And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
>From BIGMTLIST
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
From: "Marsha Monestersky" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: United Methodist Church Press Release-Dineh in Geneva
Date: Sun, 18 Apr 1999 10:45:25 MST
NEWS RELEASE
United Methodist UN Representative Presents Testimony on
Religious Intolerance and Native People
April 14, 1999
Contact: Shanta M. Bryant (202) 488-5630
A United Methodist representative to the United Nations and a Native
American representative submitted April 13 oral testimony on
indigenous people and religious intolerance in the United States to
delegates of the 55th Session of the UN Commission on Human Rights in
Geneva, Switzerland.
*The United Methodist Church prays for a rule of law for all peoples
based on respect for justice, human rights, religious freedom and
tolerance,* said Liberato Bautista, General Board of Church and
Society*s assistant general secretary of the United Nations Office.
Bautista gave the testimony with Peggy Francis Scott of the Dineh
Nation (Navajo) in Arizona, following a report from Abelfattah Amor,
an UN Special Rapporteur on Religious Intolerance. Amor, a Tunisian
national, presented the commission with a report linking human rights
violations and religious intolerance in the United States, China,
Pakistan, Iran, Greece, Sudan, India, Australia and Germany. Several
countries and non-governmental (NGO) delegations, including the World
Council of Churches, spoke from the floor.
In early- February 1998, Amor investigated charges of religious and
human rights violations by the US government against the Dineh people
in Black Mesa, located in the northeastern region of Arizona. The
special rapporteur is an independent expert that reports only to the
Commission and the UN General Assembly.
The complaint, filed by several members of traditional Dineh people
to the UN Human Rights Commission, accused the United States of
destroying 4,000 ancient Anasazi ruins and sacred burial sites.
Additionally, the complaint charged that US federal laws have denied
them access to water, legalized the confiscation of their livestock,
prevented the gathering of firewood to heat their homes and prohibited
any housing improvements.
Thom White Wolf Fassett, general secretary of the General Board of
Church and Society, led an interfaith delegation of non-governmental
organizations, which included Bautista, to meet with Amor during the
Feb. visit to Black Mesa, the Dineh tribal land. United Methodist
Bishop William Dew (Phoenix Area) and Thomas Butcher of the Desert
Southwest Annual Conference joined Fassett. The NGO representatives
were invited by the traditional Dineh to witness the onsite visit of
Amor.
*[Amor*s] visit in Black Mesa is historic and symbolic in that, at a
low point in the struggle of our people, he lifted our hopes,
awakened our dreams, and lent an understanding ear to our prophecies,*
said Scott. *But more remains to be said about the Dineh situation.*
US Public laws 93-531 and 104-391, also known as *relocation laws,*
have forced the traditional Dineh off their ancestral lands,
relocating more than 12,000 Dineh since 1974. Today, only 3,000
remain in the area.
In the commission report, Amor observed that the US Supreme Court*s
jurisprudence points to "no enforceable safeguards for worship at
sacred sites."
Scott noted that the Dineh*s ancestral land has also been threatened
by the coal mining practices of multinational corporations and urged
US government to enforce laws protecting their land, including the
Native American Grave Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) and the
Antiquities Act. *The unsustainable environmental practices of runaway
multinational mining corporations inflict environmental racism upon
us,* said Scott.
*The US government must recognize that no territorial settlement
should ever deprive Indigenous Peoples of their right to remain on
their traditional land or to practice their religion thereupon,* Scott
asserted. *Our land is sacred and we do not believe it should be
expropriated from us. The US government cannot and must not
subordinate our survival as a people to economic interests whose
dividends we do not partake from.*
Asserting the United Methodist policy supporting the *needs and
aspirations* of America*s native peoples as they struggle for their
survival, Bautista indicated that the denomination supports the
mandate of the Special Rapporteur on Religious Intolerance. He also
urged the Human Rights Commission to extend the mandate of the
investigation of religious intolerance in the United States.
Scott and several Dineh members were part of the general board*s
delegation to the UN Commission on Human Rights. The General Board of
Church and Society is registered at the United Nations as an
international NGO in consultative status with the UN Economic and
Social Council.
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Tsonkwadiyonrat (We are ONE Spirit)
Unenh onhwa' Awayaton
http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/
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