Category: Wilderness Defence

Wilder­ness defence

Kachin rebels oppose dams on Chinese border

10th June 2011
The pro-inde­pen­dence group denounces the pop­u­la­tion’s lack of involve­ment in the con­struc­tion of new hydro­elec­tric plants. They have blocked the work, but have with­drawn their mili­tias after the pay­ment of a “tax”. Envi­ron­men­tal­ists fear pos­si­ble dam­age to the ecosys­tem.
Update 15.6.11:

10th June 2011
The pro-inde­pen­dence group denounces the pop­u­la­tion’s lack of involve­ment in the con­struc­tion of new hydro­elec­tric plants. They have blocked the work, but have with­drawn their mili­tias after the pay­ment of a “tax”. Envi­ron­men­tal­ists fear pos­si­ble dam­age to the ecosys­tem.
Update 15.6.11:
Burmese rebels say they have destroyed sev­er­al bridges in the north of the coun­try to pre­vent attacks by the army.

The rebels, from Kachin state, said they had blown up two bridges in neigh­bour­ing Shan state.

The Thai­land-based Kachin News Group report­ed that the destroyed bridges were on a major trad­ing route into Chi­na.
…

The Kachin pro-inde­pen­dence move­ment is oppos­ing the con­struc­tion of a series of hydro­elec­tric dams along the north­ern bor­der between Myan­mar and Chi­na. This is revealed by sources close to the eth­nic rebel group which, despite sign­ing a peace agree­ment with the Burmese jun­ta in 1994, exer­cis­es sub­stan­tial con­trol over the area and fre­quent­ly engages in armed clash­es with gov­ern­ment troops.

The Kachin denounce their lack of involve­ment in the agree­ment, signed in 2007, between the rul­ing dic­ta­tor­ship and exec­u­tives of the multi­na­tion­al Chi­na Datang Cor­po­ra­tion; the agree­ment pro­vides for the con­struc­tion of nine hydro­elec­tric plants along the Chi­nese bor­der.

Ten­sion broke out two weeks ago over the refusal on the part of Chi­nese author­i­ties to pay a sort of “con­struc­tion tax” to the lead­ers of the eth­nic rebels; in response, the rebels sent mili­tia groups to the con­struc­tion sites to block work on the dams. Tarpein 1 and Tarpein 2 are the first two in a series of nine dams planned by the Burmese ener­gy min­istry, in col­lab­o­ra­tion with Chi­nese com­pa­nies. They take their name from the riv­er that runs through the north­ern city of Momauk, and once they begin func­tion­ing, they will pro­vide 240 and 168 megawatts respec­tive­ly.

Sources close to the pro-inde­pen­dence move­ment con­firm that the work resumed a week ago, after the pay­ment of 1.5 mil­lion yuan (a lit­tle more than 220,000 dol­lars) by exec­u­tives of the con­struc­tion com­pa­nies. The agree­ment was over­seen by the new com­man­der of the north­ern brigade, Gen­er­al Soe Win, who medi­at­ed between the par­ties, per­mit­ting work to resume.

In addi­tion to the eco­nom­ic inter­ests and con­trol of the ter­ri­to­ry involved, the Burmese-Chi­nese project has unleashed protests from envi­ron­men­tal­ists who are afraid of seri­ous reper­cus­sions for the envi­ron­ment. “The fear”, reveals envi­ron­men­tal expert Naw La in inter­view with the Irrawad­dy, “is that the local pop­u­la­tion is not being involved in the project, and must pay the con­se­quences. The ben­e­fits will go only to the Burmese gov­ern­ment and to the Chi­nese com­pa­nies, while the inhab­i­tants of the vil­lages will suf­fer seri­ous dam­age from defor­esta­tion and flood­ing”.

The most impor­tant of the nine hydro­elec­tric plants being built is the one in Myit­sone: it will be locat­ed 42 kilo­me­ters north of Myitky­i­na, cap­i­tal of the state of Kachin, and will pro­duce about 3,600 megawatts of elec­tric­i­ty.

A recruit­ing dri­ve in recent years by the Kachin rebels has increased their strength to about 7,000 men, accord­ing to Aung Kyaw Zaw. This would seem no match for Myanmar’s army which, with hun­dreds of thou­sands of sol­diers, is one of the largest forces in South­east Asia.

But the Kachin know the ter­rain well and have a rep­u­ta­tion as able jun­gle war­riors going back to World War II, when they allied them­selves with the Unit­ed States and Britain and ter­ri­fied Japan­ese sol­diers by cut­ting off their ears as tro­phies.

“Our strat­e­gy is gueril­la war­fare,” said Brang Lai, who is an aide to Gun Maw, one of the Kachin’s senior lead­ers. “We don’t have suf­fi­cient sup­plies but our spir­it is the most impor­tant thing.” The Kachin have laid land mines in the path of the gov­ern­ment army, he said.

