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Thursday, July 30th 2009

6:51 PM

Borneo tribe mounts new blockades against rainforest destruction

www.survival-international.org/news/4818

Borneo tribe mounts new blockades against rainforest destruction

Survival International
30 July 2009

A logger handles trees felled in the Penan's region. 
A logger handles trees felled in the Penan's region. - photo (c) Andy Rain/Nick Rain/Survival


Dozens of Penan tribespeople armed with blowpipes and spears have erected blockades across the roads cut by logging companies deep into their forest in Borneo. The blockaders are calling for an end to logging on their land.

Survival International is calling for recognition of the hunter-gatherer Penan tribe's land rights and a halt to all development on their land without their consent.

Malaysian police are at the blockades, but no arrests have been reported.

One Penan man told Survival, "This piece of forest is the only place left for us to hunt and find food. But there's only a little bit left. Last night I went hunting and came back with nothing. If we can't save this bit of forest, we will have nothing to eat."

The Penan live in Sarawak, in the Malaysian part of the island of Borneo. They have been struggling for more than twenty years to stop the companies clearing their forests. Some have been successful, but many have seen their forests devastated, their rivers polluted and the animals and plants they rely on for food disappear.

Now, where the valuable trees have all been taken, the companies are starting to clear the land completely for oil palm plantations. Palm oil is used in many foods and cosmetics, and increasingly for biofuels.

Survival sent action bulletins to thousands of supporters worldwide last week, asking them to write to the Malaysian government in support of the Penan.

Survival's director Stephen Corry said today, "The logging and oil palm companies are robbing the Penan not just of their forests but of their food and water. It is essential that the Malaysian government recognizes the Penan's rights to their land and stops allowing the companies to take everything in sight."

The notorious Malaysian company Samling is logging in the Long Daloh area, and a subsidiary of the company KTS is logging in the Ba Marong area.

Survival researcher Miriam Ross visited the Penan earlier this year, and is available for interview.

Visit Survival's webpage about the Penan:
www.survival-international.org/tribes/penan

For more information and images please contact Miriam Ross:
T (+44) (0)20 7687 8734 or (+44) (0)7504543367
E-mail mr@survival-international.org


Act now to help the Penan
Write a letter to the government of Sarawak in Malaysia urging action on the Penan's situation.

--sample letter--

To YAB Pehin Sri Haji Abdul Taib Mahmud
Chief Minister of Sarawak
Office of the Chief Minister of Sarawak
22nd Floor, Wisma Bapa Malaysia Petra Jaya
Kuching
93502
Sarawak
Malaysia

[date]

Dear Minister,

I am extremely concerned about the situation of the Penan tribe. Since their rights to their lands are not recognised, they are under threat from logging, oil palm plantations and hydroelectric dams. These developments are rapidly destroying the Penan's forests, without which they cannot survive.

Logging scares away the animals the Penan hunt, pollutes the rivers and kills the fish. Once the valuable trees have gone, the forests are cleared completely to make way for oil palm. Many Penan have also been told they must leave their land to make way for the first in a series of new hydroelectric dams.

I urge your government to recognise the Penan's rights to ownership of their land, as enshrined in international law, and to halt all development on their land without their free, prior and informed consent.

Yours sincerely,

[your full name + address]

--end sample letter--


____
copyright Survival International, 2009 Registered charity no. 267444

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Thursday, July 30th 2009

6:47 PM

Botswana: Six Kalahari Bushmen imprisoned for hunting

www.survival-international.org/news/4806

Six Kalahari Bushmen imprisoned for hunting

Survival International
29 July 2009

Bushman elder, CKGR, Botswana 2004 
Bushman elder, CKGR, Botswana 2004 - photo (c) 2004 Stephen Corry/Survival


Six Kalahari Bushmen in Botswana have been arrested and jailed, charged with hunting inside the Central Kalahari Game Reserve.

The Molepolole court is expected to rule on the charges on Monday. The case relates to two incidents, one earlier this year and the other in 2007.

Botswana High Court Judge Justice Phumaphi ruled in 2006 that forbidding the Bushmen from hunting for food was "tantamount to condemning [them] to death". The historic ruling recognized the Bushmen's right to live on their ancestral land, and condemned the government's repeated evictions of Bushmen, its ban on hunting and its destruction of their water source.

