A Brazilian land reform activist has been killed in the Amazon state of Para amid ongoing land disputes in the area.
Police said two men on motorbikes shot Pedro Alcantara de Souza five times in the head as he was riding a bicycle.
Mr Souza, the head of a union of landless farmers in Para, had led the occupations of large farms by peasants.
American nun Dorothy Stang was killed in the same region in 2005, after she had spent three decades working with peasants and small farmers there. Contract killings
Mr Souza was the president of the small farmers' union in the town of Rendencao and had previously served for 14 years as the city councillor.
The police say his killing was carried out by hired gunmen, the BBC's Paulo Cabral reports From Sao Paulo.
No arrests have yet been made.
Mr Souza was shot just hours after the trial was delayed of the landowner accused of ordering the murder of Dorothy Stang, 73.
Vitalmiro Bastos Moura was originally convicted for the killing in 2007. The verdict was overturned a year later, but he is now due to face a third trial.
There were 20 documented killings in 2008 linked to land issues in the Amazon, a survey by the Catholic Church showed.
Brazil's agrarian reform laws state that unused farmland can be taken by the government and distributed among landless farmers.
There have been some improvements in recent years, but severe inequality persists - government figures show that nearly half the arable land in Brazil belongs to just 1% of the population.
Tuesday March 23, 2010 18:24 by Ghassan Bannoura - IMEMC News & Agencies
Armed Israeli settlers attacked on Tuesday Palestinian farmers in different locations in the occupied West Bank.
Settler spraying a Palestinian Muslim woman with wine at Hebron old city market southeren West Bank – file 2009
In the village of Qauit, northern West Bank, settlers prevented dozens of farmers from reaching their land. Witnesses said that settlers used guns and threatened to open fire at the farmers should they try to reach their lands.
In central West Bank, armed settlers attacked farmers from Sinjel village, while working in their lands.
The famers said that they were plowing their lands when the settlers attacked them. Soldiers arrived at the location, and moved the settlers away but forced the villagers to leave their lands.
There are 500,000 settlers living in West Bank settlements. According to international law all Israeli settlement in the West Bank, including those in Jerusalem, are illegal.
At approximately 09:00, IOF moved into Safa village, north of Hebron. They fired tear gas canisters and sound bombs and chased Palestinian farmers to prevent them from accessing their agricultural lands. Israeli troops fired tear gas canisters at a number of houses, which threatened the life of 8-year-old Nasser Bassam 'Aadi, who suffers from several chronic diseases. According to his mother, a tear gas canister was fired at the house, which forced her to take him from the house to his uncle's house, as he faced extreme difficulties breathing.
ZAMBOANGA CITY: A government soldier was wounded after a farmer whom he tried to arrest for carrying a sickle near a checkpoint attacked him in the southern Philippines.
Other soldiers also manning the checkpoint fatally shot the farmer in Maguindanao’s Datu Piang town. The military blamed the country’s largest Muslim rebel group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, in the weekend attack. It said the man was a member of the MILF, an accusation strongly denied by the rebel group.
“The MILF has nothing to do with the attack. The reports we have received said the soldier was trying to arrest the farmer and confiscate his sickle, which he was using in his farm. Apparently an altercation ensued and for a still unknown reason, the farmer attacked and wounded the soldier. The farmer was later killed by soldiers,” said Eid Kabalu, a senior MILF leader.
Military officials could not be immediately reached to comment on the reports.
Maguindanao, one of five provinces under the Muslim autonomous region, is under a state of emergency after the brutal murder of 57 people, including at least 31 journalists on November 23 in Ampatuan town.
Under the cover of the incessant noise from the roads in the Hebron district, an anonymous Arab is perpetrating a serious crime: With a small hammer, he is digging a cistern so he can collect rainwater on his rocky land. Other such criminals have other methods of carrying out their evil schemes - which is to say, to prepare their land for cultivation of vegetables, grain, grapevines or almond trees.
"When someone builds a terrace on his land, he does it by taking a stone from the ground and adding it to the supporting wall once a month or once a week at most, so that it will be hard to discern the change," a Hebron resident said, explaining one of the methods.
Experience shows that if you use heavy equipment to rehabilitate the land, it immediately attracts Civil Administration inspectors and local settlers, and is followed shortly afterward by stop-work injunctions.
