Action Alert: Shell and Oxy in Colombia
12/3/97
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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Title: Action Alert: Shell and Oxy in Colombia
Source: Rainforest Action Network's List Server (rags-rap@ran.org)
Status: Distribute freely, properly credited to source
Date: ACTION ALERT #133 -- Wed, 3 Dec 1997 13:50:36 -0800
SHELL AND OXY: A DEADLY PARTNERSHIP
THE ROYAL DUTCH/SHELL GROUP, the world's most profitable corporation,
is embarking on a new oil development in Colombia that will generate
short-term profits - while condemning a local indigenous population to
death.
Royal Dutch Shell, Shell Oil's parent company, owns a 37.5% share in a
project operated by Occidental Petroleum (Oxy), planned for the Boyaca
region of northeastern Colombia. This area is the home of a
5,000-member community called the U'wa, and a large portion of their
ancestral land claims have been pushed aside by the Colombian
government and petroleum companies. The U'wa have vowed to commit
collective suicide rather than allowing Shell and Oxy to defile their
land. "Shell is a full partner in this operation, and they're funding
a potentially genocidal project," says Terence Freitas, Director of the U'wa
Defense Project.
Additionally, Colombian guerrillas opposing the government consider oil
facilities to be military targets. U'wa territory is certain to become a
battleground when guerrillas attack oil targets there, as they have done across
the region.
Opposition to the desecration of U'wa territory has come at a steep
cost. Roberto Cobar-a, the U'wa's elected leader, has joined with an
international coalition of environmental and human rights
organizations, including RAN, to halt the Shell/Oxy development. This
July, Cobar-a was viciously assaulted by armed men who threatened to
kill him. This outrageous attack is just one example of the violence
that often accompanies Shell's development projects.
Earlier this year, Shell entered the Camisea region of Peru to drill
for natural gas. Despite assurances of full consultation with local
peoples, Shell began operations before receiving community approval.
"There is a tremendous gap between Shell's rhetoric and the reality,"
says RAN's Amazon Campaign Director Shannon Wright. "Shell is already
breaking its own promises by storing toxic waste on indigenous lands,
and polluting streams local communities depend on. Now, Shell seems
willing to follow the same pattern of exploitation in Colombia, putting public
relations before human need and ecological responsibility."
At a recent news conference, Cobar-a revealed the details of the attack he
suffered. In the middle of the night, the U'wa leader was pulled from his bed
by a group of hooded men with rifles. The assailants restrained the tribal
leader, demanding that he sign an authorization agreement, or else be killed.
After refusing to sign, Cobar-a was beaten and pushed off an embankment into a
river where he nearly drowned. Cobar-a recounted the brutal attack: "They said
if you don't sign the agreement you will lose your life. And I said, 'I will
lose my life then, kill me right now, because I can't make this agreement. I
can't sign anything away from my tribe.'"
Commercial drilling is scheduled to begin in April 1998 - less than six months
from now. Unless public outrage forces Shell and Occidental to reconsider
their plans, the U'wa people and their homeland are both in immediate danger of
destruction.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
Oil giants like Shell need to get the message that their investments
have lethal consequences for peoples like the U'wa. Write to Shell
Oil's CEO and let him know that you will boycott Shell gasoline until
the company withdraws from its deadly project on U'wa land.
Here is a sample letter:
Philip J. Carroll, CEO
Shell Oil
P.O. Box 2463
Houston, TX 77252
Dear Mr. Carroll,
I am outraged to learn that Shell Oil's parent company, Royal Dutch
Shell, has invested with Occidental Petroleum in a drilling operation
in Colombia's cloud forest, on land considered sacred by the local U'wa people.
With the recent savage attack on elected U'wa leader Roberto Cobar-a, it has
never been more clear that oil development brings violent conflict, not
opportunity, into the area.
Please urge Royal Dutch Shell to end its investment with Occidental.
Please use your influence within the Shell family of companies to
demand an end to this development, which will harm the U'wa people and
their homeland. I won't be able to support Shell until it takes a
strong position against this potentially genocidal oil project.