He did not rule out mak­ing tar­gets of Chi­nese projects in the area, such as the gas pipeline, which is under con­struc­tion. “Until now we don’t have the inten­tion to dis­rupt the gas pipeline,” Brang Lai said. “We are wait­ing for the Chi­nese response.”

Chi­nese invest­ment in north­ern Myan­mar has increased man­i­fold in recent years, includ­ing plan­ta­tions, jade mines and infra­struc­ture projects. The fight­ing com­pli­cates Chi­nese efforts to fos­ter a peace­ful bal­ance between the cen­tral gov­ern­ment and the rebels.

The fight­ing in the Kachin areas is the most seri­ous out­break of vio­lence since clash­es in August 2009 when Burmese gov­ern­ment troops defeat­ed the Kokang, an eth­nic Chi­nese rebel group, send­ing thou­sands of refugees flee­ing into Chi­na.

Back­ground

Watut river communities ‘riot’ against Harmony and Newcrest mining in Papua New Guinea

June 4 – Riots have report­ed­ly bro­ken out against the Aus­tralian based min­ing com­pa­ny, New­crest Min­ing, and Har­mo­ny Gold of South Africa in the Bulo­lo Dis­trict of Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea.

June 4 – Riots have report­ed­ly bro­ken out against the Aus­tralian based min­ing com­pa­ny, New­crest Min­ing, and Har­mo­ny Gold of South Africa in the Bulo­lo Dis­trict of Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea. The vio­lence has been sparked by the long out­stand­ing griev­ances of the com­mu­ni­ties down stream of the Hid­den Val­ley mine over min­ing pol­lu­tion and sed­i­ments which affect the lives of thou­sands of peo­ple who say they do not ben­e­fit one way or anoth­er from the oper­a­tions of some of the worlds biggest min­ing com­pa­nies.

Com­mu­ni­ties have, since 2009, been rais­ing issues regard­ing tox­ic sed­i­ment build up caus­ing dam­age to food gar­dens, wash­ing away foot­bridges, die back of veg­e­ta­tion, the death of aquat­ic organ­isms, health and hygiene com­pli­ca­tions in com­mu­ni­ties, loss of nav­i­ga­tion on water routes, loss of clean water and recre­ation­al areas, loss of eco­nom­i­cal land and hunt­ing sites, destruc­tion of secret (sacred) sites and destruc­tion of a pri­ma­ry income source – alu­vial gold.

Ear­li­er last month, Papua New Guinea Min­ing Min­is­ter, John Pun­dari, tried to address the com­mu­ni­ty griev­ances but this proved to be in vain as the meet­ing under­stand­ing sign by par­ties includ­ing Hid­den Val­ley Joint Ven­ture (HVJV), ‘a two face min­ing com­pa­ny’ com­pris­ing New­crest and Har­mo­ny, was not imple­ment­ed and HVJV and Papua New Guinea’s Min­er­al Resources Author­i­ty (MRA) failed to imple­ment the under­stand­ing.

Local com­mu­ni­ties say they served 24 hours notice on MRA to address their con­cerns on June 2nd but by 4pm local time on June 3rd there was no answer.

While the Watut Riv­er com­mu­ni­ties griev­ances were not addressed, HVJV staff silent­ly went on the com­mu­ni­ties land to col­lect water sam­ples for analy­sis.

Ear­li­er this year, the com­mu­ni­ty based orga­ni­za­tion, the Union of Watut Riv­er Com­mu­ni­ties, attempt­ed to enter into the Min­ing Lease and HVJV MoU cov­ered area with its own chemist to col­lect sam­ples but per­mis­sion was reject­ed by the min­ing com­pa­nies.

Yes­ter­day a vehi­cle belong­ing to the New­crest and Har­mo­ny was smashed by frus­trat­ed com­mu­ni­ties. Two Roy­al Police Con­stab­u­lary offi­cers who were pro­vid­ing secu­ri­ty and pri­vate escorts to the min­ing com­pa­nies have also being accused by local peo­ple.

Local peo­ple say more riots are expect­ed today between the gov­ern­ment offi­cers, min­ing com­pa­ny and the PNG police force on one side with the rur­al min­ing affect­ed com­mu­ni­ties on the oth­er.

They also say police this morn­ing sent a warn­ing that they would burn vil­lages hous­es if there is any more trou­ble.

A road block­ade is expect­ed to start today.