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In the spirit of the popular saying along the lines of "Give a man a fishing rod rather than a fish," the European Union has been devoting attention and money to Palestinian farmers in recent years. These projects are designed to increase the income of poor agricultural families by allowing them to reclaim their land and expand the area under cultivation. The logic of "Give a man a fishing rod" also meets the need to return to traditional, environment-friendly agricultural methods and to heritage crop species, while making the best use of the water - thus also fighting desertification.
"And we were actually convinced that the Palestinians and Israel have a common interest: developing Area C, which supports the Palestinian economy, and projects that suit both sides in terms of the environment," said a European diplomat - who discovered he was mistaken.
Over the past two years, the Civil Administration in the Hebron area has issued dozens of stop-work orders to Palestinian farmers trying to reclaim, rehabilitate and prepare the land on their property. That is how European officials, representatives of the donor nations, discovered that Palestinians "are not allowed to move a stone or plant a tree or collect rainwater on their land without the approval of the Civil Administration," as one of them told Haaretz.
The Palestinians have several veteran agricultural associations that have been in operation since the early 1980s; they did not need the Europeans to invent the wheel for them. But they do need financial support.
The system works like this: The Europeans transfer the money to international non-governmental agencies, which have connections with the local organizations. One of these is the Union of Agricultural Work Committees, one of the oldest non-governmental Palestinian organizations. This organization received 2.25 million euros from the EU for a three-year project to reclaim and rehabilitate 2,000 dunams of agricultural land in the Hebron district. This means removing rocks and stones, leveling the ground, building terraces and stone fences, digging cisterns, and improving the access roads to the plots. The project involves several hundred families, all of which agreed to one of its main conditions: They pay for 25 percent of the cost of the work on their land.
About 70 percent of Palestinian agricultural land is located in areas that Israel has defined as Area C, under full Israeli control. Therefore, for the non-profit organizations, reclaiming the land is part of the political, popular struggle against its annexation to Israeli settlements and outposts. But for the farmers themselves, this battle also involves many risks, which many prefer not to take.
In the wake of the flood of stop-work injunctions that arrived in 2008 , said the European official, fewer farmers were willing to join the land reclamation project in Area C. Some borrowed money in order to pay for their share of the work. Then came the injunctions. The work was stopped, but their debts remained or their savings went down the drain. In several instances, the heavy equipment leased for the work was confiscated by the Civil Administration. This equipment requires a permit, because using it is considered "construction." Their owners were left without a source of income for several months. Some digger operators were arrested for several days. The Union of Agricultural Work Committees confirmed: Some of those who were signed up for the project changed their minds.
Ordered to stop
Nobody wants to experience what happened four months ago to the family of Rabi'a Jaber . In October, Israel Defense Forces soldiers and the Civil Administration raided the family's dry, rocky 10-dunam plot, southeast of Hebron. An IDF bulldozer scattered the stones of the terraces, turned over the ground and destroyed the cistern.
The work on the very rocky plot on the mountain slope opposite the Jaber home began in May 2008. A large Palestinian digger removed and split rocks, and dug a cistern for collecting rainwater; a smaller digger broke the split rocks into smaller stones and began to form terraces on the slope. The family - four brothers, 35 people - planned to plant grapes, olives and almonds, all crops that do not require irrigation. But in October 2008, when the work was almost complete, stop-work injunctions arrived.
According to the injunctions, it turns out that the Civil Administration had decided that they were invading land that was not theirs, even though the Jabers had documents indicating that taxes were paid on the land from the time of Jordanian rule, and even though not only they, but their neighbors too, owners of the adjacent plots, have always known that this is their land.
The demolition made waves after written and filmed reports appeared on pro-settler Web sites. The latter also enthusiastically made a point of identifying the partners in this invasion of the homeland's lands: the EU and Oxfam (Belgium).
Khader Shibak of Halhoul received his stop-work injunctions in August 2008, four days after he had begun work. Up until 10 years ago, he and his brother had land planted with grapevines and almond trees. In late 2000, a military camp was set up on the mountain peak. That, and the travel restrictions during the intifada that began late that year, prevented the family's access to both the vineyard and the orchard. In 2008 the army camp was removed, and the family decided to reclaim and rehabilitate its land - and to plant new trees.
