Police face murder charges in killing of indigenous protesters in Peru

mongabay.com
August 16, 2009


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Garcia has since rescinded two of the most controversial decrees and shuffled his cabinet.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.

http://catapa.be/en/north-peru-killings

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High resolution versions of these images can be requested at info@catapa.be

2 farmers killed so far by Honduras' dictatorship

Ramon Garcia was member of the National Confederation of Agricultural Workers (Central Nacional de Trabajadores del Campo). He was assassinated in Callejones, Macuelizo, Santa Bárbara on Saturday evening the 11 of July 2009, by military forces who boarded a bus he was riding in Santa Barbara and forced him off, subsequently shooting him and wounding his sister.

sources: HablaHonduras, Monthly Review

On August 2, Pedro Pablo Hernández , farmer was shot by the Honduran military while driving after reportedly not responding to a signal to stop at a military checkpoint.

sources: HablaHonduras, YVKE mundial , La Prensa Grafica , Monthly Review , La Haine

Farmers Under Fire Worldwide

AUTOPSY: COP SHOT MAPUCHE IN THE BACK

Friday, 14 August 2009

Unrest Continues In Chile Despite President’s Call For “Dialogue”

An initial autopsy on the body of Jaime Mendoza Collío, a Mapuche man who died early this week during a confrontation with police, suggests the 24-year-old activist was shot in the back.

The findings cast doubt on claims by Chile’s Carabineros (uniformed police) that officer Patricio Jara Muñoz shot the victim in self
defense. Carabineros claim Jara Muñoz was ambushed and struck by buckshot before dispatching his weapon. A witness interviewed by El Austral offered a different version of the story, saying Mendoza Collío and his companions carried sticks but no firearms (PT, Aug. 13).

The victim was part of a group of some 50 Mapuches who early Wednesday morning tried to occupy a Region IX farm over which they claim ancestral ownership. According to news reports, heavily-armed Carabineros – under orders to remove the Mapuches – advanced onto the property at approximately 3 p.m. The shooting took place soon after.

Jara Muñoz is currently in military custody. Because the Carabineros are a branch of the armed forces, disciplinary matters are handled internally, by military tribunals rather than civilian courts. Military prosecutors have five days to decide whether to charge the officer for using unnecessary force resulting in death.

The killing has escalated already heightened tensions between Chilean authorities and Mapuches, the country’s largest indigenous group.

Early Thursday morning a group of individuals, presumably Mapuches, burned three sheds on a ranch near Pailahuén, also in Region IX. Later in the day, some 30 hooded individuals briefly occupied a ranch in Cañete, Region VIII. In nearby Concepción, students held a demonstration in support of the Mapuches. Carabineros arrested 15 of the protestors, the daily La Tercera reported. Protests also took place in Santiago, Valdivia (Region XIV) and in the Region IX capital of Temuco.

In Santiago, President Michelle Bachelet addressed the situation by calling for dialogue, which she said is the “only way to resolve the legitimate demands of the Mapuche people.” She described Mendoza Collío’s death as “something painful and regrettable.”

But on Friday, indigenous spokesman José Naín, who represents some 20 different Mapuche organizations, said the situation is already out of control.

“We’re powerless,” he told Radio ADN. “This is now out of hand. As leaders, we no don’t have control of the situation any more. Obviously people are going to do what their emotions tell them to do, which is certainly dangerous.”

Mendoza Collío, a former Army conscript who leaves behind a wife and four-year-old daughter, is the third Mapuche to die at the hands of Carabineros in the past six years. In November 2002, 18-year-old activist Alex Lemún was shot in the head during an attempted land occupation. He died five days later. Police killed 22-year-old Matías Catrileo under similar circumstances in January 2008 (PT, Jan. 3, 2008).

By Patagonia Times Staff
http://www.santiagotimes.cl/santiagotimes/
index.php/2009081416887/news/political-news/
autopsy-cop-shot-mapuche-in-the-back.html

Mapuche Activist's Death Heats Up Conflict

Daniela Estrada

SANTIAGO, Aug 14 (IPS) - The lack of opportunities for dialogue and participation and the struggle for control over land and natural resources in Chile are hurdles to a solution to the Mapuche Indians' century-long conflict, which claimed a new victim this week: a 24-year-old activist shot by the police while taking part in an occupation of land claimed as indigenous territory.

Jaime Mendoza Collío, who was killed Wednesday in the community of Angol in the southern Chilean region of Araucanía, was the third indigenous activist killed since the restoration of democracy in 1990, when the Mapuche launched a strategy of land occupations aimed at recovering their ancestral territory.

The first was 17-year-old Alex Lemún, who was shot in the head by a police officer in 2002, under the government of socialist President Ricardo Lagos. The military court that tried the case ruled that the police officer had shot in self-defence, even though no evidence was found in the investigation that anyone other than the police had opened fire.