ELF SABOTAGE, ARSON ATTACK TARGETS OIL COMPANY, ITALY

1 June 2011
MARINO LAZIALE (ROME)

- Six noz­zles cut and tak­en away from the pumps
— Self-ser­vice booth sealed with liq­uid met­al
— Retail shop set on fire using two five-litre jer­rycans of napalm
— Ban­ner left, ‘ENI — by wars and envi­ron­men­tal dis­as­ters, they prof­it (A)’

1 June 2011
MARINO LAZIALE (ROME)

- Six noz­zles cut and tak­en away from the pumps
— Self-ser­vice booth sealed with liq­uid met­al
— Retail shop set on fire using two five-litre jer­rycans of napalm
— Ban­ner left, ‘ENI — by wars and envi­ron­men­tal dis­as­ters, they prof­it (A)’

Sol­i­dar­i­ty with anar­chists affect­ed by the recent wave of state repres­sion.
Sil­via, Cos­ta, Bil­ly and Mar­co.

Long live the Earth Lib­er­a­tion Front!”

Land is Ours autumn gathering 2011

The Land Is Ours
Autumn Gath­er­ing 2011

TLIO are host­ing a week­end gath­er­ing from Sat 8th to Sun 9th Octo­ber this year at Monk­ton Wyld Court, near Axmin­ster, Dorset. Come and enjoy a feast of inspi­ra­tional talks, open dis­cus­sions, work­shops and evening enter­tain­ment in the pleas­ant­ly eccen­tric set­ting of Monk­ton Wyld.

Talks and work­shops will include the fol­low­ing themes:

The Land Is Ours
Autumn Gath­er­ing 2011

TLIO are host­ing a week­end gath­er­ing from Sat 8th to Sun 9th Octo­ber this year at Monk­ton Wyld Court, near Axmin­ster, Dorset. Come and enjoy a feast of inspi­ra­tional talks, open dis­cus­sions, work­shops and evening enter­tain­ment in the pleas­ant­ly eccen­tric set­ting of Monk­ton Wyld.

Talks and work­shops will include the fol­low­ing themes:

• The need for land redis­tri­b­u­tion — post Peak-Oil

• Agri­cul­tur­al sub­si­dies — who for & for what?/Campaigning against Mega­farms.

• The Local­ism Bill and oth­er Plan­ning Reforms — Threats and Oppor­tu­ni­ties.

• Defend­ing pub­lic forests.

• Set­ting up land trusts, for hous­ing and land projects.

• Reclaim the Fields and Via Campesina.

• What future for direct action land cam­paigns?

Oth­er pro­pos­als for work­shops etc are wel­come.

Places are lim­it­ed so please book ear­ly. There is no fee for atten­dance, but lunch and sup­per are pro­vid­ed at £6 per meal, and bed and break­fast costs per night are £25 for a bed, £15 for a yoga mat in the main hall, or £10 camp­ing (there will be a lim­it­ed no of places half-price for the main hall and camp­ing), avail­able Fri­day, Sat­ur­day and Sun­day evening. Please book in advance, by con­tact­ing

info@tlio.org.uk or 01297 561359
http://www.tlio.org.uk/TLIO-autumngathering2011

Please Note: There may be a TLIO Sum­mer Gath­er­ing hap­pen­ing in the West Coun­try area this sum­mer as well. Keep check­ing the web­site for fur­ther announce­ments

Peru: 10,000 Aymaras Protesting against Transnational Mining Company

31st May 2011
For the past three weeks, more than 10,000 Indige­nous Peo­ple, most­ly Aymaras, have been protest­ing against the oncom­ing San­ta Ana sil­ver mine in south­east­ern Peru near the bor­der with Bolivia.

31st May 2011
For the past three weeks, more than 10,000 Indige­nous Peo­ple, most­ly Aymaras, have been protest­ing against the oncom­ing San­ta Ana sil­ver mine in south­east­ern Peru near the bor­der with Bolivia.

The Indige­nous peo­ple are con­cerned that pol­lu­tion from the new mine would threat­en their liveli­hoods and con­t­a­m­i­nate local rivers and lakes. For those rea­sons, the pro­test­ers want to see the Peru­vian gov­ern­ment revoke the min­ing license it grant­ed to the com­pa­ny behind the min­ing project, Canada’s Bear Creek Min­ing Cor­po­ra­tion. The pro­test­ers are also call­ing for a def­i­nite ban on all min­ing in the region.

The mas­sive protest, for which the Aymara and some Quechua have set up a sequence of block­ades along a 300km stretch of road on both sides of bor­der, was fac­ing a media black­out until this past week­end.

On May 27, a num­ber of gov­ern­ment build­ings in the Peru­vian bor­der town of Puno were loot­ed and set ablaze.

That seemed to give the media what they need­ed; how­ev­er, the orga­niz­ers of the protests are insist­ing that they aren’t respon­si­ble for the vio­lent lash out. Rather, they say, it was brought on by indi­vid­u­als who have infil­trat­ed the protests.

In hand with the lack of media cov­er­age, the police and mil­i­tary pres­ence through­out the protest has been almost non-exis­tent. On May 28, Reuters report­ed that Pres­i­dent Gar­cia has indeed autho­rized the mil­i­tary to “main­tain order”, but so far they haven’t tried do so.

