In the wake of reports of renewed oil exploration on U’wa lands in Colombia, Cultural Survival spoke with Campaign Coordinator Kevin Koenig of Amazon Watch for an update. Mr. Koenig reports that Ecopetrol has taken over the abandoned OXY drill site and has drilled further and deeper than before. In the weeks that followed this drilling, mixed reports have come from the drilling location.

In June 2001, a crucial meeting was held on Big Mountain, Black Mesa, Arizona. Grassroots Diné (also known as Navajo) and Hopi organizations, national environmental groups, ordinary people and politicians came together and shared the message “Water Is Life” (see article in Cultural Survival Voices, Fall 2001).

On April 10, the Specialized Commission of Human Rights of the National Congress of Ecuador decided to officially visit certain territories, including Sarayacu, to investigate allegations by indigenous leaders against CGC and other oil companies. The principal objectives of this visit are the gathering of testimony from inhabitants of Sarayacu and inspection of areas where CGC has been active, and accused of violating the human rights of the local Kichwa people. This visit will take place on April 25, and a report regarding the situation in the region will follow.

Sarayacu community leaders, who continue to oppose the entry of oil companies onto their land, are now threatened by an order to "locate and detain" them, apparently from the Presidential office of Ecuador. They claim they face trumped-up charges of taking hostages, theft, and the destruction of goods. This order means that at any time leaders can be detained and kept in jail until the end of lawsuits between Sarayacu and CGC Oil Company.

Government authorities succumb to pressure from Indigenous Organizations, Local Civic Committees, Ombudsman Office and National and International NGOs.

On August 20^th, 2003 Global Response reported that the Canadian company Noranda yesterday withdrew its Environmental Impact Assessment for its Alumysa Project in the Aisen region of southern Chile. Chilean environmental organizations say the company knew its EIA would not be approved, especially after President Ricardo Lagos publicly criticized the project last week.

Communications on the morning of March 22, 2003 from the Shell company’s security agents are reported as suggesting that the dispute over seismic oil testing on Sarayacu territory will be resolved in 15 days or the oil company will enter by military force. The military entered the Shaimi and Montalvo area of the Sarayacu territory, and the Kichwa say that they desperately need moral and financial support to help them mobilize against the illicit incursions.

The Senate has voted against opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling by a 52-48 vote, largely along party lines. California Democrat Barbara Boxer celebrated the vote, calling it a “a huge setback” for the Republicans’ agenda. Just before the vote began, Alaska senator Ted Stevens bluntly warned the Senate: “People who vote against this today are voting against me and I will not forget it.” As chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Stevens holds significant power, yet senators were apparently not swayed by this threat.

The Ecuadorian government is now using the term “force majeure” (literally “major force” or “Cause beyond control”) to describe the opposition to oil concessions on indigenous land in the Amazon. The term is usually used to describe natural catastrophes or major upheavals like war, which can void a legal contract. Because of this change in provision, two transnational companies have been allowed to cancel their oil concession contracts with the Ecuadorian government.

Minority Rights Group has issued a report calling on the government of Rwanda to implement laws to secure the land rights of the Batwa, or Pygmies. The report states that Batwa are subjected to “systematic discrimination” in Rwanda by the much larger Hutu and Tutsi ethnic groups, and that the Batwa have been “steadily dispossessed of their lands over several centuries.” The Batwa are living in extreme poverty, and receive little support in the way of government or development programs.

In a violent operation last week, over a thousand “tribals”, as some indigenous peoples are called in India, were evicted by Indian security forces from the Muthanga wildlife sanctuary in the southern state of Kerala. Reports vary, but anywhere from two to 20 people were killed during the exercise, and many more, both tribals and policemen, were injured. The action has been widely condemned by international civil society groups and human rights activists.

Isolated indigenous people living in the Peruvian Amazon are being exposed to disease and social disruption due to forced contact with workers from the $1.4 billion Camisea Gas Project, Pluspetrol of Argentina, and Hunt Oil of Texas. The 1.1 million acre Nahua-Kugapakori Reserve is the home of the Nahua, Nanti, Matsigenka, and Kirineri peoples, estimated at a population of 1,000 to 2,000 people. These peoples live in isolation from Peruvian society and have minimal contact with other indigenous populations.