The message below was sent out by MNN at 4:50 pm (April 25). Several updates have been added to the comments:

May 1st A report-back from the solidarity action in Vancouver, and a few videosApril 30th The OPP offensive is over now, and the blockade of Highway 6 has been taken down. Three Mohawks from Tyendinaga remain in custody. (Statements by Hazel Hill and Skyler Williams)
April 28th Update (Opp Moved in this morning, no one was hurt.) and list of (3) solidarity actions
April 28th Open Letter to Police Commissioner Julian Fantino
April 27th Release from Tyendinaga. List of gov’t officials to email
April 26th A brief update from Tyendinaga Support. (Ontario Jails Five More)
April 25th Update from MNN and the Globe and Mail. (everything that’s happened so far)
April 25th blockade has gone up in solidarity near Kanenhstaton (Caledonia, Ontario).

URGENT HELP NEEDED

MNN: April 25, 2008. Mohawks surrounded at the quarry in Tyendinaga. Ontario Provincial Police OPP fully armed with guns drawn. They are yelling through blow horns ordering the Rotiskenekete to come down with their hands up, or else …

On Tuesday morning, nearly 1000 troops swarmed an encampment set up by the Mohawks to resist an illegal housing development project on Mohawk land. Fortunately, by the time the troops arrived, there were no Mohawks to be found.

The OPP are now looking for people to charge and fine like they did with Shawn Brant, treating him as if he was some sort of ring leader. And the media, of course, is busy making everyone look like, well, a “rag-tag group of loosely assembled dissident Mohawks,” according to the Belleville Intelligencer.

Unfortunately, Tyendinaga Mohawk Council Chief R. Donald Maracle seems took a similar position before the OPP invasion, saying the encampment was unsanctioned and that it interferes with ‘his’ negotiations over the Culbertson Tract.

Memory, however, most likely told the Mohawks that if they were to remain inactive, the project would have moved forward until it was finished, and then it would start to make money that the Mohawk People would not benefit from. It may have even gone on to do so for years to come. All the while through, so-called …

On April 20th, hundreds of illegal settlers attacked seven Jumma communities in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHTs) of Bangladesh. Over 500 houses are reported to have been burned, and an unknown number of Jumma were assaulted, raped, and looted during the attack.

According to a recent report by the Asia Centre for Human Rights (ACHR), the attack comes shortly after a group of Jumma gathered to discuss how to defend themselves against an attack, which they had been hearing rumors about. Somehow, the army learned about the gathering and approached the Jumma to tell them there’s nothing to worry about.

As they were talking, a group of Bengali settlers began the attack.

ACHR continues,

This deliberate act of arson, looting, assault and rape, leading to the destruction of seven Jumma villages is reminiscent of similar attacks which forced over 70,000 indigenous Jumma peoples to cross the international border and seek refuge in India in 1985-1986. German anthropologist Wolfgang Mey’s report, “Genocide in the Chitttagong Hill Tracts” (IWGIA Document 51 of 1984) highlighted gross and flagrant human rights violations on the indigenous Jumma …

Over 200 organizations released a joint statement late last month, condemning the Roundtable on Responsible Soy (RTRS).

Made up of representatives from ADM, Bunge, Cargill, Shell, ABN Amro and the WWF, among others, the RTRS is currently gathered in Buenos Aries to develop policies that encourage “responsible soy,” a prospect they consider while ignoring “the very nature by which soy monoculture is produced, taking up vast swaths of land throughout South America, using massive amounts of water resources, depending upon chemical and synthetic fertilizers and pesticide inputs, and leaving a trail of contaminated and/or displaced communities in its wake,” notes Andrea on the RAN blog. “This precludes it from ever being classified as responsible.”

The Joint Statement against the 3rd RoundTable on Responsible Soy reiterates this in no uncertain terms:

Agribusiness is responsible for the devastation of our soils, deforestation, contamination of rivers and aquifers, biodiversity loss, and the plunder of the natural and cultural heritage which once supported our communities. The expansion of soybean monoculture threatens the territorial, cultural and food sovereignty of countries as well as the rights of the Indigenous …

Mines and Communities has made a rather useful resource guide available on their website. Among other things, it provides a database on mining companies, their projects, and the names of the funders…

Now I imagine I don’t have to tell you the significance of having such a resource, so let me just ask you to help spread the word that this guide exists. At the moment it’s only mentioned on one other website.

Published by Nostromo Research, the guide is called From Money to Metals, and it can be downloaded in English and Spanish on this page at the Mines and Communities website.

Report Overview

“The need for a campaigner’s guide to mine-related finance has grown more and more urgent, as communities at the receiving end of dubious or dangerous projects – and others - become increasingly bewildered at the different types of funding available and how they are used.