And in January 2008, a member of the Carabineros (military police) shot 23-year-old university student Matrías Catrileo, whose death is still being investigated by the military courts.

"The latest incidents are the natural result of a long-standing policy that has been intensified in recent weeks by the government, with regard to the conflicts over land in the region of Araucanía," José Aylwin, co-director of the Observatorio Ciudadano, a local NGO, told IPS.

That policy includes the strengthening of police presence in areas plagued by land conflicts, and crackdowns on communities that are demanding the return of their ancestral lands, said Aylwin, a lawyer who specialises in the rights of indigenous people.

The backdrop against which the government policy has been implemented includes excessive delays in resolving land claims and a lack of political will to engage in real dialogue, he argued.

Mendoza's death coincided with Planning Minister Paula Quintana's visit to Geneva this week, where she reported to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) on the situation in Chile.

After an unsuccessful attempt to meet with socialist President Michelle Bachelet in Santiago, a group of traditional indigenous leaders or "loncos" launched a new wave of land occupations and protests in Araucanía on Jul. 23.

But in addition to the occupations of land, there have been violent incidents in which small groups of hooded activists threw stones at and painted graffiti on a passenger bus and set fire to two trucks. A radical Mapuche group, Coordinadora Arauco Malleco (CAM), claimed responsibility for the incidents.

At the same time, an anti-Mapuche paramilitary group in Araucanía that calls itself the "Hernán Trizano Commando" announced that it would become active again, and issued death threats against Mapuche leaders.

The centre-left government says that since 1994, more than 650,000 hectares of land have been transferred to indigenous communities - 35 percent since Bachelet took office in 2006.

It also argues that the country does not have the financial resources to resolve all of the pending indigenous land claims at once.

The authorities say that only a small minority of Mapuche communities are involved in the protests and land occupations. But indigenous associations say the activities are widespread among the Mapuche people.

Aylwin provided more precise information regarding the government's arguments. The more than 600,000 hectares of ancestral land returned to indigenous communities by the state include the country's nine native ethnic groups, not only the Mapuche (by far the largest group, who number around one million in this country of 16 million people).

Of that total, said the lawyer, only 140,000 hectares were actually purchased on the market. "The rest involved formal transfers of land that the state considered to be publicly owned, but which was ancestral indigenous territory, or the regularisation of property that had already been distributed to indigenous communities and had been recognised as their own," he said.

Events have shown that "the budget earmarked for indigenous policies overall, around 0.3 percent of GDP, is insufficient," he maintained.

Aylwin also said the state sends an "ambivalent message" to native communities, promoting a multicultural policy on one hand while providing incentives for investment by corporations - such as logging companies - on their ancestral lands on the other.

Asked about the underlying causes of the delay in resolving the long-simmering conflict over land, which dates back to the end of the 19th century, the indigenous rights lawyer responded that "there is no doubt that there are very powerful economic interests in those territories."

The Mapuche lost much of their land in the late 19th century when it was occupied by the state in a process known as the "pacification of Araucanía".

"Chile's insertion in the global market is based on exports of natural resources, which are essentially found in the territories of indigenous peoples: mining in the north, forests in the south, and salmon farming in the southern rivers and lakes," Aylwin said.

The preliminary autopsy results show that Jaime Mendoza was shot in the back and killed instantly while the police were evicting a group of native people from an estate that they claim as their own.

According to the government and the Carabineros, the policeman who shot Mendoza, Miguel Jara, was acting in self-defence in response to alleged pellet gun fire. But a Mapuche eyewitness who was not participating in the land occupation said the young men were unarmed.

The witness also said the police did not provide Mendoza with medical attention. In the midst of the clash between the protesters and the police, in which both indigenous people and journalists were injured, local residents attempted to reach the young man's body, but were driven off by the police.

Jara is in custody while the military justice investigation continues.

In Chile, the military courts have jurisdiction over crimes committed by armed forces personnel and Carabineros police while they are on duty.

In 2005, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights ordered the Chilean state to reform the military justice code, because it contravenes several basic rights. But Chile has not complied with the ruling.

Mendoza's death has led to heightened tension in the region, with new land occupations and violent attacks. In the community of Ercilla, unidentified individuals set fire to privately-owned warehouses in the early hours of Thursday morning, causing millions of dollars in damages.

Mapuche organisations have called protest marches and issued statements repudiating the killing of Mendoza.

Expressing her regrets for the young man's death and condolences for his family, President Bachelet said Thursday that "nothing justifies the violence in Araucanía, and it must be understood that dialogue is the only path to a solution to the legitimate historical demands of the Mapuche people."

"We will continue working so that all of the commitments that we adopted in our new policy towards indigenous people are lived up to. We hope the investigation will clarify what happened. But I want to reiterate that nothing, absolutely nothing, justifies the violence," the president said.

