ASIA-INDIGENOUS PEOPLES: Rights Fight Rages Across the Region
11/6/95
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Headline: ASIA-INDIGENOUS PEOPLES: Rights Fight Rages Across the Region
Sources: cdp:reg.pacific
newsdesk in igc:ips.english
Date: 11/6/95
Author: Teena Gill
Copyright 1995 InterPress Service, all rights reserved.
By Teena Gill
CHIANG MAI, Thailand, Nov 6 (IPS) - New Zealand's Maori people scored a
partial victory in their land rights struggle last week, but indigenous
groups elsewhere in the Asia-Pacific continue to wage an uphill battle for
their traditional rights.
In an unprecedented move, Queen Elizabeth II apologized on Friday to the
Maori people and signed a bill authorizing a 170- million-dollar
compensation package for one of the seven Maori tribes dispossessed by
British colonisers in the past century.
But tribal groups from Indonesia and Thailand to Bangladesh and
India are still being denied their own identities, forcibly
assimilated into mainstream societies and brutally put down by
state security forces.
Unlike in New Zealand, Australia and Latin America where most
ethnic groups are struggling against dominant European settlers,
the situation is much more complex in Asia where many indigenous
peoples are being coerced into unacceptable administrative,
political and cultural structures by fellow Asians.
The International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs (IWGIA)
estimates there are over 200 million people belonging to 950
distinct indigenous communities in Asia. Indonesia, with 300
ethnic groups, ranks first in diversity while China and India with
91 million and 51 million indigenous people are at the top in
terms of sheer population.
''The indigenous peoples of Asia strive to control their own
lives and claim self-government from within and do not want
political systems imposed from outside,'' says a resolution passed
at a recent regional meeting in this northern Thai town.
More than 50 delegates from all over Asia attended the
gathering organised by the Asia Indigenous People's Pact (AIPP)
and other concerned non-governmental groups to thrash out a
definition of the term 'indigenous' and work out future strategy.
According to international bodies like the United Nations,
indigenous people are groups with a common history, culture and
territory, who are marginalised from the political decision-making
process. This working definition has been used at various world
fora in recent years and for the U.N. declaration of the 'Decade
of Indigenous People' from 1994 to 2004.
''Talking about indigenous people is likely to open up a
Pandora's box in Asian societies where typically a variety of age-
old ethnic, linguistic and cultural groups lay claim to the same
territory,'' says a South Asian diplomat based in Bangkok.
He says governments throughout the region have strongly opposed
taking the issue of indigenous people to international bodies like
the United Nations as it could lead to severe conflict in many
countries.
Critics of the concept of indigenous people in the Indian
subcontinent cite the case of north-east India where several
distinct ethnic groups like the Nagas, Kukis and Meithis lay claim
to the same territories and are as hostile towards each other as
they are towards the Indian state.
The Nagas have been waging an armed battle for an independent
state for the past four decades and in recent years have been
engaged in violent conflict with the Kukis.
''Asian governments have refused to accept the concept of
indigenous people, claiming that the term is too ill-defined and
nebulous. But at the root of the problem is their unwillingness to
give up political control over their weaker ethnic groups,'' says
Luingan Lithui, a Naga human rights activist.
The problem, he points out, does not lie in semantics but in
the politics of usurping natural resources traditionally
controlled by tribal groups.
In fact one of the major targets of indigenous activist groups
have been institutions like the World Bank and the Asian
Development Bank (AsDB) which they accuse of collaborating with
national governments in schemes that rob them of control over
their own economic wealth.
Apart from the numerous large dam projects which often displace
them, indigenous groups oppose the invasion of their territories
by pharmaceutical firms trying to use their traditional herbs and
medicines for commercial purposes.
It is a measure of the success of the movement in recent years
that conventional institutions like the Manila-based AsDB are now
taking account of the demands of indigenous peoples when
considering projects, says one regional observer.
Later this month the bank is holding a consultation on
'operational procedures for indigenous people' in Manila where
activist groups plan to make their views known.
''What the movement now needs is an international summit during
the Decade for Indigenous People to make governments take the
issue more seriously,'' says Chris Erni of the IWGIA.
Participants at the Chiang Mai conference unanimously demanded
the acceptance of the 1994 U.N. draft declaration of indigenous
peoples as the minimum acceptable standard by Asian governments.
The declaration outlines the rights of indigenous peoples
including their right to self-determination, a clause fiercely
opposed by Asian governments.
While the movement for indigenous peoples has so far made waves
at various international fora, observers point out that the key to
winning tangible benefits still lies ultimately in the hands of
national governments.
The real victory, they say, can come only through the joint
efforts of the entire spectrum of marginalised groups like small
peasants, women and unorganised workers in each country.
Indigenous activists across Asia have linked up with
environmental, labour and women's groups. But given the violent
conflicts that the assertion of ethnic identities often lead to,
the peaceful resolution of the issue ultimately lies with the
effectiveness of their alliance.
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