[IPSM] Fwrd: Letter to the special rapporteur for indigenour peoples from Colombia

[mandeep]

LETTER TO THE SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR FOR INDIGENOUS
PEOPLES PRESENTED BY 
THE 
DELEGATION OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES OF COLOMBIA TO THE
PERMANENT FORUM OF 
INDIGENOUS PEOPLES

New York, 5/23/05

Mr. Rodolfo Stavenhagen
Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights
and Fundamental Freedoms of Indigenous peoples
United Nations
Human Rights Commission

Dear Sir:

We are thankful for the opportunity we have been given
to address you 
through the Permanent Forum of Indigenous Peoples.  As
representatives 
of 
the indigenous peoples of Colombia, we reiterate our
support for the 
content, conclusions and recommendations of your
report 
(E/CN.4/2005/88/Add.2), the result of the Mission to
Colombia from 
March 
8-17, 2004 – see 
www.hchr.org.co/documentoseinformes/documentos/relatoresespeciales/Relator

IndigenasRodolfoStavenhagen.doc . Faced with the
worsening conditions 
affecting the indigenous peoples since your visit, we
take the liberty 
of 
requesting that the United Nations give urgent
attention and action to 
our 
situation, given the following:

1.	The Colombian state, in signing the Political
Constitution of 1991 
and 
Law 21, assumed the obligation of recognizing the
right to 
self-determination of the indigenous peoples.

2.	Protected by these rights, we the Indigenous
Peoples of Colombia, 
and 
particularly those of Cauca, have taken steps through
our Plans of Life 
in 
exercising self-determination through autonomous
processes, which has 
allowed us to progressively improve the conditions of
life of our 
peoples.  
This effort, in the case of the Indigenous Peoples of
Cauca, has 
received 
several awards at the national and international
level, such as First 
Place 
in the 2004 Equator Initiative of the UNDP and the
National Peace Prize 
that 
same year given to the Indigenous Guard of Cauca.  As
you know, the 
Indigenous Guard of the indigenous peoples of Cauca is
a community, 
civil, 
and peaceful entity based on our traditions and
customs whose mission 
is to 
protect the territory and the communities in the face
of external 
aggressions and natural disasters.

3.	Our process of self-determination has generated a
contradiction to 
the 
model of development and the policies of the
government, as well as to 
the 
armed insurgency and counterinsurgency.  As a result,
we have become 
victims 
of persecution, intimidation, and attacks by all of
the armed actors.  
The 
most recent of these attacks began last April 14 when
the FARC attacked 
the 
positions and barracks of the police in the urban area
of Toribio, 
which are 
located in the middle of the civilian population.  The
attacks were 
extended 
to the reservation of Jambalo and continue even today
as the forces of 
the 
state who came into our ancestral land are carrying
out massive 
detentions 
without arrest warrants emitted by the appropriate
judicial 
authorities, 
searching the homes of leaders and villagers, and
engaging in 
civic-military 
actions. These actions violate the fundamental rights
of the people and 
due 
process.  Journalists and others who have denounced
these actions have 
received death threats.

Faced with this situation, we request:

1.	A response to the request for recognition of the
Indigenous Guard as 
an 
International Peace Agent.  We presented this request
a year ago in a 
letter 
addressed to the UN General Secretary, Kofi Annan.
2.	The creation of a Permanent Rapporteur for the
Indigenous Peoples of 
Colombia, as has been requested by the National
Indigenous Organization 
of 
Colombia (ONIC), to monitor, document, and develop
actions that are 
needed 
to publicize the situation and defend the indigenous
peoples of  
Colombia, 
many of them at risk of extinction, as you yourself
have well 
documented.
3.	Establish a mechanism of international civil
accompaniment of the 
Plans 
of Life of our peoples and their community processes
so that it can 
serve as 
a witness and spokesperson for the reality that
affects us.
4.	Support a holistic reparation that is needed as a
result of the 
damages 
caused by the attacks which include the partial or
total destruction up 
until now of more than three hundred houses in the
urban areas of 
Toribio 
and Jambalo.
5.	Develop an urgent international initiative with the
purpose of 
making 
your recommendation a reality in terms of the respect
for indigenous 
territories that you call “neutral and demilitarized”
by all of the 
armed 
actors and to create indigenous areas of peace. We
call for 
international 
mediation at the highest level in the name of the
indigenous peoples to 
achieve an immediate cease fire, the disarming of our
ancestral lands, 
and 
search for a negotiated solution to the armed
conflict.
6.	Finally, we join with you in the call you made in
your report, and 
which 
today is even more important than it was at that time,
that the 
military not 
detain any indigenous person unless there is an arrest
warrant issued 
by an 
appropriate judicial authority. Also, in this vein,
demand that the 
Colombian government and the civil and military
authorities respect the 
indigenous jurisdiction recognized in the Colombian
constitution and 
adhere 
to it.

We take the liberty of attaching a document that
explains in a more 
detailed 
manner the context and conditions that affect us and
the 
recommendations and 
requests that we are presenting, which can be found
also at 
http://nasaacin.net/noticias.htm?x=228.

Cordially,

Ayda 	Quilcue
Delegate of the National Indigenous Organization of
Colombia ONIC

José Buenaventura Díaz
Regional Indigenous Council of Cauca CRIC

Ezequiel Vitonas Talaga
Leading Elder
Association of Indigenous Councils of Northern Cauca
ACIN – Cxahb Wala 
Kiwe

Karmen Ramirez Boscan
Wayuu ORJUWAT Organization
Maicao, La Guajira, Colombia

Cc:
Alfredo Witschi-Cestari  UNDP Colombia
Michael Frühling  UNHCR Colombia
Christopher Guarnotta UNHCR Cali


"Our system is one of detachment: to keep silenced people from asking questions, to keep the judged from judging, to keep solitary people from joining together, and the soul from putting together its pieces." (Eduardo Galeano)
"Sigan ustedes sabiendo que, mucho más temprano que tarde, se abrirán las grandes alamedas por donde pase el hombre libre, para construir una sociedad mejor." (Salvador Allende, 11 de sept. 1973)

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