> --------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: ACERCA <acerca at sover.net> (by way of Native Forest Network ENA)
> To: Recipient List Suppressed:;
> Subject: Fwd: U'wa Attacked - 3 Children Dead
> Date: Tue, 15 Feb 2000 13:10:25 -0500
>
> From: "Steve Kretzmann" <stevekretzmann at hotmail.com>
> To: fosterk at gis.net, acerca at sover.net
> Subject: U'wa Attacked - 3 Children Dead
> Date: Fri, 11 Feb 2000 14:46:55 PST
>
>
> PLEASE DISTRIBUTE WIDELY
>
> Communique from the U'wa (English and Spanish) follows press release
>
> U'WA DEFENSE WORKING GROUP
>
> For Immediate Release: February 11, 2000
>
> Contacts: Atossa Soltani 202-256-9795
> or Martin Wagner 415-627-6700 ext 216
> Steve Kretzmann 510-551-7953
> or Shannon Wright 415-595-7246
>
> Colombian Police Attack Peaceful U'wa Blockade
> Three U'wa Children Killed - U'wa Reserve Militarized
>
> Oxy and Colombian Government Urged to Suspend Operations
>
> Cubara, Colombia -- Dangerously escalating an already tense situation,
> Colombian National Police today brutally attacked a group of 450
> peaceful U'wa protesters on a road near Las Canoas, approximately
> 4 kilometers from Gibraltar 1, site of the Occidental Petroleum's proposed
> oil well in Northeast Colombia. According to an urgent communique
> from the U'wa, this attack resulted in the death of three U'wa children.
> Many adults were also injured and several U'wa are now missing.
>
> The U'wa report that at 8:15 am this morning, four helicopters arrived
> from Bogota carrying members of the Colombian National Police who
> then began to disperse a group of U'wa men, women, children, and
> medicine men and their supporters who have been peacefully blockading
> the Saravena - Pomplano road for the past week. Without warning, the
> police used tear gas and heavy machinery to charge the blockade, forcing
> the peaceful U'wa into the Cubuj?n River. The road blockades had been
> effectively stopping Oxy from moving in construction equipment to the drill
> site.
>
> The U'wa are in engaged in a tense standoff with the Colombian
> Government and Oxy to prevent oil drilling on their sacred ancestral lands.
> Since January 19, the region including the site of the oil well have been
> heavily militarized. The U'wa also report that even the U'wa reservation
> has been militarized and the army is reportedly restricting travel to and from
> the reservation. On January 25, The Colombian soldiers reportedly used
> brutal methods to evict the nonviolent U'wa, airlifting the last 25 resisters
> by military helicopters.
>
> International human rights groups are calling for an immediate
> suspension of all activity by Oxy at Gibraltar 1 pending a negotiated
> settlement with the U'wa and calling on President Pastrana to withdraw
> Colombian security forces from the U'wa Reserve and from the two farms
> owned by the U'wa at Gibraltar 1. Furthermore, Groups in the U.S. are calling
> on the Clinton Administration to use diplomatic pressures on the Colombian
> Government to ensure a peaceful resolution of this conflict.
>
> "At a time when the US is about to vote for $2 million a day in
> military aid to the Colombian security forces, military maneuvers resulting
> in the death of innocent U'wa children cause serious alarm about how our tax
> dollars could fund more brutality and human rights abuses against innocent
> civilians in Colombia," said Steve Kretzmann of Amazon Watch.
>
> In the past week, protests were held in 34 cities in nine countries.
> These demonstrations have been targeting the two most important
> shareholders in Occidental - Fidelity Investments, which controls about
> 10 percent of Oxy stock, and US Vice President Al Gore, who holds up to a
> half million dollars in Oxy stock and who has enjoyed the sponsorship of
> Oxy throughout his political career. Yesterday, a protest was held outside
> the Gore 2000 campaign headquarters in Nashville, Tennessee.
>
> English translation
>
> Sent: Friday, February 11, 2000 11:33 AM
>
> URGENT: THREE U'WA CHILDREN KILLED DURING COMBINED POLICE
> AND MILITARY RAID
>
> DENUNCIA PUBLICA NACIONAL E INTERNACIONAL
>
> The Association of Traditional Uwa Authorities, ASOUWA, and the
> Regional Indigenous Council of Arauca, denounce the following to
> departmental, national and international Human Rights and
> Non-governmental Organizations:
>
> 1. Today, Friday, February 11, 2000, at approximately 8:15 a.m.,
> combined Colombian military and police forces arrived by air to the hamlet of
> Canoas, approximately 4 kilometers from Gibraltar, Northern Santander
> deparatment.
>
> At the site, approximately 450 indians -- women, children, men and
> elders from the U'wa community -- were gathered. Without prior warning, the
> public forces violently evicted the members of the community using heavy
> machinery and tear gas, and they forced us to flee by leaping into the River
> Cubujon.
>
> As a result of these violent acts, three U'wa children died. Other
> children and women are wounded, and there are U'wa who are missing.
>
> 2. We denounce these crimes against humanity, specifically against the
> indigneous people. These actions violate our constitutional rights,
> our human rights and international humanitarian law.
>
> 3. We urgently request the intervention of governmental and
> non-governmental observers, from the national and international levels.
> We urge you to speak out against these abusive acts which violate the
> precepts of the Colombian Constitution which protect indigenous people
> and which violate human rights.
>
> 4. We demand that the President of Colombia and Occidental Petroleum
> Company take measures to respect the indigenous communities, and we
> hold them both responsible for all actions which violate our physical well
> being and territorial rights.
>
> FOR THE DEFENSE OF OUR ETHNIC RIGHTS, OUR PRINCIPLES AND OUR
> THE U'WA COMMUNITY IS PRESENT
>
> ASOU`WA/ CONSEJO REGIONAL INDIGENA DE ARAUCA
>
> Stephen Kretzmann
> Amazon Watch
> 510-551-7953