People
The U'wa of the Colombian cloud forest are in a life-and-death struggle to
protect their traditional culture and sacred homeland from an oil project
slated to begin on their land at anytime. The U'wa are adamantly opposed to
the drilling and warn that the project will lead to an increase in violence
as seen in other oil regions of Colombia. Despite this, Los Angeles-based
Occidental Petroleum and the Colombian government continue to move forward
with plans to drill. The U'wa have made a call for international support;
now is the time for us to answer.
The U'wa's opposition to the oil project is so strong that they have vowed
to commit collective suicide if Occidental Petroleum and the Colombian
government proceed with the oil project on their ancestral lands. The U'wa,
a traditional people some 5,000 members strong, explain they prefer a death
by their own hand than the slow death to their environment and culture oil
will bring. A core tenet of U'wa culture and spirituality is the belief that
the land that has sustained them for centuries is sacred. They strongly
believe that to permit oil exploration on these sacred lands would upset the
balance of the world. In the words of the U'wa, "Oil is the blood of Mother
Earth...to take the oil is, for us, worse than killing your own mother. If
you kill the Earth, then no one will live."
The U'wa people's struggle recently exploded into the public arena with the
tragic March 5th murders in Colombia of three indigenous rights activists:
Terence Freitas, Ingrid Washinawatok and Lahe'ane'e Gay. Terence had devoted
the last two years of his life to supporting the U'wa in their campaign to
stop Occidental's oil project, reclaim their ancestral homeland and protect
their traditional culture. Ingrid and Lahe'ane'e were coordinating with the
U'wa to launch an educational project designed to maintain and promote the
U'wa's traditional way-of-life.
The U'wa fear that the recent murders are but a harbinger of the wider
physical violence the oil project bring to their people. Throughout
Colombia, oil and violence are linked inextricably. Occidental's Cano Limon
pipeline, just north of U'wa territory, has been attacked by leftist
guerillas more than 500 times in its 12 years of existence, spilling some
1.7 million barrels of crude oil into the soil and rivers. The Colombian
government has militarized oil production and pipeline zones, often
persecuting local populations the government assumes are helping the
guerrillas. Oil projects have already taken their toll on many other
indigenous peoples of Colombia, including the Yarique, Kofan and Secoya.
The current drilling plans threaten the survival of both the U'wa and their
environment. The U'wa's cloud forest homeland in the Sierra Nevada de Cocuy
mountains near the Venezuelan border is one of the most delicate, endangered
forest ecosystems on the planet. It is an area rich in plant and animal life
unique to the region, and the U'wa depend on the balance and bounty of the
forest for their survival. Where oil companies have operated in other
regions of the Amazon basin, cultural decay, toxic pollution, land invasions
and massive deforestation have followed.
Occidental first received an exploration license for the 2 billion barrels
oil field-the equivalent of three months of U.S. consumption-- in 1992.
Since then, the U'wa have voiced their consistent opposition to the oil
project. They have taken a variety of actions to halt the project including
the filing of lawsuits against the government in Colombia, petitioning the
Organization of American States to intervene, appealing directly with
Occidental's top executives, and reaching out to company shareholders.
Currently, Colombia's Ministry of the Environment is considering
Occidental's application for a drilling license, the next hurdle the company
must clear to proceed with the project.
In the face of mounting violence in the region and Occidental's pressure on
the government to approve the drilling permit, the urgency of the U'wa's
struggle has never been so great.
"We are seeking an explanation for this 'progress' that goes against life.
We are demanding that this kind of progress stop, that oil exploitation in
the heart of the Earth is halted, that the deliberate bleeding of the Earth
stop."
--Statement of the U'wa people, August, 1999
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