Government spokeswoman Carolina Tohá announced that a government delegation would visit Araucanía next week to strengthen the emphasis on dialogue.

But indigenous people question the government's willingness to sit down and talk, given that the delegation that visited Santiago to try to meet with Bachelet in early July was turned away.

For years, the Mapuche people have complained about judicial persecution and police brutality in response to their claims to their ancestral land.

Dozens of complaints of abuses at the hands of the police were documented in January 2007 by an international mission convened by the non-governmental Observatory for Indigenous Peoples’ Rights, with representatives from groups like Amnesty International, Norwegian People’s Aid and the Argentine Centre for Legal and Social Studies (CELS).

Members of Mapuche communities said the police storm violently into their homes, sometimes without a warrant, destroy household utensils and objects of cultural value, mistreat elderly people, women and children, do not hesitate to use lethal weapons, and hurl racist epithets.

Aylwin said the implementation of International Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention 169 on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples, as of Sept. 15, will offer a chance for reaching lasting solutions to the problem.

"The Convention establishes clear guidelines in a number of areas, including the rights of indigenous peoples to determine their own priorities in terms of development, and the right to prior consultation with respect to investment projects or public measures that affect them," he said.

It also establishes "a right that has been largely lacking in Chile: the right to participate in bodies that make decisions that concern them," Aylwin added. (END/2009)

Attack against offices of Vía Campesina

Via Campesina web page Wednesday, 12 August 2009

August 12th 2009 Last night at 11:23 pm, during curfew which began at 10pm, unknown individuals driving a cream colour Toyota Turismo with the license plate PCA1981 fired bullets at the office of Vía Campesina located in the Alameda neighbourhood of Tegucigalpa, Honduras which is coordinated by Rafael Alegría. The act was a clear attack against our social organizations and leaders who are part of the National Front Against the Coup. In addition to the recent attack on Vía Campesina, a bomb capable of killing 15 people went off in the building of the Beverage Workers Union (STIBYS, by its Spanish initials) on July 26th 2009. Both organizations are part of the National Front Against the Coup. We condemn this incident given that the activities of Vía Campesina and the National Front Against the Coup are completely peaceful. It is important to mention that during curfew only police are permitted to be in the street. Vía Campesina of Honduras calls for support from national and international human rights organizations to remain attentive and to continue following attacks taking place not only against these organizations and their leadership, but also against the human rights of the entire Honduran people and all those who have been protesting in the streets against the coup for the last 46 days. Rafael Alegría comments, “People's rights are being violated and it's a truly unfortunate situation at the moment. People have been wounded, jailed and killed.” According to a preliminary report from lawyers assisting the National Front Against the Coup today, hundreds of people were wounded and more than forty people detained following violence occurring after a peaceful mass mobilization in the capital city on Tuesday. The group of lawyers is seeking the liberation of those arrested through Habeas Corpus. The leadership of the Front insists that the disturbances were carried out by people who were not part of the protest, but rather infiltrators interested in provoking confrontations and disparaging the peaceful protests that the Front has been mobilizing. The people detained are accused of rebellion, terrorism and treason among other crimes. Alegría emphasizes that “The National Front Against the Coup is not responsible for these incidents. On principle the front supports peaceful marches, peaceful demands and peaceful mobilization. At no point do we use or call for violent acts. It appears that these incidents are the responsibility of groups interested in ruining the social mobilization and they have taken it upon themselves to provoke this situation for which we categorically deny any responsibility.” Given what has taken place in the last 24 hours, Vía Campesina of Honduras calls out to the entire Vía Campesina network, social movements, as well as national and international human rights organizations to send messages or delegations in solidarity with the resistance against the coup and for the defence of human rights in Honduras, and to assist in bringing about an end to so much injustice and violence against the Honduran people. Please send complaints and messages of solidarity to the following addresses: State Secretary of Public Security Coronel Jorge Rodas Gamero Fax: (504) 237-9070/ 220-55-47 E-mail: sseg.06@hotmail.comThis e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it Special Prosecutor for Human Rights in the Attorney General's Office Lcda. Sandra Ponce Fiscal Especial de Derechos Humanos Tegucigalpa, Honduras Fax: (504) 221-3656 E-mail: ponce10s@yahoo.com.arThis e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it Committee for the Defense of Human Rights (CODEH) President Andrés Pavón E-mail: andres@codeh.hnThis e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it , codeh@codeh.hnThis e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it The Committee of Relatives of People Detained-Disappeared in Honduras (COFADEH) Coordinadora Bertha Oliva E-mail: mail@cofadeh.orgThis e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it Vía Campesina of Honduras E-mail: laviacampesina@cablecolor.hnThis e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it Comunicaciones Via Campesina en Honduras

Mexico: 5 farmers arrested during DF police operation

Translated from the EZLN Committee of the 6th declaration webpage

Aug 6, 2009

We reject and we condemn the actions of stealing of land and repression of the Government of the Federal District against coop members and peasants of Tláhuac.

