Indigenous Protest Against World Bank in India
12/3/99
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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Title: Indigenous Peoples Occupy World Bank Premises in New Delhi
Source: Patrick Reinsborough posting to RAN list server at
rags-rap@igc.topica.com
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: December 3, 1999
Protest against the Destruction of Livelihoods and the Environment
by the World Bank and the WTO
More than 300 Adivasis [i.e. indigenous peoples] from the Indian state
of Madya Pradesh, representing all mass-based Adivasi movements,
jumped over the fence of the World Bank building on the 24th of
November at 12:00. They blocked the building, covering it with
posters, grafitti, cow shit and mud, sang slogans and traditional
songs at the gate, and went back only after Mr. Lim, country director
of the World Bank in India, went out to receive an open letter signed
by all their movements.
The letter, reproduced below, denounces the destructive impact of
World Bank investments in forestry and of the liberalisation in timber
products enshrined in the WTO system, which range from the
commodification and destruction of the forests to increasing violence,
rape and assassinations.
The letter also clearly states their stand in relation to these
institutions: "We fought against the British and we will fight against
the new form of colonialism that you represent with all our might."
The attempts of the country director of the World Bank to deliver a
speech were refused by the Adivasis, who said that after talking with
World Bank officials for the last 5 years they had concluded that such
'dialogues' had the only objective of betraying, misleading and
deceiving the Adivasis while pushing through commercial and industrial
interests.
Adivasi organisations in Madhya Pradesh have repeatedly denounced the
highly destructive, so-called 'eco-development' programmes that the
World Bank has been funding for the last five years in their forests.
Those programmes involve the violent forced eviction of Adivasis from
their lands (where all means of force were used, including several
killings), which as so many other aspects of the 'eco-development'
programmes of the WB goes against the Operational Directives of the
Bank, as well as a remarkably awkward combination of bans on the
activities on which Adivasis have based their livelihoods since
milennia (shifting cultivation, fishing, extraction of forest produce,
etc.) on 'environmental grounds', combined with the liberalisation of
commercial activities to 'make conservation a good business'. A great
business not for the Adivasis, but for the corrupt administrative
system exploiting the forest and the commercial and industrial
interests behind this sort of 'eco-development'. Hence, the Adivasi
communities see themselves forced to buy in the market the products
that they are not anymore allowed to extract from their forests.
The other target of the action was the WTO regime, an increasingly
important tool for the interests that are destroying the lives of
indigenous peoples all over the world. The attempts to include in the
WTO system a new agreement aimed at boosting timber extraction and
trade were highlighted, and the Adivasis expressed their determination
to fight against it.
The open letter to the President of the World Bank concludes:
"For the World Bank and the WTO, our forests are a marketable
commodity. But for us, the forests are a home, our source of
livelihood, the dwelling of our gods, the burial grounds of our
ancestors, the inspiration of our culture. We do not need you to save
our forests. We will not let you sell our forests. So go back from our
forests and our country."
Pictures of the action will soon be available at the PGA website,
(http://www.agp.org). In the next months more background information
on this issue will be slowly added to that webpage.
PLEASE WRITE TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE WORLD BANK DEMANDING AN IMMEDIATE
END TO ALL THE SO-CALLED 'ECO-DEVELOPMENT' PROGRAMMES IN THE FORESTRY
AREA IN INDIA. REMIND HIM THAT THE OPERATIONAL DIRECTIVES OF THE WORLD
BANK HAVE BEEN GROSSLY VIOLATED AND COUNTLESS ATROCITIES HAVE BEEN
LINKED TO THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THESE PROJECTS, WHICH ONLY LEAD TO THE
DESTRUCTION OF THE FORESTS THAT THEY ARE SUPPOSED TO PROTECT AND OF
THE INDIGENOUS CULTURES THAT HAVE SINCE MILENNIA LIVED IN COMPLETE
BALANCE WITH THEIR ENVIRONMENT.
The name of the World Bank President is James D. Wolfensohn and his
address is The World Bank, 1818 H Street, N.W., Washington, DC 20433
U.S.A. Please send copies of the letters to
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OPEN LETTER
To the President of the World Bank:
We, the tribal people of India, demand that the World Bank immediately
stop its attempts to take over our forests. The Madhya Pradesh
Forestry Project and other such projects only intensify the colonial
takeover of our forests that began with British rule in our country.
We fought the British and we will fight the new form of colonialism
that you represent with all our strength.
For us the MPFP and other such projects have meant an increasing
threat to our rights over our land, our rights to extraction of forest
produce, the loss of our grazing lands our fishing rights. It has
meant increasing violence against our people. It has deliberately
attempted to foster conflicts among our people in the old colonial
tradition of 'divide and rule'. It has endorsed rape in Hoshangabad,
killings in Khandwa, the burning down of homes and fields in Mandla
and Dindori, beatings, extortion, and criminal cases against our
people when they have attempted to protect their rights and
livelihood.
You know nothing about our forest or about how we have lived in them
for centuries. You did not even consult us before you devised the MPFP
and other forestry projects. You have never bothered to ask us how we
have been affected by your projects. But with unforgivable arrogance
you are attempting to take away our rights over our forests on the
grounds that it is we who are destroying the forests that are our
home, our source of livelihood. Even though it is so well known that
it is the commercial and industrial interests that you represent that
have destroyed our forests.
Our forests can only be saved by us, the people of the forests. You
know that. That is why you talk of 'Joint Forest Management'. But your
'Joint Forest Management' is a sham - a ruse that you use to pretend
that you have our consent when you wrest our forests from us.
