The Indigenous Summit discusses proposals

Creation of an Tribunal on International Indigenous Opinion is exhorted

“To demand the immediate abandonment of military bases and battalions in indigenous territories and pueblos, as well as any military intervention,” is one of the suggestions made by the working group which analyzed the theme Militarization and Paramilitarization.

By Jairo Rolong, Ecuarunari, Minga Informativa

Quito, July 24, 2004

In the fourth day of the Second Continental Summit of Indigenous Pueblos and Nationalities of Abya Yala (the Americas), occurring in Quito as a preamble to the Social Forum of the Americas, a grand plenary was made in which were placed the common reflections and proposals of ten central themes which the working groups had elaborated in prior days.

One of the working groups discussed the theme “Militarization and Paramilitarization,” coordinated by Luis Eveliyn, President of the National Indigenous Organization of Colombia (Organización Nacional Indígena de Colombia -- ONIC).

The group's analysis stated “the growing militarization and paramilitarization against indigenous pueblos and territories are part of a strategy of control promoted by the United States, to impose their economic policies and submit latin America to their interests of domination.” Along with this they indicated that “militarization and paramilitarization are propelled and a function of multilateral Free Trade Agreements, the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), the Plan Puebla Panamá (PPP) and other imperialist initiatives, to assure a favorable regional market.”

As such, they categorized militarization as “a process of recolonization of latin America on the part of the United States, as proven principally by the installation of strategic military bases: Manta in Ecuador, Leticia in Colombia, Iquitos in Perú, Guantánamo in Cuba, Soto in Honduras, Tierra del Fuego in Argentina, and Alcántara in Brasil among others.”

As proposals for resolution this working groups suggested “to condemn the United States -- and President Bush -- for their policy of militarization against latin american pueblos, indigenous pueblos and social movements.” Equally, they suggested condemning governments of the region, specifically those who “compromise everything to the desire of the United States, to the point of converting themselves into instruments of repression, genocide, and ethnicide against indian pueblos and the social and popular movements which support them.”

Another proposal for resolution which this working group made during the consideration of the plenary says textually: “The Second Continental Summit exhorts the creation of a Tribunal on International Indigenous Opinion (Tribunal Internacional Indígena de Opinión -- TIIO), to judge those governments and military fronts which have attempted to assassinate our pueblos,” which could have “character and legitimacy as interlocutor with human rights organizations,” and could serve to “install demands against the International Penal Court (Corte Penal Internacional -- CPI), so that they may process the judgment of those who have attempted to assassinate the ancestral and human rights of our indigenous pueblos.”

The TIIO could also be charged with the work of “demanding the immediate abandonment of military bases and battalions in indigenous territories and pueblos, as well as any military intervention, whether this be through assistants, provisioned and armed military instructors, or military teams.”

Regarding the proposals made by this commission and others elaborated by the other working groups in the greater debate, in which were mapped out the ideas presented and defined resolutions by means of consensus, they will ultimately be accepted as final resolutions for the event, to be presented in the closure of the Indigenous Summit this Sunday July 25th.