That’s part­ly because of the sheer scale of the protest; but more­so because of the upcom­ing pres­i­den­tial elec­tion in Peru, which is set for June 5. Accord­ing to Reuters, Gar­cia has stat­ed that he won’t give the order to stop the protests until after the elec­tion con­cludes.

There was, how­ev­er, at least one vio­lent con­fronta­tion before the protest was in full swing. As not­ed on the WW4 Report,

At least one is report­ed dead in Peru’s south­ern region of Puno after the Nation­al Police fired on pro­test­ers April 26, the sec­ond day of a 48-hour civ­il strike or paro called by campesino groups to demand a halt to local min­ing and petro­le­um leas­es. The deceased, iden­ti­fied as María Choque Limache, 61, died after inhal­ing tear gas as police broke up a protest at the vil­lage of Yohoro­co, in Huacul­lani dis­trict of Chu­cuito province, accord­ing to Wal­ter Adu­viri Cal­isaya, pres­i­dent of the Puno Front for the Defense of Nat­ur­al Resources. Nation­al Police com­man­der Jaime Cordero Ayala denied this ver­sion of events, insist­ing she had not been at the protest and had died of nat­ur­al caus­es.

Most recent­ly, on May 29, the pro­test­ers reject­ed a deal to stand down in exchange for a 12-month mora­to­ri­um on min­ing. Nego­tia­tors for the pro­test­ers ini­tial­ly agreed with the offer, but the pro­test­ers them­selves said they won’t set­tle for any­thing less than a defin­i­tive ban on min­ing which must be rat­i­fied through a pres­i­den­tial decree.

Video 1and 2

Coal protesters show solidarity with the people of South Mongolia, and stand against China’s crackdown on freedom of expression

Today, 30th May 2011, a small group of anti-coal pro­test­ers ral­lied to a call out by South Mon­go­lian human rights activists for glob­al protest [1] and held a short vig­il out­side the Chi­nese Con­sulate in Edin­burgh.

Today, 30th May 2011, a small group of anti-coal pro­test­ers ral­lied to a call out by South Mon­go­lian human rights activists for glob­al protest [1] and held a short vig­il out­side the Chi­nese Con­sulate in Edin­burgh. This comes at the end of a month of protests in Mon­go­lia against the Chi­nese coal indus­tries destruc­tion of Mon­go­lian herders land in which two peo­ple have been killed. One was a Mon­go­lian herder and local anti-coal activist, Mer­gen, who was delib­er­ate­ly run over by by a coal truck while try­ing to stop it from tak­ing short cuts across herders land on the 10th of May. Accord­ing to the Guardian anoth­er pro­test­er was killed four days lat­er [2].

These protests have rat­tled the Chi­nese state, which has respond­ed with bru­tal crack-downs, and total cen­sor­ship. Cities in South Mon­go­lia are awash with para-mil­i­tary police and intense sur­veil­lance as areas are placed under Mar­tial Law [3]. Inter­net a phone com­mu­ni­ca­tion has been shut down. This is a con­tin­u­a­tion of the repres­sion of peo­ple who dare to stand up for the rights of Mon­go­lians. One case of par­tic­u­lar con­cern to the South Mon­go­lia Human Rights Infor­ma­tion Cen­tre is that of Mr Hada and his fam­i­ly [4].

The Inner Mon­go­lia Autonomous Region (IMAR) has been hit hard dur­ing what one human rights organ­i­sa­tion is call­ing the “coal rush.” Last year IMAR’s coal exports exceed­ed 700 mil­lion tons, with an esti­mat­ed 732.3 bil­lion tons of coal reserves still under the ground. This extrac­tion has come at the expense of the local pop­u­la­tion and envi­ron­ment. The Mon­go­lian peo­ple who have herd­ed live­stock on the land for gen­er­a­tions are now being thrown from their land and Chi­nese coal cor­po­ra­tions are mov­ing in to dig up the coal. Dur­ing the extrac­tion con­voys of coal trucks have been tak­ing short cuts through herders land, destroy­ing fences and live­stock. Bayagu­ut, a South­ern Mon­go­lian cyber dis­si­dent, said “this real­ly is a three-dimen­sion­al attack on us by the Chi­nese: they have destroyed our land, pol­lut­ed our air, and now dig­ging up what we have below ground. What we will be left with is a bar­ren land unin­hab­it­able to human beings.” [5]

The protest in Edin­burgh was held at mid­day and the group held plac­ards with slo­gans such as “End Chi­na’s Coal Rush” “Jus­tice For Mer­gen Killed By The Coal Indus­try” and “Stop The Killings In South­ern Mon­go­lia!” One also called for the release of polit­i­cal pris­on­ers in Mon­go­lia. The protest was organ­ised at short notice by peo­ple from Coal Action Scot­land, a group which takes direct action and works with com­mu­ni­ties fac­ing the coal indus­try in Scot­land.

