Garifuna Press Release: NYC Shooting

Garifunas in the Bronx Denounce the shooting of an innocent man

Killer Cop must face justice FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 29, 2007

Contacts:

Mirtha Colon Jose Francisco Avila

(718) 402-6452 (917) 783-5298

NEW YORK– Various leaders of New York City’ Garifuna Community, met last Friday to discuss the death of their fellow countryman Fermin Arzu, 41, who was fatally shot by Officer Raphael Lora on Friday night, May 18th.

The leaders in attendance approved a resolution condemning the killing and demanding a full investigation into the matter. “We are not going to tolerate the abuse of our brother’s civil and human rights, while we express our deepest sympathy and support to the Arzu family,” said Mirtha Colon, president of Hondurans Against AIDS, organizer of the meeting. According to published reports, police sources say Officer Raphael Lora thought Arzu was going for a weapon in his glove compartment, but no gun was found. Police say Lora fired five times, striking Arzu once in the back and piercing his heart.

Mr. Arzu – a father of six originally from the Garifuna village of Tornabe in his native Honduras, was a building porter and musician, who has been described as a responsible, hard-working man who never had problems with the police, and who was under the emotional stress of caring for his fiancé, whom he had picked up from Bronx Lebanon hospital, just a few hours earlier, where she had undergone a mastectomy. According to Celso Castro, “We cannot afford to let the media discredit an honest man’s memory and we stand in solidarity with his family.”

The Garifuna community is outraged as to why an unarmed man had to be gunned down rather than recording his license plate and fine him for the alleged traffic violation. This is a senseless killing by someone who’s supposed to protect the community.

Read more by clicking here.

Guyana: Wrong to Ask Barama to Cease Logging?

A letter to the editor of the Stabroek News, by Peter Persaud, President of The Amerindian Action Movement of Guyana (TAAMOC), was forwarded today, strongly contradicting a previous post on this blog about calls for a cessation of logging by the Barama company.

This is the text of the letter:

May 28, 2007
I wish to refer to your newspaper article under the caption "Amerindian groups call on Barama to cease Akawini logging" in your issue of Thursday May 24th 2007.

I am disappointed with both the APA and GOIP for allowing themselves to fall prey to a known anti-Barama critic. But whether deliberately or not both of these organizations instead of finding solutions for the development of indigenous peoples are now carrying out the wishes of Barama's detractors and critics.

These so called indigenous groups not knowing the truth about the Akawini situation call on the Barama Company to cease its harvesting operations in the Akawini village lands. But it must be known to the Guyanese public and the international community that the root cause of Akawini's squabble with the IWPI is as a result of competing logging interests wanting to do business with the village council. Nevertheless the truth has to be revealed and it is unfortunate that the Toshao of Akawini while he was in Switzerland did not tell the society of Threatened peoples and the Bruno Manser Fords the truth surrounding the Akawini - IWPI fall out. Why didn't the Akawini Toshau tell these two Swiss NGOs and the international forum which he attended that the Akawini village had prior knowledge which was told at the Community Consul-tations that the Barama Company would have engaged in sustainable forest harvesting in Akawini. Why now this big cry about 'sub contract documents' when the Akawini people knew about Barama's involvement in the harvesting of commercial forests. For the Akawini village council to say that they knew nothing about Barama's role in Akawini is lying to the Guyanese public as well as lying to the international community.

But what is contradictory about both the APA and GOIP is that while they target Barama, they allowed the pillage and plunder of the commercial forests of Kwebanna, Bethany, Orealla, Cabacaburi, Manawarin and Wakapau Amerindian communities by their continued silence over this forest crime. Why didn't these two organizations stand up for the rights of their constituencies amidst the plundering of their forest by indiscriminate coastland loggers? Is this the policy position of both the APA and GOIP that forest destruction by coastland loggers is acceptable to them, while sustainable forest management by the Barama company is not allowed?

