Get ANAM to respect Ngobe people's rights in Panama
Meanwhile, the area remains under siege. The Ngobe have no electricity, no cell phone reception, and no access to the Internet. Police prevent any outsiders from reaching the Ngobe communities. Even the UNESCO delegation that recently visited Panama to investigate the dam's environmental consequences was prevented from entering the zone. While Ngobe villagers are still free to leave and return, the trip out is arduous. The only way they know that supporters want to talk with them is if the outsiders risk arrest by approaching the police patrols. Ngobe villagers who witness these confrontations then know to send an emissary to a nearby town to meet with their supporters.
The courts in Panama continue to stall all action aimed at protecting the Ngobe. Most significantly, Panama's Supreme Court has still not ruled on whether it has jurisdiction to consider an amparo petition (similar to an American habeus corpus petition) that our on-the-ground partner, the Alliance for Conservation and Development in Panama (ACD), filed in December.
Efforts by Cultural Survival to persuade the AES corporation to adopt a more socially responsible approach have also been rebuffed. In February, Cultural Survival board and staff members contacted senior AES corporate officers and an AES board member, but in each instance we were dismissively redirected to the company's public relations bureau.
Lacking remedies in Panama and through the corporation, Cultural Survival and ACD have now taken the battle to the international arena. Last week we filed a petition with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, alleging violations of the Ngobe peoples' human rights. Along with that petition we appealed to the commission to go directly to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights for an order calling on Panama to halt all work on the dam until the Ngobe are properly consulted and their rights are respected. You can read that petition on Cultural Survival's website.
We also are launching a global letter-writing campaign to persuade Panama's environmental agency, ANAM, which commissioned AES-Changuinola to build the dam, to halt construction and set up a process that guarantees that the Ngobe peoples' human rights, now and in the future, are respected.
l.castro@anam.gob.pa
PETITION LETTER:
Distinguished Administradora General:
The Ngobe villagers living along the Changuinola River in western Panama are suffering grave violations of their internationally recognized human rights as a result of construction of the Chan-75 hydroelectric dam.
Police have abused, injured, and arrested individual Ngobe for protesting the denial of their right to fully participate as a community in all decision-making relating to road and dam construction, and to the communities' future. Construction is now proceeding around-the-clock even though Ngobe lands have still not been surveyed, demarcated, or titled. Construction crews are indiscriminately bulldozing Ngobe homesteads and farms, and individuals who protest are hauled off to jail.
Until these human rights violations are addressed and the Ngobe villagers are given a fair and equitable voice in negotiations, dam construction must stop.
I urge you to use your authority to stop the construction and set up a process that guarantees that the Ngobe peoples' human rights are respected now and in the future.
Sincerely yours,
Meanwhile, the area remains under siege. The Ngobe have no electricity, no cell phone reception, and no access to the Internet. Police prevent any outsiders from reaching the Ngobe communities. Even the UNESCO delegation that recently visited Panama to investigate the dam's environmental consequences was prevented from entering the zone. While Ngobe villagers are still free to leave and return, the trip out is arduous. The only way they know that supporters want to talk with them is if the outsiders risk arrest by approaching the police patrols. Ngobe villagers who witness these confrontations then know to send an emissary to a nearby town to meet with their supporters.
The courts in Panama continue to stall all action aimed at protecting the Ngobe. Most significantly, Panama's Supreme Court has still not ruled on whether it has jurisdiction to consider an amparo petition (similar to an American habeus corpus petition) that our on-the-ground partner, the Alliance for Conservation and Development in Panama (ACD), filed in December.
Efforts by Cultural Survival to persuade the AES corporation to adopt a more socially responsible approach have also been rebuffed. In February, Cultural Survival board and staff members contacted senior AES corporate officers and an AES board member, but in each instance we were dismissively redirected to the company's public relations bureau.
Lacking remedies in Panama and through the corporation, Cultural Survival and ACD have now taken the battle to the international arena. Last week we filed a petition with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, alleging violations of the Ngobe peoples' human rights. Along with that petition we appealed to the commission to go directly to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights for an order calling on Panama to halt all work on the dam until the Ngobe are properly consulted and their rights are respected. You can read that petition on Cultural Survival's website.
We also are launching a global letter-writing campaign to persuade Panama's environmental agency, ANAM, which commissioned AES-Changuinola to build the dam, to halt construction and set up a process that guarantees that the Ngobe peoples' human rights, now and in the future, are respected.
l.castro@anam.gob.pa
PETITION LETTER:
Distinguished Administradora General:
The Ngobe villagers living along the Changuinola River in western Panama are suffering grave violations of their internationally recognized human rights as a result of construction of the Chan-75 hydroelectric dam.
Police have abused, injured, and arrested individual Ngobe for protesting the denial of their right to fully participate as a community in all decision-making relating to road and dam construction, and to the communities' future. Construction is now proceeding around-the-clock even though Ngobe lands have still not been surveyed, demarcated, or titled. Construction crews are indiscriminately bulldozing Ngobe homesteads and farms, and individuals who protest are hauled off to jail.