Luke Dou­glas, who attend­ed the protest, said “It’s real­ly impor­tant to show sol­i­dar­i­ty with the peo­ple of South­ern Mon­go­lia, and to show the Chi­nese state that there are peo­ple out­side of Mon­go­lia and out­side of their con­trol who are watch­ing what’s going on. The bru­tal repres­sion of the herders and stu­dents protest­ing is despi­ca­ble. Peo­ple should not be impris­oned just for call­ing for human rights and cul­tur­al and polit­i­cal free­dom. I am inspired by the brav­ery by the peo­ple protest­ing in South­ern Mon­go­lia, and hope that today’s protest helps them in some way.”

Tam­my Price added “I’ve worked with com­mu­ni­ties in Scot­land who have been affect­ed by the Coal indus­try. The health and envi­ron­men­tal impacts of the open casts, plus the dis­rup­tion caused by the trans­port of the coal, are dev­as­tat­ing. It’s impor­tant to have a glob­al per­spec­tive on coal as an issue, as it is one that affects peo­ple all across the world. As well as peo­ple in Scot­land, we have pre­vi­ous­ly heard from those in Indone­sia [6], Colum­bia [7] and the US [8] fight­ing against the Coal indus­try. The coal indus­try glob­al­ly is respon­si­ble for envi­ron­men­tal destruc­tion, human rights abus­es, cor­rup­tion and colo­nial­ism on a scale dif­fi­cult to fath­om until you start mak­ing these links between peo­ple affect­ed on a glob­al scale.”

Coal Action Scot­land

media@coalactionscotland.org.uk

1. http://www.smhric.org/news_384.htm

2. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/30/mongolia-protests-communist-party-crackdown

3. http://www.smhric.org/news_385.htm

4. http://www.smhric.org/Hada/Hada.htm

5 http://www.smhric.org/news_376.htm

6 http://coalactionscotland.org.uk/?p=2197

7 http://coalactionscotland.org.uk/?p=1433

8 http://coalactionscotland.org.uk/?p=2553

Inner Mongolians protest against Coal extraction

May 28, 2011

Chi­na: Inner Mon­go­lia: street protests against Chi­nese abus­es

Bei­jing – Protests are spread­ing in Inner Mon­go­lia, as demon­stra­tions spread fol­low­ing the death of two local herder lead­ers opposed to envi­ron­men­tal destruc­tion due to coal min­ing.

Yes­ter­days, protests were held in two towns in Inner Mon­go­lia, the South­ern Mon­go­lian Human Rights Infor­ma­tion Cen­tre (SMHRIC) said.

May 28, 2011

Chi­na: Inner Mon­go­lia: street protests against Chi­nese abus­es

Bei­jing – Protests are spread­ing in Inner Mon­go­lia, as demon­stra­tions spread fol­low­ing the death of two local herder lead­ers opposed to envi­ron­men­tal destruc­tion due to coal min­ing.

Yes­ter­days, protests were held in two towns in Inner Mon­go­lia, the South­ern Mon­go­lian Human Rights Infor­ma­tion Cen­tre (SMHRIC) said.

It has been dif­fi­cult for the for­eign press to reach the area, but pic­tures were sur­faced online show­ing hun­dreds of pro­test­ers march­ing through the coun­ty seats of Huveet Shar Ban­ner (coun­ty) and Left Ujum­chin Ban­ner.

The pro­test­ers car­ried ban­ners bear­ing Mon­go­lian slo­gans includ­ing ‘defend the rights of Mon­gols’ and ‘defend the home­land.’

Six more protests are planned in oth­er areas of Inner Mon­go­lia from Fri­day to 2 June, SMHRIC said. Using online social net­work­ing, Mon­go­lians were invit­ed to fur­ther gath­er­ings in Alshaan Left Ban­ner on Fri­day, Ordos City on Sat­ur­day, and Tongliao on Sun­day.

Protest first broke out on Mon­day in Xil­in­hot, the admin­is­tra­tive cen­tre of Xilin-Gol, when hun­dreds of eth­nic Mon­go­lians gath­ered in from of a gov­ern­ment build­ing after a Mon­go­lian herder leader was killed by a coal hauler dri­ven by eth­nic Han Chi­nese. Mer­gen, that is the herder leader’s name, was try­ing to stop coal-haul­ing lor­ries from tak­ing a short­cut across frag­ile graz­ing land

Pho­tos show­ing his body were post­ed online. They show his head, crushed under the wheels of a 100-tonne coal hauler dri­ven by two Han Chi­nese dri­vers on 10 May, and his body, dragged by the lor­ry for 150 metres.

On Tues­day, more than 2,000 peo­ple, most­ly stu­dents, took to the streets in protest, demand­ing Chi­nese author­i­ties respect the rights of Mon­go­lian herders to their land and lifestyle.

