June 4, 2011
Wikileaks: Top six ways the US and Canada violated Indigenous rights
Wikileaks reveals how the US and Canada worked globally to systematically violate Indigenous rights
By Brenda Norrell
Censored News
1. The United States worked behind the scenes to fight the adoption of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. In Ecuador, the US established a program to dissuade Ecuador from supporting the Declaration. In Iceland, the US Embassy said Iceland's support was an "impediment" to US/Iceland relations at the UN. In Canada, the US said the US and Canada agreed the Declaration was headed for a "train wreck."
2. The United States targeted and tracked Indigenous Peoples, community activists and leaders, especially in Chile, Peru and Ecuador. A cable reveals the US Embassy in Lima, Peru, identified Indigenous activists and tracked the involvement of Bolivian President Evo Morales, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, Bolivia Ambassador Pablo Solon, prominent Mapuche and Quechua activists and community leaders. President Chavez and President Morales were consistently watched, and their actions analyzed. Indigenous activists opposing the dirty Tar Sands were spied on, and other Indigenous activists in Vancouver, prior to the Olympics.
3. The United States was part of a five country coalition to promote mining and fight against Indigenous activists in Peru. A core group of diplomats from U.S., Canada, U.K., Australia, Switzerland and South Africa formed an alliance with mining companies to promote and protect mining interests globally. In other illegal corporate profiteering, Peru’s government secretly admitted that 70-90 percent of its mahogany exports were illegally felled, according to a US embassy cable revealed by Wikileaks. Lowe's and Home Depot sell the lumber.
4. Canada spied on Mohawks using illegal wiretaps. Before Wikileaks hit the headlines, it exposed in 2010 that Canada used unauthorized wiretaps on Mohawks.
Wikileaks: "During the preliminary inquiry to Shawn Brant's trial, it came out that the Ontario Provincial Police, headed by Commissioner Julian Fantino, had been using wiretaps on more than a dozen different Mohawks without a judge's authorization, an action almost unheard of recent history in Canada."
4. The United States and Canada tracked Mohawks. In one of the largest collections of cables released so far that targeted Native people and named names, the US Consulates in Montreal and Toronto detailed Mohawk activities at the border and in their communities.
5. The arrogant and insulting tone of the US Embassies and disrespect for Indigenous leaders is pervasive in US diplomatic cables. The US Embassy in Guatemala stated that President of Guatemala, Álvaro Colom, called Rigoberta Menchu a "fabrication" of an anthropologist and made other accusations. Menchu responded on a local radio station that Colom was a "liar."
6. The collection of DNA and other data, makes it clear that US Ambassadors are spies abroad. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton states that the Intelligence Community relies on biographical information from US diplomats. In cables to Africa and Paraguay, Clinton asked US Embassy personnel to collect address books, e-mail passwords, fingerprints, iris scans and DNA.
“The intelligence community relies on State reporting officers for much of the biographical information collected worldwide," Clinton said in a cable on April 16, 2009. Clinton said the biographical data should be sent to the INR (Bureau of Intelligence and Research) for dissemination to the Intelligence Community.
The cables, the aftermath
As for reactions, Mohawks are unimpressed with the cables and have little to say about either the content or the arrogant tone of the US Embassy.
John Kane, Mohawk host of the radio show Let's Talk Native Pride, said, "I think one of the reasons you haven't got much response from this is just as you have suggested; it's no surprise. While some would be outraged to be treated this way or spoken of in such terms, we know what we are up against. We also know that 9-11 was an opportunity for both the US and Canada to put Native resistance on par with terrorism. No Department of Homeland Security or PATRIOT Act or Canadian Border Service or joint task force of US and Canadian alphabet soup will change the disposition of Mohawk Warriors."
The US and Canada have tried to play word games to make people believe the two countries have now supported the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
When the United Nations adopted the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, four countries voted against it: the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Although the four countries eventually took action on it, the US and Canada gave only lip service and included language in an attempt to prevent the Declaration from being used in federal courts to ensure rights, including the right of free, prior and informed consent and the right to ancestral territories.
