Aboriginal "freedom flotilla" risking all for bringing solidarity to West Papuans

West Papua is occupied by Indonesia since soon after independence. While the agreement of independence of Indonesia placed West Papua still under provisional Dutch control, the newborn Malay state soon managed to annex West Papua, which has no Malay native population, just as they did with East Timor, then under Portuguese control. The USA and UN were instrumental in this undemocratic transaction.

A new imperialism replaced the old one. 

Since then low intensity guerrilla has existed in West Papua. The deposition of Suharto, that allowed East Timor to break free, saw no significant change in the conflict of West Papua, still oppressed by Indonesian imperialism, which is speeding up the colonization of the island by ethnic Malays.

Australian, Papuan and Melanesian activists, most of them Aboriginal, set sail yesterday from Cairns in what is an act of cultural-political defiance to Indonesian oppression, described as Aboriginal cultural exchange. 

Indonesia has denied visa or authorization for the boat to sail in its waters and the participants acknowledge that they could even been shot down by the Navy. More likely is that they get arrested and jailed for years. That's what happened to several Australians who entered West Papua years ago without visa. 

Source: The Guardian.

Indian landless march on capital

As there is a land reform law under debate, some of the many many millions of landless peasants of all India have begun marching on the federal capital, New Delhi, demanding land for all. 

While politicians try to call them off, attempting to restrict the debate to Parliament and keeping it off the streets, the farmers undeterred are walking thousands of kilometers to demand a piece of land for everyone. 

After all, who can legitimately own land if he/she does not work it with his/her hands? Did they make land out of thin air as some sort of demigods? Or rather did they (or their forefathers) stole it from the community?

This is particularly a recent truth for the many tribes of India, which have collectively owned lands in parts of the union. As The Hindu recollects:

“Before the forest rangers came, my people have protected the forests for generations. How can they push us out now,” asks Manjanan, a 55-year-old from the Muduvar tribe who hails from a village near Valparai. 

The march is known as Jan Satyagraha, which could be translated as People's Struggle. Satyagraha, the central Gandhian concept of nonviolent struggle, is hard to translate to English, meaning something like insistence on truth, but I would translate is as truth-power, where power is undeterred determination, willpower. 

By the moment, in its 3rd day, the figures I have read speak of some 60,000 people but I can only imagine that the real figures are larger and will grow as the march looms on Delhi.

Isolate Indian tribe thought that the Guerrilla was the legitimate government

The Muria tribal village of Bodiguda is so isolated, deep in a thick jungle unexplored since the colonial period, that the Indian authorities imagined it as a mere provisional guerrilla camp when they detected it via Google Earth.

However the Maoist guerrillas had contacted them long ago and the village imagined them being the only governmental authority. Therefore they were very surprised when Indian Army troops almost attacked them. 

There is a police station in the nearby village of Behramgarh, 29 km. away, but the Muria seldom go there at all.

Source and more details at Revolution in South Asia.

From the Net: 'Survival uncovers shocking human rights abuses in Ethiopia'

Survival has uncovered shocking new evidence of human rights abuses against tribes in Ethiopia’s Omo Valley, as government efforts to develop lucrative sugar cane plantations in the region intensify.

Bulldozers are flattening land near a UNESCO World Heritage Site, destroying villages and forcing local communities to give up their pastoral way of life.

Fear is growing as violence becomes commonplace and reports of beatings, rapes and arrests spread among tribes close to the Omo River.

As recently as January 2012, Survival received reports of three Bodi men being beaten to death in an Ethiopian jail.

The forests and savannah of the Omo valley (L) are being cleared for plantations (R)

... full story at Survival International. Found via Pasado y Futuro[es].

Samburu People violently evicted from their ancestral homelands in the name of "conservation"

Samburu woman

As happened to their distant cousins, the Maasai, decades ago in Tanzania, the Samburu of Kenya are now being evicted from their ancestral lands (violently, illegally and without any compensation scheme) in order to make room for yet another wildlife park.

From Survival International (Dec 13):

Kenya’s Laikipia district has been part of the traditional territory of the Samburu tribe for centuries until two US-based charities – The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and the African Wildlife Foundation (AWF) – agreed to pay $2 million for their land, which was officially owned by former Kenyan President Daniel arap Moi.

Soon after, the Kenyan police began a series of brutal evictions of the tribe, burning their villages, killing and stealing their animals and assaulting men, women and children. Survival has recently received reports of an elder being shot ‘in cold blood’.

2,000 Samburu families now live in makeshift squats on the edge of the land and 1,000 others have been forced to relocate entirely.

Conditions are appalling, and resources scarce. A Channel 4 documentary caught on camera the extreme nature of these evictions in the Eland Downs.

Clip from 'Conservation's Dirty Secrets' - Channel 4 from Samburu Film on Vimeo.

(...)

Following waves of violence from the police, the Samburu began legal proceedings against AWF and ex-President Moi, to plead for their rights to the land. A subsequent court demand for no further harassment of the Samburu has been ignored. Survival has recently received reports that women and children have been sleeping in the bush, despite heavy rains, terrified of police violence.

··> full article.

The genocidal attitude of the Kenyan government may well backfire and the German travel industry, one of the largest in the World, has warned that the scandal may damage the reputation of Kenya and actually make them lose visitors.

Remains of a burnt Samburu village

Hat tip to Pasado y Futuro[es].

Rwandan fascist Tutsi government destroys homes of the poorest

Including the Twa Pygmies, previously expelled from natural park areas. 

The autocratic Tutsi government of Paul Kagame has decided to eradicate all grass roofs in the country... by means of burning them. Lots of people, including the aboriginal Twa, have been that way forced to move  into crowded conditions in what the denounce as living as in a refugee camp. 

For the autocrat this terrorism against the people is "progress".

Source: Tercera Información[es].