Afghanistan’s mineral wealth under us occupation:No transparency! http://www.turkishweekly.net/news/157223/mineral-wealth-could-harm-not-aid-afghanistan-39-s-future.html
Afghanistan’s mineral wealth is closely tied to its future prospects. If managed well, the theory goes, the mining sector could be the backbone of a sustainable economy, fund national security, and stabilize the government. But the country’s natural resources could just as easily undercut Kabul’s efforts to stand on its own by exacerbating corruption, forcing a sell-off of prized assets to foreign investors, and becoming yet another source of violent conflict. Based on its handling of the mining sector, observers say, it looks like Afghanistan is on course to join the raft of countries afflicted by the “resource curse.” The Mines and Petroleum Ministry estimates that Afghanistan boasts oil, gas, iron ore, copper, and gold deposits worth about $1 trillion. Kabul hopes to generate about $4 billion a year in mining and energy revenue over the next decade. Yet in 2012, the two sectors brought in less than $150 million combined. Stephen Carter, the Afghanistan campaign leader at Global Witness, a London-based nongovernmental organization that investigates links between natural resources, conflict, and corruption, says the government has lacked control over its resource wealth. “The sector, as a whole, is operating in a very uncontrolled way. There’s no oversight,” Carter says. “We fear that there is this sense that ‘we must exploit, we must get this going as quickly as possible.’ That’s understandable, but if that comes at the expense of taking shortcuts in the control of the sector, I think it will be seen as a very poor decision in the future.” Cash Cow? Fights have also erupted between the central government and provincial and tribal leaders in resource-rich areas. Last month, a landmark oil project in the Amu Darya basin was halted less than a year after production began after engineers working for the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), which along with an Afghan entity has the right to extract oil from the site, came under attack from a local militia.The government alleged that the militia was associated with General Abdul Rashid Dostum, a former Uzbek warlord who serves as chairman of the joint chiefs of staff of the Afghan National Army. Kabul has accused Dostum of putting pressure on the CNPC to make illegal payoffs. Dostum has, in turn, rejected the allegations, accusing President Hamid Karzai of protecting the interests of the Watan Group, the Afghan company affiliated with his family that shares the drilling rights with the CNPC. Powerful Effect Carter says Afghanistan’s natural resources are also being used by armed groups to fund conflict, much like the situation during the Soviet occupation and civil war, when various mujahedin factions smuggled precious stones, marble, and other minerals to Pakistan to raise funds. “There’s funding for insurgent groups through the smuggling of timber in eastern Afghanistan,” Carter says. “There’s also funding for insurgents, but also local militias, from the smuggling of chromite. We also shouldn’t underestimate the potential for a large mining operation to create internal rivalries within communities that could spill over to violence.” The three largest operations in the country — the Mes Aynak copper mine in eastern Logar Province, the Hajigak iron ore mine in Bamiyan Province, and the Amu Darya oil project in the country’s north — are all situated in relatively peaceful areas. But these areas have witnessed growing instability because militants, seeking to disrupt sources of government revenue and discourage foreign involvement in key industries, have targeted the projects. Potentially Disruptive Even within the government itself, the internal battle for control over Afghanistan’s mining and energy sectors has slowed efforts to put them under Kabul’s authority. Attempts to pass a new mining law that would regulate the industry and lure investors has been stuck in parliament for more than a year because of disputes between ministries vying to oversee the sector. Javed Noorani of Integrity Watch Afghanistan, an Afghan nongovernmental organization, says greater transparency could help put an end to the graft that is behind many of the disputes. “There are so many levels of corruption,” Noorani says. “When the government is shortlisting companies for a contract there’s room for corruption. Even when you implement a contract there is corruption. There are maybe 100 points at which there’s space for corruption.” Noorani suggests that the government publicly reveal details of mining agreements, payments made by foreign mining companies to the government, and how revenues from the mineral wealth are used. Only by taking such steps toward transparency, he says, can Afghanistan find a way to use its natural resources as a catalyst and not a curse.
[ed notes:interestingly the ngo integrity watch is funded by who else but world bank whos partnerships with criminal multinational mining corporations worldwide is well established...

Colombia-Piedad Córdoba: "The true unity of the Colombian people is beginning here"

 The Peasant Summit that was held Thursday, Sept. 12 in Bogotá meant on the one hand the defeat of the false agrarian pact of the Santos government and on the other an opportunity to unite the Colombian popular movement. Thousands of peasants from all over the country attended the conference at which Piedad Córdoba, spokeswoman for the Patriotic March of the Social and Political Movement, offered revealing commentary on the popular movement in Colombia. The following statements are taken from Córdoba's address in which she referred to the Agrarian Summit as a space for the defense of the land and for the defense of a great popular, social and political movement that today is a key step towards the great convocation of the Popular and Agrarian Summit that planned for October 20.

"This country is rising up against ignominy, against oppression;  it has raised the flag of the Peasant Farmers' Reserve (Zona de Reserva Campesina) because the ZRCs represent the defense of life against the Free Trade Agreements.

In her discourse Córdoba emphasized the role of the Popular and Farming Board of Interlocution and Agreement known as MIA.  As is widely known, [Colombia's] national government tried by various means to ignore this board, first by negotiating with one sector on strike and leaving out the sectors mobilized and represented by the national MIA that represents more than 80 percent of the mobilized sectors of peasants on strike.  Córdoba responded to President Juan Manuel Santos' recognition of the MIA on Sept. 8 in Popayán by stressing the Spanish adjective "mía" meaning "my" and which corresponds to the initials for the board, MIA:

"MIA sounds so beautiful, MIA seems to say my Colombia, MIA says my struggle, the struggle of the people, the struggle of the peasants, MIA says the defense of my life, the defense of life itself, MIA means the defense of men and women that get up when the roosters crow, that get up to the barks of the faithful dog that will never abandon them, to work my land, that search for my peace, that search for my Colombia, for inclusion, for solidarity, long live the peasants' MIA that means peace in Colombia."