Indigenous rights were the focus as tens of thousands of Indigenous Peoples and grassroots people met in Cochabamba, Bolivia, and then Cancun, Mexico, to establish new climate standards for the protection of Mother Earth in 2010. Globally, efforts have increased to expose the scam of carbon credits, protect water rights and to protect forests, rivers and oceans.
Wikileaks exposure of the race for Arctic oil by numerous countries, has led to new efforts to protect the homeland of the Inuit.
During the last week of May 2011, the American Indian Movement was in Venezuela to support President Hugo Chavez. CITGO was thanked for heating assistance for poor families, as the US imposed new economic sanctions on Venezuela. Anishinaabe First Nation Chief Terrance Nelson released a statement questioning if the US is targeting Chavez as its next "bogeyman."
Chief Nelson also said that for Native people in the US and Canada, economic sanctions from the colonial governments are nothing new.
"As indigenous peoples in North America, our experience with the colonial governments has been continuous undeclared economic sanctions enacted against our people," Chief Nelson said.
Read more on these topics at Censored News:
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/
Migrant Trail arrives Sunday, June 5, 2011
The Migrant Trail: We Walk for Life
A 75 mile walk from Sásabe, Sonora, Mexico to Tucson, Arizona
Photo Migrant Trail by Brenda Norrell
The precarious reality of our borderlands calls us to walk. We are a spiritually diverse, multi-cultural group who walk together on a journey of peace to remember people, friends and family who have died, others who have crossed, and people who continue to come. We bear witness to the tragedy of death and of the inhumanity in our midst. Lastly, we walk as a community, in defiance of the borders that attempt to divide us, committed to working together for the human dignity of all peoples.
Contact: Marisol Flores-Aguirre: 520.282.2474
Press Conference: Migrant Trail Walk Arrives in Tucson
More than 60 Local, National and International Participants Complete the Final Day of a 75-mile Journey Through the Sonoran Desert
Sunday, June 5, 2011
11:30am
Kennedy Park, Ramada #3
Tucson, Arizona
Tucson- The eighth annual Migrant Trail, a 75- mile walk from Sásabe, Sonora will arrive in Tucson, Arizona on Sunday, June 5th. The event will culminate in a press conference, followed by a community gathering at Kennedy Park.
Sixty participants who have made the seven-day trek have traveled from México, Canada and more than ten states throughout the United States; they represent diverse international communities that include Peru, Germany and Brazil.
For the eighth year, a diverse international group of friends and allies has gathered to walk the Migrant Trail though the Altar Valley in the Sonora Desert, along the most heavily traveled migration route where the vast majority of human remains are recovered. Sponsored by a coalition of local and national organizations, the Walk bears witness to the thousands of women, men and children who have lost their lives in an attempt to provide a better future for themselves and their families.
Arizona continues to draw national and international attention for its anti-immigrant and xenophobic policies like SB 1070 (the "Papers, Please" law), attacks on Ethnic Studies, and the terrorization of local communities by local police collaboration with immigration enforcement officials.
The ongoing human rights crisis of deaths along the border is only another piece of the larger strategy to funnel vulnerable migrants into Arizona's deadly desert. Participants of the Migrant Trail walk not only bear witness to the tragedy of death, but the intentional dehumanization and militarization of border communities.
Organizers and participants call for an end to the brutal and irresponsible policies that cause the deaths of thousands of workers in our borderlands. We call for U.S. immigration, labor and trade policies that reunite families, and recognize the human dignity and the vital contributions of our immigrant brothers and sisters. This is the human rights challenge that continues to face our communities.
The Migrant Trail Walk will begin the final 6.7 miles of their journey at 7:45am at the BLM campsite on Ajo Way and San Joaquin Road. Participants will be welcomed home at Ramada #3 at Kennedy Park with speakers, music, food, and testimonies from participants and supporters. This event is free and open to the public.
