Sign-on letter: Rasi Salai Dam in Thailand

Dear friends

South-East Asia Rivers Network (SEARIN) and the Committee for Save Tam Mun have asked IRN to coordinate an international open letter to the Prime
Minister of Thailand, regarding Rasi Salai Dam. Currently 1850 people are
facing submergence due to the rising waters in the reservoir, which has already flooded four homes and destroyed more than 80% of their farmland. The villagers are demanding that the government reexamines the impacts of the project and compensate the 1800 families affected by the dam who have still received nothing. The protesters, who are affiliated with Assembly of the Poor, were inspired by the Satyagraha conducted by the Narmada Bachao Andolan this year and are prepared to stay until their demands are met. The irrigation dam was completed in 1994, but is effectively useless as the irrigation network has not been built. The government is currently filling the reservoir in an attempt to cover the villager's farmland, so the villagers cannot prove how much land was affected.

As of tomorrow there will be more information about this project on IRN's
website www.irn.org , including photos of the flooded village and protesters.

Please send your endorsement of this letter to aviva@irn.org by Monday
October 26, US Pacific Time. Include your name and organization name.

If you have any more questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Thanks very much,

Aviva Imhof
South-East Asia Campaigner
International Rivers Network
______________________________

October 1999

The Hon. Mr. Chuan Leekpai
Prime Minister of Thailand
Fax:

Dear Mr. Chuan

We write to express our support for the 1850 people currently facing submergence at the Rasi Salai dam on the Mun River in North-Eastern Thailand. These people intend to stay in their village, Mae Mun Man Yuen Village #2, and face the rising waters, until their demands are met.

The Department of Energy Development and Promotion is currently filling the
reservoir and the water level is at 116.8 meters above sea level. Already four houses and 80 per cent of the village's rice fields and vegetable gardens have been flooded. If the level reaches 117.5 meters, the village will be entirely submerged and people will drown.

We are writing to urge you to direct the DEPD to immediately stop filling the reservoir, and to give due consideration to the people's demands. The villagers are demanding that the government reexamine the impacts of the project, drain the reservoir, determine the exact number of people affected by the dam, pay compensation to all affected peoples, and correct the environmental problems caused by the dam. If the government refuses to pay compensation, the villagers demand that the dam be removed.

These people have been demonstrating for over six years, yet the government
has refused to listen. On April 20 of this year, more than 1000 villagers affected by Rasi Salai dam occupied the dam site. Still the government did not listen. Now 1850 people are prepared to die in order to get the attention of the government. They have lost everything and they feel they have nothing more to lose.

Rasi Salai has been plagued by problems and deceit ever since it was first conceived. DEPD failed to release any information to the public prior to construction, and stated that they would only build a small rubber weir 4.5 meters high, not a concrete dam 9 meters high. More than 100 square kilometers were inundated, yet no Environmental Impact Assessment was conducted, contrary to the Environment Act. Even though the dam was completed in 1994, and DEPD is currently filling the reservoir, the irrigation system is not operational, so the dam is effectively useless.

The dam destroyed the fresh water swamp forest along the banks of the Mun
River and blocked the migration of fish. The reservoir has been plagued by salination problems because it is located on top of a big salt dome. More than 3000 families have lost their farmland to the reservoir, and compensation was paid for private property only, not for lost customary land rights. After a long struggle General Chawalit's government paid compensation to 1154 families, yet more than 1800 families remain uncompensated.

Please act now to protect the lives of these people and respect their demands. Thank you for your consideration of these important matters.

Yours sincerely

Solidarity with the Embera Katio people of the Upper Sinu.

THE LIFE AND DIGNITY OF THE EMBERA PEOPLE WILL NOT BE DROWNED

The Embera Katio people and leaders of the Upper Sinu are calling for the solidarity of our friends, to stop the Urra hydroelectric project from drowning our dignity because the Colombian government The future of the Embera people and our territory will be irrevocably affected if the Colombian government, through the Environment Ministry, gives Empresa Urra the environmental permission for the p The most fertile areas of our territory, which contains the only forest on Colombia's Caribbean coast and which provide our food supply, must not be flooded because od an arbitrary and authoritarian Nor can we accept that money flood this community and pretend that it will solve our current and future problems. The disappearance of species of migratory fish has not been resolved and the Empresa We are also concerned about the thousands of fishing families and other residents whose problems have not been resolved and about the volatile human rights situation that is intensifying in the area.