Both the Jabers and the Shibaks - both beneficiaries of the Union of Agricultural Work Committees project - were asked to show the Israeli authorities the documents proving their ownership of the land and their right to cultivate it. That is an expensive and time-consuming process that involves fees, a lawyer, trips to the Beit El headquarters of the Civil Administration, and digging through archives, with results that often do not satisfy the Israeli authorities, with their very flexible definition of state land and private land. Both families got stuck in the middle.
Hani Zema'ara of Halhoul, 56, wanted to reclaim three dunams of his land. His work was also stopped. Zema'ara's land, incidentally, was cultivated before 1993, but his crops were destroyed when the Hebron bypass road was paved. He actually brought all the necessary documents to show the Israelis that he is the owner of the land - including a detailed area map and plan sketched by a surveyor especially for him. He invested NIS 3,500, which he doesn't have, in obtaining all the necessary papers. More than a year has passed, and he is still waiting for a permit. The almost completed terraces on his plot stand out in their aridity, on the slope of the mountain. "For Israel, when we work on our land, it's as if we killed an Israeli," is how a member of the Union of Agricultural Work Committees puts it.
European officials who are involved in the funding process are convinced that the Civil Administration has become more stringent in recent years in acting against Palestinian farmers, under pressure from the settlers in general and from the Regavim association in particular. Regavim, which calls itself "the movement for preservation of the nation's lands," is steadily expanding its work of detecting Palestinian "violations" in Area C.
A Regavim spokesman told Haaretz that the organization "is taking a very serious approach toward the illegal takeover by Arabs of lands in Area C in Judea and Samaria, including by means of agricultural cultivation designed only for this purpose.
"Regavim is following with concern the increasing involvement of foreign countries and entities in establishing facts on the ground unilaterally, while violating the laws of the State of Israel and brazenly undermining its sovereignty ... Regavim calls on the Foreign Ministry to convey an unequivocal message to the international parties, and state that Israel is very upset by their behavior and demands that they immediately desist.
"The Regavim movement is pleased to hear that the Civil Administration has responded to its demands and has been enforcing the law in an egalitarian manner, among Arabs as well."
At the time of publication, the Civil Administration had not responded to Haaretz's questions.
MANILA, Philippines – A farmer died after a grenade exploded in a tobacco plantation in Aurora province this morning, police reported today.
The victim, Rolly Galiciay, 38, suffered several shrapnel wounds after the explosive device went off at the tobacco fields in Brgy. Villa Fugu, Aurora.
Initial report disclosed that Galician was about to install a water pump around 6:45 a.m. in the area when the blast happened.
Police are now looking into how the grenade ended in the place.
Campesinos are demanding recognition of their rights and calling for an end to logging and violence after a family was violently evicted from their land, two weeks ago, in the Argenine Province of Juyjuy.
According to a statement from the family, employees from the company KRAM SA, which is owned by a relative of the Argentine Ambassador to Bolivia, illegally evicted them to make way for a new transgenic soy plantation on their land.
During the eviction, Gloria Mamani, an 80 year-old Campesino (farmer), was beaten and dragged across the ground.
Gloria’s son, Juan Mamani, tried to stop the employees from carrying out the eviction by firing a warning shot into the air. However, police from the nearby town of Palma Sola were called in. “Instead of defending the lawful owners of the land,” the police arrested Juan; Gloria; Gloria’s husband; and Armando Ortega, Juan’s Uncle.
The four family members were all later released: Juan was held for a period of four days, until January 4; and the rest of the family was released the day after the eviction, on December 31.
“They killed our animals, they shot them[...], they disposed of the whole ranch of cattle, horses and goats, the pigs, they shot everything. They poison[ed] our water, we don’t have drinking water” says Gloria’s granddaughter. “We are trying to organize to see how we can stop them.”
The Mamani family, along with other Campesinos near Palma Sola in the Argentine province of Jujuy, also say the government’s land use plan, which approved the logging of 1,000 hectares in Juyjuy, is fraudulent because it was “enacted by decree of the provincial executive when it should have been made by the legislature by law.”
The government also failed to hold public hearings, and did not consult local stakeholders including Campesinos and Indigenous communities in the region.
An Afghan man accompanies a dead Afghan boy as the vehicle heads to Lashkar Gah, Helmand Province, Afghanistan, Thursday, Nov. 5, 2009. Villagers in southern Afghanistan claimed an overnight air strike by international forces killed several civilians, including children. (AP Photo/Abdul Khaleq)
November 5, 2009
KABUL, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- A crowd of Afghans came to the streets of Helmand's provincial capital Lashkargah in south Afghanistan Thursday and denounced what they described arbitrary killing of civilians.
