Colombia Rejects 'Cultural Genocide' Claim, OKs Oil Drilling Near
Indian Land
9/22/99
*******************************
RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Title: Colombia Rejects 'Cultural Genocide' Claim, OKs Oil
Drilling Near Indian Land
Source: Cable News Network
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: September 22, 1999
BOGOTA, Colombia -- The Colombian government has granted a U.S.
petroleum giant a license to explore for oil next to Indian lands,
rejecting a remote tribe's assertion that the result would be
"cultural and environmental genocide."
Environment Minister Juan Mayr announced the decision to allow Los
Angeles-based Occidental Petroleum Corp. to conduct exploratory
drilling just outside a 543,000-acre reserve inhabited by the tiny
U'wa Indian nation.
Calling the cultural threat and the environmental impact minimal, the
government said Tuesday it granted the license to promote economic
development and prevent Colombia from becoming an oil importer.
A tribal spokesman said Tuesday the U'wa were considering a drastic
response to the government's action.
Threat of mass suicide:
"We are looking at the information to see what action the community
will take. Mass suicide is one option we are considering," Evaristo
Tegria said in Cubara, the main town on the of 8,000-member tribe's
reservation.
"This spells cultural and environmental genocide."
The decision is the latest twist in a seven-year battle by the semi-
nomadic U'wa to prevent drilling on their ancestral lands. The U'wa,
who fish and farm in the hilly forested territory near Colombia's
border with Venezuela, first received international notice in 1997
when they threatened to commit mass suicide if the government allowed
exploitation of the land. Their cause gained support from
environmental groups ranging from the Sierra Club to Greenpeace to
the Rainforest Action Network.
Balancing need for energy:
The permit that Occidental received Tuesday would allow it to sink
the first test well in the northeast Samore block, just outside the
U'wa reservation. If sizable petroleum deposits are found in the
area, the company will have to reapply for a license to take the oil
out of the ground.
The 500,000 acre exploration block is tipped to harbor up to 2.5
billion barrels of crude, which would help ensure Colombia's energy
needs well into the next millennium.
Oil is Colombia's top export, bringing in some $2.5 billion per year
in foreign reserves. But output is currently stagnated at about
850,000 barrels per day and the country faces the prospect of having
to import oil again by 2004 if no major new finds are made.
But the U'wa insist the entire Samore block, including parts outside
the government- approved reservation, was the territory of its semi-
nomadic ancestors.
Spiritual beliefs, fear of violence:
According to the U'wa's long-established spiritual beliefs, drilling
for oil on its tribal lands that span the cloud forests and plains of
northeast Colombia, is tantamount to sucking the lifeblood out of
Mother Earth.
A major oil project so close to U'wa lands also would attract the
same kind of violence and environmental destruction that plagues oil-
producing regions throughout Colombia, Tegria said.
Rebels hiding in the jungle have kidnapped oil executives and have
carried out 55 dynamite attacks on pipelines this year, sending oil
gushing into the jungles. Thousands of soldiers have been detailed to
guard the installations.
An Occidental executive said Tuesday his industry was being unfairly
blamed for strife endemic to a country where guerrillas have a
nationwide presence.
"To say that oil is a magnet for violence is to ignore the reality of
Colombia, where in many areas you have violence and no oil
development, " said the company official, speaking to The Associated
Press on condition of anonymity.
Mayr said the government could ensure the U'wa are shielded from any
violence associated with the oil industry's coming.
That's almost impossible to guarantee, said David Rothschild,
director of the Amazon Coalition, a Washington D.C.-based
environmental group that has backed the U'wa cause. "The Colombian
government has shown no ability to keep violence out of these areas.
So the promises are hollow."
Three American activists working with the U'wa were kidnapped near
the reserve and killed in March by a unit of the rebel Revolutionary
Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.