 

Piedad Córdoba highlighted the magnificent support given to the peasants on strike by the inhabitants of cities across all Colombia:  "I think that the true unity of the Colombian people is beginning, the unity of a people that from the fields, from the Afro-Colombian communities, from the unity of the Indigenous, of the peasants, of the mestizos and mestizas, the unity of a people that stretches its hand out to the urban centers and cities in order to say loudly while we beat on pots and pans, that today the people of the cities understand clearly that we must defend the Colombian countryside."She affirmed that the popular movement will not allow itself to be divided and called on the national government to not try to divide, threaten, terrorize or silence the mobilized people.  She remembered Huber Ballesteros, the outstanding popular Colombian leader, arrested in Bogotá during the first days of the strike and sent a message to the Minister of Defense Pinzón: "I say to the minister of war, that you will not be able to put all of us in jail, that you will not be able to kill all of us, that if you manage to jail us, the jail will become a front line, the jail will be a place of struggle and from the jail our cries for justice will be heard;  don't think that the laws of sepoys imposed by congress are going to mean anything to millions of peasants that walk through the streets of this country telling the world and Colombia that the Free Trade Agreements are a death trap for the people of this country, that the FTAs rob us of our historic destiny, that the FTAs that were signed on the backs of the people kill hope and rob the lives of peasants."

She also added, in relation to the Patriotic March of the Social and Political Movement and referring to new laws against the right to protest that the national government was signing into law in congress:  "Don't think that the criminalization of social protest is going to tear the cry of struggle and liberty from our throats, from the Patriotic March, what many of us represent with pride and many others may disavow, in the March we are the patriots, we are the ones who want to construct a different country." Right then she issued a call for the unity of the Colombian popular movement: "We are the patriots, those who embrace the Congress of the Peoples and say to them that together we must construct unity because together we are strong and divided we are alone." She also reaffirmed the call for a National Constitutional Assembly, and ratified opposition to the proposed referendum by the national government, declaring that the formula for peace was in the six points of the document of petitions of the National Strike.

In a clear message to President Juan Manuel Santos, Córdoba announced that the next Agrarian and Popular Summit will be held in October of this year: "We are telling you that we are preparing the greatest Agrarian Summit that has ever been seen in Colombia in the last 50 years because the Agrarian Summit is going to be magnificent."
With respect to the National Agrarian and Popular Strike she declared that the people are not tired nor are they going to bed: "Mr. President, we are not saying it in a threatening tone, nor Mr. President de we say it fearfully, . . . Mr. President we demand it with the dignity of the people, with the dignity of our country, with the dignity of Colombians that are fighting for peace." Córdoba demonstrated the support of the social and popular movement at the round table discussions in Havana: ". . . We are not going to allow him to undermine discussions in Havana . . . we are also telling him not to modify the constitution in order to defeat us with the referendum." Córdoba ended with a call to the peoples of the world: "From here we say to the world that we are giving birth to a new democracy, that we are giving birth to a just democracy, that we are giving birth to a new Colombia that is born of men and women that love their country, that defend her, that defend their land, but above all think of the possibility of a future and a better tomorrow and that is formed from the hand of this great popular movement."

07 Arundhati Roy (Earth At Risk DVD) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yeXGGuziPNE

Colombia: ASOQUIMBO Continues Land Liberations and Resistance to the Quimbo Hydroelectric Project
  It has already been four months since the Association of Affected Peoples of the Quimbo Hydroelectric Project (ASOQUIMBO) began liberating the lands which are not destined to be inundated by the impending reservoir, but that are nonetheless properties of the company responsible for the mega-project, Emgesa-Endesa-Enel. These liberations started with farms in the Municipality of Altamira and spread quickly to include other farms in Garzón - such as the Santiago and Palacios farms. There are peasant families affected by the Quimbo Hydroelectric Project who are working and cultivating these lands, growing crops such as corn, plantains, yuca, beans, squash, and herding cattle. “Even though we have had our challenges, we the people affected by the Quimbo Dam have liberated these lands belonging to the transnational company as part of the struggle for the Agro-Nutritional Peasant Reserve that we need for our territory,” explained Mauricio Cabrera, a member of ASOQUIMBO from La Jagua in the Department of Huila. The company and the National Authority of Environmental Licenses (ANLA) have done everything possible not to comply with the environmental license and have chosen to not respect the decrees released by the Ombudsman’s Office in favor of the communities impacted by this mega-project, such as reopening the census of the impacted population. Regardless, the liberation of land by the impacted population is only an initial attempt to meet the obligations that the company itself has to “re-establish and legally and legitimately restore all productive activities, food security, and the right to a dignified life and work” for all the area's population. The land liberations are not land invasions; they are needed actions taken to guarantee a dignified life for the impacted population and to protect the region’s food sovereignty, a requisite clearly delineated in the environmental license. In June, the Colombian Institute of Anthropology and History (ICANH), that previously had sanctioned Emgesa-Endesa-Enel for the destruction of archeological remains, has now decided that the company is the responsible entity for the creation of a museum in the impacted area of the Quimbo Dam, subsequently taking control and possession of the remains of the region’s ancestors. In the meantime, the company contracted archeologists from the National University in Bogota to perform an archeological survey of the region impacted by the Quimbo Dam. ASOQUIMBO rejected this immediately. Members of Jaguos por el Territorio documented the archeologists during their survey in La Jagua as they were plundering human bones and ceramics from tombs that they found. In a meeting with the community, the archeologists and a representative from the company referred to the remains as “trash” and confirmed the planned destruction of the sacred petroglyphs in the area of the trenches and are insultingly proposing the creation of a replica. On August 14 the Municipal Council of Garzón organized a debate between the company Emgesa and ASOQUIMBO. After a presentation from council members, during which the Quimbo Hydroelectric Project’s environmental license and the company’s obligations were reviewed point by point, ASOQUIMBO and the company were able to state their case. What was shown, as has been said for some time now, is that the company has not met with any of their requirements and that the Ministry of Environment has not obligated the company to do so. Accordingly, the council members rejected the Plan of Territorial Order (POT) and have formally requested that the Ministry of Environment immediately suspend the hydroelectric project until the company complies with the environmental license in its entirety.
[ed notes:click link for whole article..