"Around 100 people carrying some dead bodies in Lashkargah Thursday morning accused NATO-led forces of killing nine civilians and calling on the government to investigate and punish those responsible," a protestor and demonstrator Hajji Hafizullah Khan told Xinhua.
He added that a NATO plane dropped a bomb on a family who were busy harvesting corn in their land in Babaji area outside Lashkargah, killing nine persons, including three children.
Meantime, spokesman of provincial administration Daud Ahmadi in talks with Xinhua confirmed the incident but said that all those killed were Taliban insurgents.
Taliban purported spokesman Qari Yusuf Ahmadi in talks with media via telephone from undisclosed location claimed that all those killed in the bombardment were not Taliban fighters.
A similar incident, which claimed the life of a civilian in the eastern Khost province, also took hundreds of people to the street on Thursday.
NATO strike kills nine civilians in Helmand (Photogallery)
AP
LASHKARGAH , Nov 5, 2009 : The body of a teenager killed by a rocket attack of the NATO-led soldiers lies in a vehicle after the residents of Babaji brought the body to the provincial capital, Lashkargah, as a protest against the killing of nine civilians. PAJHWOK/Zainullah Astanakzai
LASHKARGAH , Nov 5, 2009 : Two civilians killed by foreign troops in southern Helmand province late Wednesday night. Relatives of the victims brought the dead to provincial capital as a protest. PAJHWOK/Zainullah Astanakzai
The dead body of a local civilian lies in a civilian vehicle after he was killed in a rocket attack in the southern Helmand province late Wednesday nigh. PAJHWOK/Zainullah Astanakzai
An Afghan man accompanies a dead Afghan boy as the vehicle heads to Lashkar Gah, Helmand Province, Afghanistan, Thursday, Nov. 5, 2009. Villagers in southern Afghanistan claimed an overnight air strike by international forces killed several civilians, including children. (AP Photo/Abdul Khaleq)
Afghan men peer into a car carrying a dead Afghan man in Lashkar Gah, Helmand Province, Afghanistan, Thursday, Nov. 5, 2009. (AP Photo/Abdul Khaleq)
The Mexican authorities must carry out an impartial investigation into the torture of two members of a peasant organization in Chiapas State, after they were arrested without a warrant, Amnesty International has said.
Roselio de la Cruz González and José Manuel de la Torre Hernández , who are currently held in a state prison, were blindfolded, bound and beaten during their interrogation, their lawyer said.
Roselio de la Cruz was beaten and threatened with death, while officials held a plastic bag over the head of José Manuel de la Torre until he almost suffocated. He was then forced to inhale water until he passed out.
Both men were forced to sign papers which they were not allowed to read.
Amnesty International also expressed its concern for a third member of the same organization, José Manuel Hernández Martínez, who is being held 2,000km away, where he is unable to see his lawyer and family.
All three men are accused of illegally occupying land in 2005.
Roselio de la Cruz González and Manuel de la Torre Hernández were both detained by Chiapas state police on 24 October.
The arrests took place during a raid in the Venustiano Carranza municipality on the homes of several members of Organización Campesina Emiliano Zapata (“Emiliano Zapata” Peasant Organisation, OCEZ).
José Manuel Hernández Martínez, a fellow OCEZ member, was arrested on 30 September.
On 16 October he was moved to a federal prison 2,000 km away. This is too far for his family and lawyer to visit him, meaning he is effectively held incommunicado.
Amnesty International has urged the Mexican authorities to:
guarantee that Roselio de la Cruz and José Manuel de la Torre will not be tortured further or otherwise ill-treated;
conduct an impartial investigation into their torture, with those responsible brought to justice;
ensure that the two men are either released immediately, or charged promptly with a recognizably criminal offence and tried fairly according to international standards, with any evidence obtained through torture ruled inadmissible;
ensure that José Manuel Hernández Martínez has immediate access to his family and lawyer.
"With Chavez, Homeland, Socialism, or Death," reads a banner at Thursday's march (FNCEZ website)
Mérida, October 3rd 2009 (Venezuelanalysis.com) -- Thousands of farmer rights advocates marched in Guarico, Venezuela on Thursday to demand an end to impunity for the killings of 220 farmer organizers since the 2001 Land Reform Law was passed. The march was sparked by two recent attacks presumed to have been planned and paid for by large estate owners against well-known land reform activists.
