And still the NGOs are accused of provoking conflict?

Jamie Kneen
MiningWatch Canada

Sucúa, March 19th, 2008

Mr. Don Clarke
Vice-President, Sustainable Development
Ecuacorriente SA.

In my consideration,

Referring to your letter dated March 10th, addressed to Mr. José Asamat, Trustee of the Nankints Shuar Community, a community constituted in a territory that is their ancestral right, and which they had recovered from the hands of the transnational mining corporations that had acquired it in concessions from the Ecuadorian State in violation of the rights the indigenous people. In view of the fact that this community is located within the jurisdiction of the Association of Shuar Arutam Centres that, in turn, is part of the Shuar Arutam People – a non profit development organization recognized by CODENPE Agreement #255 of September 2006 – as Executive President, I send this letter as a public expression to you and your organization in response to the despotic actions that denigrate our rights as Ecuadorian citizens who have occupied these territories for thousands of years.

In November, 2006, the Shuar people engaged in a historic rebellion against this century’s global imperialism, resulting in the repossession and recovery of the former mining camps of Rosa de Oro and San Carlos, as well as Warints, by their true and authentic owners, concluding the definitive restoration of the territories within the jurisdiction. The Shuar Arutam People, as part of the Interprovincial Federation of Shuar Centres (Federación Interprovincial de Centros Shuar – FICSH), and with the support of organizations such as CONFENIAE, CONAIE, and COICA, stated publicly that it acted under the legal protection of the Constitution and international legal instruments that protect the collective and customary rights of indigenous peoples, and especially territorial rights.

This is why I should emphasize that the Shuar are settled in their legitimate territories; if you, Mr. Clarke, and your mining company, want to claim your rights, I would request that you do it in Canada and not in Ecuador, because our possession of the territory is legal and not illegal, as you and ECSA state. For the Shuar Arutam People, this fact constitutes a definitive victory with or without the backing of other Ecuadorian internal legal tools for the above-mentioned acquired rights.

I am pleased to hear what an oligarch of the real indigenous Canadians has to say, because although you will never tell me the truth about whether or not there are poor indigenous peoples in your country, nevertheless, we know that poverty exists.

The Shuar have settlements thousands year old in our territories in the South American Amazon, and our subsistence has been based on our own economy. Therefore I should point out that under no circumstances should my people be discriminated against as “Shuar in extreme poverty”, even if it is true that you have been told this by Shuar that are part of your mining campaign; however, we consider them to be ex-Shuar because the true Shuar own, live on, share, and respect our Mother Earth, which guarantees our life today and forever. This is why the destruction and criminalization that you refer to as “responsible mining” will be irremediable and irrecoverable, leading towards the genocide and ethnocide of the Shuar people.

In the Ecuadorian Amazon region, as much as in other countries of the world where there is mining and oil extraction, we cannot verify the development of the people; on the contrary, what prevails is poverty; “unfair treatment”; social, political and economical corruption; the destruction of ecosystems, natural riches, and biodiversity; turning humans into working machines – a slow ethnocide that history would only reveal after hundreds of years. Therefore, I publicly declare that your ambitious pretensions of “Responsible Mining, Fair Treatment, etc.” only lead to a real cultural, environmental, economic, and social destruction.

CONAIE, with the solidarity of all its members, asked the National Government for “the reversion of all mining concessions to the State. No to medium and large scale mining…” in the resolutions of the Third Congress of the Nationalities and Peoples of Ecuador, in Santo Domingo de los Tzáchilas, from January 10th to January 12th, 2008. This demand was given to the President of the Republic, the Economist Rafael Correa, in the city of Montecristi at a peaceful demonstration of 20,000 Ecuadorian citizens, including indigenous people, mestizos, and farmers, in defence of their lands and territories. We will be watchful that the Constituent Assembly includes it in the new Constitution.

This is why the Shuar Arutam People considers the conflicts in our territories to be resolved as long as no new ones are provoked; therefore, I should say to the mining company ECUACORRIENTES SA and those who consider themselves its allies and workers that your activity within Shuar territory is inadmissible, and that we will always be on guard against interference by strangers and will defend the life of our generations until the very end.

I thank you in anticipation of your understanding in this matter.

Sincerely,

Raúl Petsain
EXECUTIVE PRESIDENT
PUEBLO SHUAR ARUTAM.

Up until the 1980s our people had a vibrant fur trade that was systematically destroyed by so called-well meaning NGOs who ran around Urban Canada, Europe and the United States raising money to stop a renewable, sustainable industry which has been a part of culture for thousands of years…

As a result of their global (and so called – environmental) efforts against our fur trade – nearly 80,000 of our people were thrown out of work and nothing was offered by these so called “well meaning” environmental groups – now our people live in poverty, ravaged by social, health and economic ills and our people remain on the margins of Canadian society……..

NGOs like Mining Watch Canada under the guise of environmentalism have no interest in the well being of people economicaly, culturally or socially and really are raising funds for their own agenda. They could care less that the majority of our remote northern communities have nothing but welfare – yet once upon a time we had vibrant fur trading communities and I remember as a boy how these environmental NGO types told my dad and grandpa that we can do eco-tourism which was suppose to solve our communities unemployment problems as a result of no longer having a fur trade. Well – eco-tourism hasn’t solved our poverty issues and as a matter of fact Canadian First Nations people rank 63rd on the human development index while I am sure that the people at Mining Watch Canada rank in with non-First Nations people of Canada at having the 4th best quality of life on the planet……

I also find it very ironic that once again we see a similar situation to what happened to our fur trade at the hands of NGOs in Ecuador, whereby Indigenous leaders want to access their resources to create a life with hope and diginity for their people while NGOs like Mining Watch Canada want to keep Indians poor……

Be rest assured though, I will be sure to contact as many of our First Nations communities and leaders here in Canada in support of these Ecuadorian Indigneous leaders as it is very clear to me that all Mining Watch wants to do is raise money keep Indigenous peoples poor……

Jeff
First Nations (Canada)

We support the right of communities to free prior and informed consent to mining projects, and – where they freely decide that a mine what they want – we provide information on how to defend their interests as it is developed (reclamation bonding, health and safety protection, environmental monitoring).

We provide information and links to technical help to communities that ask us for it, and we make information about the impacts of mining and exploration on the environment and human rights available to the public on our website at http://www.miningwatch.ca. We ask the Canadian governmnent for policy changes that would provide clarity and certainty for Canadian mining companies operating internationally and their investors.

When Infomine posted the letter from Naichap, they said it was sent to them by Corriente. Obviously, Corriente has its own agenda in this matter.

For all of June protest were reported in el Mercurio and Universal. Ohh, and a mining code reform is in the works. I would NOT invest in Corriente Resources.

You have to look in Spanish for real info:
Also, this guy called Jose Aviles is a fake, he is not who he says he is. Look below:
http://www.confeniae.org/es/comunicados/070703_mafia_mineras.html