The signatories we reject the repression against members of the Front of Villages of the Anáhuac during the operation ordered by the government of the Federal District this August 5, 2009, in the village of San Francisco Tlaltenco, Tláhuac, Mexico City.

Despite of having legal resources that protected them, farmers and coop members were violently ousted of their own land by an impressive operation of grenadiers and mounted police, taking prisoners 5 people, including a minor.

The GFD intends to legalize the stealing of lands, ignoring the environmentalist organizations warning calls, the refusal of the neighbors of Tláhuac and of many other citizens that we understand the importance that Tláhuac has as nature reserve because of its productive cooperatives of indispensable food for Mexico City and as a zone producing the 30% of the drinking water supplied to the city.

The line 12 of the Metro does not mean necessarily development or progress. It forms part of an ambitious urbanization plan of the southern-east part of the city, of which businessmen and politicians intend to obtain benefit. It's indispensable a public debate on the nature, reason, effects and environmental and social costs of these megaprojects.

We protest energetically against this action of stealing of land, we require the immediate liberty of the persons under arrest and we support the coop members and residents of Tláhuac that are opposed to the megaproject.

Consejo de Ejidos y Comunidades Opositores a la Presa la Parota (CECOP), Coordinadora Regional de Autoridades Comunitarias (CRAC) Consejo Autónomo Regional de la Zona Costa-Chiapas , Consejo Indígena Popular de Oaxaca-Ricardo Flores Magón, Frente de Pueblos en Defensa de la Tierra (FPDT), Frente Popular Francisco Villa Independiente-UNOPII, jóvenes en resistencia alternativa, Red Ecologista Autónoma de la Cuenca de México, Red en defensa de la Ciudad de México, Ecomunidades, Regeneración Radio, Resistencias Enlazando Dignidad Movimiento y Corazón Zapatista, Voces Oaxaqueñas Construyendo Autonomía y Libertad, Unidad Obrera y Socialista (UNIOS), Unión Cívica de los Pueblos de la Montaña y Costa Chica de Guerrero, Asociación Cívica Nacional Revolucionaria, Círculo Autónomo Feminista, Cooperativa 666, Taller Integral Arquitect@z, Cooperativa Libertas Anticorp, Casa de la Cultura Independiente Benito Juárez, Materu Kurhinta.

MEXICO: Assassination of indigenous farmer, member of the Other Campaign

Translated from the website of the Greek magazine Resistencias

One killed and four injured, among them one seriously, is the result of the attack that suffered farmers of the ejido Mijiton, in the municipality of San Cristobal, by other farmers that refuse to participate in the communal works. Ejido Mijiton participates in the zapatistan Other Campaign and opposes the plans for the expropriation of its lands in order to construct a highway linking San Cristobal with Palenque. According to an article in the Indymedia Chiapas, the perpetrators are members of an evangelist religious organization called "Alas de Aguila" (Wings of the Eagle), which is functioning as a paramilitary organization called "Ejercito de Dios" (Army of God) and have borrowed slogans from the Guatemalan Kaibiles, that had perpetrated the worst massacres in the neighbor country. [This information is not mentioned in the statement of the residents of the ejido, though]. In any case as leader of the perpetrators is accused Carmen Diaz Lopez, who in 2002 was expelled from the ejido, accused of trafficking paperless immigrants, when 65 Central American immigrants were found at the yard of his house. The authorities of the ejido had delivered them to the official authorities along with Diaz Lopez, but he was released. Furious then, the residents of the ejido had burnt his house and had expelled him. Diaz Lopez tried to present the incidents as part of a religious conflict and managed to polarize the evangelists on his side.

According to a denouncement of the ejido, the recent attacks begun in the afternoon of 19^th of July when residents of the ejido tried to measure fields in the area of Chixtetik but were prevented by 40 men of Diaz Lopez that arrived in 11 vehicles, armed with machetes, wooden sticks and stones. Worth to mention that in the same area Diaz Lopez had pale and cultivated land, while this is the spot to be expropriated for the construction of the highway. The residents of the ejido were forced to withdraw under the threats of Diaz's group. Meanwhile, in the morning of the same day, a resident of the ejido was kidnapped and transferred to the house of an evangelist priest, member of Diaz's group.

In the evening of 20^th of July, 8 masked men on a pick-up truck, shot against another pick up truck belonging to another resident of the ejido. In the morning of 21 of July a group of residents from the ejido, responsible to watch the fields, was attacked with wooden sticks and stones by a group of 60 people that are refusing to participate in communal works. In the meantime, the same pick up truck, without number plates arrived, with 5 persons, among them 2 armed with R-15, that shot twice. Then, driving in high speed they hit and killed the 31-year-old member of the ejido Aurelio Diaz Hernandez. Another 5 people were injured from the attack of the pick up truck and the blows of the perpetrators, having fractures at the arms and legs and wounds in the head.

