Tag Archive for 'displacement'Page 3 of 7

06
Mar

Violent Eviction of Women Who Occupied Illegally Acquired Land

The Rural Landless Workers’ Movement (MST) has blockaded eight roads in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. This action comes in response to the “violence and abuses” committed against 900 women two days ago.

Organized as part of a “week of mobilization for Agrarian Reform and against the violence of big land-owners”, the women of La Via Campesina decided to occupy a plot of land that was illegally acquired by the Swedish-Finnish company Stora Enso.

According to Via Campesina, Brazilian law states foreigners cannot own land that’s “less than 150 kilometers off the border with other countries.” Stora Enso’s 5,200-acre tree farm lies within that boundary, near the Uruguayan border.

As the regional government did nothing to prevent Stora Enso from setting up its operation, the women decided to take action themselves. In turn, Stora Enso asked government to …

Published on
March 6, 2008
  0 Comments 856 views

27
Jan

Dams in Burma to displace thousands

4-dams-in-burma.jpg

The Shan Herald reports that the first construction phase of the Tasang Dam is nearing completion. According to a source from the Thai/Burma border, Chinese dam builders have been at the site since last November, and have so far installed about 90% of the dams pillars.

The Tasang is the largest of 4 dams currently planned for the Salween River, in Shan State, Burma. Once the Tasang is operational, thousands of Karen, Karenni, Mon, Shan, Wa, Pa-O, Lahu, Padaung, Akha, Lisu and Palaung - face displacement at the hands of the Burmese Military. Salween Watch informs us, that, “already over 300,000 people have been forcibly relocated from the areas since dam studies commenced in 1996.” An increased military presence has also “led to an increase of reports of torture, extrajudicial killing, and other human …

Published on
January 27, 2008
  1 Comment 1,154 views

23
Jan

Risk of Violence Against Opposition to Phulbari Mine

With the Asian Development Bank preparing to give a $100 million loan and $200 million political risk insurance package to GCM Resources’ open pit coal mine in Phulbari, Bangladesh - the future of the entire local population becomes evermore uncertain.

On the land they’ve live on for generations, many continue asking themselves questions that no one should have to ask: “What will happen to us if we are forced to move from here? What will happen to our livelihoods? I don’t want us to live like this. Our mosques and holy places and the places we were born will be destroyed. What will happen to the graveyards of our ancestors?”

If the mine goes ahead as planned, upwards of 50,000 will be displaced from their land, with 500,000 more effected. 50 educational institutions, as well as 171 mosques, 13 …

Published on
January 23, 2008
  0 Comments 961 views

22
Jan

China To Resettle Over 52,000 Tibetans this year

Moving along with its pleasant-sounding “comfortable housing program,” a lofty endeavor that aims to forcefully move 250,000 Tibetans into featureless apartment blocks under the auspices of ‘protecting the environment and boosting living standards,’ the Chinese Government announced it will relocate more than 52,000 Tibetan herders and farmers this year.

Human rights groups have been consistently speaking out against this program because the resettlements are in fact lowering the Tibetan Peoples’ standard of living. This is made evident in the report “No one has the Liberty to refuse,” by Human Rights Watch (HRW), which details how the Tibetans are being thrust from a traditional, self-sufficient life to one where they simply cannot have their needs met.

[...] In stark contrast with glowing accounts in the official media, a number of academic studies of the ecological migration policies …

Published on
January 22, 2008
  3 Comments 940 views

14
Jan

Lumad People facing more and more Military forces

Last week, Environmental groups from the Philippines cautioned against the government sending in larger deployments of police and military to protect mining operations such as the one headed by the Australian mining giant Xstrata in Tampakan, Mindanao. The groups warn that doing so “would give rise to even more conflict and human rights violations against mining-affected communities.”

In a statement, Clemente Bautista Jr., National Coordinator of Kalikasan Peoples’ Network for the Environment (Kalikasan PNE), said “We’re disappointed that the Environment Secretary favors militarization over peace talks and community consent as a solution to the mining woes in Tampakan. Mining-affected communities, are increasingly vulnerable to human and civil rights violations by state and private armed security forces. Mr. Atienza should not make a practice of encouraging troops to protect mining firms that should not be there in the first place, …

Published on
January 14, 2008
  0 Comments 847 views

15
Dec

Kgeikani Kweni are still not home

December 13th marked the first anniversary of the Kgeikani Kweni’s (First People of the Kalahari) landmark victory in Botswana’s High Court. As relayed in the following video produced shortly after the victory, the court ruled the government’s eviction of the Kgeikani Kweni was ‘unlawful and unconstitutional’, and that they have the right to live, hunt, and gather on their ancestral land in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve.

After the court ruling, the government continued to deny their rights. In fact, they stepped up their persecution of those who try to hunt on the reserve. At least 53 Kgeikani Kweni have been arrested for hunting in 2007, and many have been tortured. The government also refuses to let them access their water borehole inside the reserve, and many Kgeikani Kweni remain stranded in the resettlement camps they were dragged into last year.

If you’re wondering why they’re doing this, I need only …

Published on
December 15, 2007
  0 Comments 860 views

08
Dec

Daechuri

The farmers of Daechuri and Doduri have long resisted the Korean government’s attempts to force their eviction in order to make way for the expansion of the “Camp Humphreys” (K-6) US Military Base. After years of legal battles, in December 2005, the Central Land Expropriation Committee approved a request for imminent domain acquisition of the two villages, instantly making the farmers criminals trespassing on federal property.

Three months later, the farmers marched to the local government office to declare that Daechuri and Doduri were autonomous from Korea. They renounced their citizenship and burned their residency cards. They had also began protesting on a daily basis.

One month after that, the government started a campaign of violence and intimidation against them. At first hundreds, then thousands of military riot police and plain-clothed thugs were sent in to force them off …

Published on
December 8, 2007
  0 Comments 1,038 views

Video activism and the Chiapas Media Project

In the following presentation, Claudia Magallanes-Blanco from the University of Western Sydney talks about the role of video activism as a world-wide tool for empowerment and the Chiapas Media Project, a collaborative effort based in Mexico that provides indigenous Zapatistas in Chiapas and peasants in Guerrero with training and equipment to produce their own videos.

Since forming in 1998, CMP has distributed over 6000 videos, including: Zapata’s Garden, a film that looks at the society the Zapatista’s are building; …


I Am A Defender of the Rainforest

Known as ‘Soy defensor de la selva’ in Spanish, I am a Defender of the Rainforest is an award-winning documentary that was filmed, edited, and directed by members of the Sarayaku community in southern Ecuador.

The film shows how the …


Underreported Struggles #19, October 2008

In this month’s Underreported Struggles: 400,000 Guatemalans Reject Development Model, Philippines Indigenous People Unite for the Land, Riot Police Target Algonquin Blockade, Chagos Islanders Denied the Right of Return, and 17 other stories …


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