Category: Wilderness Defence

There is somewhat of a mystery surrounding “the ashes of Vedic village”—what remains of the upscale five star tourist resort near Kolkata, West Bengal, after it was set ablaze on August 23.

Most reports say an “irate mob” set the fire after a local soccer match between employees of Vedic village and another resort. The two teams apparently started fighting each other after the winner was declared.

The fight literally turned into a war, with both teams shooting guns and throwing “crude bombs” at each another.

Apparently, the Vedic Village team sought refuge in the resort. Then, the mob set fire to it. “The entire 5,000 sqft club-house, including the reception, the gaming room, library and two conference halls… some farmhouses,” and dozens of surrounding cottages were burned.

There is, however, another side of this story that is getting almost no coverage by the press.

It begins with a group of farmers being terrorized and forced into giving up their land to a realty agency, Vedic Realty.

After they were dispossessed, some 30 years ago, the land was “taken back” by the government. Apparently, Vedic did not have legal “authorization” to hold the land.

At this point, the government should have redistributed to land to the farmers. However, Vedic Realty took a bold step forward. They took the matter to West Bengal’s high court. And then they won.

The government quickly turned around and approached Vedic for an out-of-court settlement, offering to sell them the land. They should have challenged the ruling. Vedic was more than happy to accept the offer, after all, it meant they would have the land legally from then on.

Over the years, Vedic Village made quite a name for itself. News agencies proudly inform us of its luxurious marvels, how it was “carefully designed for five-star ambience, without compromising the village ideal;” how it provides tourists and movie stars alike with all the wonders of modernity: “a bar, restaurant, a lotus-shaped pool”. It even has games to entertain the kids while you play a nice round of golf. “It doesn’t get any better than this.”

However, beneath the surface of Vedic Village, stood a seething monster. It was “a den of criminal activities ranging from prostitution to bomb-making,” says Partho Sarathi Ray from the activist group, Sanhati.

The last five years has been especially difficult for the villagers, because they were now forced to bear witness to constant, disruptive forces. All the while through, holding on to the memory of how their land was ripped away from them, “stories of what the rich and famous did in their leisure time filtered into the village, provoking wonder and then, disgust,” adds the Times of India.

Acknowledging this legacy of suffering—that ranged from violence and dispossession to segregation, aural abuse and the constant disruption of their everyday lives—it is certainly possible that Vedic village was burnt to the ground because the lawful owners of the land were finally compelled to take matters into their own hands. What other choice did they have?

If it is not the case well, then at least this story is finally out in the open. And maybe the villagers will finally be able to live and sleep like they would before there land was taken. Peacefully.

24 August 2009
Protests by the Penan tribe in Borneo have escalated, with twelve villages coming together to mount new road blockades against the logging and plantation companies that are destroying their rainforest.

Journalists covering at the blockades were intercepted by police with machineguns and taken away for questioning.

Hundreds of Penan have blocked roads at three new locations in the interior of Sarawak, in the Malaysian part of the island of Borneo. The protestors are demanding an end to logging and plantations on their land without their consent, and recognition of their land ownership rights.

BBC TV presenter Bruce Parry visited the Penan for his hit series, ‘Tribe’. One Penan told him, ‘It’s not true that we Penan do not want progress. Not the ‘progress’ where logging companies move on to the land. What we want is real progress. What we need is land rights first of all.’

The new protests come only weeks after blockades by two nearby Penan villages. The destruction of their forest robs the hunter-gatherer Penan of the animals and plants they eat and pollutes the rivers they fish in. Without the forest, many Penan have difficulty feeding their families.

The Penan have been struggling for more than twenty years against the logging companies that operate on their land with full government backing. In areas where the valuable trees have been cut down, the companies are clearing the forest completely to make way for oil palm plantations.

The blockades are aimed at forcing the Malaysian timber companies Samling, Interhill, Rimbunan Hijau and KTS to end their activities on the Penan’s land without the tribe’s consent. One of the earlier blockades, mounted in June at the settlement of Ba Marong, resulted in the withdrawal of a KTS subsidiary from the area – but the Penan fear that the loggers may return.