Honduras- Decolonization, rivers and emancipation versus racism, arrogance and capitalism http://quotha.net/node/2576

1. a translation from Stephen Bartlett of Ag Missions of the COPINH communique with the above title
2. the original communique in Spanish

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Speech by Aureliano:
Speech by Tomasito:

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Consejo Cívico de Organizaciones Populares e Indígenas de Honduras COPINH.
Bo. Las Delicias, Int., Int.; copinh@copinh.org; copinhonduras.blogspot.com Tel. (504) 2783-0817; http://copinh.org; FB: Copinh Intibucá; twitter: @copinhhonduras
Decolonization, rivers and emancipation versus racism, arrogance and capitalism. Communique on the Initial Hearing (of Sept 12)Yesterday, after an intense campaign of struggle from the court houses of Intibuca against the criminalization of COPINH, we communicate the following:

1. Once again it was clearly demonstrated that the intent of the DESA corporation and the Public Ministry of Intibucá, in obedience to this corporation with its empty and manipulative accusations, is a posture of economic power that seeks to criminalize the historical cause of COPINH and the Lenca People. The demonstration of racism and belittlement of the Lenca People was a false witness of accusations full of lies, contradictions and even absurdity. What was even more clear was the aggression, interventionism and abuse on the part of the institutions of the State against the Lenca People in general.
2. The witnesses and defense lawyers, headed by the compañero Víctor Fernández, played a fundamental role, making a declaration of defense that was conscious, bold, firm and demonstrated that the indigenous people of Río Blanco are in struggle, with their conviction of their legitimacy as a First People, defending their collective and individual Rights, and that there is no basis for the accusations against our compañeros for their deeds.
3. The Public Ministry and the private accusers, at the moment of presenting their petitions to the First Court of Letters, asked for a sentence of prison with substitute measures for Aureliano Molina and Tomas Gómez, which would consist of a prohibition of being present in the “scene of the crime”, to present themselves to the Justice every 15 days, and that the defense lawyer would be responsible for the behavior of both compañeros; in the case of Berta Cáceres, General Coordinator of COPINH, the accusers asked for prison.
4. The female Judge in the case, the lawyer Lissien Lisseth Knight Reyes, DID NOT make a judgment yesterday, putting the date for a subsequent hearing to take place next Friday September 20, 2013 at 3:00 p.m. with the First Court of Letters of Intibucá.
5. The company threatens to present more accusations against the three defendants, and also against Other members of the Indigenous Council, the Council of Elders, and the Neighborhood Council (Patronato) of Tejera in Río Blanco.
6. In the meanwhile, more police forces have been deployed and more militarization and harassment in the communities to the north of Intibucá, including in Rio Blanco. All this is a result of the signature of an Act of Government, the company, and indigenous and council imposters, with the participation of SEDINAFROH, and President Porfirio Lobo Sosa.
7. We alert the communities organized by COPINH, to the social movements, to the Honduran resistance, to the progressive political and social forces, to those we call you to the cause of the defense of the goods of nature; to international solidarity and human rights organizations, that what the accusers are proposing and pushing for is the violent eviction (of the blockade) in Rio Blanco, using the repressive forces of the State, an unacceptable and shameful threat, to evict the Lenca People who cannot be removed from their own territory, occupied for thousands of years, and thereby criminalizing their just and noble struggle even more.
8. We call for struggle and acts of strong solidarity among all those who undertake actions in the face of the Honduran government. We ratify that COPINH, despite all the circumstances of attack and criminalization, will continue the development of this process of defense of the territories, the culture, the spirituality and the common goods of nature, of the Lenca People and for dignity.

The Rivers are Not for Sale: They are to Protect and Defend!
With the ancestral strength of Icelaca, Lempira, Mota and Etempica we raise our voices full of life, freedom, dignity and peace! NO MORE CRIMINALIZATION OF COPINH’S STRUGGLE!
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In Honduras, military takes over with US blessing
It’s widely known that the Honduran police are corrupt, thoroughly enmeshed in organized crime, drug trafficking, and extrajudicial killings. But rather than clean them up, the current government of President Porfirio Lobo — itself the product of an illegitimate election after the military coup that deposed President Manuel Zelaya in June 2009 — has now, ominously, sent in the military to take over policing on a massive scale. The United States, meanwhile, is pouring funds into both Honduran security forces, countenancing a militarization of the Honduran police that has long been illegal here at home, while dismissing Congressional pushback about human rights issues in Honduras. The Honduran police are, indeed, corrupt almost beyond belief. According to a top Honduran government commission, only 30 percent of the police are currently “rescuable.” In Octber 2011, police killed the son of the rector of the nation’s largest university, and one of his friends. The national director of police, Juan Carlos “El Tigre” Bonilla, is an alleged death squad leader from 1998-2002, and the Associated Press has recently documented ongoing death squad-style killings. President Lobo and the Honduran Congress clearly lack the political will to clean up the police, in large part because top political figures, including judges, prosecutors, and congressmembers, are themselves allegedly interlaced with organized crime, drug traffickers, and those accused of extrajudicial killings. Now the government’s answer is to send in the military. In direct violation of the Honduran constitution, which explicitly forbids military participation in policing, over the past three years Lobo has gradually extended “temporary” militarization of law enforcement. Military personnel now routinely and randomly patrol neighborhoods in the large cities, much to residents’ alarm, and control the country’s prisons. Most alarmingly, on August 22, the Congress created a new “hybrid” military police force which will immediately contract 5,000 new officers that it promises to have on the streets by early October. The dangers of this militarization are clear. Soldiers are trained to track and kill a hostile enemy. Successful policing, by contrast, depends on,respect for local communities and citizens’ legal rights, careful handling of evidence, and the use of minimal force. In the United States, military involvement in policing has been banned since 1878. In Honduras, military involvement in law enforcement has already proven deadly. On May 26, 2012, soldiers chased down, shot and killed a 15-year old boy who had passed through a checkpoint, and their officer ordered a high-level coverup. On July 15, the military shot and killed Tomás García, a nonviolent indigenous activist at a peaceful protest. A driving force behind this militarization is Juan Orlando Hernández, the ruling party candidate for president in Honduras’ upcoming presidential election on November 24, who has promised to protect Hondurans with “a soldier on every corner.” Yet he himself voted for the military coup that deposed President Zelaya, and this past December, while he was president of Congress, led the so-called “technical coup,” in which the Congress illegally deposed four members of the Supreme Court and named their replacements the very next day.


