Colombian Indians Seize Oil Wells on Their Ancestral Homelands

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WORLDWIDE FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS

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Forest Networking a Project of Forests.org

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http://forests.org/web/ -- Discuss Forest Conservation

11/21/99

OVERVIEW & COMMENTARY

200 U'wa Indians, including women, children and tribal elders, have

occupied Occidental Petroleum's planned oil well in Colombia. They

have established a permanent settlement to block the drilling slated

to begin in the coming weeks. "The U'wa cannot allow drilling on

their ancestral lands as they believe that oil is the blood of the

Earth." Aggressive and dominating Western cultures, most lately

represented by their corporations, possess a marked lack of

connection with the sacredness of the Earth. It is killing the

Planet.

g.b.

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ITEM #1

Title: U'wa occupy oxy site

Source: Reuters

Date: November 17, 1999

Byline: Karl Penhaul

BOGOTA, Nov 17 (Reuters) - Militant Colombian Indians have seized an

area they claim as ancestral homelands to prevent a U.S.

multinational from drilling for oil and pledged Wednesday to "defend

Mother Earth to the death".

Some 200 U'wa Indians occupied late Tuesday the Gibraltar-1 test site

in the Samore block in northeast Colombia.

The 500,000 acre (209,000 hectare) exploration area is tipped to

harbor up to 2.5 billion barrels of crude and could ensure the

country's energy needs well into the next century.

Occidental Petroleum Corp <OXY.N> won approval in late September to

begin drilling for crude there after a seven-year legal wrangle over

indigenous land rights blocked work.

But in a strongly-worded communique issued Wednesday, Roberto Perez,

head of the 5,000-strong U'wa community, called for Occidental and

the government to shelve the plan for good.

"We demand that the government and Occidental leave us in peace and

cancel the project for oil drilling in this zone," Perez said.

"The U'wa people are committed to give their lives to defend Mother

Earth from this project which would destroy our culture, nature and

world balance," he

added.

Perez did not spell out what measures the U'wa were prepared to take

but the community has, in the past, threatened to commit mass suicide

if the oil industry encroached on what it considered ancestral lands.

Occidental's planned Gibraltar-1 test site lies just outside the

government-recognized Indian reservation but inside an area that the

U'wa claim as traditional tribal homelands.

In August, the government enlarged the U'was' official reservation

almost fivefold to 543,000 acres (220,000 hectares). But the U'was,

whose semi-nomadic ancestors roamed across the cloud forests and

plains of at least three provinces

in northeast and central Colombia, demand rights to a much larger

territory.

Shannon Wright, spokeswoman for the U.S.-based Rainforest Action

Network, said Wednesday that more U'wa Indians could pour into the

area around Gibraltar-1.

International activists, grouped under the banner of the California-

based U'wa Defense Working group, are also planning to join the

protest.

Earlier this year, three American indigenous activisists were

brutally murdered by leftist rebels as they worked with the U'was to

help prevent Occidental encroaching on Indian lands.

"The U'wa are at a critical juncture. Everything is calm right now

but given that oil areas are the center of violent conflict there is

significant concern that the U'wa could be caught in the crossfire

(as a result of their protest)," Shannon told Reuters.

An Occidental spokesman said the company was still evaluating the

impact of the U'wa land occupation and declined to speculate on the

possible consequences of the protest.

He said the U.S. multinational, which operates the 130,000 barrel-

per-day Cano Limon field in northeast Arauca province, planned to

sink the first test drill in Samore "sometime next year".

The first exploration well is expected to be some 14,000 feet deep

and cost some $30 million.

((--Bogota newsroom (571) 634 4090, bogota.newsroom@reuters.com))

ITEM #2

Title: 200 U'WA ASSEMBLE AT OXY OIL WELL SITE TO BLOCK DRILLING

TRIBE CALLS FOR INTERNATIONAL SUPPORT TO STOP THE OIL

PROJECT

Source: Rainforest Action Network and U'wa Defense Working group

Contacts:

Mark Westlund -- 415-398-4404

Atossa Soltani -- 310-456-1340

David Rothschild -- 202-785-3334

U'wa office in Colombia +5778-838-037

or addition contact numbers in Colombia call above listed

numbers

Date: November 17, 1999

For immediate release

Bogota, Colombia -- 200 U'wa Indians, including women, children and

tribal elders marched on the site of Occidental Petroleum's planned

oil well Gibraltar 1, establishing a permanent settlement to block

the drilling slated to begin in the coming weeks. Hundreds of

additional U'wa are expected to continue arriving to the settlement

in upcoming days. Tribal leaders declared that this permanent

settlement is a necessary to block the drilling after legal battles

and direct appeals to the company and government have failed to date.

Oxy's entire oil block falls within the U'wa's ancestral territory.

The U'wa, a traditional tribe of some 5,000 people living in the

cloudforests of northeastern Colombia have repeatedly declared their

absolute opposition to Oxy's oil project. The U'wa cannot allow

drilling on their ancestral lands as they believe that oil is the

blood of the Earth. The oil project is widely expected to escalate

conflicts in the region among the armed factions, resulting in

violence against the U'wa, as seen in other oil areas of Colombia.

Despite this, in September the Colombian Minister of the Environment

approve a drilling license for the first exploratory well.

"We are willing to have the government bomb us, but we will not

abandon these ancestral lands because we must stop Oxy from drilling

for oil, which is the blood of our Mother Earth," U'wa international

spokesperon Berito Kuwaru'wa, declared from the U'wa settlement at

Gibraltar.

Today, in the Colombian capital of Bogota, 25 U'wa representatives

including Tribal Council president Roberto Perez marched on the

Ministry of the Environment, calling for Colombian and international

support at this critical moment in their campaign. In the communiqu‚

that follows, the U'wa make an urgent appeal to their supporters to

join them in solidarity at the settlement during this non-violent

stand to defend their culture, land and lives.

For more information on the U'wa and their campaign please see:

www.ran.org, www.amazonwatch.org, www.moles.org

Here is a communique from the U'wa:

Association of U'wa Traditional Authorities

November 17, 1999

Cubar , Colombia

COMMUNIQU TO THE INTERNATIONAL PUBLIC

Approximately 200 members of the U'wa indigenous tribe of

northeastern Colombia assembled in a permanent settlement on part of

our ancestral lands yesterday, November 16. This area, which has been

colonized by farmers, is the site where the multinational company

Occidental Petroleum (Oxy) wants to drill the oil well "Gibraltar 1,"

an action which threatens life and our ancient culture.

With this permanent presence and with the support of the local

farmers of Sarare, we are claiming our ancestral and constitutional

rights to life and to our traditional territory. We demand that the

Colombian government and Oxy leave us in peace and that once and for

all they cancel the oil project in this area. We U'wa people are

willing to give their lives to defend Mother Earth from this project

which will annihilate our culture, destroy nature, and upset the

world's equilibrium. Caring for the Earth and the welfare of our

children and of future generations is not only the responsibility of

the U'wa people but of the entire national and international society.

We reject the violence perpetrated by the armed actors in the region.

We also urge indigenous peoples worldwide, national and international

non-governmental organizations, and the general public to work in

solidarity with us, rejecting this project planned by the Colombian

government and Oxy. We urgently request that you support us with your

physical presence in our territory. In addition, we ask people

around the world who value the Earth and indigenous peoples to speak

out against the multinational oil company Oxy through protests,

letters and other actions of solidarity.

Signed,

Roberto Perez, President of Tribal Council U'wa Traditional

Authorities

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