>From GlobalNews Mailing List: U'wa Traditional Authorities Cubará, Colombia, February 14, 2002
COMMUNIQUÉ TO THE NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL PUBLIC OPINION The U'wa Community represented by the U'wa Grand Council and the U'wa Traditional Authority, addresses the difficulties faced by our Sarare region that is partly Our Ancestral Territory established by our Highest Colonial Letters. We express our voice of protest and rejection before the national and international community against the actions of Armed Actors that destabilize the normal development of rural and indigenous communities and that in some way affect our way of life and integrity. The aforesaid permits our support of the mobilization, in a healthy manner, taking place in the Tame municipality of Aruaca, to make the demands made by the mobilized communities understood, since the Colombian people make most of the sacrifices in every sense of the word, and also demand the Colombian State that it must listen to the outcry of the Sarare and Arauca communities which is also the feeling of the Colombian People, our non-U'wa brothers from the outside world (Riowa). The United States is also financing Plan Colombia, the struggle against drug trafficking, which signifies the increase of violence in the department of Arauca, Boyacá and North of Santander and Our Ancestral Territory, assigning US $98 million to protect the Caño Limón Pipeline in Coveña, solely for having found oil in the Capachos 1 well without seeing that what Colombia needs is more investment in social, health, education and employment programs, so that we can live in Peace. For the U'wa People it is fundamental that the Ancestral and Traditional Territories are respected and conserved with a socio-cultural vision, since these give us our daily sustenance and maintenance of all living beings. The U'wa People and the inhabitants of the Sarare region wish to live in harmony with nature and within a tranquil space. The territories of Indigenous Peoples are territories of Peace. The government and petroleum multinationals are the first responsible for the social and environmental problem in the Arauca and base of the mountain region, and in second place are the actors of the armed conflict, for the dynamiting actions against the Oil pipeline that cause the contamination of water, pastoral areas and watershed basins of the Arauca River. These actions are affecting climatic changes and the basic sustenance of our communities. We have the right to freedom of expression and thought. But it is the actors of the conflict that drive the country into wars that have no reason to exist. At each step they leave havoc, misery, and the gravest thing is that they attack LIFE. These actions are on occasion unjustified and bring destruction to individuals who are the least implicated; which hurt the communities which have suffered and are the most needed in the Country. In addition, and taking advantage of this space, we want to reiterate one more time for public opinion, to Ecopetrol, the Colombian Government, Multinationals, and especially to Occidental of Colombia, that we will never step back from the process of territorial defense, and neither will we change our cultural principles as it is clear that cultures with principles have no price, which means that we will not permit oil exploration or development in our sacred territory, this is a position and thought that surges from our ancestral millenary law and our cultural principles. And if oil was found in the Capacho sector and they plan to export it, they are violating the rights of our ancestors and our mother earth, which belongs to all who live in This beautiful Blue planet. IN DEFENSE OF OUR CULTURAL RIGHTS, OUR MOTHER EARTH AND THE SOVEREIGNTY OF OUR ANCESTRAL TERRITORY. U'WA PEOPLE PRESENTE! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- MSN Photos is the easiest way to share and print your photos: Click Here