 

Colombia: 60% of indigenous face 'extinction' 
The National Indigenous Organization of Colombia (ONIC) released findings Sept. 13 that 62.7% of Colombia's indigenous population—a total of some 890,00 people—is at risk of extinction. Of the 102 indigenous communities in Colombia, 66 are found to be under grave threat, from forces such as large-scale mining development and the country's ongoing armed conflict. The findings follow a ruling issued by Colombia's Constitutional Court three days earlier that the government has not done enough to protect its indigenous population, after a 2004 decision by the same body ordered that additional measures be taken. The court held that efforts made over the previous decade to improve security for indigenous peoples have been ineffective and insufficient. The ruling found that indigenous communities are continuously victimized by armed groups forcing them off of their land, and endemic health problems caused by resource exploitation on their traditional territories. However, in contrast to ONIC, the court identified 36 indigenous groups at risk of extinciton.In Colombia, much of the indigenous population lives in autonomous territories set aside by the national Consitution. But these nominally autonomous  communities have historically borne the brunt of the Colombia's long-standing armed conflict, as well as its aggressive mining policy, which has led to mass deforestation and poisoned lands and waters with sulfur, cyanide, heavy metals and other toxins.In August, a report by independent broadcaster Noticias Uno affirmed fears about the health impacts of the Cerro Matoso open-pit nickel mine, run by PHP Billiton in Córdoba department, on the local Senú indigenous people. Televised footage documented a rash of degenerative maladies in local communities, with symptoms such as nail and hair loss, seeming to confirm residents' fears that the mine—the fourth largest nickel operation on the planet—poses grave health risks to the Senú.Severe nickel contamination in local waters has been documented, and researchers at the University of the Andes in Bogotá are attempting to develop a "super-bacteria" to decontaminate effluent from the mine.The Santos administration claims it has invested nearly $546 million in initiatives aimed at supporting Colombia's indigenous population, but the Constitutional Court ruling asserts that government action has been slow and inefficient. ONIC has organized the first-ever Indigenous Copa America, an international soccer match featuring indigenous players from throughout the hemisphere, set to take place in Colombia next year, to draw attention to the destruction of traditional cultures and populations. (Colombia Reports, El Tiempo, Notimex, Sept. 13; Colombia Reports, Sept. 10; Colombia Reports, Aug. 6; CAOI, March 14)

  Yaqui maintain highway blockade, call for international support
 VICAM PUEBLO, Sonora, Mexico -- Yoeme (Yaqui) in Vicam Pueblo maintained their highway barricade in defense of their water in the Rio Yaqui, as representatives of the National Indigenous Congress met over the weekend with directives from the Zapatistas Little School.Ofelia Rivas, O'odham representative of the National Indigenous Congress, attended the gathering in Vicam on Saturday, Sept. 14, 2013."Vicam Yoeme are calling for international support for a meeting on October 18 in the defense of water in Vicam," Rivas said. The Northwest regional meeting of the National Indigenous Congress included the states of Sonora, Sinoloa, Chihuahua and Baja."Yaqui are sending a special invitation to the Mohawks to attend this important meeting on water rights on October 18," Rivas said. 
Earlier, Mohawks joined Subcomandante Marcos and Zapatistas commandantes in Vicam Pueblo for a gathering in 2007. It is located about seven hours southwest of Tucson on the coast of Mexico. "Water is essential to our survival," said Mario Luna, spokesman for the Yoeme Traditional Authority of Vicam."Generations paid with their blood to maintain our homeland for future generations," Luna told the gathering this weekend.Luna said the illegal construction is already underway on the Independence Aqueduct. It is a diversion project of Yaqui water from the Rio Yaqui to the city of Hermosillo. Luna said neither the diversion project, nor Mexico's government officials have consulted with Vicam Yaquis as required for the impact statement.Yaquis said their around the clock, 24-hour a day, highway barricade of federal highway 15, manned by Yoeme warriors, has lasted more than 100 days and has had a major impact on produce flowing into the US. The barricade blocks traffic on the major highway between the Pacific Coast and the city of Hermosillo, a major route from the coast to the US. Yoeme lift the blockade for short periods, allowing trucks to pass after halting the trucks for hours, causing extensive delays, around the clock. Rivas said, "They have cars blocking the highway now. It is causing delays in produce like tomatoes getting to the US on time."Traditional Authorities of Yaqui Vicam Pueblo issued a summons for this weekend's gathering, in accordance with the Zapatistas Little School.