We ask that you please send letters to:

1. JUAN MAYR MALDONADO. Ministro del Medio Ambiente, Calle 37, No. 8-40, Santafe de Bogota, Colombia. Fax: 2889788 or 2889892 Email: juan-mayr-m@hotmail.com .

2. Dr. ANDRES PASTRANA ARANGO, Presidente de la Republica de Colombia, Carrera 8, No. 7-26, Santafe de Bogota, Colombia. Email: pastrana@presidencia.gov.co

3. Dr. NESTOR HUMBERTO MARTINEZ, Ministro del Interior, Carrera 8, No. 8-09, Palacio Echeverry, Santafe de Bogota, Colombia. Fax: 2515884

4. Dr. LUIS CARLOS VALENZUELA, Ministro de Minas y de Medio Ambiente, Centro Administrativo Nacional, Santafe de Bogota, Colombia.

5. Dr. JAIME BERNAL CUELLAR, Procurador General de la Nacion, Carrera 5, No. 15-80, Santafe de Bogota, Colombia. Web page: http://sinpro.gov.co/progenal.index.htm Phone: 3360011 or 3520066

6. Dr GUILLERMO FERNANDEZ DE SOTO, Canciller, Calle 10 No 5-51, Palacio de San Carlos. Santafe de Bogota, Colombia. Fax: 3416777 Email: Dmminist@minrelext.gov.co

7. Dr ALFONSO GOMEZ MENDEZ, Fiscal General de la Nacion, Diagonal 22B, No. 52-01, Ciudad Salitre, Santafe de Bogota, Colombia.

Requesting:

1) Denial of the environmental permit to Urra until the company agrees to real consultations and negotiations with the Embera people with the goal of forging an agreement.

2) Completion of consultation and negotiation of an agreement with the Embera people on all of the issues, in good faith and in accordance with Law 21 of 1991 (CONVENIO 169 OIT), the National Constitution

3) Order Empresa Urra to prevent, mitigate, correct, compensate and manage the environmental effects, in accordance with the ruling in the AUTO 828 of 1998, of the impacts identified by the Embera Katio people

4) Consider the proposals of the Jenene Plan, or Life Plan of the Embera People, to control their own development and understand, for example, that the indigenous people prefer territory to money

5) To stop blaming the Embera people for the errors of the National Government and its development strategies when it backs projects of such a high social, cultural, economic and ecological cost

6) To acknowledge and accept responsibility for the hum an rights violations the Embera people have suffered and which have resulted in the assassination of several Embera leaders, forced dislocation

Please send copies to:

1) ONIC, Organizacion Nacional Indigena de Colombia, Calle 13, No. 4-38, Santafe de Bogota, Colombia. E-mail: onic@colnodo.apc.org

2) Cabildos Mayores Embera Katmo de los rios Sinu y Verde, A.A 770, Monteria, Colombia. E-mail: camaemka@col3.telecom.com.co

Thank you.

Ecuador rainforest national park - please help

Dear Friends,

We urgently need your help to protect one of the most fragile and threatened (supposedly) protected wilderness areas on Earth - the Cotacachi Cayapas Ecological Reserve in Ecuador. As you will read in the letter below, mining prospectors have recently entered the reserve and if valuable minerals are found it will mean an end to the ecological integrity of the area.

Please sign this letter as an organisation or individual and send it to the World Bank and on to your own lists too. If you would like any further information about the campaign please contact: decoin@hoy.net (in English or Spanish). Please send them a copy of your fax or email.

To the President, World Bank, James Wolfensohn fax 202-522-3031 / 522-0355, cunit3@worldbank.org

Executive Director World Bank, N. Hyden fax: 202 477-2007, nhyden@worldbank.org

Dear Sir,

It has come to our attention that a serious transgression of World Bank and international environmental protocol is currently taking place in Ecuador with the mining survey of the Cotacachi Cayapas Ecological reserve.

A World Bank financed mining project, PRODEMINCA (Proyecto de Desarrollo Minero y Control Ambiental), is carrying out prospect ing activities well within the boundaries of the Cotacachi Caya pas Ecological reserve in North-West Ecuador.