Indige­nous Mon­go­lians have com­plained for a while that Chi­na is only inter­est­ed in the region’s min­er­al resources, espe­cial­ly coal. For them, min­ing and indus­tri­al devel­op­ment is destroy­ing graz­ing land, under­min­ing the tra­di­tion­al herd­ing econ­o­my, already under stress from expand­ing deser­ti­fi­ca­tion and lack of rain.

Shen Wenyin, deputy chief of the Xilin­gol League gov­ern­ment, said on Tues­day night that the two Han Chi­nese dri­vers, Li Lin­dong and Lu Xiang­dong, had been arrest­ed by police. He did not com­ment the protest.

He did how­ev­er con­firm that res­i­dents in the Abag min­ing area tried to stop oper­a­tions at a near­by coal mine on 14 May because of noise, dust and water pol­lu­tion.

One of the pro­test­ers, Yan Wen­long, 22, was killed when Sun Shun­ing, a work­er, drove a fork­lift truck into Yan’s car. Sun was arrest­ed for inten­tion­al homi­cide. Offi­cial sources said that the mine stopped oper­a­tions.

The wave of protests is increas­ing­ly tak­ing on an eth­nic con­no­ta­tion as indige­nous Mon­go­lians resent dom­i­na­tion by eth­nic Han Chi­nese who have become the largest eth­nic group in Inner Mon­go­lia, fol­low­ing a delib­er­ate immi­gra­tion pol­i­cy pur­sued by Bei­jing that includes tax and finan­cial breaks as well as oth­er advan­tages.

Eth­nic Mon­go­lians now num­ber only 6 mil­lion out of 23 mil­lion peo­ple in the province, a minor­i­ty in their native land.

Experts note that the sit­u­a­tion remained calm until recent­ly. Things began to change when large-scale envi­ron­men­tal degra­da­tion began to threat­en the local herd­ing econ­o­my. Action by eth­nic Mon­go­lian groups based abroad has also played a role.

From Sig­nal­fire

http://signalfire.org/?p=10797

Tension mounts as Brazilian Indians retake land

27 May 2011
A com­mu­ni­ty of Guarani Indi­ans in Brazil has retak­en part of its ances­tral land in an act of des­per­a­tion, hav­ing lived by the side of a high­way for a year and a half.

The Guarani marched back to their land last week, unwill­ing fur­ther to endure the appalling liv­ing con­di­tions they have been sub­ject to on the road­side.

27 May 2011
A com­mu­ni­ty of Guarani Indi­ans in Brazil has retak­en part of its ances­tral land in an act of des­per­a­tion, hav­ing lived by the side of a high­way for a year and a half.

The Guarani marched back to their land last week, unwill­ing fur­ther to endure the appalling liv­ing con­di­tions they have been sub­ject to on the road­side.

The Indi­ans of Laran­jeira Nan­deru com­mu­ni­ty had their lands stolen from them in the 1960s, to make way for cat­tle ranch­es. They returned to their land in 2008, but were evict­ed again in Sep­tem­ber 2009 – soon after, their vil­lage was bru­tal­ly attacked and burned down.

Since then, the Guarani have been liv­ing under tar­pau­lin sheet­ing, with lit­tle access to clean water, food, or med­ical care, and sub­ject to intense heat and flood­ing, by the side of a high­way. Large trucks and cars thun­dered past day and night, and one Guarani was run over and killed.

Faride, spokesman of the com­mu­ni­ty, told Sur­vival researchers before the reoc­cu­pa­tion, ‘Laran­jeira Nan­deru was my father’s land, my grandfather’s land, my great grandfather’s land… We need to go back there so we can work and live in peace… that is our dream.’

Watch a film clip of Faride talk­ing about his community’s land — http://assets.survivalinternational.org/flash/syndicated-player.swf' width='480' height='270' allowFullScreen='true' wmode='opaque' bgcolor='111111' allowScriptAccess='always' flashvars='config=http://assets-production.survivalinternational.org/films/412/config.xml' />”>
Some Guarani lead­ers who have led their com­mu­ni­ties’ reoc­cu­pa­tions of their land, such as the inter­na­tion­al­ly-renowned Mar­cos Veron, have been assas­si­nat­ed.

The com­mu­ni­ty is now urg­ing the gov­ern­ment offi­cial­ly to pro­tect their land so they are not evict­ed again.

The Guarani have a deep spir­i­tu­al con­nec­tion to their land, upon which they rely for their men­tal and phys­i­cal well-being.

Fol­low­ing the loss of almost all their land to ranch­es and soya and sug­ar­cane plan­ta­tions, thou­sands of Guarani are liv­ing in over­crowd­ed reserves, and some are camped by the side of high­ways.