In another Penan area, the notorious company Samling is advancing on an area of the tribe’s forest that has never been logged before. Observers say that the road built by the company is likely to reach the remote Ba Jawi area within weeks.

Survival’s director Stephen Corry said today, ‘The logging and plantation companies are preventing the Penan from being able to feed their children. It’s no wonder they’re taking to the barricades. Penan in some areas are currently receiving food aid – before the loggers arrived, they would never have needed such hand-outs. The Malaysian government must recognize that this land is theirs and stops sanctioning its destruction.’

The Algonquins of Barriere lake have announced plans to set up an indefinite roadblock on their land—beginning today, September 1, 2009.

In a press statement (below), the northern Quebec First Nation says the roadblock, aimed at preventing logging on their traditional lands, will continue “until Quebec implements agreements covering forestry on Barriere Lake’s lands, and the Quebec and Canadian government’s recognize the First Nation’s legitimate leadership.”

For more information, contact Chief Jean Maurice Matchewan at 819-435- 2136 – or, if the line is busy, 514-398-7432

Algonquins peacefully block logging until agreements and leadership respected?

For Immediate Release
September 1, 2009

Algonquins place bodies in front of logging machines: prevent logging until Quebec and Canada respect agreements and leadership

Kitiganik/Rapid Lake, Algonquin Territory /- This afternoon members of the Algonquins of Barriere Lake will peacefully block the machines of Abitibi-Bowater forestry workers, preventing logging in their territory until Quebec implements agreements covering forestry on Barriere Lake’s lands, and the Quebec and Canadian government’s recognize the First Nation’s legitimate leadership.

“Our community has decided there will be no forestry activities or any new developments in our Trilateral Agreement Territory until the status of our leadership and the agreements we signed are resolved to our community’s satisfaction,” says Jean Maurice Matchewan, Customary Chief of Barriere Lake. “The Quebec government has acted in bad faith, giving companies the go-ahead to log while they ignore their legal obligations, leaving us with no choice but to stop forestry operations until Quebec complies with the agreement. We have waited more than 3 years for Quebec to implement it.”

Matchewan received no response to a letter he sent to Manager Paul Grondin of Abitibi-Bowater’s Maniwaki mill on August 25, requesting that the company suspend logging operations until the governments follow through on their obligations.

“Our plan is to peacefully put our bodies in front of their machines until we get some results. We expect they may use the police, because we are used to such tactics. This is our territory and they can’t push us off our lands,” says Matchewan.

Canada and Quebec have refused to acknowledge the results of a June 24, 2009 leadership selection process that reselected Jean Maurice Matchewan as the legitimate Customary Chief of Barriere Lake. National Chief Shawn Atleo of the Assembly of First Nations, however, met with Chief Matchewan on August 19, to discuss the Trilateral agreement and other community concerns. The
Algonquin Nation Secretariat, a Tribal Council representing three Algonquin communities including Barriere Lake, also recently reiterated their support for Chief Matchewan.

“Instead of acting honourably and cooperating with our Customary Council to implement these signed agreements, the federal and provincial governments have been working in unison to try and install a minority faction whom they can use to sign off on the cutting of our forest,” says Matchewan.

Barriere Lake wants Canada and Quebec to uphold signed agreements dating back to the 1991 Trilateral Agreement, a landmark sustainable development and resource co-management agreement praised by the United Nations and the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples. Canada has been in breach of the agreement since 2001. Quebec signed a complementary Bilateral Agreement in
1998, but has stalled despite the 2006 recommendations of two former Quebec Cabinet Ministers, Quebec special representative John Ciaccia and Barriere Lake special representative Clifford Lincoln, that the agreement be implemented. The agreement is intended to allow logging to continue while protecting the Algonquin’s’ traditional way of life and giving them a $1.5 million share of the $100 million in resource revenue that comes out of their territory every year.