We are frankly shocked that the World Bank could consider financing such a project when we understand that mining activities are prohibited in protected areas in Ecuador under the current Forestry and Wildlife law and the current and proposed new mining law.

We call upon the World Bank to immediately withdraw funding from these mining activities, and to ensure that it supports no future financing of mining activities in any of the world's protected areas.

The social and ecological impacts of mining in tropical forests in developing countries are well known. The World Bank must be aware that any exploration and disclosure of mineral resources opens the way not only for industrial exploitation but uncontrolled mining by small operators. In this case, given the ecological significance of the reserve in question, it is also guaranteed infringement of World Bank promises for the care and protection of global biodiversity.

The Cotacachi Cayapas Ecological reserve is a scant remaining intact remnant of the Western Ecuadorian Forests, an area regarded as one of the world's ten most threatened biological 'hot spots' (N. Myers, 1992, E. O. Wilson, 1995). Due to commercial logging, oil palm plantations, cattle ranching, and other economic activities, these forests have been reduced to only seven percent of their original area (A.Gentry, and C. Dodson in: Biological Extinction of Western Ecuador).

The forests where the prospecting is being carried out at present have one of the world's highest rates of endemic species. They harbor dozens of mammal and bird species severely threatened by extinction, including Spectacled Bears, Jaguars, Ocelots, Mountain Tapirs, brown headed spider Monkeys and white throated Capuchin Monkeys. Bird species include the Plate-billed mountain Toucan, Esmeraldas Woodstar, Great Green Macaw, Crested Eagle, Harpy Eagle and the Andean Condor.

We anticipate your immediate and conclusive action by directing an immediate halt to World Bank participation in the PRODEMINCA project and safeguarding the protection of the Cotacachi Cayapas Ecological Reserve. We believe it is vital that any geological information already gathered in the area remain out of public view in order to avoid invasion by small miners.

We would also like to encourage the World Bank's changing trend in development policies to support the multiple options for ecologically and socially benign projects. Continued support of such unsustainable activities such as mining in areas of extreme environmental importance puts this shift in severe jeopardy.

We look forward to hearing your prompt and positive response to this issue in order to remain consistent to your own policies.

Yours sincerely,

PLEASE SIGN HERE

URGENT Life or Death for the U'wa!

COLOMBIAN GOVERNMENT OKS OCCIDENTAL PETROLEUM PROJECT TO DRILL ON U'WA LAND! OCTOBER 12TH CELEBRATE INDIGENOUS PEOPLE'S DAY WITH ACTION FOR THE U'WA

Contents :

1. Action Alert - Drilling on U'wa Land Imminent

2. Background information on the U'wa struggle

3. Sample Letters to Oxy and Colombian Government

On September 21st Colombia's Environment Minister Juan Mayr announced he was granting a permit for Occidental Petroleum to begin exploratory drilling on the U'wa ancestral homelands. The U'wa have denounced the government's decision as cultural and environmental genocide. This permit removes the final legal obstacle to Occidental's plans to drill and pushes the U'wa one step closer to their last resort pledge of committing mass suicide.

For several years now the U'wa have been an inspiring symbol of ecological sanity and indigenous resistance to the oil industry's relentless invasion of the final remote corners of the planet. The U'wa have maintained their stand despite harassment, intimidation, a brutal assault on their spokesperson and the murder of three of their supporters. A worldwide solidarity movement forced Royal Dutch Shell to withdraw from the project and has stalled the efforts of LA-based Occidental Petroleum to begin drilling. Until now. With approval from the Colombian government drilling on U'wa land is imminent. A global solidarity movement is needed to pressure the Colombian government and Occidental to cancel the project.

In Colombia where a 30 year civil war has claimed the lives of 25,000 people this decade alone, oil and violence spread hand in hand. Oil installations are popular targets for the guerillas and as such bring de facto military occupations along with the inevitable ecological devastation from ongoing bombing. For the U'wa oil is the blood of Mother Earth and therefore to drill is the ultimate desecration of their ancient traditions of living in peaceful balance with the Earth.

The U'wa remain strong in their determination to protect their culture and sacred homelands but they need your help.