The Botswana government has not granted a single hunting license for the reserve since 2001, despite the High Court ruling that its hunting ban was unlawful and unconstitutional. At least 75 Bushmen have requested licenses.

Many Bushmen have returned home since the 2006 ruling, but many are still trapped in relocation camps which they call "places of death". The government has largely ignored the High Court ruling, continuing to deny the Bushmen access to water and refusing them permission to hunt.

Survival's director, Stephen Corry, said today, "Jailing six Bushmen for hunting is an outrageous act of hypocrisy by the Botswana government, which is still refusing to respect the ruling of the country's own High Court that the Bushmen must be allowed to live freely on their land. Forbidding them from hunting for food is illegal."


For more information and images please contact Miriam Ross:
T (+44) (0)20 7687 8734 or (+44) (0)7504543367
E-mail mr@survival-international.org


Act now to help the Bushmen
Your support is vital if the Bushmen are to survive. Writing a letter to the Botswana government is a quick and simple way to let them know of your concern.

--sample letter--

To H.E. President Ian Khama
Office of the President
Private Bag 001
Gaborone
Botswana

[Date]

Your Excellency,

I am extremely concerned about the situation facing the Bushmen of the Kalahari.

After being forcibly removed from the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, many Bushmen living in the resettlement camps are exposed to diseases including HIV/AIDS, which they never experienced before. Alcoholism and depression is widespread.

The High Court ruled that the evictions of the Bushmen were illegal and unconstitutional. I urge you to embrace the spirit of this ruling by allowing all of the Bushmen who wish to return home to do so, and by allowing them to hunt for food and to access their own water using the pre-existing borehole at Mothomelo, within the reserve.

Refusal to allow the Bushmen to use their existing borehole at Mothomelo can only be interpreted as a clear sign that you are determined to continue the past government's misguided policy of keeping the Bushmen from returning home.

Yours sincerely,

[your full name + address]

--end sample letter--

____
copyright Survival International, 2009 Registered charity no. 267444

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Thursday, July 30th 2009

6:43 PM

Inspiring America to end mountaintop removal

Date: Fri, 24 Jul 2009 22:05:31 GMT
From: "Scott Parkin, Rainforest Action Network" jels@ran.org
Subject: Inspiring America to End Mountaintop Removal


Rainforest Action Network 
[] 


Dear --,

You're inspiring me.

Over the past several weeks I've been so impressed with the thousands of RAN supporters who have been taking action to help end the practice of mountaintop removal coal mining. Your message has been loud and unmistakable.

Mountaintop removal depends on financing from America's leading banks and approval from government regulators. You've shown Chase, the biggest bank funding mountaintop removal, how strong our movement has become and now it is time to ask the government to get involved.

I've started a petition asking Lisa Jackson, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, to visit Appalachia and see the destruction caused by mountaintop removal mining herself.

Please sign the petition, ask your friends to sign, and spread the word that we're taking our demands to the federal government in Washington.
-> http://ga3.org/campaign/epafly

Lisa Jackson has never seen mountaintop removal mining herself and she is the single person with the most influence over the Obama administration's mountaintop removal policy.

Every week, mountaintop removal mining uses more explosive power than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima and I believe that if Lisa Jackson saw that kind of destruction with her own eyes, saw how this horrific practice is ravaging the people, water and land of Appalachia, she would feel compelled to do everything she could to stop it.

You've been an inspiration to me and now I hope you will sign the petition and help inspire EPA administrator Lisa Jackson to do the right thing and help us end mountaintop removal mining forever.

http://ga3.org/campaign/epafly

Thank you,

Scott Parkin
Global Finance Campaign
Rainforest Action Network
 

Rainforest Action Network 


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Thursday, July 30th 2009

6:38 PM

How Leonard Peltier Could Leave Prison by August 18th

www.dailykos.com/story/2009/7/30/759576/-How-Leonard-Peltier-Could-Leave-Prison-by-August-18

How Leonard Peltier Could Leave Prison by August 18

by Harvey Wasserman
July 30, 2009


For a formidable and growing global community of supporters, the prospect of Native American activist Leonard Peltier finally leaving prison inspires a longing that cuts to the depths of the soul.