Behind the supposed to be religious clashes in Chiapas, there are hidden the existing problem of land (worsened by the rapidly increasing population and the fact that the agricultural production has not been modernized, resulting insufficient), and major economic interests, like the ones hidden behind the construction of the San Cristobal - Palenque highway. And of course, the attempt of the government to divide the indigenous people and to use some paramilitary indigenous groups, instead of the army, against the most radical ones (Zapatistas, Other Campaign).

G.K.

sources: Indymedia Chiapas, La Jornada, CIEPAC

COLOMBIA: Combats and heavy bombings in countryside of Tame (Araucan)

by the Farmer Association of Arauca Friday, Jul. 31, 2009 AT 11:08 p.m.

Towards the noon of Thursday 30 of July, in the village Philippine, jurisdiction of the municipality of Tame, department of Arauca, combats between the guerrilla and the National army occured for about two hours, approximately. As a result of the confrontations, the public force carried out heavy bombings and strafings from helicopters and airplanes KFIR, which hit on several farmers' properties . Particularly the estate of Mrs. Maria Camila Benavides Durán was affected, since ten animals of their property died because of the bombings. In a public official notice released in recent days, the Farmer Association of Arauca denounced that from the 25th of June the National army occupied the Philippine small village and held the civil population as human shield, since the soldiers were located in the houses without the consent of their inhabitants. This attitude puts in risk the life of the settlers of the Philippines and represents an infraction of the International Humanitarian Law, that forces the combatants to exclude the civil population of the armed conflict.

www.prensarural.org

Indonesian military attacks PNG villages. Jakarta forced to apologise to PNG government

posted on infoPapua By The National PNG Jul 30, 2008, 16:45

1) Indons give word of no repetitions (The National PNG)
2) Students protest border incursions (The National PNG)
3) PNG to Formally Protest Indonesia Border Incursions (Pacific Magazine)
4) Indonesia to apologise for PNG border incursions: report (ABC)
5) Indonesians promise to apologise (The National PNG)
6) Indonesians raid village (The National PNG)
7) Border post in bad shape (The National PNG)

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1) Indons give word of no repetitions

The National PNG 28/7/08

THE Indonesian government has assured PNG that there would be no repeat border incursions into PNG by its soldiers.

The assurance was conveyed to Foreign Affairs, Trade and Immigration Minister Samuel Abal by his Indonesian counterpart, Hassan Wirajudi, in Singapore last week.

There had been a number of alleged border incursions by the Indonesians in the last three months. PNG had protested through a diplomatic note conveyed through the Indonesian embassy in Port Moresby.

The apologies from the Indonesians blamed the incursions on “new recruits deployed to the border region”.

Reports said appropriate instructions had been issued to commanding officers in the border areas to deal with those responsible and ensure such incidents do not occur again.

Mr Wirajudi was also grateful that the PNG Government “exercised restraints” although these incidents do cause serious concerns.

Mr Abal told his counterpart that should occurrences of border incursions persist, PNG would seek to raise them in other forums such as Asean, Pacific Islands Forum and the United Nations.

“With our border areas developed and properly managed and secured, we can expect people from either side to live and enjoy normal lives,” Mr Abal told his Indonesian counterpart, referring to his recent statement in Parliament on the creation of a border development and management authority.

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2) Students protest border incursions

The National PNG 28/7/08

By JEFFREY ELAPA

A PEACEFUL protest march was held in Madang on Saturday by Divine Word University students over the alleged border incursions by Indonesian soldiers.

More than 500 students and Madang residents walked with placards through the town to the Bates oval where speeches were made.

The march was organised by international relations students at the university.

Protesters chanted and carried placards expressing concerns that the incursions were a violation of territorial integrity and national sovereignty.

They accused the Government of being silent, slow and indecisive over the incursions.

Speakers said the continuous incursions by the Indonesian soldiers and terrorising of PNG citizens was a threat to national security and an abuse of human rights.

Student leaders said the act of unprovoked aggression by the Indonesians should be totally condemned and shamed. No more apologies and excuses must be accepted.

They said monies like the US$40 million in an MP’s account in Singapore should be used to improve PNG’s security and surveillance along the border.

The students also called on the Government to immediately sack PNG Defence Force commander, Peter Ilau, for not advising Cabinet well on national security issues affecting the country.

They said that the Defence White Paper policy of downsizing the force was of poor judgment and must be abolished. Instead, PNGDF numbers must be increased so that enough men are stationed at the border.