What do APA and GOIP have to offer the Akawini people should Barama decide to leave Akawini? This is what the village council should think about and stop being used by the APA and GOIP as their political football. Since Barama's operations in Akawini the village has earned millions which should be used for their community development as well as to provide small grants to grass-roots organisations of the village to fund their projects.

Both the APA and GOIP are aspirants to serve on the Indigenous Peoples Commission (IPC) and I am now concerned with the level of their maturity to effectively discharge the IPC's functions which in the final analysis will enhance the well being of Guyana's indigenous peoples.

I am appealing to the Akawini village council to let good sense prevail for an amicable solution to their concerns with the Barama Company.

Yours faithfully,

Peter Persaud

President

The Amerindian Action Movement of Guyana (TAAMOC)

More Frustration at the UN

U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples meets with stiff resistance
May 25, 2007
International Herald Tribune

UNITED NATIONS: Members of a U.N. forum on indigenous peoples expressed frustration with delays and amendments to a proposed declaration on the rights of native peoples, as the two-week conference ended Friday.

Members of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues urged the U.N. General Assembly to ratify the declaration, which would ensure "the survival and dignity of indigenous peoples," a key member of the forum said Thursday.

The proposed U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples was adopted by the Human Rights Council in Geneva last June. In December, the General Assembly voted to defer adoption but pledged to consider it before the end of its current session in September.

The declaration took center stage at the forum, though it was officially devoted to discussing concerns about access to and use of land, territory and natural resources. The forum drew 1,500 representatives of indigenous peoples, 30 indigenous parliamentarians, and representatives of 70 member states.

The declaration calls on states to prevent or redress the forced migration of indigenous peoples, seizures of their land or their forced integration into other cultures. It also grants indigenous groups control over their religious and cultural sites and the right to manage their own education systems, including teaching in their own languages.

Wilton Littlechild, a member of the indigenous issues forum for over 20 years, criticized countries for proposing changes to the declaration at the last minute and refusing to ratify a document that would explicitly extend human rights to indigenous people.

"We were left out of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights," Littlechild said. "How can you object to basic fundamental human rights that everyone else has?"

Littlechild specifically criticized the General Assembly's African Group for submitting substantial amendments to the document on the grounds that the situation for indigenous Africans is different from elsewhere.

"It's very, very offensive to me, as an individual who worked very, very hard — as I said 30 years — on this, to have someone come in ... a minute to midnight, and start making changes, after they've had every opportunity to participate," Littlechild said of the African proposals.

A statement issued by the members of forum said the African nations' suggested declaration "dilutes considerably and in some cases, outright denies, the rights outlined in the declaration."

The statement goes on to say the proposal is "unacceptable and inconsistent with international human rights law."

Gabon, which currently heads the African Group, rejected this characterization, noting that the document does not recognize that the situation of indigenous people in Africa is different.

"I don't think Africa's indigenous peoples need self-determination," said Franklin Makanga, a counselor at the Gabon mission, referring to one of the articles of the declaration. "They're citizens of states."

Makanga also objected to a provision that would prohibit states from using indigenous land for military purposes without their consent.

"How can you forbid a state to undertake anything on its own territory?" he asked.

The members of the forum also accused the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand of lobbying the African states to vote against the declaration.

Carolyn Vadino, a spokeswoman at the U.S. mission, said the United States is committed to work toward a "text that's meaningful, that's a workable document and is capable of being implemented."

"We haven't seen that yet," she added.

Patricia Valladao, a spokeswoman in the Canadian Department of Indian and Northern Affairs, agreed that changes would need to be made to the text before Canada could support the declaration.

Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, chairwoman of the forum, stressed that the declaration is simply a tool for interpreting the U.N.'s Universal Declaration on Human Rights as it applies to indigenous peoples.

It is "not a document, a declaration, that creates new rights," she said.

Littlechild said he was especially disappointed in states that ratified the document in the Human Rights Council but are now resisting its adoption in the General Assembly. Many of the declaration's critics, he said, have been involved in its development for a number of years.

"I am a little bit baffled when I hear resistance like that because they were at the table with me for 24 years," he said.