http://enlacezapatista.ezln.org.mx/
The Traditional Authorities said the water theft of the Yaqui River Basin will destroy the natural resources of this Indian territory."Considering that we have inhabited this territory for 2,500 years, a place where we were born and we have developed our existence, where mother earth provides us with everything for our life and like all the world's indigenous peoples live as brothers, with plants, trees, animals, birds, insects, the air, the heat, the cold, the sun, moon, stars, earth and water, of which is our home, food and healing, and the source of our power.""Whereas in the territory of the Yaqui tribe, our people are made of earth and water and all that comes from them. While building our culture and creating and consolidating our own institutions, in the vicinity of the river today known as Rio Yaqui, the current government perpetrated one of the most colossal robberies of living memory, stealing the waters of the basin and trying to spoil our people more.""Whereas for more than 520 years we have suffered, in our lives and in our hearts, the war of extermination, one of the longest and bloodiest wars of living memory, brought on by the political and economic power that is in power today," Yaqui said of the current authoritarian misrule.Yaqui said today the resistance and civil disobedience is for Yoeme Autonomy and Self-determination."Whereas the existence of Mother Earth and humanity is threatened by the hegemonic capitalist system for their insatiable greed and excessive economic and natural resource exploitation and death of ecosystems, carried out by large multinational corporations seeking to divest from our territories and to be strongholds of natural resources, in collusion with corrupt government institutions and the collusion of free market policies, such as NAFTA Puebla-Panama Plan, and its project northwest of the Sea of Cortez known as the Coastal Highway, along with that project, the current state government is stealing water from the Yaqui River basin through the illegal construction of the Independence Aqueduct, with the aim of more plunder, and giving an existential hit to our people.""Today through unfair and illegal, bidding, construction and operation of the Independence Aqueduct, they steal Yaqui river water and divert it to the city of Hermosillo, with the evil purpose of feeding large transnational businesses, real estate developments, and to encourage the speculation of businesses, with the rampant corrupt government complicity of Guillermo Padres Elias and consent of the current Federal Government.""The Yaqui Tribe, like most indigenous peoples and the more than 50 million poor who inhabit the country are on the border of extermination, as a result of economic policies that favor the success of the market," Yaqui said.
The Traditional Authority said Mexico wants to "turn water into a commodity, by privatizing and commodifying," water while neglecting the development, autonomy and the right to self-determination of Indigenous peoples.The Zapatistas, in conjunction with the Mexican Indigenous National Congress, issued a statement of solidarity and support for Yaqui.
“We believe that the earth is our mother and that the water that runs through her veins is not for sale. The life it gives us is a right, not something that the bad government or the business owners have granted us."“We demand the immediate cancellation of the arrest warrants and false accusations against members of the Yaqui Tribe, and we condemn the criminalization of their struggle. To the political party-based bad governments we say that the Yaqui River is the historical carrier of the ancestral continuity of Yaqui culture and territory, and that a slight against any of us is a slight against all of us. We will respond accordingly to any attempt to repress this dignified struggle or any other. We make a call to the international community and to our brothers and sisters of the International Sixth to be alert to the events in Yaqui territory and to join in solidarity with the Yaqui Tribe and its demands.”
[ED NOTES;CLICK LINK FOR WHOLE PIECE...

Nigerians to royal dutch shell - No deal
Reuters reports that thousands of Nigerian plaintiffs have rejected a “totally derisory and insulting” compensation offer by oil giant Royal Dutch Shell over pollution caused by spills in the Niger Delta:“Their lawyers said they will now go back to a British court to request a trial timetable.The legal action is being closely watched by the oil industry and by environmentalists for precedents that could have an impact on other big pollution claims against majors.…A source close to Shell and another source involved in the negotiations told Reuters the company offered total compensation of 7.5 billion naira ($46.3 million).Leigh Day, the British law firm representing the villagers, said the compensation offer amounted to approximately 1,100 pounds ($1,700) per individual impacted, without giving the number of people it says were affected.”

COLOMBIA WATCH- 37 HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS ASSASSINATED IN FIRST SEMESTER OF THIS YEAR....
 http://www.semana.com/especiales/defensores-derechos-asesinados/index.html
 These are the 37 human rights defenders killed in the first half of this year, and the circumstances in which they died, according to the Organization we are defenders.Figures from the report 'Heroes Anonimos' of the information system on attacks on human rights defenders of human rights - SIADDHH, of the program we are defenders

Lista de defensores por departamento

Inicio

 ANTIOQUIA

   - Reinaldo Domicó

   - Mario Álvaro Estrada

   - Iván Darío Restrepo

   - Julián Andrés Taborda

   - Didier Alberto Marulanda

   - Eugenio José Ramírez Porras

CAUCA

   - Rafael Mauricio Girón Ulchur

   - Juan Carlos Muñoz

   - Gustavo Adolfo Pizo

   - Venancio Taquinás

   - Belarmino Chocue

   - Jairo Herrera

VALLE DEL CAUCA

   - Elizabeth Gutiérrez

   - Alba Mery Chilito

   - Leonardo García Morera

   - Demetrio López

   - María Angélica Grajales Ramírez

   - Oscar Everto Isaza

RISARALDA

   - Javier Gonzales Vernaza

   - Luis Irlá Siágama Caisales

   - James Darío Tapasco Tapasco

   - Elio Faber Giraldo Correa

CÓRDOBA

   - Ermes Enrique Vidal Osorio

   - Elver Cordero Oviedo

   - Seferino Domicó Majoré

NARIÑO

    - Sócrates Paz Patiño

    - Álvaro Queguan

BOGOTÁ

   - Oscar Eduardo Sandino

   - Héctor Malagón  

OTROS DEPARTAMENTOS

   - Elkin Alberto Mozo Hincapié (Magdalena)

   - José Alonso Lozano (Meta)

   - Aldemar Martínez (Huila)

   - Isnelda Gutiérrez (Cundinamarca)

   - Gilberto Argüello Beltrán (Santander)

   - José Ireno Palacios Palacios (Chocó)

   - Eduar Enrique Cardozo Flórez (Bolívar)

   - Luz Johana López (Caldas)