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PACIFIC Magazine


3)PNG to Formally Protest Indonesia Border Incursions

By Tereni Kens in Port Moresby

Friday: July 25, 2008


The Papua New Guinea government will be making a formal protest to the Indonesian government over the recent border incursions made by members of the Indonesian armed forces.


That’s the word from PNG Minister for Foreign Affairs, Trade and Immigration Samuel Abal, who spoke with Pacific Magazine before departing for Singapore yesterday to attend the annual ASEAN ministerial meeting and regional forum.

Abal said PNG-Indonesia bilateral relations in recent years had been cordial and he was concerned that the incursions could undermine relations between the two countries.


Whilst in Singapore Abal said he will take this up with his Indonesian counterpart Dr N. Hassan Wirajuda to express his concern and seek an explanation.

A joint ministerial commission meeting at the foreign minister level will be convened later this year as a means to maintaining closure dialogue between the governments of the two countries.


The National reports a confidential PNG Defense Force report on the incursions provided to the government last week highlighted seven instances of incursions by Indonesian soldiers into PNG territory in May, June and July.


On May 27, eight Indonesian Army soldiers who were inside PNG were ordered back by police, the report said.


On June 9, eight soldiers crossed into Wutung and defaced monument marker 1.

On June 13 two patrols (18 armed men) crossed over. Two TNI (Indonesian Army) soldiers crossed again on June 23.


His report further revealed that on June 28, company strength of armed TNI soldiers was intercepted by PNG Defense Force soldiers, who ordered them to retreat.

On July 5, six TNI crossed over and intimidated a retired policeman while, on July 6, four TNI soldiers crossed 7 km into PNG and fired shots at Bungon village, Skotchiau.


Concerned about the incursions, Forest Minister Belden Namah and Housing Minister Andrew Kumbakor visited the border area, and learnt of the incursions first hand on July 13.


The report said after they flew out in the Kumul aircraft that evening, an Indonesian military aircraft flew over Vanimo at about 7 p.m., violating PNG airspace.

Meanwhile, Abal will also be speaking with Australian foreign minister over the recent criticisms raised against PNG ministers by AusAid Minister Counsellor, Margareth Thomas.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) News July 21, 2008


4)Indonesia to apologise for PNG border incursions: report


Pacific correspondent Campbell Cooney


The Indonesian Government has reportedly agreed to make an official apology to Papua New Guinea for a least a dozen border incursions in the past three months.


Media outlets in Papua New Guinea are reporting claims that in the past three months there has been a number of incursions by Indonesia's military - based in its province of Papua - burning down at least 10 houses in one village and physically attacking locals in the region.


Last week Indonesia's Ambassador to Papua New Guinea was summoned before the acting Foreign Affairs Secretary, Kila Karo, and the national newspaper is reporting he has acknowledged PNG's concerns.


It is reported the ambassador has claimed the incursions were made by new recruits from Central Java unfamiliar with the PNG-Indonesian border boundaries and that any future incursions will be dealt with under Indonesian military law.

------------------------------------------

The National PNG 21//08

5) Indonesians promise to apologise


By CLIFFORD FAIPARIK


THE Indonesian government will make an official apology on 12 border incursions between May 27 and July 13 next week.

Indonesian Ambassador to PNG Bom Soejanto was summoned before the acting Foreign Affairs Secretary, Kila Karo, in Port Moresby last Thursday and conveyed his government’s position on the issue.

Foreign Affairs officials yesterday said PNG’s serious concerns on the alleged border crossings by Indonesian troops into Vanimo, Sandaun province, will be conveyed to his superiors in Jakarta this week.

Mr Soejanto said the incursions were made by new recruits from Central Java who were not familiar with the PNG-Indonesian border boundaries.

He said any future border incursions will be dealt with under Indonesian military rules.

Government officers said they would act on reports about the burning down of 10 houses, affecting about 100 Kwara villagers in Western province once official reports are received.

South Fly police commander Insp Peter Philip claimed last Thursday that Indonesians soldiers at Sota had crossed over into PNG territory on July 9 while in pursuit of a Papua New Guinean working at the Weam station.

They did not find the man and allegedly set some houses on fire, and gun-butted three Medapor villagers.

A joint border meeting will be held in Jayapura next week. Security issues are among matters for discussions.