End of 6th session of UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues

Indigenous groups end UN forum with call for steps to protect lands, resources

25 May 2007 – Indigenous leaders today wrapped up the annual session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues with a series of recommendations calling on Member States to take steps to protect their rights to lands, territories and natural resources.

Participants at the two-week Forum in New York urged countries to adopt measures to halt ‘land alienation’ in indigenous territories – such as by imposing a moratorium on the sale and registration of land in areas that are occupied by indigenous peoples.

They also called for the world’s estimated 370 million indigenous peoples to be given a central role in dispute-solving arrangements over the lands, territories and natural resources they occupy and use, as well as the right to receive information about these issues in a language they can understand.

Other recommendations included a call for financial and technical assistance so that indigenous peoples can map the boundaries of their communal lands, the imposition of penalties on those who carry out harmful activities on indigenous lands, and the payment of compensation to indigenous peoples as a result of such activities.

The recommendations are contained in the Forum’s report, to be forwarded to the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), which stresses that territories, lands and natural resources are the sources of indigenous peoples’ spiritual, cultural and social identity.

Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, Chairperson of the Permanent Forum, said yesterday that indigenous people worldwide have long suffered discrimination over their entitlements to occupying and using lands and natural resources.

“One of the key reason why indigenous peoples are being disenfranchised from their lands and territories is the existence of discriminatory laws, policies and programmes that do not recognize indigenous peoples’ land tenure systems and give more priority to claims being put by corporations – both State and private,” she said.

More than 1,500 indigenous representatives attended the Forum’s session, which also made recommendations on other issues affecting indigenous peoples, including health, education, and economic and social development.

Next year’s Forum will focus on the theme of climate change and there will also be sessions devoted to the Pacific region and to the protection of the thousands of threatened indigenous languages.

From:
http://www.un.org/apps/news/
story.asp?NewsID=22697&Cr=indigenous&Cr1=#

Venezuelan Indigenous Youth Broadcasting

From:

Humberto Marquez
Updated May 25, 2007, 03:54 pm

Indigenous youth learn broadcast skills

CARACAS, Venezuela (IPS/GIN) - Youth from 10 different Indigenous groups in Venezuela are learning to be broadcast journalists, preparing for the launch of eight new Indigenous community radio stations this October.

Eiker Garcia and Nelson Maldonado, two young Yekuana Indians from the Watamo and La Esmeralda communities in the Amazon rainforest, traveled to Caracas in late April to learn new skills.

They took a deep breath, then exhaled slowly, producing a long mmm sound, following the instructions of the professional radio presenter who was giving them breathing and elocution lessons.

Mr. Garcia and Mr. Maldonado's home, which is about 500 miles south of Caracas, is one of the sites where a radio station is set to be installed and networked with the public Venezuelan National Radio station.

Read more at:
http://www.finalcall.com/artman/publish/article_3520.shtml

Indigenous Activism at the United Nations

From Indian Country Today
May 25, 2007

Feeding the spirits

Activism at the United Nations

The late Muskogee-Creek elder Phillip Deere declared at the historic 1977 address to the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, that ''We, the Indigenous Peoples, are the evidence of the Western Hemisphere. No matter how small a tribal people may be, each of them has the right to be who they are.'' This year marks the 30th anniversary of the Conference on Discrimination against Indigenous Peoples of the Americas, which gave birth to a consciousness on, an international level, the conditions of indigenous peoples. The event served as an awakening to Native people all over the world, demonstrating that paradigm-shifting, through dignity and organization, is possible.

The Geneva conference, John Mohawk noted, ''sought to create Principles of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples of the Western Hemisphere that ... might lead to a Declaration of such rights for indigenous peoples around the world.'' That day is upon us, with the conclusion of the Sixth Session of the U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. For 12 days, the world's indigenous representatives and supporters gathered to, among other things, advocate for the adoption of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People. Although adoption has been delayed, the declaration itself represents the tireless work of scores of indigenous people moving as one body....read more at:
http://www.indiancountry.com:80/content.cfm?id=1096415089