Colombia Watch - Paramilitaries issue trade union death threat defending multinational mining companies
 There is international outrage after a death threat was issued by paramilitary forces called the Rastrojos against trade unionists, members of the Polo opposition party, community activists and human rights organisations. Many of those threatened work closely with Justice for Colombia, including Ivan Cepeda with whom a JFC delegation met with in Colombia just over a week ago and the Patriotic March whose representatives visited Britain and Ireland last April.
The death threat explicitly spoke out in favour of the work of multinational companies such as Anglo Gold Ashanti, Pacific Rubiales and Drummond and defended the government of President Santos. Trade unions have in recent weeks taken part in a series of protests and strikes focused on improving work conditions and opposing the government’s focus on promoting large scale mining projects which are having detrimental effects in peasant farmer communities. Miners are currently on strike in the northeastern region of Bajo Cauca and more than 5,000 Drummond workers have paralysed coal exportation with industrial action that has entered its third week. Further industrial action is expected in coming weeks in different parts of the country and this threat from the Urban Command of the Rastrojos paramilitary group is a brutal warning to those involved in the protests. The inter-relation of multinational companies, state agents, and right-wing paramilitary death squads has been a common element in recent Colombian history which has led to close to 3,000 trade unionists being killed since the mid-1980s. The paramilitaries declared midnight of 7 August 2013 as the limit for any protest activity before they would begin taking action.While government representatives have issued statements condemning the death threat and have promised increased protection measures, the threatened individuals and organisations are, and have for a long time, been calling for a political commitment that goes beyond positive statements and physical protection programs. What is being called for is an end to the smear campaign which has seen top level members of the government, including the President and the Defence Minister, claiming on repeated occasions that democratic protests are infiltrated by guerrillas, and an end to the impunity which sees death threats and killings of social activists rarely find any justice.
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The Colombian Government Is Killing Its Peasant Farmers for Their Land http://www.vice.com/en_uk/read/the-colombian-government-is-slaughtering-its-peasant-farmers-for-their-land
The root of the country’s problems actually lie in land ownership and the state’s penchant for selling off peasant land to multinational companies, who then mine it for resources like oil and gold. Unfortunately for these corporations – who already own up to 75 percent of the land in some regions – the campesinos tend to be fairly reluctant to move from the turf they've spent decades making their home. So what’s the solution? Simple – chuck the campesinos off. This policy is at least part of the reason why Colombia is currently home to five million displaced people, which accounts for over 10 percent of its entire population and is the highest number of any country in the world. And these people aren't always expelled peacefully: if the army doesn’t scare them away (when I was in Colombia, I met campesinos who told me that the army was intimidating them by shitting in the water supply), right-wing paramilitaries have a tendency to turn up and just massacre everybody instead. In their quest to secure land to grow narcotics on and smuggle munitions across, these paramilitaries basically act as extrajudicial death squads.The campesinos also want the right to farm alternative crops to illegal coca, from which cocaine is made. At the moment, it’s impossible to make a living by farming food products because foreign imports are so cheap and because the total lack of decent roads or infrastructure makes transport costs too high. Campesino farmers are becoming increasingly reliant on coca, only to have the army burn down all of their crops, pushing them further into poverty. 

The government calls the campesinos terrorists, but when I was in Catatumbo, I saw no evidence of that. The campesinos seemed like ordinary people, many of them teenagers, who claim to have never fired a single shot at the authorities. As one campesino put it, “If we were terrorists with access to weaponry, why would we fight the army with sticks and stones?”It’s a compelling argument, and one the government doesn’t want people to hear. The day before we set off for Catatumbo, Colombia’s ministry of defence tried to intimidate us into changing our minds. We received several emails and were invited to a personal meeting, where we were warned that our safety among the campesinos couldn’t be guaranteed.
But that was complete bullshit – the biggest threat to our safety were the soaring temperatures. Our interactions with the campesinos consisted mainly of eating lunch together and salsa dancing – hardly the stuff of Jabhat al-Nusra. Nevertheless, the government continues its smears; the leader of the campesino union, Cesar Jerez, is regularly portrayed in the Colombian press as some kind of Latino bin Laden. Anyone with an interest in human rights should be keeping an eye on what happens to him in the coming months.
[ed notes;click link for more...

Colombia’s air force sprays indigenous land with pesticides ‘indiscriminately’ : Christian Aid Colombia http://colombiareports.com/colombias-air-force-sprays-indigenous-land-with-pesticides/
Christian aid Colombia on Friday accused the Colombian air force of spraying harmful pesticides “indiscriminatly” over north west Colombia, in an effort to eradicate coca crops. According to reports from the Thomas Reuters foundation, the air force started their campaign on July 22 by “spraying illicit crops” near Alto Guayabal in the department of Choco. Colombia is the only country in the world that allows the aerial spraying of herbicides in the war against drugs. Many organisations, such as Christian Aid and AIDA oppose the use of such harmful chemicals because of the damaging effect to local settlements and environment. The country manager of Christian Aid Colombia, Thomas Mortensen, told the media that “the local Embera community has reported that the aerial spraying has contaminated their water and crops and is causing community members, including children, to fall sick. This is a clear violation of their rights.” According to news reports, the Embera people have previously approached the government in 2012 to ask for help eradicating the coca crops in their area, but have been wholly opposed to aerial spraying. Mr Mortensen added that “the Colombian authorities could have worked with the indigenous communities to manually eradicate the coca in the area and protect the Embera community from outsiders.” In May this year, Colombia was actually recognized as the first country in Latin America to declare indigenous sacred land to be of “national and cultural interest.”
MORE: Colombia making ‘great strides’ protecting indigenous lands: lobby group
The Embera are one of thirty four indigenous groups thaat are considered at risk of physical or cultural extinction. While Colombia’s constitution recognises them and their rights, they are often disregarded by (govt), mining companies and paramilitary groups.
Sources
Chemical spraying threatens indigenous community in Colombia (Thomas Reuters Foundation)
Chemical-spraying of indigenous people’s land threatens children’s futures

Colombia Watch ...
Death threat made against trade union leader after denouncing actions of multinational oil company

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Three farmer activists killed in one week

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Canada Must Stand Up for Human Rights in Colombia: Ken Neumann USW

 Utah Blockade and Ceremony shuts down tarsands mine, stocks plummetDemonstrators Stage Road Blockade and Prayer Ceremony at Site of Proposed Tar Sands Strip Mine in Utah
 By Peaceful Uprising Communities Vow to Protect Colorado River System from Dirty Energy Extraction Bookcliffs Range, Utah–Dozens of individuals peacefully disrupted road construction and stopped operations today at the site of a proposed tar sands mine in the Bookcliffs range of southeastern Utah. Earlier this morning, Utahns joined members of indigenous tribes from the Four Corners region and allies from across the country for a water ceremony inside the mine site on the East Tavaputs Plateau. Following the ceremony, a group continued to stop work at the mine site while others halted road construction, surrounding heavy machinery with banners reading “Respect Existence or Expect Existence” and “Tar Sands Wrecks Lands”. Read article: http://www.peacefuluprising.org/actioncampaction
US Oil Sands stock drops 13% day nonviolent direct action shuts down mine
by kcsg.com news
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah - Investors took notice Monday of the potential for severe financial losses caused by an ongoing direct action campaign to stop tar sands development on the Coloardo Plateau. US Oil Sands stock price on the Toronto Stock Exchange closed July 26 at $0.115. As people rolled-out onto the mine site in the Book Cliffs of Utah to enforce a full-day work stoppage, US Oil Sands stock price had dropped to $0.10 (source: Toronto Stock Exchange), down 50% from the company's 52-week high.
Read more: KCSG Television - US Oil Sands stock drops 13 day nonviolent direct action shuts down mine