The National PNG 18 July 2008

6) Indonesians raid village


By CLIFFORD FAIPARIK
ABOUT 100 villagers in Western province are displaced and homeless after Indonesian soldiers allegedly raided their village and burnt houses, police in the province said yesterday.
The raid was staged by a platoon-sized group of Indonesian soldiers, and police described it as an act of unprovoked aggression on PNG citizens living in Kwara village close to the PNG-Indonesian border last Tuesday.
South Fly police commander Insp Peter Philip said yesterday a platoon strength (about 25) of armed Indonesian soldiers crossed the border in search of an officer attached to the Weam district administration and burnt down 10 houses.
“The next day (July 9), a section strength (about 10) of armed Indonesian soldiers met three Medapor villagers in PNG territory and assaulted them with gun butts.
“The villagers, with traditional border crossing permits, were on their way to the Indonesian border station at Sota when they were assaulted,” Mr Philip said.
He said the officer the Indonesians were after was based at the PNG border station of Weam.
He had allegedly gone across to Sota early this month, got drunk with Indonesian officers, and behaved unruly.
Indonesian border security officers locked him up at their police station. However, he was released from the station with the help of some Indonesian friends but without the Sota’s Indonesian military commander’s permission.
“When the commander discovered what had happened, he sent soldiers across the border searching for the officer, and destroyed houses in the village,” Mr Philip said.
There is only one policeman at the Weam station, but he has no communication with Daru or Port Moresby.
Mr Philip said that the Indonesian soldiers’ action is uncalled for as the villagers were not involved with that officer.
“There was a similar situation early this year when Indonesians soldiers raided a village and killed a pig.
“During the border liaison meeting in Jayapura last May 26 -27, I had raised this issue about Indonesian soldiers’ unruly behaviours along the border.
“Indonesian officials had assured me that no such incidents will happen again. But the recent incidents showed that the Indonesians still have a long way to go in controlling their soldiers,” Mr Philip said.
Meanwhile, the National Executive Council has instructed the Foreign Affairs Minister to protest strongly to the Indonesian government over incursions into PNG by its troops.
Deputy Prime Minister Dr Puka Temu, during question time in Parliament, said Cabinet had been fully briefed on the matter and was very concerned.
“The Government has directed Foreign Affairs Minister and Secretary to send a diplomatic note on the continuous border incursions.”
Dr Temu said Defence Force commanders from both PNG and Indonesia have met over the issue.
He said the issue will also be raised at the joint PNG-Indonesia border liaison meeting scheduled for either August or September.
He said the PNG Government had moved to upscale its activities along the border with the Prime Minister giving directions for Treasurer and Finance Minister Patrick Pruaitch to take charge of the border programme.
He said Mr Pruaitch had put together a border development package to be brought before Cabinet for endorsement and implementation, which include improving monitoring and surveillance along the border.
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7) Border post in bad shape

By HARLYNE JOKU in Vanimo
GOVERNMENT officers including PNG Defence Force personnel and police manning the PNG-Indonesian border post in Vanimo, Sandaun province, are facing chronic systematic problems.
Only two weeks after reports of an incursion by Indonesian military and the defacing of a PNG border monument, Provincial and Local Level Government Affairs Secretary Manasupe Zurenuoc and Sandaun administrator Joseph Sungi visited the border post on Wednesday.
They conducted interviews with government officials on site who revealed that they were faced with a chronic shortage of manpower. Defence, police and government officials manning the Wutung border post and Customs office all expressed similar sentiments.
There is no constant power and fuel supply.
A government official said PNG Defence Force soldiers at Wutung had to sell raffle tickets occasionally to raise enough money to pay for fuel.
Others said they had to wait for up to between two weeks and a month for cheques to be processed at the Waigani and Lae offices, resulting in delays and inconsistent supply of logistics.
In the nights when the Indonesian side of the border lights up like a city, the PNG border is in total darkness.
Seven people work at the Customs office at Wutung processing and checking about 200 people travelling to and from Indonesia a day. The Indonesian station is manned by more than 100 officials a shift.
“Ours is incompatible to the Indonesian side.
“They are serious about their presence at the border.
“Ours is more like a rural outpost.
“It is no surprise that their soldiers can wander onto our side of the border and do anything at will,” a PNG official said.
“The Indonesians are indirectly telling us that they can walk into our country anytime,” he said.
The Wutung post is serviced by one vehicle and, at most times, there is no fuel to run it. Officers had to catch PMVs to make a 50km trip into Vanimo town.
The Defence Force personnel on the ground number 18 instead of the required 32 soldiers. They have no vehicle.
Mr Zurenuoc said it was time the Government seriously considered decentralising funding and administrative powers.
He said the current system was handicapped where IRC, provincial affairs, quarantine, and police personnel and soldiers on the ground depend on their own offices for direction and funding.
Mr Zurenuoc wants to see that officials on the ground are authorised to make decisions regarding access to funding and logistics.
__________________________________________________________

Honduras: Rafael Alegria has been released

Telesur, 25 July 2009

http://www.telesurtv.net/noticias/secciones/nota/54707-NN/rafael-alegria-es-liberado-y-continua-en-la-lucha-por-la-democracia/

The Via Campesina’s leader in Honduras, Rafael Alegria, was freed last Saturday night in the Honduran town of Danli (south). He was hold detained for over 6 hours due to a supposed break of the curfew imposed by the de facto government who promoted the cup d’etat in the Centro-American country.

