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dam-l Colombia/Embera People/ Urgent Action
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Date: September 27, 1999
Subject: Urgent Action/Please write
From: Comunidades Emberas/Colombia
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URGENT ACTION
Solidarity with the Embera Katio people of the Upper Sinu.
THE LIFE AND DIGNITY OF THE EMBERA PEOPLE WILL NOT BE DROWNED
The Embera Katio people and leaders of the Upper Sinu are calling for the solidarity of our friends, to stop the Urra hydroelectric project from drowning our dignity because the Colombian government doesn't understand our principles and our vision of development.
The future of the Embera people and our territory will be irrevocably affected if the Colombian government, through the Environment Ministry, gives Empresa Urra the environmental permission for the project without first conducting a process of consultation and negotiation in accordance with the law, and without establishing a clear commitment to prevention,mitigation, correction, compensation and management of the grave environmental effects caused by this dam.
The most fertile areas of our territory, which contains the only forest on Colombia's Caribbean coast and which provide our food supply, must not be flooded because od an arbitrary and authoritarian way decision of the Environment Ministry, as was the case in the environmental go-ahead that was given to OXY and which affects the U'wa people.
Nor can we accept that money flood this community and pretend that it will solve our current and future problems. The disappearance of species of migratory fish has not been resolved and the Empresa Urra's initiatives, which consist of giving money and imposing its Development Plan without listening to our requests, will not allow us to be able to adapt and coexist with the Corambara (Urra) dam.
We are also concerned about the thousands of fishing families and other residents whose problems have not been resolved and about the volatile human rights situation that is intensifying in the area. These human rights violations consist of the displacement of thousands of peasant families, especially in the Saiza zone, and constant threats to our communities and our leaders, which have already resulted in the death of our spiritual leader Alonso Domico, our spokesperson and advisor Lucindo Domico, as well as Alejandro Domico and Ruben Mosquera Pernia.
We ask that you please send letters to:
1. JUAN MAYR MALDONADO. Ministro del Medio Ambiente, Calle 37, No. 8-40, Santafe de Bogota, Colombia. Fax: 2889788 or 2889892 Email: juan-mayr-m@hotmail.com.
2. Dr. ANDRES PASTRANA ARANGO, Presidente de la Republica de Colombia, Carrera 8, No. 7-26, Santafe de Bogota, Colombia. Email: pastrana@presidencia.gov.co
3. Dr. NESTOR HUMBERTO MARTINEZ, Ministro del Interior, Carrera 8, No. 8-09, Palacio Echeverry, Santafe de Bogota, Colombia. Fax: 2515884
4. Dr. LUIS CARLOS VALENZUELA, Ministro de Minas y de Medio Ambiente, Centro Administrativo Nacional, Santafe de Bogota, Colombia.
5. Dr. JAIME BERNAL CUELLAR, Procurador General de la Nacion, Carrera 5, No. 15-80, Santafe de Bogota, Colombia. Web page: http://sinpro.gov.co/progenal.index.htm Phone: 3360011 or 3520066
6. Dr GUILLERMO FERNANDEZ DE SOTO, Canciller, Calle 10 No 5-51, Palacio de San Carlos. Santafe de Bogota, Colombia. Fax: 3416777 Email: Dmminist@minrelext.gov.co.
7. Dr ALFONSO GOMEZ MENDEZ, Fiscal General de la Nacion, Diagonal 22B, No. 52-01, Ciudad Salitre, Santafe de Bogota, Colombia.
Requesting: 1) Denial of the environmental permit to Urra until the company agrees to real consultations and negotiations with the Embera people with the goal of forging an agreement.
2) Completion of consultation and negotiation of an agreement with the Embera people on all of the issues, in good faith and in accordance with Law 21 of 1991 (CONVENIO 169 OIT), the National Constitution and Sentence T-652/98, as the Constitution Court has ordered.
3) Order Empresa Urra to prevent, mitigate, correct, compensate and manage the environmental effects, in accordance with the ruling in the AUTO 828 of 1998, of the impacts identified by the Embera Katio people of the Upper Sinu, in accordance with Sentence T 652/98 of the Constitutional Court and agreed to by the fishing communities of the lower part and other sectors of the Sinu River basin.
4) Consider the proposals of the Jenene Plan, or Life Plan of the Embera People, to control their own development and understand, for example, that the indigenous people prefer territory to money and want to maintain their culture and autonomy, and to guarantee also the existence of the important ecosystem of the Upper Sinu forest.
5) To stop blaming the Embera people for the errors of the National Government and its development strategies when it backs projects of such a high social, cultural, economic and ecological cost to the country. The Colombian people assume an enormous debt of $800 million in utilizing 21.8 hectares of flooded areas of rain forest to produce one megawatt of energy, including the environmental damage of an important basin and the social and cultural disintegration of the Embera Katio people of the Upper Sinu. All of this is done with the aim of later selling the Urra Dam for less than $200 million.
6) To acknowledge and accept responsibility for the human rights violations the Embera people have suffered and which have resulted in the assassination of several Embera leaders, forced dislocation of some communities, and continuing threats which become more menacing as the dam project continues.
Please send copies to: 1) ONIC, Organizacion Nacional Indigena de Colombia, Calle 13, No. 4-38, Santafe de Bogota, Colombia. Email: onic@colnodo.apc.org
2) Cabildos Mayores Embera Katmo de los rios Sinu y Verde, A.A 770, Monteria, Colombia. Email: camaemka@col3.telecom.com.co
Thank you.
* Translated by: *Kora McNaughton*
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Monti Aguirre
Latin American Campaigns
International Rivers Network
1847 Berkeley Way
Berkeley, CA. 94703 USA
Phone: 510 . 848.11.55 and 707 . 591 .91.49
Fax: 510 . 848.10.08
e-mail: monti @irn.org
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