Grassroots Groups Wary of Haiti’s 'Attractive' Mining Law
(Haiti Grassroots Watch) - As the government works on preparing “an attractive law that will entice investors”, Haitian popular organizations are mobilizing and forming networks to resist mining in their country. Already one-third of the north of Haiti is under research, exploration, or exploitation license to foreign companies. "We in Baie de Henne are against any eventual mining because we will not profit one bit. It will have harmful impacts that destroy our fertile lands and our fruit trees and dry up our aquifers.” -- Vernicia Phillus, a member of the Tèt Kole women’s group Some 2,400 square kilometers have been parceled out to Haitian firms fronting for U.S. and Canadian concerns. Some estimate that Haiti’s mineral wealth – mostly gold, copper, and silver – could be worth as much as 20 billion dollars. The awarding of permits behind closed doors, with no independent or community oversight, has angered many in Haiti, who fear that the government is opening the country up to systematic pillage. But the head of the government mining agency told Haiti Grassroots Watch (HGW) his concern is to assure that Haiti is made more “attractive” to potential investors. “We need an attractive mining law,” said Ludner Remarais, head of the Mining and Energy Agency. “A mining law that will entice investors.” The current law is obsolete, according to Remarais. Haiti’s “gold rush” has been going on for the past five years or so, since the price of gold and other minerals rose. Until last year, the government and the companies cut their deals behind closed doors. After an investigation revealed that 15 percent of the county was under contract, on Feb. 20, 2013 the Haitian Senate adopted a resolution demanding all activities cease in order to allow for a national debate and for analysis of all contracts. “We are scrupulously respecting the decision,” Remarais said, but he added that the resolution does not annul the rights already acquired. Local resistance in the gold-rich regions Peasant, human rights, food sovereignty and environmental organizations are worried about the disastrous effects the mining industry could have on water quality, farmland, and on the affected regions in general and have formed the national Collective Against Mining to assist local associations with information and consciousness-raising sessions. On Jul. 5, over 200 farmers from the area around the Grand Bois deposit – about 11 kilometers south of Limbé, in the North department – got together to discuss the mining operation and their futures. They spoke of their worries for three hours in sweltering tin-roofed church. “When someone talks about mining, our history makes us think of slavery, of the takeover of our farmlands,” said Willy Pierre, a social sciences teacher from a nearby school. “We could lose our fertile fields. We will be forced off our land. Where will we live?” The Grand Bois deposit is rich in gold and copper, according to tests carried out by the Canadian mining company Eurasian Minerals. Eurasian owns the license given by the BME to its Haitian subsidiary, Société Minière Citadelle S.A. During the meeting, many people said they were nervous. “This mining business should be a lesson for all of us,” warned Jean Vilmé, a farmer from the Bogé region of Grand Bois. “Not only will those of us who live around the mineral deposit perish, the entire country will be swallowed up!” Two weeks earlier about 50 members of local and national organizations met in Jean Rabel, an impoverished town in the Northwest department with poor roads and no water system or health facilities. Participants watched and debated a video on mining in Haiti and discussed their next steps. Earlier that month, some 60 representatives of the associations in the collective organized a day-long meeting at Montrouis, northeast of the capital. Of particular concern are the protection of ground water, food sovereignty, agricultural land, biodiversity, health, and land ownership. Clébért Duval, a member of the peasant association Tèt Kole Ti Peyizan Ayisyen (“Small Haitian Peasants Working Together”) from Port-de-Paix, noted that a state that is working in favor of its people could use mineral resources to “change the conditions of the popular masses, peasants, vulnerable people, and could give this country a new face”. However, he said, “If the state is a predator that is working for the multinationals, for the capitalist system which, since it is in crisis, is taking over the riches of poor countries to fight the crisis, then that state will always encourage mining. All the money that should go to the people will go to the foreign firms, except for a few crumbs for the local guys who are serving as go-betweens. The mining companies will get all the riches, just as they have in the past.” Many rejected the officials’ arguments that mining is important for the country’s development and economy. “In 2012, some companies did prospecting,” said Vernicia Phillus, a member of the Tèt Kole women’s coordination in Baie de Henne. “They took away soil and rock samples. Each person who worked for them got between 200 and 250 gourdes (4.65 to 5.81 dollars) a day. “We in Baie de Henne are against any eventual mining because we will not profit one bit. It will have harmful impacts that destroy our fertile lands and our fruit trees and dry up our aquifers.” Government and World Bank also organizing In early June, the Haitian mining agency and the World Bank organized a “Mining Forum” aimed at developing “the mining sector in a way that makes it a motor for the country’s economic takeoff.” Most of the speakers were from foreign institutions and from mining companies. Parliamentarians, local elected officials, independent geologists and researchers, representatives of the people from the regions concerned, and grassroots organizations did not address the room. One of the meeting’s principle objectives was allegedly to sketch out the general contours of a new mining law for the country, even though World Bank officials said they had kicked off that process earlier this year, according to media reports.During the Jun. 3-4 forum, Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe said that his government was working with “competent experts who have [Haiti's] national interests at heart”, according to the Associated Press. But World Bank involvement with the law appears to be a conflict of interest. In 2010, the International Finance Commission (IFC), a branch of the bank, invested about five million in Eurasian Mineral’s Haiti operations, receiving Eurasian shares in exchange. The World Bank is often criticized by organizations like Mining Watch Canada, Earthworks, and others for being lax where the protection of poor countries is concerned, and for its role in the “continuation of colonialism” in Africa, Asia, and Latin America through its important loans to mining companies. In March, the U.S. government representative to the World Bank abstained in a vote to approve a bank loan for 12 billion dollars to a mining operation in the Gobi Desert, citing concerns over potential negative environmental impacts. The bank loans were approved anyway, according to Inter Press Service. Asked about an eventual new law that would be “attractive” and capable of “enticing investors”, the director of DOP, a member of the Collective Against Mining, said he was concerned. “Mining legislation that is ‘attractive’ will open the country up for ‘business,’” wrote attorney Patrice Florvilus on Jul. 14, 2013, making reference to the government’s slogan “Haiti – Open for business.” “Business, without considering the deleterious effects on community life and on the environment, which is already deteriorating at a worrying pace,” he added.In a Jul. 22 note, the Collective wrote the following: “We want a truly national law and international conventions that protect life, water, land, and the environment, and that outlaw mining which brings with it pollution, destruction, contamination, and more hunger.”Please also see other Haiti Grassroots Watch stories on the issue: Dossier #18 and Dossier #27

