[IPSM] Urgent Action on the Embera Katio people

[gorgonzola at resist.ca]

Dear Friends: The Colombian Action Solidarity Alliance urge you to support
the Embera Katio people by writing letters to the Colombian and Canadian
Government.

===================================================================  
I am writing to you at the request of Martha Domico, daughter of
disappeared Embera Katio leader Kimy Pernia Domico, to ask for your urgent
solidarity with regard to disturbing new human rights abuses against her
people.   
Many of you will remember Kimy's visits to Canada. In 1999, he testified
to a parliamentary committee about the devastating impact of the Urra
hydroelectric megaproject, which received some $25 million in financing
from Export Development Canada. Fish, the mainstay of the Embera-Katio's
diet, had disappeared from the tributaries of the Upper Sinú River and
malnutrition was leaving his people susceptible to disease. Fast-running
rivers had been converted into stagnant water, bringing mosquitoes and
life-threatening malaria. Fertile land and food crops were being flooded,
further jeopardizing food security. Leaders who denounced these impacts
and the fact that the Embera Katio had never been consulted about the dam
prior to its construction, in violation of indigenous rights contained in
ILO Convention 169 and the Colombian constitution, were being threatened
and killed. Kimy, himself, was disappeared on June 2, 2001. Since then,
Colombian justice system has failed to make public what happened to Kimy,
even though there was abundant evidence of paramilitary involvement (the
official response is that the files of the investigation were lost) and
those responsible for disappearing him have never been brought to justice.
  
I received an urgent message from Martha by email and was subsequently
able to talk with her by telephone. This is the information she asked me
to share with concerned individuals and organizations in Canada.   
Embera Katio communities continue to suffer from the multiple negative
impacts on their livelihood, food security, health, and safety. In April
2000, supported by national and international pressure, the Embera Katio
signed agreements with the Colombian Government and the Urra Corporation
by which they promised to provide compensation, measures to mitigate those
negative impacts, protection from violence, new lands acceptable to the
Embera and the suspension of Urra II, a second phase of the megaproject
that would flood even more land. These commitments have not been delivered
and recent attempts to press the Urra Corp and the government to address
these issues have been ignored.   
In late December, 436 Embera Katío arrived in Bogotá and set up an
encampment outside the Ministry of the Environment. "We came because we
wanted to make it known that our rights are being violated, that we
continue to suffer so many negative impacts because of the megaproject and
that we want to be heard," Martha Cecilia said on the telephone. "We are
living in a very difficult situation and the government has not given us
any support or attended to our needs, despite the promises they made in
the April 2000 agreements."

"In the early hours of December 24th, we were attacked by police. There
were about 200 hundred of them in riot gear. Three Embera Katío women were
beaten badly. One of them was pregnant. We rushed her to a doctor. She
almost lost her baby. A child was also beaten by the police. We didn't
come here to fight. We have not used violence. We only want to be heard by
the government, to have the chance to meet and to come to an agreement
that respects our rights as Indigenous people. Now we have been forced to
flee to the office of the National Indigenous Organization. There is not
enough to eat and people are getting sick with fevers and pneumonia. We
are still waiting to hear from the government. But we will not leave until
we can sit down and talk about the solutions needed to respect our
rights."

What can you do?

Martha asks for letters of support for the Embera Katio to be sent to both
the Canadian government and the Colombian government. Concern should be
expressed about the excessive use of force used during the December 24
violent police action against a peaceful encampment of Embera Katio
outside the Ministry of the Environment, as well as the failure on the
part of the Colombian government and the Urra Corp. to both respect the
commitments made in the April 2000 agreements and to sit down with Embera
Katio representatives in order to discuss this situation.  

Both governments need to hear that Canadians have not forgotten the plight
of the Embera Katio and that we insist that their rights and dignity be
respected.  Canada has a particular obligation to press the Colombian
government for just solutions to the crisis, given the EDC's involvement
in a so-called development project that violated Embera Katio rights. 
Canada has a prime opportunity to raise concerns and call for guarantees
of respect for the human rights of the Embera Katio in the context of the
donor process with Colombia (related meetings take place on February 3 and
4).

Martha asks us specifically to call for:

*    negotiations in good faith with Embera Katio representatives towards
solutions that ensure the security, human rights and well being of Embera
Katio communities, whose physical and cultural survival becomes more
precarious every day;  *    compliance with the April 2000 commitments:
including compensation for the damage done to Embera land, communities and
livelihood (which would enable them, for example, to obtain health care in
the face of increased illness, and productive projects to replace lost
livelihoods); respect for the Embera Katio's own plans for community
development; new land acceptable to the Embera Katio; human rights
protection and the suspension of Urra II  *    concrete action to find and
bring to justice those responsible for disappearing Kimy Pernia Domico  * 
  international monitoring of the situation in Embera Katio territory 
Where should you send your messages?

1. Canadian Authorities:

The Hon. Pierre Pettigrew, Minister of Foreign Affairs,
House of Commons
Ottawa, ON K1A 0A6
Fax: (613) 995-9926  
Email: Pettigrew.P at parl.gc.ca

Copies to:

Ambassador Jean-Marc Duval
Embassy of Canada in Colombia
E-mail:  jean-marc.duval at dfait-maeci.gc.ca
Mr. Jose Herran-Lima
Director, South America Division
Foreign Affairs Canada
Email: jose.herran-lima at dfait-maeci.gc.ca


2. Colombian Authorities:

President Alvaro Uribe Velez
Palacio de Narino
Carrera 8, No. 7-26
Bogota, Colombia
Fax: 011 57 337 5890 or 342 0592

Copies To:

Sr. Sabas Pretelt de la Vega
Ministro del Interior y de Justicia
Ministerio del Interior
Av. Jimenez No. 8-89
Bogota, Colombia
Fax: 011 57 1 560 4630

Ambassador Jorge Visbal
Embassy of Colombia
360 Albert Street, Suite 1002
Ottawa, ON, K1R 7X7
Fax: 613-230-4416
Email: embajador at embajadacolombia.ca


With thanks for your solidarity

Kathy Price



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