CONSEJO INTERNACIONAL DE TRATADOS INDIOS

United Nations Commission on Human Rights

Fifty-sixth Session

March 20-April 28, 2000

Oral Intervention by the International Indian Treaty Council

Agenda Item 7:  The Right to Development

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Thank you Mr. Chairman

The International Indian Treaty Council will address the Right to Development and provide the members of the Commission with updates on two critical situations in which proposed oil drilling on and adjacent to Indigenous Peoples’   lands poses an immanent threat to their human rights and survival.

In our written intervention submitted under this agenda item, the IITC addressed the current crisis situation faced by the U’ wa Indigenous People as a result of the Columbian government’ s approval last year of oil drilling by Occidental Petroleum on lands traditionally and legally belonging to the  U’ wa.  Occidental’  s proposed Gibraltar 1 drilling site lies within 500 meters of the federally recognized U’ wa reserve. 

We reported that on January 25, 2000,  25 members of the U’ wa tribe peacefully living on their property were forcibly removed by the Colombian military to make way for construction of a road and the Gibraltar 1 well.  Those who were removed stated that the police threatened to poison the U’ wa' s water and to kill them if they refused to leave, and that the troops punched and kicked them as they were forced into helicopters.  The troops flew the U’ wa to a military base at Samoré, where they took U’  wa ’  s  personal belongings and held them for several hours. 

We have received eyewitness and NGO reports that on approximately February 4, 2000, the Colombian military invaded the U’ wa territory, surrounded and detained groups of U’ wa, prohibiting them from leaving or reentering their territory, and from bringing in food and medicines. 

On February 11, 2000, Colombian military and police troops violently attacked a group of  U’ wa men, women, children and elderly people as they were peacefully protesting at the well site.  The troops used heavy machinery and tear gas, forcing the U’  wa to throw themselves into a nearby river.   This attack reportedly left three children killed and numerous people injured. 

Meanwhile, the Colombian government has continued to expedite the approval of construction and operation of the Gibraltar 1 well despite the U’ wa protests.  The U’  wa  maintain that Colombian authorities have never consulted them concerning the decision to grant the license to Occidental, violating Colombia’  s own federally mandated legal procedures.  The U’ wa  have firmly opposed oil exploration and  drilling on and around their traditional territory, which would result in numerous and extremely serious violations of their most fundamental human rights, including their right to practice their traditional religion and  culture, under which removal of oil constitutes a violation of sacred responsibility, as well as their rights to health and their traditional means of  subsistence. 

The U’ wa maintain that the proposed drilling would irreparably contaminate their lands, waters and air, and would encourage further violence and armed conflict in the immediate vicinity of their homelands. 

In February of this year, Occidental Petroleum Vice-President Lawrence Meriage testified before the U.S. Congress in a subcommittee hearing on the Military aid package to Colombia, stating  "only two groups are intent on blocking the project … leftist guerrillas… and non-governmental organizations in the US."   Meriage further implied that the U’ wa were merely pawns of others.

The U'wa issued a statement responding to Meriage's testimony saying: "We demand that Occidental Petroleum and those in the media who have called us guerrilla sympathizers, rectify these accusations immediately, because they endanger the life of the U'wa community and of those that support us. We fight to defend our cultural principles which benefit society as a whole, and not those particular dark interests."

In the United States, on March 8, 2000 legislation was introduced in the US Senate that would mandate full-scale oil leasing and drilling of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge coastal plain.  This pending legislation is similar to a bill which was introduced in the US House of Representatives last year, and is now being promoted by its supporters as a response to the rising price of gasoline in the US.  Each year, legislation has been introduced to open the 1.5 million-acre coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil exploration.  This area is the birthplace of the Porcupine Caribou herd, upon which the Gwich’  in  Peoples’   culture and way of life depends.  It would take an act of Congress to open it to oil exploration, or to protect it in perpetuity as a wilderness area.

For several years the IITC has presented written and oral interventions to this Commission expressing the firm opposition of the Gwich' in Peoples of Alaska and Canada to oil drilling in the refuge, which would violate their cultural, religious and subsistence rights by causing irreparable harm to the caribou birthing grounds.  The reintroduction of the current legislation demonstrates that the Gwich’ in Peoples’  human rights concerns have been disregarded by those Congressional members who continue to press for oil leasing and drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Mr. Chairman, as Indigenous Peoples our responsibility is to protect the relationships with the natural world which have sustained us since time immemorial.   Imposed oil drilling threatens these sacred relationships for Indigenous Peoples around the world.   Our right to development and our survival as Peoples is inextricably linked to protection of the natural world.   We will continue to stand, and to live, based upon this sacred fundamental principle.