Our friends of SAM (Sahabat Alam Malaysia) are very disturbed over the destruction of vast amounts of natural forests in Sabah, East Malaysia ( on the island of Borneo ) for a massive pulp and paper project. The environmental impacts of the rainforest destruction is extremely worrying. Please click here for more information about:  "Logging and forest cleareance operation without environmental impact assessment".

We urge you to read this letter carefully and take the suggested measures. It is for these environmental concerns that SAM has called the State Government of Sabah and the Federal Government to:

If you have any queries, please contact SAM at: 
smidris@tm.net.my and meenaco@pd.jaring.my
27 Lorong Maktab
10250 Penang, Malaysia.
Tel : 604-2276930
Fax: 604-2275705
 

Our friends of Censat Agua Viva (FoE Colombia) propose a "faxes and e-mails campaing" as solidarity with U´was people. Please send a fax or a e-mail to the Colombian President as well as to Colombian embassies and consulates in your countries. Find here a list of their faxes and addresses around the world.

Thank for your support. 

Doctor Andrés Pastrana Arango
President of the Republic of Colombia
Palacio de Nariño, Carrera 8 No.7-26
Santa Fe de Bogotá, Colombia
Fax: + 571 287 7939, + 571 284 2186, + 571 289 3377 or + 571 337 1351

Dear Sir,

We, as environmentalists and international citizens, are deeply concerned with regard to the latest news from Colombia and feel that there is almost a non-declared war going on against the indigenous people of your country. 

We understand that the parties to be held responsible for this conflict not only include the government, but also ilegal armed groups. However, as the maximum representative of the executive power, it is your responsibility to uphold the legal constitutional order. For this reason, we would like to draw your attention to the following facts:

Since 1995, the U’wa people have carried out a peaceful and actively opposing the exploration and exploitation of the oil reserves in their sacred territory. However, over the last 9 months they have suffered a series of serious attacks, physical aggressions, disappearances, deaths and general violence originated by the State and ilegal armed groups. All of them, without excuse, disrespect the autonomy of the indigenous community violating their territory and their sacred rights.

Throughout this conflict the U’wa people have denounced this aggression, by blocking roads, exposing themselves to a wave of violence in order to obtain the respect they deserve and the recognition of their constitutional rights. Without this protest and the international declarations calling for the defense of the U’wa people, the right to be consulted by the OXY Company with respect to the oil exploration in their land wouldn’t have been possible. 

On the 8th of July 2000, the U’wa people signed an agreement in Cubará with the Interior Vice- Minister, to initiate conversations towards a negotiated solution to the conflict. According to this agreement, the Colombian government is committed to demand the suspension of the OXY works in the area and equally the peasants promised to evacuate the blocked roads. On the 10th of August the government, ignoring once again the U’wa people’s rights , issued the decree 80851 declaring the area as an "oil reserve" of national interest. Using this mechanism the OXY evicted 300 peasants of their land in Caño Limòn. 

On the 7th of September, the police arrived to evict all the civilians lodged 500 Mts. around the Gibraltar Well ; the militarization of the area did not allow the U’wa people to transit freely in their own territory. We would to enquire, taking into account these restrictions, Are these measures something that your administration considers to be a "dialogue"? 

On the 30th of September, the U’wa territory was invaded by 90 trucks transporting heavy machinery for the exploration work at the Gibraltar Well. At the present time, more than 3000 soldiers are looking after this machinery. 

All these actions are considered part of the Plan Colombia, military project supported by the OXY in the American Congress, is - rather than a real peace project - a military scheme to enable projects of oil exploration and other transnational companie.. The Colombian national newspaper El Espectador, published an interview held with Stan Goff, a retired army man from the Special Forces of the United States, who declared that behind the Plan Colombia were the interests of the big petroleum companies and furthermore, the approval and support of the presidential candidates Al Gore and Bush. 

The U’wa people have been investigating records to back up their statements with legal documents for their right to their own territory. They discovered an agreement between their people and the Spanish Crown, signed during the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries, giving them legal property rights over their land, soil and subsoil. 

These documents were found in the National Arcades (Archivo General de La Naciòn) and there are copies in Seville (Spain). Thus, we respectfully ask, why has the State ignored the legal rights of the U’wa people over their territories? The Colombian Constitution obligates the recognition of rights acquired by a third party, in this case the U’wa people. Alhtough these rights were repeatedly proved by documents, they keep being ignored.

The development of the Samorè Plan, which has been renamed Sirirì, permits the exploration of the oil fields and the consequent eviction of more than 500 peasants and their families, the cultural destruction of 5000 U’wa people, and it will also contribute to the increase of violence and environmental destruction in the area. 

We ask ourselves, what is the impediment to follow the precepts established in the national constitution and comply with the international agreements on indigenous people signed by Colombia. 

We want to believe are certain that you will seek to find the just and best solution to the U’wa case. There is still time to stop the genocide against these courageous communities, who are worthy of our admiration. 

The respect to their culture will only be possible if the plan to exploit the oil fields in their land is stopped now. This struggle will give strenght to the future generations and their struggle to save the planet Earth from environmental destruction.