In an exclusive interview with the special correspondent of TeleSUR in Honduras, Madeleine Garcia, Alegria stated that he was moved from Posta, in the El Paraiso department (border with Nicaragua), to Danli, where he was arrested.

"They lock me in a cell with 45 other comrades detained (since earlier than myself) for the same reason. We had violated the curfew. Regardless, I told them that it was illegal (the measure taken) and that we could not accept it", said the leader who has stand on the struggle for longer than 28 days on a row for the return of the democracy and the legitimated President, Manuel Zelaya.

About the other 50 people “they already were imprisoned since the morning”. There were children and women amongst them.

Alegría specified that, while he was detained, several journalists from different international media arrived but they did also suffer different forms of repression from the police.

"We now by fact that while they were trying to get an interview from a 5metres distance, when the comrades (detainees) shouted ‘freedom’, they were pushed away and they messed up with their equipment. The Venezuelan media, which they were closely covering everything happening there, were also hassled, Alegria denounced.

“The release of the demonstrators happened thanks to the assistance of a human rights worker who intervened and freed us” the leader of Via Campesina confirmed.

In this sense, there has definitively been a violation of our human rights (…) they arrested us without a judicial warrant and we were imprisoned.

Linked to this statement, Rafael Alegria insisted about the illegality of the curfew imposed by the cup government. Right after, the leader said he would keep contact with his comrades who are with President Zelaya in the border area of Las Manos “to asses the situation and check over the different possibilities".

"We will stay on the struggle” affirmed Alegria, who said that “the co-ordination raised the fact that its crucial to keep up the resistance, both today and tomorrow (Sunday)".

Furthermore, he denounced the presence of hundreds of armed military forces at the border with Nicaragua. “To reach the village where he was detained (Posta), we crossed five roadblocks. It was not easy to get there. The road was jammed because of the high military presence around the Nicaragua and Honduras border”.

Later on, Madeleine Garcia interviewed Inspector Molina, from Danli’s police department, who repeated that “we are arresting people that breaks the rule (curfew). We are not out breaking peoples rights, this is a decree and it’s the law which has to be obeyed” said.

Regardless the wounded, or even the confirmed death of a citizen arrested in El Paraiso, the Inspector said that “we care for the security of all the Hondurans and we seek their cooperation with us”. “A curfew has been established. We have to understand it and enforce its compliance. We do not want to violate nobodies’ rights, but it is every Honduran duty to comply” concluded.

(activist translation by Viatransla)

COLOMBIA: Assasination of farmers' leader, member of the ANC and the Minga Popular Resistance

Thursday, Jul. 02, 2009

JOSE Betancourth ANTONIO LOPEZ from the Association of Peasants of antioquean Bajo Cauca (ASOCBAC)

With anger and pain in the world today we denounce the vile assassination of farmers' leader JOSE ANTONIO LOPEZ Betancourth member of the Association of Peasants of antioquean Bajo Cauca (ASOCBAC) who was missing since Tuesday June 30 at 6 : 15 pm approximately, when he was going in a taxi from the town of Taraza Antioquía to El Doce.

Versions say it was down by men who tied him, took him away and was found today, July 2 in the morning buried near the aqueduct in the village of Piedras completely dismembered.

The comrade Jose Antonio was a spokesman for the marches by coca farmers, and on several occasions in which they signed agreements with national and departmental governments which were never fulfilled.

The comrade Jose Antonio arrived with the intention to unite efforts in the struggle, resistance and permanence in the territories.

Also he was member of the Political Committee of MINGA SOCIAL AND POPULAR RESISTANCE in which he actively participate in scheduled meetings, ans also in meetings with delegates of the national government.

He leaves behind his wife and 3 children grieving for his loss and claiming justice, he leaves behind a process of peasant struggle and resistance and a legacy of sacrificing his life in defense of the peasantry, and the message of unity, solidarity and resistance.

These facts are presented in the framework of democratic security policy of the president Alvaro Uribe Velez, in an area of military and paramilitary control, only 10 minutes from a checkpoint of the Army of Colombia and with presence of Police in urban areas.

We confirm once again that the government does not care about solving the problems of Colombian peasants and all of us who dare to demand we are branded as terrorists, brought to courts, killed or disappeared.

We appeal to the national and international sister organizations to demand from the Colombian State to clarify the facts, punish those responsible for his murder shall not remain in the impunity that reigns today in Colombia.

We send a warm and fraternal solidarity hug to the family of Jose Antonio, as well as to the comrades of ASOCBAC expressing our commitment to continue the struggle, resistance and following the example of our comrade and leader

National Agrarian Coordinator of Colombia CNA

Bogota, July 2, 2009

source: Colombia Indymedia