.
The Migrant Trail
c/o Arizona Border Rights Foundation
P.O. Box 1286 Tucson, AZ 85702
Tel: 520.770.1373
migrant_trail@yahoo.com
http://www.derechoshumanosaz.net/
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| Photo Brenda Norrell Censored News |
A 75 mile walk from Sásabe, Sonora, Mexico to Tucson, Arizona
Photo Migrant Trail by Brenda Norrell
The precarious reality of our borderlands calls us to walk. We are a spiritually diverse, multi-cultural group who walk together on a journey of peace to remember people, friends and family who have died, others who have crossed, and people who continue to come. We bear witness to the tragedy of death and of the inhumanity in our midst. Lastly, we walk as a community, in defiance of the borders that attempt to divide us, committed to working together for the human dignity of all peoples.
Contact: Marisol Flores-Aguirre: 520.282.2474
Press Conference: Migrant Trail Walk Arrives in Tucson
More than 60 Local, National and International Participants Complete the Final Day of a 75-mile Journey Through the Sonoran Desert
Sunday, June 5, 2011
11:30am
Kennedy Park, Ramada #3
Tucson, Arizona
Tucson- The eighth annual Migrant Trail, a 75- mile walk from Sásabe, Sonora will arrive in Tucson, Arizona on Sunday, June 5th. The event will culminate in a press conference, followed by a community gathering at Kennedy Park.
Sixty participants who have made the seven-day trek have traveled from México, Canada and more than ten states throughout the United States; they represent diverse international communities that include Peru, Germany and Brazil.
For the eighth year, a diverse international group of friends and allies has gathered to walk the Migrant Trail though the Altar Valley in the Sonora Desert, along the most heavily traveled migration route where the vast majority of human remains are recovered. Sponsored by a coalition of local and national organizations, the Walk bears witness to the thousands of women, men and children who have lost their lives in an attempt to provide a better future for themselves and their families.
Arizona continues to draw national and international attention for its anti-immigrant and xenophobic policies like SB 1070 (the "Papers, Please" law), attacks on Ethnic Studies, and the terrorization of local communities by local police collaboration with immigration enforcement officials.
The ongoing human rights crisis of deaths along the border is only another piece of the larger strategy to funnel vulnerable migrants into Arizona's deadly desert. Participants of the Migrant Trail walk not only bear witness to the tragedy of death, but the intentional dehumanization and militarization of border communities.
Organizers and participants call for an end to the brutal and irresponsible policies that cause the deaths of thousands of workers in our borderlands. We call for U.S. immigration, labor and trade policies that reunite families, and recognize the human dignity and the vital contributions of our immigrant brothers and sisters. This is the human rights challenge that continues to face our communities.
The Migrant Trail Walk will begin the final 6.7 miles of their journey at 7:45am at the BLM campsite on Ajo Way and San Joaquin Road. Participants will be welcomed home at Ramada #3 at Kennedy Park with speakers, music, food, and testimonies from participants and supporters. This event is free and open to the public.
.
The Migrant Trail
c/o Arizona Border Rights Foundation
P.O. Box 1286 Tucson, AZ 85702
Tel: 520.770.1373
migrant_trail@yahoo.com
http://www.derechoshumanosaz.net/
June 2, 2011
Indigenous Underreported Struggles May 2011
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| Photo copyright Ben Powless Cancun 2010 |
In this month's Underreported Struggles: The Triqui people issue an urgent call for solidarity and action; Canadian company admits its wrongdoings to the Subanon people; Quechua community blocks geneticists from trying to collect their DNA; Residents from 10 villagers set fire to logging camps, machinery in Malaysia
http://intercontinentalcry.org/underreported-struggles-50-may-2011/
Underreported Struggles, May 2011
Three women from Grassy Narrows are blocking the Ministry of Natural Resources (MRN) from accessing Segeisse Road in the Anishinabe community’s traditional territory. The road is in desperate need of work, and Grassy Narrows is attempting to fix it with their own contractors. Rather than do it themselves (because of community's ongoing blockade), MNR is threatening to lay $10,000 fines against the community and its contractors.