Just outside the state headquarters of the National Land Institute (INTI) on September 11th, two unidentified men on a motorcycle shot José Pimentel, a leader of the Simon Bolivar National Farmers Front, in the body and the head, placing Pimentel in critical condition in a hospital emergency room.
Two weeks later, eight armed men attacked a group of 28 families who had collectively occupied idle sections of a large estate and were in the process of obtaining legal land titles from INTI. The assailants beat several people, destroyed property, shot one leader of the group twice in the legs, and ordered the group to leave the estate, according to a report by the Ezequiel Zamora National Farmers Rights Front (FNCEZ), which is named after the legendary 19th Century land reform fighter.
Since 2001, the government has redistributed more than two million hectares (5 million acres) of idle or underused land to small farmers and state-owned enterprises for food cultivation, for the most part by opening up state-owned land and also by expropriating some idle privately owned land.
During this process, however, hundreds of prominent land reform organizers have been attacked, illegally detained, or killed, in what appears to be a campaign led and financed by large estate owners to exterminate those who challenge their privilege and dominion in rural areas.
Following the September attacks, the president of the Farmer Federation of Venezuela, Miguel Moreno, declared that his organization and many other national farmer organizations were in a state of emergency, and remain on 24-hour vigil to protect the lives of their comrades.
Moreno praised the government's efforts to redistribute land, but criticized the judicial system, saying only a handful of investigations of the attacks against farmers have proceeded, and there have been no convictions thus far.
"We accompany the commander and president [Hugo Chavez] in his policy against the large estates," said Moreno. "We do not want to move toward an open confrontation or war in rural zones... we firmly believe in the institutions, we believe in our government [...] But we are tired of being the ones who die."
National Assembly Legislator Braulio Alvarez, who is also a national farmers' rights organizer, connected the killings of farmers to the infiltration of paramilitary groups from Colombia into Venezuela. "We denounce with revolutionary morale the paramilitary activities and hired killings," he said in a press conference in the Foundation for Training and Innovation to Support the Agrarian Revolution (CIARA).
Alvarez also demanded that the Ministry of Justice and Internal Affairs and the Attorney General's Office open a special investigation and provide protection to farmer rights activists. "How long is the flagrant impunity going to continue?" Alvarez asked.
Officials from INTI, CIARA, the Agriculture and Land Ministry, and the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), as well as all major farmers rights fronts echoed his demand.
The Communist Party of Venezuela (PCV) also called for "an exhaustive review of the proceedings on the farmers' cases, through the agrarian courts," but warned that the "opposition sectors" which are responsible for the crimes are in some cases "embedded in the structures of the state." These culprits "utilize police functionaries from the [national investigative police] CICPC," said Eduardo Linarez, the National Secretary for Agrarian and Farmer Affairs of the PCV.
In addition to demanding action by the state, several farmer rights fronts have gradually united forces on the regional and national level. With the support of national PSUV officials, including Agriculture and Land Minister Elias Jaua and Guarico Governor William Lara, these new federations plan to hold a series of assemblies and form armed militias in order to organize and defend themselves against attacks.
"We already have our own organization. What we're going to do now is grassroots reinforcement in the communities and rural settlements," said Argimiro Berroterán, a spokesperson for the National Farmers Front in Miranda state. "The idea is to travel around the whole country to discuss the concerns expressed by different farmer groups, in addition to re-launching this front as an organizational tool in defense of our achievements and for the deepening of the revolutionary process," he added.
Minister Jaua, who is also a regional vice president of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), spoke to the crowd at Thursday's march. "We must consolidate popular strength in rural Venezuela and among the fishers... in order to prepare the conditions for the formation of a great popular and revolutionary organization in the National Fishers and Farmers Front, to concretize the deepening and construction of the Bolivarian Revolution," said Jaua.
According to Jaua, farmer militias may be formed as early as this December for the purpose of farmer self-defense in rural Venezuela. "The Bolivarian government is willing to confront the oligarchy and the large estate owners by way of the law... but if they insist on continuing to act on the fringes of the law, violating our Bolivarian Constitution and murdering farmers, then there will be an armed response," said the minister.