Your Operational Directives assure us that you will seek our consent
and fully informed participation in your projects. They assure us that
your projects will not affect us adversely. You have betrayed that
promise and violated your own Operational Directives. You have
repeatedly ignored our protests. We agreed to participate in a Joint
Mission with you in this regard, but you abandoned the Mission when it
became clear that your project has so seriously violated our rights.
We know that in the Seattle Round of the WTO, there is a plan to hand
over our forests to commercial and industrial interests. We will
resist this too, with all our might. For the World Bank and the WTO,
our forests are a marketable commodity. But for us, the forests are a
home, our source of livelihood, the dwelling of our gods, the burial
grounds of our ancestors, the inspiration of our culture. We do not
need you to save our forests. We will not let you sell our forests. So
go back from our forests and our country.
On behalf of our people:
* Ekta Parishad, Madhya Pradesh (M.P.) and Orissa * Adivasi Mukti
Sangathan, M.P.
* Shramik Adivasi Sangathan, M.P.
* Kisan Adivasi Sangathan, M.P.
* Jan Van Andolan, M.P.
* Pench National Park Sangharsha Samiti, M.P.
* Bandhavagash Rashtriya Udyan Sangharsha Sangathan, M.P.
* Sanjay Rashtriya Udyan Sangharsha Samiti, M.P.
* Sitanadi Abhayaranya Sangharsha Samiti, M.P.
* Nagarhole Restoration Movement, Karnataka * Vikalpa, Uttar Pradesh
(U.P.)
* Mazdoor Morcha, U.P.
* Ghat Kshetra Samiti, U.P.
* Kalpavriksha, Delhi
* Samajwadi Jan Parishad
* Narmada Bachao Andolan
* National Alliance of People's Movements * Centre for Law and the
Environment, New Delhi * Coorg Organisation for Rural Development,
Karnataka * Budakattu Krishikara Sangha, Karnataka
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Press Release
The forestry projects funded by the World Bank and other international
agencies are a part of a major conspiracy to take over our forests and
deny the basic rights of tribals. In the last five years, forestry
projects have been initiated in nearly all the states of India. The
secretly planned $32 billion National Forestry Action Plan would also
be funded by international agencies. On the one hand, these forestry
programmes are undertaken in the name of conserving forests, wildlife
and the biodiversity and on the on the other hand in the Seattle round
the same agencies plan to introduce a new agenda to open up native
forests to logging and to weaken environmental protection in the
interests of multinational companies. All this is a part of the
destructive process of globalization which is driving tribals out of
the forests and reducing their rights to them. These were the
conclusions reached in the two day meeting on "Debt in the Forestry
Sector: its Impact on the Forests, the Tribals and the Economy"
organised by the mass and tribal organizations of Madhya Pradesh on
22nd and 23rd November, 1999. On 24th November, a demonstration was
organised against the World Bank at its Delhi office in which hundreds
of tribals from Madhya Pradesh as well as other human rights activists
registered their protest against the World Bank's interference in our
forests. "World Bank go back" and "our forests belong to us" were some
of the slogans through which the tribals expressed their anger against
the World Bank. Ekta Parishad, Adivasi Mukti Sangathan, Shramik
Adivasi Sangathan, Kisan Adivasi Sangathan, Narmada Bachao Andolan and
other organizations participated in the demonstration. Besides these
organizations from Madhya Pradesh, representatives from the National
Alliance of People's Movements and organizations from Orissa. Bihar,
Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and activists from Delhi also participated
in the demonstration. The World Bank funded Madhya Pradesh Forestry
Project was specially focussed upon. This massive project worth Rs.
800 crores is based on the unproven premise that in order to protect
and conserve the forests the dependence of forests dwellers on them be
reduced to the minimum. In reality such programmes are an attempt to
separate tribals from the forests, a process beneficial to neither.
The ongoing MPFP has violated the basic livelihood rights of tribals
as well as the World Bank's own Operational Directive 4.20 in this
regard. It has also increased atrocities on tribals.
This is evident from the report of the joint mission of the
representatives of the World Bank, the M.P. Forest department and the
mass and tribal organizations of M.P. The sudden and unexplained
withdrawal of the World Bank and the M.P. forest department from the
mission in its final stages and the continuation of the MPFP without
resolving the problems investigated by the mission has revealed the
World bank's hypocrisy. The World Bank's oft-expressed concern for
people's participation, joint forest management, transparency and
tribal welfare have all proved to be a major farce. In the name of
joint forest management the MPFP has led to serious village level
conflict in line to the British policy of divide and rule. For the
last five years the mass and tribal organizations of M.P. have raised
their voices at all levels within the state against the Project, the
present forest policy and atrocities against the tribal, but all in
vain. We are now compelled to intensify our struggle in Delhi.
Besides denying their basic rights to livelihood the project has led
to an increase in atrocities among tribals. In Dainala village of the
Gurungpur forest division of Khandwa district and at Katukia village
of Bagli forest division of Devaas district, tribals have been shot
dead by the forest department. In Mandla and Dindhori districts the
hutments and crops of "primitive" Baiga tribals were burnt down and
they were beaten and jailed.
In Hoshnagabad district, a Ranger who repeatedly raped a tribal girl
has not only not been punished but has been rewarded with a foreign
trip under the MPFP. Harassment and criminal cases against tribals who
attempt to protect their rights are common allover the state.
At the WTO Seattle conference there is a plan to clear the way for
exploitation of the forests by multinationals. There is a plan to grab
the forests from the people of the third world countries and to entrap
them in the form of the "globalization" which is detrimental to their
basic interests but tribals and other forests dwellers as well as
their representative organisation has pledged to fight the
interference of the World Bank and other international agencies and
their forests and unlike an elected government refuse to become pawns
in their hands.