The Crimean Tatars are Turkic people who inhabited the Crimean peninsula, now a part of Ukraine, for over seven centuries. During World War II, the entire Tatar population was unjustly accused of being Nazi collaborators and deported en masse to Central Asia and other lands in the Soviet Union.

In 1967 a Soviet decree removed the charges against the Tatars, but the government did nothing to facilitate their resettlement or to make reparations for lost lives and confiscated property.

In the early 1990s, the Tatars began to return to their …

photo by Antonio Briceño

Earlier this month, a leader from the Kayapó delivered a letter to Brazil’s President, expressing a deep concern about a bill currently being debated in the Brazilian parliament which threatens to open up indigenous territories to mining and other development projects.

The letter, signed by 78 People from the Kayapó, Panará, Tapajuna and Yudjá Nations, warns that they will not accept mining on their lands without permission from the community; that …

China Confidential writes, “When it comes to biofuels–especially corn-based ethanol–the jury is in. What is supposed to be a universally accepted human right–namely, the right to adequate food for the world’s 854 million hungry people–is being threatened by the mad conversion of wheat, sugar, soy–and corn–into fuel instead of food.

“It is a crime against humanity to convert agricultural productive soil into soil which produces food stuff that will be burned into biofuel,” Jean Ziegler, the UN special rapporteur on the Right to Food, recently told reporters.

“I am gravely concerned …

The situation has quited now, but for the past week violence has gripped the Nandigram region of West Bengal, India. Under the guise of “cleansing” the area of political rivalry, cadres said to be hired by the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) began entering village after village; burning houses, forcibly occupying land, and destroying crops. Dozens if not hundreds of people were attacked, killed and even raped.

It all started on November 6, after several gunshots were fired at local farmers belonging to the Bhumi Uchched Pratirodh Committee (BUPC, Anti …

A couple weeks ago, the Ontario Court of Appeals ruled that the Indigenous Community of Whitefish Lake (WLFN), who had their timber rights sold by the Crown for $316 in 1886, is now entitled to millions of dollars in compensation.

The three-judge panel concluded (pdf) that “the Crown breached its fiduciary duty to the Whitefish Lake Band of Indians 120 years ago” and is now owed equitable compensation for its breach.

In 1885, the Crown decided to sell the timber rights to 79 square miles at a price …

Teardrops Of Karnaphuli (Karnaphuli Kanna) tells the story of a dam that was constructed in the Karnaphuli region of the Chittagong Hill Tracts, and the resulting impoverishment and suffering that was brought on to local inhabitants. About 100,000 people were evicted from their land during 1959-1962.

This is but one of perhaps thousands of stories about the struggles of the Jumma People, who have since the 1970s gone from being nearly the sole inhabitants of the Chittagong Hill Tracts to being minorities on their own land. This film also discusses …

Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug (KI) is a small, remote, First Nation in Northern Ontario that was sued early last year by Platinex, a Toronto-based junior mining exploration company, for $10 Billion dollars. Platinex also sought out an injunction against KI so they could drill for platinum on their Traditional Territory without the community’s permission. In turn, KI submitted a counter-injunction…

In what was widely regarded a landmark decision, a few months later an Ontario Superior Court Judge ruled in favour of KI, ordering a moratorium on mining while the …

Cartoon by Khalil Bendib

More than 5,000 people converged last month in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu to protest a deal made by the state government to appropriate nearly 10,000 acres of land and hand it over to the India-based Tata Steel Corporation.

Upon doing so, the giant transnational company would then gain the right to mine ilmenite (which yields titanium metal and titanium dioxide when processed–both extremely valuable materials.) in Sathankulam, an agrarian pocket of …

Teshekpuk Lake, located in Northern Alaska, is one of the most important and sensitive arctic wetland complexes in the Northern Hemisphere. A summer home to thousands of migratory birds, the lake region is also an important subsistence hunting and fishing ground for the local indigenous population.

In 1923, Teshekpuk Lake was placed into Alaska’s National Petroleum Reserve and was designated for use by the military, but the government of the day came to see the area was just too unique to exploit. The Bush Administration, however, sees …

On Sunday, Via Campesina peacefully occupied an experimental GMO field of the Swiss company Syngenta in the state of Parana, Brazil, when it was attacked by an armed militia that killed one and critically injured 6 others.

Via Campesina issued a statement following the attack, demanding a full investigation into what they describe as the execution of Keno, a local MST leader who was shot twice at point-blank range. They are also calling for Syngenta to be held accountable because they hired the militia in the first …