Survival’s Direc­tor, Stephen Cor­ry, said today, ‘It is no sur­prise that hav­ing been forced to endure such pre­car­i­ous con­di­tions for so long, the Guarani have tak­en mat­ters into their own hands and returned home. This should sure­ly act as a wake-up call for the author­i­ties to pro­tect the land and remove the lurk­ing threat of anoth­er evic­tion. That is the least the Guarani deserve’.
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Down­load Survival’s report on the sit­u­a­tion of the Guarani, sent to the Unit­ed Nations last year. ( in Eng­lish and Por­tuguese pdf, 2.4 MB).

Anti-mining protests shut down Peru-Bolivia border

24th May 2011
For more than two weeks, thou­sands of peo­ple have blocked an inter­na­tion­al bor­der in Peru — and almost no one in the Eng­lish-speak­ing world seems to have noticed.

24th May 2011
For more than two weeks, thou­sands of peo­ple have blocked an inter­na­tion­al bor­der in Peru — and almost no one in the Eng­lish-speak­ing world seems to have noticed.

The sto­ry has fall­en through the cracks, but here’s what’s hap­pen­ing:

A pro­posed min­ing project on the shores of Lake Tit­i­ca­ca has pro­voked out­rage among Peru­vians. Protests are grow­ing in the south­east­ern part of the coun­try.

About 10,000 peo­ple gath­ered in the city of Puno this week, shout­ing “Mina no, agro si” (rough­ly “Mines no, farms yes”). Shops, schools and pub­lic tran­sit all shut down.

The protests were sparked by the announce­ment that a sub­sidiary of the Cana­di­an min­ing com­pa­ny Bear Creek would be allowed to build a sil­ver mine near Lake Tit­i­ca­ca.

Tit­i­ca­ca is the high­est nav­i­ga­ble lake in the world and the largest lake in South Amer­i­ca. The lake was con­sid­ered sacred by the Incas and is a major tourist draw today.

The pro­test­ers say min­ing would pol­lute Lake Tit­i­ca­ca, the Desaguadero Riv­er and its trib­u­taries. They are demand­ing the can­cel­la­tion of all min­ing and oil con­ces­sions and the repeal of the decree that allows min­ing in the bor­der area.

Bear Creek says the pro­posed project offers a “low-cost ‘pure sil­ver’ mine” in a “min­er­al-rich nation with a favor­able invest­ment cli­mate.”

The Peru­vian gov­ern­ment said it would dis­patch the mil­i­tary to con­trol the protest and clear the road link­ing the two coun­tries.

Boli­vian busi­ness­men esti­mate they have lost between $7 mil­lion and $16 mil­lion because of the block­ade. The pres­i­dent of the Cham­ber of Exporters of Bolivia, Goran Vrani­cic, told Efe that dai­ly loss­es total $1 mil­lion.

The protest began on May 9 with the clos­ing of the Desaguadero bor­der cross­ing. The route is still blocked with large rocks, logs and barbed wire.

About 600 trucks are stuck on the Boli­vian side of the bor­der, and in the last cou­ple of hours, many of the trapped truck­ers have begun return­ing to the Boli­vian cap­i­tal of La Paz. The clo­sure large­ly affects Boli­vian car­go head­ed to Peru or to third coun­tries through Peru­vian ports (Bolivia does­n’t have access to the sea).

In April, after a protest left three dead in the near­by region of Are­quipa, the Peru­vian gov­ern­ment can­celed the Tia Maria min­ing project.

THWAC is dead, long live THWAC! Another era in the fight against Scottish Coal ends, but the struggle continues…

May 23rd, 2011

May 23rd, 2011
After eight months of occu­pa­tion and strug­gle, Coal Action Scot­land has decid­ed to bring an end to the Hap­pen­don Wood Action Camp. The camp was tak­en in Sep­tem­ber last year to resist Scot­tish Coal’s plans to open-cast the wood­land, and to act as a base in South Lanark­shire to take direct action and work with affect­ed com­mu­ni­ties in the ongo­ing strug­gle against the coal indus­try. Hav­ing felt that those goals were met as much as they were going to be, and with Scot­tish Coal’s appli­ca­tion being sub­mit­ted for a new 4 mil­lion ton open cast at Glen­tag­gart East, we have decid­ed to change our focus. We are in no way aban­don­ing South Lanark­shire, or the strug­gle against Scot­tish Coal, and will con­tin­ue to be active in the area in new and excit­ing ways.

Sur­round­ed by three active open cast coal sites, and mul­ti­ple scars being “restored”, the res­i­dents of THWAC placed them­selves along­side the peo­ple of the Dou­glas Val­ley, right in the bel­ly of the beast. Mak­ing the threat of new coal exploita­tion and the con­stant noise and dis­rup­tion a part of every­day life for our­selves is one way in which we felt we could show sol­i­dar­i­ty. We were able to build on links forged dur­ing Main­shill, and met many more peo­ple cam­paign­ing and work­ing to halt Scot­tish Coal’s march across the Dou­glas Val­ley.