HERE ARE WAYS THAT YOU CAN GET INVOLVED :

CONTACT OCCIDENTAL AND THE COLOMBIAN GOVERNMENT
(See sample letters below)

Dr. Ray R. Irani, President and CEO Occidental Petroleum 10889 Wilshire Blv. LA, CA 90024 fax 310.443.6690 ph. 310.208.8800
email : +Los_Angeles-Communications@oxy.com

Presidente Andres Pastrana Casa Presidencial Bogota, Colombia fax +571.334.1940 (direct) or 202.387.0176 (c/o Embassy in Washington D.C.) phone (Embassy in D.C.) 202-332-7476
E-mail: pastrana@gov.co

Environment Minister Juan Mayr can be reached at : Juan_Mayr_M@Hotmail.Com or Jmayr@Minamb.Gov.Co

SAMPLE LETTERS:

Dr Ray Irani, President and CEO Occidental Petroleum Corporation 10889 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90024 or Via fax: (310) 443 6922

Dear Dr. Irani,

I am writing to express my deep concern with Occidental Petroleum's continued plans to drill for oil in the ancestral territory of the U'wa people in Colombia. The U'wa have threatened to commit collective suicide if Occidental moves forward with drilling. For the sake of the lives and land of the U'wa people and of the peace process in Colombia, please immediately suspend all operations in the U'wa ancestral territory. The U'wa people believe that oil is the blood of mother earth. They have repeatedly and adamantly explained to your company that they are utterly opposed to your plans to drill for oil on their sacred territory. It is time that Oxy accept the full extent of U'wa traditional territory, as defined by the U'wa themselves and withdraw from all efforts to drill in the Samore block. Oxy's continuing failure to suspend operations is in blatant violation of the recommendations of the 1997 OAS/Harvard report. There is ample opportunity to support Colombia in building energy self-sufficiency. We encourage you to do so by canceling your plans to exploit the Samore region and investing instead in renewable energy options. The fate of an entire indigenous civilization is in your hands. The U'wa deserve to live free from the inevitable violence and ecological devastation that oil drilling will bring. I urge you to look to your heart and cancel the project. The world is watching and waiting for you to do the right thing.

Sincerely, [your name]

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LETTER TO PRESIDENT PASTRANA.

Presidente Andres Pastrana
Casa Presidencial Bogota, Colombia

Dear Honorable President :

I am deeply troubled to learn that your government has granted Occidental Petroleum an environmental license for oil exploration at the Gibraltar 1 drill site which is in the traditional territory of the U'wa people. As you are aware, the U'wa are adamantly opposed to any oil activities within their homelands as it poses a serious threat to their physical and cultural survival . I strongly urge you to reconsider your government's decision to grant this environmental license since allowing drilling will cause irreparable harm to the U'wa people, culture and territory. Granting a license for drilling on the U'wa's traditional territory - particularly so close to their legally recognized reserve - constitutes a grave disregard for their deep spiritual and cultural ties to their land. Oil drilling will also threaten the U'wa by escalating conflict in the region. Oil facilities are a magnet for militarization and attacks by guerrilla factions, which has catastrophic environmental and social impacts for local communities. Oxy's Caño Limón pipeline has been bombed more than 600 times over the last 13 years, with a new attack occurring on average once a week. You must cancel this project before it leads to a significant increase in violence against the peaceful U'wa and other local peoples. As one of the most biologically diverse countries in the world, Colombia has much to gain from reorienting current development plans towards strategies which foster ecological conservation rather than destruction. By letting the U'wa continue to live undisturbed, you are making a priceless investment in cultural and biological diversity for Colombia's future. Now is your opportunity to take a regional leadership role in developing sustainable, renewable energy sources, rather than sacrificing ecologically and culturally sensitive areas to new petroleum exploitation. International civil society is carefully monitoring the U'wa case. Your resolution of this delicate situation will either be a critical step towards promoting indigenous rights and environmental preservation or will be forever seen as enabling one of the worst in a long line of human and ecological tragedies. Your leadership in this important case is anxiously awaited. Thank you for your concern and action on behalf of the U'wa people and their traditional territory. I look forward to your response.

Sincerely,

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U'wa Defense Working Group Members:
Amazon Watch, Action Resource Center, Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund, EarthWays Foundation, International Law Project for Human Environmental & Economic Defense, Project Underground, Rainforest Action Network, Sol Communications