The British Colombia Supreme Court granted an injunction to the Wet'suwet'en Nation, preventing Canadian Forest Products Ltd. ("Canfor") from engaging in timber harvesting activities within a culturally vital portion of Wet'suwet'en Territory. Canfor had been seeking its own injunction after the Ginehklaiyex House Group blocked access to the territory in 2009; but the Wet’Suwet’en countered with their own injunction.
Owners of the Arizona Snowbowl ski area began construction of a wastewater pipeline on the San Francisco Peaks, a sacred site to more than 13 Indigenous Nations. Local environmental justice organizations, Tribal representatives, and members of Flagstaff community are currently preparing a course of action to defend the Peaks.
Roughly 10,000 Indigenous People are protesting against the oncoming Santa Ana silver mine in southeastern Peru near the border with Bolivia. The Indigenous people are concerned that pollution from the new mine would threaten their livelihoods and contaminate local rivers and lakes.
The Triqui people of the Autonomous Municipality of San Juan Copala in Oaxaca, Mexico, issued an urgent call for solidarity and action for June 2nd, 2011. Late last year, the Triqui were forced to abandon the municipality, which had already been under siege by paramilitaries for most of the year. Just prior to the evacuation, the paramilitaries threatened to kill anyone that supported the municipality. Now, after being away for more than 5 months, the Triqui people are attempting to return home.
The UK-group Survival International reported that a Guarani community in Brazil decided to retake a part of their ancestral land, after living on the edge of a highway for more than 12 months. According to Survival, the Guarani simply marched back to their land, unwilling to further endure the appalling conditions they have been subjected to by the side of a road.
TVI Resource Development, Inc. (TVIRDI), after years of violating the human rights and customary laws of the Subanon People, admitted its wrongdoings in a cleansing Ceremony led by the Subanon's traditional judicial authority. During the ceremony, the company acknowledged that Mount Canatuan is indeed a sacred site and that they were wrong for desecrating it. They also agreed to pay the fines as stipulated by the traditional authority.
Land acquisition plans for Posco's proposed mega steel project in Orissa were postponed following resistance from indigenous villagers who oppose and support(!) the project. The agitating villagers say the Government-led plan to acquire land is, in no uncertain terms, "illegal". The acquisition would ruin the livelihoods of thousands of families.
Leaders from the Quechua community of Q'eros blocked a group of geneticists from entering their community to collect DNA samples for the National Geographic's Genographic Project. The Quechua, concerned that no one was properly consulted about the visit, turned to the Cusco state government for help. Cucso ultimately ultimately sided with the community, forcing the Genographic Project to back off.
Seven people were killed at Barrick Gold's North Mara mine in Tanzania after more than 1,000 people, desperate to find leftover scraps of gold, invaded the modern mine site. Following the the fatal confrontation, police "stormed a local mortuary and stole the bodies of four of the dead". They also arrested and charged two members of Parliament, a legal adviser, and journalists for allegedly "instigating people to cause violence." Just days after these and other disturbing events took place, even more allegations of sexual assault surfaced against employees of the company.
CONADI, the Chilean Government’s Indigenous Corporation, purchased more than one million acres of land for 115 Mapuche communities in Chile's Araucanía Region. The move brings an end to several long-standing land claims, including that of the the Mapuche community of Cea Trecalaf No. 2, which was broken up more than 35 years ago.
Hundreds of Maasai, Sukuma, Barbaig and Taturu pastoralists refused to leave the Maswa Game Reserve because of their historical ties to the land. The Tanzania government wants the pastoralists out of the reserve, which borders the world-famous Serengeti National Park, because of an all-too-familiar claim: "environmental degradation concerns".