Dur­ing our time at Hap­pen­don Wood we tried to impact as lit­tle as pos­si­ble on the envi­ron­ment we were stay­ing in. This includ­ed using solar pan­els to charge the bat­ter­ies to pow­er the lap­tops and the lights in the com­mu­nal and office, donat­ing our shit to a local hous­ing coop who will com­post it and use it to grow food in their orchards, grey water sys­tems to fil­ter our waste water and using paths to reduce the soil ero­sion. Great effort was tak­en to return the small area of wood­land we inhab­it­ed to its orig­i­nal state as we left, and we left the land bet­ter than how we found it. More than Scot­tish Coal can say.

The camp became a use­ful hub in the com­mu­ni­ty for shar­ing infor­ma­tion and ideas. Pub­lic meet­ings were organ­ised and links between the many com­mu­ni­ties were forged. Dur­ing our time at Hap­pen­don Scot­tish Coal launched their “For­ward Strat­e­gy.” Their land grab of the Dou­glas Val­ley involved three new open cast coal sites, with plans to remove a total of 5.4 mil­lion tonnes of coal, fly­ing in the face of local oppo­si­tion and glob­al opin­ion on cli­mate change. This cat­a­lyst ignit­ed a local cam­paign with oppo­si­tion reach­ing from Gle­spin to Les­ma­hagow and a series of pub­lic meet­ings, kick start­ed by peo­ple from THWAC. Peo­ple from all over the Dou­glas Val­ley have con­tin­ued their gen­eros­i­ty with food, water, build­ing mate­ri­als and lock-on cement. We would like to say a mas­sive thank you to the all the peo­ple who came down and pro­vid­ed vital prac­ti­cal and moral sup­port in a win­ter cold enough to rival last year’s at Main­shill.

Dur­ing the occu­pa­tion of Hap­pen­don Wood, Coal Action Scot­land con­tin­ued cam­paign­ing against coal expan­sion in Scot­land. The Health Study Group and Com­mu­ni­ty Ecol­o­gy Group car­ried out vital research into the neg­a­tive effects of the coal indus­try. Eco­log­i­cal stud­ies have been car­ried out at prospec­tive coal sites in the Dou­glas Val­ley, dis­cov­er­ing pro­tect­ed species which were some­how over­looked by Scot­tish Coal’s paid for eco­log­i­cal sur­veys. More and more research has been con­duct­ed show­ing the links between coal extrac­tion and res­pi­ra­to­ry dis­eases, regard­less of Scot­tish Coal or South Lanark­shire Council’s refusal to lis­ten. CAS also con­tin­ued to sup­port the cam­paign in Mid­loth­i­an against an open cast by Scot­tish Coal near the vil­lage of Cous­land, and we thank the local cam­paign­ers for their sup­port in return. The com­mu­ni­ty man­aged to defeat the pro­pos­al at the plan­ning stage.

A Smooth Newt found dur­ing tat down.

As the name sug­gests, THWAC was start­ed as a base for direct action. Dur­ing the eight months affin­i­ty groups from across the UK, and fur­ther afield, came and car­ried out a wide vari­ety of direct action and protests at open casts in the area and tar­gets fur­ther afield. This includ­ed: mine gates locked shut at night three times, dig­ger div­ing at Main­shill twice, Main­shill offices were attacked with paint, Raven­struther coal rail head was block­ad­ed twice, South Lanark­shire Council’s offices had ban­ners hung from the roof and stink bombs let off inside the com­mit­tee room, Scot­tish Coal con­trac­tors RPS and Weber Shand­wick had their offices glued shut and slo­gans paint­ed on their walls, and accord­ing to anony­mous reports post­ed online there were six sab­o­tage actions with over thir­ty three vehi­cles inca­pac­i­tat­ed. These add to the already impres­sive list of actions tak­en against the coal indus­try since Coal Action Scot­land formed. Through this cam­paign of sus­tained direct action we have cost Scot­tish Coal a con­sid­er­able amount.

Over the next few months we will be set­ting our sites on Scot­tish Coal’s plot to tear up Glen­tag­gart East in the Dou­glas Val­ley. We are join­ing with local cam­paign­ers in a call out for as many objec­tion let­ters to South Lanark­shire Coun­cil against this appli­ca­tion as pos­si­ble. More infor­ma­tion about this can be found on the STOP web­site. We will also con­tin­ue to use direct action to apply pres­sure on them to aban­don this open cast. If any­one wish­es to join in then Tar­get Brochures show­ing coal infra­struc­ture across Scot­land can also be found on our web­site. After the suc­cess of last year’s event we will be plan­ning anoth­er Out­door Skill Share from the 26th to the 29th of August, where we will run work­shops on the prac­ti­cal skills need­ed to hold a protest site. More infor­ma­tion can be found on the Out­door Skill Share web­site.

All that’s left is to say thank you to all our vis­i­tors and see you all next time.

The Hap­pen­don Wood Action Camp