Multilateral development banks (notably the World Bank and its International Financial Corporation), and export credit agencies, are often criticised for directing their support towards unacceptable mining ventures or disreputable companies. In contrast, private banks and institutions, culpable …

Mines and Communities reports that “one of the most vilified mining proposals of recent years has hit a major stumbling block, as its key financial backer suspends support. Early this month, in a statement to opponents of the Phulbari coal mine in Bangladesh, the director general of Asia Development Bank (ADB)’s Private Sector Operations Department declared that his agency would ‘decline the opportunity’ of investing in the project.”

Noted here in January, the Asian Development Bank was considering a plan to give a $100 million loan to GCM Resources, the UK company behind the massive coal mine scheme. GCM had also asked the bank for a $200 million “political risk insurance package” to help protect them from any losses they would incur through local resistance… In 2006, over 50,000 people gathered to protest the mine, subsequently forcing GCM to shut down the operation and flee.

That number — 50,000 — is one tenth the number of people that would be displaced and otherwise effected by the dam, should it be completed.

A joint statement released on April 4 by Urgewald, the International …

On April 11 Puerto Rico’s Department of Natural Resources (DNR) informed the General Council of Tainos Borincanos that they would NOT be allowed to clean the Bucana river in Jacanas.

As part of an effort to promote conservation and respect for the environment, the Council proposed the clean-up more than two months ago, to “mend the damage caused to the sacred site of Jacanas, Ponce, PR and to renew its integrity,” writes UCTP Taino News.

At that point they decided to contact the DNR, among other governmental agencies, to learn the proper procedures for the clean up. They sent faxes and letters, made phone calls, and even went to their offices in person — but their request was always ignored; that is, until just recently.

The DNR finally wrote back. But to the Tainos dismay, the letter was confusing and contained “no instructions on the procedures for carrying out such an activity; however they implied that the Taino Council needed to have the endorsement of federal agencies to clean our rivers and to protect Mother Earth.”

Then, on April 11 the Taino Council …

Following up last week’s announcement by the Canadian House of Commons which called on the Federal Government to implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, an announcement that had me believing pigs could fly, on Monday the (minority) government of Canada was kind enough to set the record straight.

During the first day of the OAS 11th negotiating session for the Draft American Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, they reaffirmed their opposition to the UN declaration — even going so far as to say they will no longer take part in any negotiations regarding the Draft American Declaration.

Courtesy of Ben Powless, below you will find Canada’s official statement, followed by a response delivered the next day by Beverly Jacobs, President of NWAC, on behalf of the Indigenous Peoples Caucus of the Americas.

Photo by abdallahh,
republished here under a Creative Commons License

Canada’s Statement to the Working Group to Prepare the Draft American Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

April 14, 2008

Canada …

The Brazilian Supreme Court has suspended the police operation that sought to evict a group of rice farmers illegally occupying Raposa Serra do Sol indigenous territory in the Brazilian state of Roraima.

The decision came last Wednesday (April 9), after the farmers began threatening and attacking the regions indigenous people, destroying bridges, and setting up roadblocks to resist their eviction.

According to the Associated Press,

The court blocked the eviction of farmers from the Raposa Serra do Sol reservation late Wednesday, saying protests by the settlers… could erupt into “a veritable civil war.”

Roraima state Gov. Jose de Anchieta Filho, who backs the farmers, hailed the Supreme Court decision as ‘a victory for Roraima’s people.’

But Dionito Jose de Sousa, a Macuxi Indian chief and coordinator of the Roraima Indigenous Council, said the ruling rewarded violence and disrespect for the law.

“This is very bad for us, because our rights are being violated,” Sousa said by telephone from the Roraima state capital, Boa Vista. “Even with all the destruction carried out by the rice growers, the Supreme Court decided in their favor.”

The justices issued the …

“If TransCanada tries to build this pipeline across unceded Lubicon Territory without Lubicon consent — based on approval of an application to an Alberta Government regulatory agency that does not have legitimate authority in unceded Lubicon Territory — the Lubicon people will oppose it every inch of the way, every way we can, for as long as TransCanada Pipelines tries to operate in Lubicon Territory.”

These are the concluding remarks of a statement delivered earlier this week by the Lubicon Cree Nation at an Alberta Utilities Commission hearing in Edmonton. A Lubicon Press Release explains, “the hearing was held to decide who, if anyone, has standing to make presentations at a full hearing on the proposed North Central Crossing Pipeline that would run through unceded Lubicon Traditional Territory. After making the statement, the Lubicon representatives and a room full of supporters walked out of the hearing.”

For more information you can contact the Friends of the Lubicon at fol@tao.ca, or by calling 416-763-7500. Friends of the Lubicon Alberta has also put together a list of things you can do to help.
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