Human Rights Accompaniers Kidnapped to Protect Mining Operation
Two days ago two international (French and Swiss) human rights accompaniers with PROAH were kidnapped by 7 heavily armed men reinforced by several dozen mine employees with machetes working for Lenir Pérez, son-in-law of Miguel Facussé. They had been staying with a family in El Zapote, near La Nueva Esperanza, to accompany them and the community as community members stood up to threats they had received for refusing to sell their lands to Pérez.

Farmers and Miners Strike Continue in Colombia http://www.prensa-latina.cu/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&idioma=2&id=1685141&Itemid=1
via Liliana Ximena
 The strike in the Colombian region of Catatumbo, which has been held for weeks in the middle of farmer protests and many social outbreaks, was joined by the mining sector, which first day of strike left 2 civilian fatalities. In a communique published yesterday, the National Committee of Mining Strike denounced that 2 people died, one of them as consequence of a stroke for breathing tear gas launched by the Riot Police Squad in Risaralda departmentThe most harsh clashes took place in Irra region, where a dozen people were injured and at least 40 children remain hospitalized for the effects of the tear gas"The National Committee of Mining Strike firmly rejects the violent repression of the strike carried out by thousands of miners nationwide for the disastrous and anti-national policy lead by Juan Manuel Santos", said the workers of that sector in the communique.Artisanal miners from 80 municipalities of 18 regions keep roads blocked, among them those that connect Manizales-Medellin and Cali-Buenaventura, to claim the legalization of middle and small-scale companies, said local media.On the other hand, the nearly 16,000 farmers that have been on strike since June 11 in Catatumbo, at northern Santander, continue the demonstration that has become the largest and most complicated of Santos' management, said specialists.Congresspeople Ivan Cepeda and Angela Robledo arrived yesterday at Tibu, where most of the demonstrators are located, to try to mediate in the negotiations in the middle of the continuous repressions performed by the public force, which only in that municipality has 2,000 officers."We are willing to accompany and protect farmers from that arbitrariness, because it would be terrible that such actions happen again and lose more human lives", said Cepeda in a press release.Catatumbo demonstration, which began as a peaceful action, has left 4 fatalities and more than 50 injured farmers.

Armed security contractors exposed on Arizona border, and Wisconsin Masked and armed private security contractors are doing the dirty work of mining companies -- and working with law enforcement agencies that stalk Native American human rights activists.By Brenda NorrellCensored News

Wisconsin mining site

Armed security contractors exposed on Arizona border, and Wisconsin  Masked and armed private security contractors are doing the dirty work of mining companies -- and working with law enforcement agencies that stalk Native American human rights activists.By Brenda NorrellCensored News

The exposure of heavily-armed masked guards around a mining site in Wisconsin has led to another exposure, identifying private security contractors on the US/Mexico border. 

The company is Bulletproof Securities and its clients include the Salt River Project, the operator of the dirty Arizona coal fired power plant located on Navajoland, the Navajo Generating Station.Bulletproof Securities boasts of its work on the US/Mexico border, on its website. It names several US agencies that it says it has a strong relationship with. Those are the same US agencies that were recently exposed for spying on Navajo and Tohono O’odham human rights activists who oppose the militarization of O'odham lands, and the exploitation by the dirty coal industry of Navajoland. http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2013/05/tohono-oodham-and-arizona-police-stalk.html

 

Today's exposure comes as Tohono O’odham and other Native people who are abused by US Border Patrol agents and private security contractors have been questioning who these new heavily-armed contractors are lurking around the border. The contractors have refused to identify themselves.In Wisconsin, lawmakers asked mining company Gogebic Taconite to remove the armed security guards from proposed mining sites, after frightening photos surfaced from the proposed iron ore mining site on Saturday.

Video: Bulletproof atop armored vehicle

Calling it horrifying and appalling, State Sen. Bob Jauch. D-Poplar, and Rep. Janet Bewley, D-Ashland, sent a letter to Gogebic Taconite President Bill Williams, calling on him to immediately remove “the heavily armed masked commando security unit recently hired to protect the company’s property in the Penokee Hills.” http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/event/article/id/271905/group/homepage

Back at the US/Mexico border, Bulletproof Securities' website  shows a photo of the contractor working with the US Border Patrol.

Bulletproof Securities website

The exposure comes today, following a recent Freedom of Information request concerning the Occupy movement. Those US documents exposed the fact that Tohono O'odham and Navajo human rights activists were being spied on and stalked by federal agencies, Arizona police, Tucson police, and Tohono O'odham police. Bulletproof Securities says it trains with submachine guns and builds machine guns. "We also have the ability to train and sell weapons to our clients."The guards are trained sharpshooters and former US military, police officers and US Border Patrol agents. Bulletproof Security says on its website: “BPS has at its disposal the latest cache of specialized equipment for border security operations, not typically found in the private sector. As example, BPS owns heavily armored Joint Light Tactical Vehicles (JLTV’s), Tactical All Terrain Vehicles (T-ATV’s), FLIR (mobile thermal systems), mast equipment (eye in the sky), and many other state-of-the-art assets.”

http://www.bulletproofsecurities.com/services/border_security