Colombia Indians to Fight on Against Oil Firm
8/25/99
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Title: Colombia Indians to fight on against oil firm
Source: Reuters
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: August 25, 1999
``The U'was' position is not to allow any oil exploration or
production (on its ancestral lands) either inside or outside the
territory that has been legally recognized as ours,'' said a statement
issued by the U'was.
The U'was' decision to keep fighting oil exploration in parts of
central Boyaca, northern Santander and Norte de Santander and
northeastern Arauca provinces seems likely to cause renewed
frustration for Occidental. In 1992, Occidental was first granted
exploration rights to the Samore Block, which it believes could harbor
potential reserves of between 1.5 billion and 2.5 billion barrels of
crude.
But the 7,000-strong U'wa community, whose reservation previously
covered 98,800 acres (40,000 hectares), mounted a tough fight, backed
by international campaigners, to protect what they traditionally
consider the ``blood of Mother Earth'' and thereby forcing Occidental
to suspend all operations.
Occidental is still waiting for government approval to sink its first
test well, at a cost of about $30 million, in part of the Samore Block
that is just outside the enlarged Indian reservation. There was no
official comment from Occidental about the prospect that the wrangle
could continue but one senior executive said, ``This must be
clarified. We just don't know what is going to happen.''