So Peltier's first parole hearing of the Obama Era---on Tuesday, July 28---inspired hope of an intensity that will have a major impact on the new presidency. A decision must come from the Federal Parole Commission within three weeks. His attorney is calling for a surge of public support that would create an irresistible political climate for Leonard's release.

The relationship between Peltier and those who have followed his case over the decades can be intensely personal. His imprisonment has come to stand not only for five centuries of unjust violence waged against Native Americans, but also for the inhumane theft of the life of a man who has handled his 33 years in jail with epic dignity, effectiveness and grace.

Peltier's latest parole hearing convened at the federal penitentiary in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, where he is currently held. According to Eric Seitz, Peltier's Honolulu-based attorney, Peltier spoke for more than an hour "with great eloquence" about the nature of his case, his imprisonment and his plans for freedom. "The hearing officer seemed to listen carefully," said Seitz. "We thought it went very well."

The decision on Peltier's parole will be made by the four sitting members of the Federal Parole Commission ( www.usdoj.gov/uspc/ ) whose offices are in Chevy Chase, Maryland.

Commissioners Isaac Fulwood, Jr., Cranston Mitchell, Edward Reilly and Patricia Cushware are all Bush appointees. One seat is vacant; Fulwood was elevated to the Chairman's seat in May by President Obama.

According to Seitz, the hearing was taped by an officer charged with reporting to the Commissioners within 48 hours. The Commissioners are required to render a decision within 21 days---by August 18. Should they rule in his favor, Peltier could walk out of prison very soon after the decision is issued.

Should the Commssioners turn down his parole application, Seitz says the appeal would go to the federal district court in Harrisburg. The report of the hearing would become available to Peltier and the public.

Seitz said he spoke to the record for about 20 minutes on the legalities of the case. He said Peter Mattheissen, author of IN THE SPIRIT OF CRAZY HORSE, explained the history of the 1970s incidents that led to Peltier being accused of murdering two FBI agents. CRAZY HORSE is the definitive account of the origins of the case and of the climate of violence and repression imposed on the native community at the time of the killings. Seitz said Mattheissen emphasized "the many reasons to have misgivings about whether the system performed well and fairly in Leonard's case."

Mattheissen was joined by Dr.Thomas Fassett of the United Methodist Church, who testified, said Seitz, "to the negative impact of Peltier's 33-year imprisonment on the world's view of how the US government treats its native population. Leonard's case is viewed in the larger community both nationally & internationally as a major embarrassment - as a gross injustice - a black mark."

The testimony was accompanied by thousands of letters, with signees including South African Bishop Desmond Tutu, US Senator Daniel Inouye (D-HI), and actor Robert Redford, whose film INCIDENT AT OGALALA is the definitive documentary.

Cynthia Maleterre of the Turtle Island Clan then outlined how Peltier could meet the requirements of parole in his home community in North Dakota. Restored to his Chippewa-Dakota homeland, Maleterre explained that Peltier would have housing, a job and be surrounded by family, including great-grandchildren he has never seen.

Seitz said testimony opposing parole came from a representative of the FBI, sent by Director Robert Mueller, a holdover Bush appointee, and from the former director of the Minnesota Bureau. Two sons of Jack Coler, one of the FBI agents killed in the Ogalala shoot-out, also argued against Peltier being freed, as did a former agent named Ed Woods.

Seitz said that all those opposing parole argued Peltier should spend the rest of his days in prison, and did not deserve a new trial.

But Seitz was "guardedly optimistic" about a favorable decision from the Parole Commission. He said that a "good rapport" had been established with the hearing officer, and that the new chair of the commission is generally held "in high esteem".

President Barack Obama does have the power to grant clemency, but Seitz said prisoners apply only when all other avenues have been exhausted. Usually, says Seitz, "presidential pardons do not come until the Chief Executive is leaving office."

Seitz says letters to the Parole Commission and to local newspapers, calls to Congressional Representatives (202-224-3121), talk show hosts and other forms of public pressure are now of the utmost importance. The hope, he says, lies in creating a "public environment favorable to release."

As Leonard Peltier approaches his 65th year---having spent half his life in prison---every day is now critical to lifting this burden from our collective souls.

For more information go to www.leonardpeltier.net.

____
copyright Kos Media, LLC

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