abuse

The global media regularly find time and space to cover news items and issues such as wars and natural disasters. While these events certainly merit coverage, other issues such as reports about human rights abuses, rarely make the headlines in the international press, even though the effects are often devastating. In some cases, whole communities are being systematically disrupted and destroyed by corrupt dictators and their cronies and renegades who are attempting to achieve their aims at the cost of causing suffering and even loss of human life. On this page, we would like to bring to your attention some of the recent cases of abuse of which we have become aware. While these cases happen to occur in the southern countries, they are not necessarily exclusive to these regions. It is hoped that by bringing these incidents to your attention, that joint action can be taken to support the unfortunate victims of these unjust and hurtful attacks who are risking their lives to try to help their people to live a peaceful life, to grow safe food, and even to just survive in a healthy environment.

Police disrupt peasant gathering in Indonesia
On September 18 th, an international delegation of 15 Via Campesina leaders from India, Bangladesh, Korea, the European Union, the United States, Brazil, Nicaragua, Mexico, Mozambique, Dominican Republic and Cuba were preparing for a mission to verify violations of peasant rights in Lombok, Indonesia. T he local police tried to disperse some 1000 peasants waiting for the arrival of the delegation, and then disrupted the meeting, at one point shooting into the gathering. A total of 37 peasants were shot and wounded, some of them critically. Via Campesina has a number of demands to the Indonesian government, including police forces being removed from the area, and the case being brought before the UN Human Rights Commission.

Massacre in Tekojoja, Caaguazu Department, Paraguay
The campaign to halt the introduction of GM soy monocultures has resulted in suffering, eviction and killing in Paraguay. On Friday, June 25, at 5:30 a.m., the attorney Pedro Torrales and Nelly Verela appeared with 150 policemen with the intention of evicting the whole community of Tekojoja, one of the peasant settlements that is being threatened with the expansion of GM soy monocultures. There are 2 million hectares of GM soy monocultures in Paraguay, and the governments plan the expansion of 2 million more hectares. In order to expand, peasants will have to be expulsed from their lands which were gained during peasant land reform.

As a result of this attack, people were brutally harassed and beaten, and 130 people were arrested, among of whom 40 were children. 54 houses were burnt to the ground, and all crops destroyed. The legal land owner Adelin Osperman, a Brazilian soy producer, joined by hired gunmen, entered the land with trucks, and shot the peasants, killing Angel Cristaldo (20 years old) and Leopoldo Torres (49 years old), and severely injuring 5 more.

Assassination of environmentalist leader in Ecuador
On June 20, 2005, Andreas Arroyo Segura's body was found close to the Baba dam project, with a deep wound in his body. Arroya headed the bi-provincial committee of farmers' organizations fighting the dam, which would affect more than 1,200 families. In the past, he had received death threats. This project, declared a national priority by then-president Lusio Gutierrez of Ecuador, includes construction of a hydroelectric dam, and the diversion of the Quevedo and Vinces rivers to irrigate lands controlled by agribusiness companies. Opponents of the project say that the Baba dam will cause serious impacts on native forest and wetlands, and on the Tsachila indigenous and farming communities, affecting as many as 12,000 people. Human rights organizations say Arroyo's assassination is part of a pattern of murders of human rights activists in Ecuador, and have called on the United Nations to investigate the case.

Nigerian activist Nnimmo Bassey harassed

Environmental Rights Action and Friends of the Earth Nigeria Executive Director Mr. Nnimmo Bassey, was harassed recently by police in Lagos. Bassey was returning from participating in civil society activities at the G-8 Summit in Gleneagles, Scotland. He was accused of being in possession of inciting documents, and was taken to the police station where he was quizzed for close to two hours. The document in question, according to FOEN sources, was freely in circulation at the G-8 Summit and was an article entitled: "The Truth about the US security Report: The Biafra's Response".

 

Bassey was arrested on July 7, 2005, at the Old Tollgate Police Station at the Lagos end of the Lagos-Ibadan expressway, and not allowed to make any phone calls. Bassey believes that the police had an ulterior motive for arresting him, likely as a show of force. He is a joint coordinator of a GM campaign. He claims that the police, many of whom have a low literacy level, are acting on behalf of corrupt officials. This situation requires urgent attention to ensure that others are able to speak openly.

 

Director of Friends of the Earth Guatemala (CEIBA) threatened 

Mario Godínez López, Director of Friends of the Earth Guatemala, is receiving serious threats related to his campaigns to protect the rights of indigenous peoples and the environment. Friends of the Earth are concerned for his safety and that of his family and colleagues. He has campaigned tirelessly for human rights and environmental justice in Guatemala and is highly respected by the international NGO community. Mario was recently on tour in London as part of an international speaker's tour, calling for the UK Government to stop using development aid for oil, gas and mining projects. He has been campaigning in opposition to the World Bank financed Glamis Gold Mine Project that has been associated with human rights abuses and environmental degradation.

 

Indonesian intellectual Dr. Rignolda Djamaluddin oppressed
Indonesia has become known as a place for pollution and strange illnesses linked to the world's largest gold mining company, Newmont. The company has tried various tactics to silence criticisms of their now closed operations that dumped 2000 tons of tailings waste into Buyat Bay every day from 1996 to 2004. Newmont has poured money into the local university UNSRAT to pay for research, but Dr. Rignolda Djamaluddin is one professor/researcher not on Newmont's research dole. Rignolda has been one of the most vocal critics of Newmont and its impact on Buyat Bay's people and environment. Today, Rignolda is facing jail time, charged with defamation by Newmont. It is a charge that Newmont has used more than once in Indonesia to silence criticisms of their operations.