Many farmers' fronts, including the FNCEZ, have advocated armed self-defense for years. The invitation to Thursday's march that the FNCEZ posted on its website calls for, "THE PEOPLE IN ARMS, conscious popular power organized into farmer militias and coordinated by the National Bolivarian Militia and directed by our Bolivarian Armed Forces, in socialist patrols directed and coordinated by our PSUV... with the indisputable leadership of our partner, President Hugo Rafael Chavez Frias."
Farmer and landowner of a small piece of land Manuel Cadena Gonzáles, 35 was assassinated on the 14th of September. His family and the People's Front of Anahuac are accusing the group Fransisco Villa Popular Front, (FPFV) which is affiliated to the moderate leftist Revolutionary Democratic Party (PRD). Four days earlier his mother was injured during an attempt of the FPFV to occupy the piece of land.
Following the assassination there were protests against the PRD government of the Federal District.
Loliondo is Burning provides documentary evidence, testimony, and background information surrounding the recent eviction of Massai in Loliondo, northern Tanzania. This is a two-part video.
In July 2009, during one of the worst droughts in recent Tanzanian history, the government of Tanzania began to forcefully evict the Maasai from their traditional lands. Eight villages were burnt to the ground, along with crops and traditional places of worship. As a result, some 3,000 people were left without any shelter, food or water.
As Loliondo is Burning explains, the evictions were carried out on behalf of the Ortello Business Company (OBC) and the Royal Family of Dubai, who claim the Maasai land as their own. Employees of OBC reportedly took part in the eviction.
More than 200 bomas (homesteads of extended families) have been totally burnt.
Food stores and maize fields have been burned.
It is estimated that up to 3,000 people have been made homeless without food and shelter.
Several maize farms, which were ready for harvest, were set ablaze exacerbating an already alarming hunger situation.
More than 50,000 cattle have been pushed into areas hit by extreme drought with no water and grass. Some cattle have been lost and some burned to death.
Property worth millions of Tanzania Shillings has been destroyed.
Other women who were chased from their homes have had miscarriages.
Many people are now suffering from psychological traumas.
It should be noted that the eviction is ongoing. Other burnings have reportedly taken place since July. Further, more than two dozen Maasai have been arrested, some as recent as 7 days ago.
If you would like to speak out in support of the Masaai, send an email to:
President Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete, United Republic of Tanzania – State House Luthuli Road, Box 9120, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania 00 255 22 2 116 898 / 22 2 116 899 00 255 22 2 113 425 info@ikulu.go.tz
Private Secretary to Mizengo Pinda, Prime Minister of Tanzania, Email: pm@pmo.go.tz; privatesec@pmo.go.tz
Mr. Yacoub El Hillo, UNHCR Representative to Tanzania, elhillo@unhcr.org
Intervew by WPNews WPNews Good morning Mr. Yugum could you tell us about situation in Bogolame?
Yugum Tabuni : thank you very much situation in Bogolame today my peoples are all hiding in the juggles mostly Children, woman, elderly and man all hiding in the juggles because military burnt down our village.
WPNews Can you tell us how many houses burnt down by Indonesia Military?
Yugum: I need to tell you today that 25 houses burn down and 5 pig kill by indoensia Military.
WPNes : How important your house and pig
Yugum : as you know we all Papuan house and Pig is part of the our live. Because Pig is very important value in West Papuan Economic and House is were we live time to time year to year we don’t have any thing else here in the village but the house is most important then any other.
WPNews: can you tell us how many peoples been kill by Indonesia military?
Yugum : until today peoples still hiding in the juggles so very difficult to tell you military still patrol the area. but we found lot of bullet from Indonesia Military when they shooting to the peoples. I will tell you how many peoples are been kill because all the road blocked by military very difficult we are dangerous.
WPNews : How the peoples in the juggles could survive especially children, woman and elderly peoples.
Yugum: we need help because there is no food, no medicine, and our garden already been destroy by military. we can not go back to our house or garden peoples are hiding.
WPNews: what you expecting peoples outside world specially international community.
Yugum: only one We want Independence from Indonesia. If we still with indoenesia they destroyed our rice from this planet so before to late peoples help us. Tell peoples in Europe, United Kingdom , America, Australia and Pacifica we need support put pressure to Indonesia to stop operation in Bogolame and Tinginambut.
This is my message to you to tell them we need help.
