12-4 Resettlement and Relocation Part 2

Tourism, Politics and Relocation in Tibet

The past year's uprisings in Tibet against the Chinese reminded the world of the centuries old impasse between the competing nationalism of greater China and that of the Tibetans. Prior to this uprising, many of the Tibetan claims for independence had been articulated by Tibetan refugees who had relocated in south Asia and the West. Much of the international press coverage of the uprisings…

The Suriname Maroon Crisis

They dragged my 12-year-old son from a house and shot him. They shot my wife in the foot. She fell on the ground and begged the soldiers not to kill her...another woman, X, she was pregnant. She pleaded with the soldiers not to kill her and pointed to her belly. She was running away and they shot her in the back. She was dead. Another soldier grabbed a six-month-old baby and put the barrel of his…

Resettlement Pattern: The Afghan Refugees in Pakistan

Development and modernization in Afghanistan, unlike that in developing civil societies, did not generate from the bottom but was imposed from above by a bureaucratic elite that tried to transform the country's precapitalist social formation overnight without creating a solid base to support it. The ruling class could not mobilize civilians to take an active part in carrying out the reforms.…

Resettlement of Nukak Indians, Colombia

In early April 1988, colonists from the town of Calamar believed their fantasies of seeing "primitive, wild" Indians had materialized when 41 Nukak Indians arrived at the doorstep of a rural school. Residents from the area surrounding Calamar, in Colombia's southeastern jungle Guaviare Province, were used to the Tukano, Desano, Cubeo and Piratapuyo Indians of the region whose lifestyles, dress…

Relocation and "Conservation" in the Transkei

Considerable attention has been focused on the massive relocation of black people in South Africa, engineered and executed by the Nationalist government in the name of apartheid and "separate development." The Surplus People's Project (SPP 1983) reported that some 3.5 million people had been "uprooted and relocated" 'since the 1960s as a direct result of prevailing apartheid policies. Such…

Recuperating Devastated Lands: An Experimental Farm in Cauca, Colombia

The case of the experimental farm at Purace in the Department of Cauca in southwestern Colombia is notable for several reasons. First, it represents successful land reclamation in an area of severe environmental degradation. Second, the Purace farm is the product of local organizing and education efforts in sustainable resource management. It was designed, planned and implemented by members of…

Of Labels and Laws: Thailand's Resettlement and Repatriation Policies

In April 1986 government officials began evicting hilltribe people from their villages inside two wildlife sanctuaries in northern Thailand. Readers of Cultural Survival Quarterly are familiar with the criticisms of these evictions by Ardith Eudey (1988), an American academic who witnessed the first encounter between residents of a Hmong (Meo) hilltribe community and representatives of the Royal…

Hilltribe Relocation Policy in Thailand

Northern Thailand's mountains are the home of the Karen, Hmong, Lahu and other ethnically distinct hill tribes. The Royal Thai Government has decided that hilltribe farmers, who traditionally practice slash-and-burn (shifting) agriculture, are responsible for destroying the nation's forests. It has, therefore, adopted a policy to resettle these farmers in the lowlands. This is the third time…

Cultural Survival Projects - 1988

Since 1980, more than 50 percent of Cultural Survival's limited funds have supported field projects among indigenous peoples and similarly disadvantaged ethnic groups in the Third World. The final Cultural Survival Quarterly of each year includes a brief description of Cultural Survival's approach to projects and project selection as well as the projects funded during the year. How Projects Have…

Conflict and Confusion in Sri Lanka

Throughout most of this decade, Sri Lanka has suffered from escalating violence. Once the envy of many developing countries for its educational and health care systems, the current crisis has reversed these achievements and damaged much of the social fabric of this small Indian Ocean country. The conflict centers around years of pent-up frustrations between two ethnic groups - the largely…

Anuak Displacement and Ethiopian Resettlement

The Anuak are a tribal minority living as agriculturalists in the fertile Gambella region of southwest Ethiopia. In the Abyssinian Empire, many Anuak were made slaves and were taken to Addis Ababa and other towns where they worked as domestic servants and carriers. When the area came under British rule in the early twentieth century, slavery was abolished, but was restored when Gambella was ceded…