The Goa government ordered the closure of an illegal open cast iron mine after a sustained protest by Indigenous villagers. The villagers, concerned about a mining company's takeover of a hill vital to their beliefs, wisely set up a protest camp outside the private home of Chief Minister Digambar Kamat, an official who had the authority to shut down the mine.The Minister conceded to the villagers after just one day.
The Alberta Court of Queen's Bench forced the Provincial government to halt work on a campground expansion project within the Cold Lake First Nation's (CLFN) traditional territory. The welcomed ruling also brought an end to the emergency cultural camp set up by a group of Dene to physically halt any construction work from taking place in the area.
A group of Navajos turned to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), after years of fruitless legal fighting in the US, to halt a risky uranium mining operation that threatens the drinking water for about 15,000 people. Similar to the Navajo move, the Lakota--partly driven by their own concerns with uranium--are attempting to approach the United Nations International Court of Justice (IJC). Systemic discrimination by the entire US court system is leaving Indigenous Nations like the Lakota and Navajo no choice but to seek justice elsewhere.
Fisherfolk and indigenous people in southern Chile also turned to the IACHR for help in their 15-year conflict with Celulosa Arauco y Constitución (CELCO), a paper pulp company which plans to dump toxic waste into the ocean. They're also trying to take the Chilean state to task for alleged human rights violations.
Residents from 10 Bidayuh villagers set fire to five logging camps and thirteen heavy machines in a dramatic protest against logging activities on their land, in the Malaysian state of Sarawak. As reported by Free Malaysia Today, the villagers took matters into their own hands because the government refused to address any of their complaints about what was happening on their land without their consent.
In the lead up to the 7th Arctic Council meeting in Nuuk, Greenland, a group of 20 NGOs sent an open letter to the Arctic Coastal State Foreign Ministers of Canada, U.S., Russia, Greenland, Denmark and Norway, demanding a moratorium on all offshore drilling in the Arctic. The letter is an important first step for solidarity against Arctic offshore drilling--and perhaps all troubling developments in the global North. The entire region is itself being increasingly viewed as a haven for all forms of economic development under the scolding hot sun.
The Philippines government, in a surprise move, cancelled its Financial and Technical Assistance Agreements (FTAAs) for several mining concessions in Palawan. However, the Indigenous People of Palawan are not quite ready to celebrate, given recent moves by the MacroAsia Corporation, not to mention the Health Departments near-portrayal of Indigenous People as "dirty animals".
A Purepecha community stood up to organized criminal gangs in the state of Michoacan, western Mexico; declaring an emergency "state of siege" and blocking all access routes to their community. Leading up to what Purepecha leaders have called "an act of desperation," a group of heavily-armed men opened fire on the community, seriously injuring one person. The armed men where officially escorted by the police.
Videos of the Month
The Dark Side of Green - In the southern region of Mato Grosso do Sul, on the border of Brazil and Paraguay, the most populous indigenous nation of the country silently struggles for its territory, trying to contain the advance of its powerful enemies.
Don’t Dam the Patuca River! - A Chinese dam project threatens Central America's largest tropical rainforest and local Indigenous peoples: the Tawahka, Miskito, Pech and Garifuna.
Algonquins of Barriere Lake vs Section 74 of the Indian Act - Barriere Lake Solidarity has produced this video to help bring attention to the current struggle of the Algonquins of Barriere Lake: The Canadian Government's attempt to take control of the community through an obscure provision of the Indian Act.
The Huarani: Savages of Oriente/Protectors of the Forest - There is more than one side to every story. The tale of the Huaorani is no different. As we continue to witness the destruction of their homeland in the world’s largest rainforest, it is impossible to ignore how our own fate is linked to theirs.
Underreported Struggles is a monthly round-up of censored and under-reported news, compiled by Intercontinental Cry. If you want to know about these stories "as they happen", follow IC on Twitter: @indigenous_news or Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/Intercontinental.Cry
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