WPNes Thank you very much for your time speaking to us Mr. Yugum.
West Papua Bogolame Interview Exclusive and Photo News Before the Indonesia Military and Police Attack.
WPNews: Can you tell us what happening in your village
Yugum Tabuni : I need to tell you that today Indonesia Military and Police about 400 Personnel from Wamena and tolikara come to our Village with heavy weapon Attack our Villager.
WPNews: who are the come to your village
Yugum Tabuni: this Military and Police are come from two direction Wamena and Tolikara about 400 personnel they bourn our Village we still hiding in the Juggles.
WPNews : why the Military and Police attack your Village
Yugum Tabuni: they attack our Village because we rising morning star flag in Our village peacefully and we not disturb Indonesia Militari and Police we rising in Our village not Indonesia Land.
WPNews How many Peoples been kill and how many village are bourn
Yugum Tabuni : today I can report to you but because Military still surrounding us I will report latter but I sow from mountain that one Village call Munak already bourn down on the ground. We still hiding so I don’t know how many peoples are kill.
WPNews: why you rise morning star flag in the Village
Yugum Tabuni: we raise the morning star Flag in the Village because this is our identity and our national Flag. So we could raise any were we like we not go to Indonesia land and raise but this our land to raise the morning star but now Military and Police attach. We need international community to help us because they if not they will continue to kill many of us like what happen in 1977 here some district hundred thousand kill.
We need now very urgently need help put pressure to Indonesia Government please.
Thank you for your time Mr. Yugum Tabuni Interview directly from WPNews United Kingdom ================================================
Landless peasant worker Elton Brum da Silva was murdered by policemen of the "Brigada Militar" during the evacuation of landless farmers that had occupied the farm Southall in Santa Casa, São Gabriel, in the state of Rio Grande do Sul.
A federal prosecutor in Peru filed murder charges against two police generals and 15 other officers over the deaths of indigenous protesters at a roadblock in June, reports the Associated Press. The Indians were protesting new rules that would have made it easier for foreign developers to exploit oil and gas, timber, and minerals in Peru's Amazon rainforest. The skirmish left 23 police and at least ten protesters dead.
The charges come several weeks after dozens of civilians, including indigenous leaders, were charged with homicide over the deaths. Some are expected to be arrested once they are discharged from hospitals were they are recovering from injuries suffered during the protest.
The protests
Oil and gas blocks in the western Amazon. Solid yellow indicates blocks already leased out to companies. Hashed yellow indicates proposed blocks or blocks still in the negotiation phase. Protected areas shown are those considered strictly protected by the IUCN (categories I to III). Image modified from Finer M, Jenkins CN, Pimm SL, Keane B, Ross C, 2008 Oil and Gas Projects in the Western Amazon: Threats to Wilderness, Biodiversity, and Indigenous Peoples. PLoS ONE 3(8): e2932. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0002932
Indigenous groups have fiercely opposed what they see as encroachment on their traditional lands. In May thousands of protesters blocked roadways and rivers in opposition to a set of presidential decrees that would have made it easier for foreign firms to develop Amazon land. President Alan Garcia responded by sending in federal police, quickly leading to a heated standoff that ended in bloodshed — in addition to the deaths, at least 82 protesters were suffered gunshot wounds and another 120 were injured. The escalation was widely condemned by human rights groups and environmentalists.
Garcia has since rescinded two of the most controversial decrees and shuffled his cabinet. But the government has since indicated in public statements that it intends to move forward on oil and gas development despite the controversy.
Green groups and indigenous rights' organizations say the rainforests slotted for oil and gas exploration is home to a wealth of biodiversity and "uncontacted" tribes. The Peruvian government maintains there is but a single isolated tribe and that development will bring vast sums to the treasury.
This blog is meant to raise the awareness about the daily human rights violations and attacks that farmers are facing all over the world, but especially in the so called "third world". Attacks by soldiers (of the same, a neighbor country across the borders or an occupying force), by policemen, by paramilitary forces, by private guards of landowners or multinational companies, by other farmers supported by governments. Attacks that include detentions, arrests, kidnappings, torture, injuries, assassinations. This blog is related and considers to be an expansion of the work of the Farming Under Fire blog about Palestinian farmers in Gaza border areas. For the moment, the posts in this blog have news about attacks against farmers, since 2009. We hope to make a small contribution to the farmers' struggle for Land and Freedom.
