"Colonisation has for the Indians in the oil-mining areas of the Amazon never stopped”

The nightmare of colonisation has for many Indian communities in the oil-mining areas of the Amazon never stopped. In recent decades they have been the helpless witnesses of the plundering of their resources, the destruction of their environment and the dangers to their health. This is the balance drawn by the Society for Threatened Peoples (GfBV) on "Columbus Day”, the anniversary of the "discovery” of America on 12th October 1492. Of the 2000 indigenous peoples then living in the Amazon area there are now according to the umbrella organisation of the native peoples living there today only 400 with altogether 1.5 million inhabitants.

"While it was at that time above all gold, quinine and caoutchouc which attracted the conquerors, today it is the wealth of wood in the rain forests and above all the enormous mineral oil reserves, which are being exploited above the heads of the indigenous people”, reported the human rights organisation. The destructive consequences for the communities living there and for the fragile ecological system rain forest are catastrophic. In many places the river water is poisoned and the soils are contaminated. The dangers to the health of the Indians often prove fatal .Many have high concentrations of heavy metal like lead and cadmium in the blood and they suffer from the toxic effects.

"Day by day we are forced to see our children and siblings spitting blood, falling ill and dying, without the government doing anything about it”, says a letter sent a few days ago by the Achuar, Quichua and Urarina from the north-east province Loreto in Peru to the government, in which they announced their opposition to any further oil-mining projects. It is on their land on the Corrientes River that the US American, Peruvian and Argentinian firms Occidental, Petroperu and Pluspetrol are pumping oil. Agreements on the security of their supplies of food and drinking-water have been ignored, criticise the people affected, and against their will new export licences have recently been issued to the US American and Canadian companies Burlington Resources and Prolifera. "But we also have the right to live in peace and good health on our land”, they emphasised to the GfbV.

In neighbouring Ecuador the state and the oil companies are trying to push forward the oil-mining if necessary by military means. But there the Quichua of Sarayacu, who have so far been able to defend their land in the federal state of Pastaza in spite of murders and death threats, in spite of other attempts to scare them into submission or to bribe them, are not alone. The Waorani, Cofán, Siona, Secoya, Shuar, Shiwiar, Achuar and Zápara are also directly in conflict with the oil companies.