[IPSM] Underreported Struggles #49, April 2011

[willowtree at mts.net]

In this month's Underreported Struggles: Chinese forces arrest 300 
Tibetan monks in an ongoing military siege against a monastery; The 
Mirarr People demand the protection of a massive uranium deposit in 
northern Australia; Guatemala's highest court affirms the collective 
land rights of a Maya Q’eqchi’ community, a first-of-its-kind decision 
in Guatemala.

http://intercontinentalcry.org/underreported-struggles-49-april-2011/

Underreported Struggles, April 2011

At least fifteen members of the Qom community (of the Toba people) began 
a hunger strike in Buenos Aires over the Argentine Government's failure 
to uphold its promises, mainly concerning the Toba's land right. More 
than 150 Toba and other supporters have also been blocking traffic at an 
intersection in the capital city.

The Swedish Supreme Court upheld a decision from the country's lower 
courts, recognizing the rights of the Sami indigenous people and their 
ancestral tradition of herding Reindeer. The case had been sitting 
before the courts since 1997, when 104 Swedish landowners tried to sue 
three reindeer herding collectives owned by the Sami in the area.

The Alberta government approved a $2.7-billion expansion of the 
Christina Lake oilsands project, putting even more pressure on the 
Beaver Lake Cree Nation, their environment, their traditional way of 
life; and the nearly-extinct woodland Caribou. The Beaver Lake Cree are 
in the midst of an ongoing legal battle against all tar sands operations 
within their territory.

Indigenous groups paralyzed Nepal's capital city and other parts of the 
country in a surprise National Strike aimed at changing Nepal's new 
constitution. The groups want the government to include provisions for 
the rights of Indigenous people and autonomy to better protect women and 
minorities from discrimination.

Toronto's High Park, located near the edge of Lake Ontario, is home to 
more than four dozen Haudenosaunee burial mounds, some of which could 
date back 3000 years, making them older than the Haudenosaunee 
Confederacy. Today, some of those burial mounds are being casually 
desecrated with the implicit sanction of Toronto's City Council.

On April 21st, Chinese forces arrested 300 Tibetan monks from the Kirti 
Monastery in Ngaba, eastern Tibet. Two elderly Tibetans died after being 
assaulted by Chinese police forces when they formed a human chain to try 
and stop the police from taking the monks away. The Tibetans have been 
protesting since March 16th, when a 20-year old monk from the Kirti 
Monastery self-immolated in an act of protest.

The South Dakota Board of Minerals and Environment delayed its decision 
on whether or not to allow oil drilling near the Sacred site known as 
Bear Butte. The board previously approved a drilling application; but 
then reopened the case after determining that it had failed to consider 
state laws concerning the protection of cultural resources related to 
property with an historic designation. The Board is expected to make its 
decision on May 18. Bear Butte is sacred to many Plains Peoples, 
including the Lakota, Cheyenne, Dakota, and Arapaho.

Bengali Settlers burned down at least 95 Jumma houses and injured more 
than fifty people in the Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh. The 
attacks began after the Jumma tried to stop a group of settlers from 
illegally clearing bushes on their ancestral lands. The Jumma first 
sought help from police; but when they refused to help, the Jumma took 
matters into their own hands. The resulting clash ended with three 
people dead. The senseless violence could have been avoided if the 
Bangladesh government had fulfilled its promises to implement the 1997 
CHT Peace Accord, which brought an end to more than twenty years of 
atrocities against the Jumma.

The Constitutional Court of Guatemala issued a precedent-setting 
decision in favour of a Maya Q’eqchi’ indigenous community in El Estor, 
recognizing their community's collective land rights, and ordering the 
government to take all measures necessary for issuing a land title to 
the community. The decision is the first of its kind in the country. It 
also arrives amidst two additional lawsuits in El Estor, regarding the 
death of a Q’eqchi’ community leader in 2009 and the rape of several 
Q’eqchi’ women during an eviction in 2007. Canadian mining companies are 
at the center of all three cases.

Roughly 150 Indigenous People and supporters occupied the ancient burial 
site at Glen Cove, Vallejo, California, blocking the Greater Vallejo 
Recreation District (GVRD) from gaining entry to the site with 
bulldozers to begin work on a new public park. The GVRD's plans, which 
involves grading a hill and building toilets and a parking lot in the 
area, would deface the landscape and desecrate the sacred site. The 
occupation is ongoing. For updates, please visit http://protectglencove.org.

The Ngobe people introduced two bills to Panama's National Assembly in 
order to protect their self-governance practices and their territories. 
The first bill would revoke a controversial Executive Decree that 
violates the Ngobe's basic right to choose their own leaders. The second 
bill would prohibit any mining or dam construction projects that would 
negatively affect Ngobe communities.

The Mirarr People renewed their opposition to the multibillion-dollar 
Jabiluka uranium deposit in Australia's Northern territory, declaring 
their wish, in solidarity with the people of Japan, to include the 
deposit as part of the UNESCO world heritage-listed Kakadu National 
Park. Simply put, the Mirarr want the uranium to stay in the ground, 
where it can't harm anyone, and so future generations have it to protect.

Bolivia is getting ready to ratify one of the most radical environmental 
bills in global history, The Law of Mother Earth. The law, which has 
also been tabled at the United Nations, would give the natural world 
legal rights, specifically the rights to life and regeneration, 
biodiversity, water, clean air, balance, and restoration.

With the Garifuna People just days away from commemorating the 214th 
anniversary of their eviction from the island of Saint Vincent in 1797, 
agents from the Honduran Ministry of Security began to violently evict 
Garifuna families from the island community of Punta Gorda, off the 
coast of Honduras. More than 40 families were effected by the expulsion.

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) officially 
requested the Brazilian government to suspend work on the Belo Monte Dam 
complex, citing the project's potential harm to Indigenous communities 
living within the Xingu river basin. The government wasted no time 
dismissing the request.

The US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals denied an emergency motion to stop 
all tree cutting and other preparations to spray reclaimed sewer water 
on the San Francisco Peaks, outside of Flagstaff, Arizona. The San 
Francisco Peaks are sacred to 13 Indigenous Nations in the southwestern US.
Videos of the Month

Censored: FMG’s Great Native Title Swindle - Censored from Vimeo.com, 
this video is a record of a supposed 'native title' meeting staged by 
the Australian iron ore mining company, Fortescue Metals Group (FMG). It 
shows how FMG, its agents, a lawyer and an "opportunist splinter 
faction" tried to divide the local Yindjibarndi community in order to 
gain support for the company's planned $8.5 billion Solomon Hub project, 
in the Pilbara region.

We Have Everything And Lack Everything - Indigenous Peoples and 
Campesinos in southern Guerrero, Mexico are resisting two mining 
projects that threaten their land and territory; their autonomy; and 
their enormously successful community police force and alternative 
justice program

Protecting Rivers and Rights: The Promise of the World Commission on 
Dams - The World Commission on Dams (WCD) report is still our best 
roadmap towards ensuring that future dams minimize social and 
environmental impacts, the legacy of existing dams are addressed, and 
affected people directly benefit from the projects. Watch this video, 
produced by International Rivers and EcoDoc Africa, to learn more about 
the promise of the WCD.

*

Underreported Struggles is a monthly round-up of censored and 
under-reported news, compiled by Intercontinental Cry. If you want to 
know about these stories "as they happen", follow IC on Twitter: 
@indigenous_news or Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/Intercontinental.Cry