Until these human rights violations are addressed and the Ngobe villagers are given a fair and equitable voice in negotiations, dam construction must stop.
I urge you to use your authority to stop the construction and set up a process that guarantees that the Ngobe peoples' human rights are respected now and in the future.
Sincerely yours,
Administradora General
Autoridad Nacional del Ambiente
C-0843
Balboa Panamá, Rep. de Panamá
Tel: (011) 507-500-0814
PETITION LETTER:
Distinguished Administradora General:
The Ngobe villagers living along the Changuinola River in western Panama are suffering grave violations of their internationally recognized human rights as a result of construction of the Chan-75 hydroelectric dam.
Police have abused, injured, and arrested individual Ngobe for protesting the denial of their right to fully participate as a community in all decision-making relating to road and dam construction, and to the communities' future. Construction is now proceeding around-the-clock even though Ngobe lands have still not been surveyed, demarcated, or titled. Construction crews are indiscriminately bulldozing Ngobe homesteads and farms, and individuals who protest are hauled off to jail.
Until these human rights violations are addressed and the Ngobe villagers are given a fair and equitable voice in negotiations, dam construction must stop.
I urge you to use your authority to stop the construction and set up a process that guarantees that the Ngobe peoples' human rights are respected now and in the future.
Sincerely yours,
Sra Ligia Castro: Por favor detenga este deshonor ambiental o su buen nombre quedará comprometido para siempre por vender y propiciar la destrucción de nuestro patrimonio natural
We indigenous people experienced for the effect of hydroelectric dam built in 1960 in CHT.Most of the cultivable lands gone under the dam. Milinions of people displaced and not enough compensated. So I strongly giving my position against the project and signing the petition infavour of Ngobe people.
Man can never do better than nature. Dams like this will eventually cause more harm than good; look at the Glen Canyon Dam for instance. In an effort to fix what has been broken we are resorting to creating artificial floods. Is it worth forcing the Ngobe out of their homeland and killing at least a dozen species of fish and shrimp to build a dam?
The Ngobe have been abused and exploited by every government in Panama since the Spanish conquest. Please break this cruel and inhuman tradition and start respecting their rights and at the same do the job that ANAM claims to do, to protect the environment.
This is simply a continuation of the assault on the Ngobe. Let's not forget the Cerro Colorado Copper Project so eloquently explosed by the late Father Chris Gjording!
Large hydroelectric projects like this one have historically proven to be ecocidal and ethnocidal in the long term; surely, your government does not want this kind of negative publicity. On the other hand, if you negotiate a solution that respects the rights of the Ngobe people, the legitimate needs of the Panamanian people, and the carrying capacity of the delicate Panamanian ecosystem, you will have an agreement that sets a new diplomatic standard for the world and brings great developmental benefit to your country. I wish you the best in this effort.
Please respect these people's human rights.
I am a missionary worker and am working directly with these people. Loss of land, relocation and forced cultural change will disrupt the peaceful living of a people who currently must stuggle to survive. It's difficult to come up with any reasonable justification. These indiginous people are treasures. Their value is far greater than kilowat hours (dams) or pounds of copper(mines). We can get by without dams and mines , but to lose these people because of our intrusions would be criminal. Disturbing their peace is intruding into sacred territory as far as I am concerned. Any disruption should be considered a criminal act against an indiginous group.
Respect the rights of the people!
De nada vale que tengamos energía si no tenemos personas pues la destruccion creciente e indiscriminada de la naturaleza tendra repercuciones en los seres humanos porque este sistema es una cadena en la que estamos nosotros los humanos no como dueños y señores sino como administradores que a la larga sufrimos las mas grandes consecuencias. EL CREADOR NOS DEJO LAS AGUAS, TIERRA Y AIRE..... Y NOS PEDIRA CUENTA DE QUÉ ESTAMOS HACIENDO CON ELLOS...SOLO TU PUEDES RESOLVER LA GRAN PREGUNTA
Human rights must take precedence over property rights, and it is the responsibility of governments to protect the rights of all their peoples, certainly their indigenous populations. We strongly request that the government of Panama respect the rights of the Ngobe, and involve them in the decisions that impact their lives.
This is another sad history of my Panama. Graddy politics, graddy empresary want the money of anyway. He dont care play with the pain of another people!
Please respect the rights of the Ngode people.
Human Rights violations of the most basic kind - infringement on another people's living space - are unacceptable, coming from members of a society that considers itself "civilized"!
Please respect first world's rights!
Please don't allow the Ngobe people to lose their ancestral lands. 'Progress' should not be measured in acres of indigenous lands destroyed, but in the ways we successfully embrace our historic beginnings and meld them with our future.
Thank you.
Stop Construction of the Chan 75 hydroelectric dam. Instead construct turbine plants in the Pacific Ocean to generate electricity. Please instead investigate Ocean Power Technologies, Inc. in the United Kingdom, and Renewable Energy Holdings PLC in the United Kingdom.
