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RE: Please Reply by Friday to Sign-on Letter Supporting the U’wa

Dear Friends and Allies,

As international organizations working on Colombian, Environmental or
Indigenous rights issues, you are invited to sign-on to this letter to
the Colombian Government urging them to respect the rights and territory
of the U’wa Indigenous community. Specifically, this letter is written
in response to the State-owned ECOPETROL's renewed plans to initiate
seismic testing and oil exploration on legally titled territories of the
U’wa Indigenous people. We call for the Government to abandon
Ecopetrol’s plans of oil and gas exploration and exploitation from
within the U’wa resguardo (legally titled land) and its surrounding
area.

We hope that you can sign-on ASAP. Unfortunately, our timeline is super
short. We apologize for giving such a short time-frame. We want to
release this letter next Monday and it would be great to have your
sign-on’s by end of the day on Monday, April 23.

Please feel free to send along your suggestions as well especially if
you have good contacts inside the Colombian Government.

As you might already know, the U’wa Defense Project has become a project
of Amazon Watch, and together we are re-launching an international
campaign supporting the U'wa community, and re-activating the
international support that has been so strategic for the Uwa’s security,
legal cases, and international support. After joining forces with
Amazon Watch, the U’wa Defense Project continues to provide legal,
community development, research & advocacy support to the Indigenous
U'wa people in Colombia as they work to defend their life, land &
cultural autonomy.

To sign on, please email me your NAME, TITLE, ORGANIZATIONAL AFFILIATION
and EMAIL ADDRESS to  anamaria@amazonwatch.org. Again, we’d like folks to
sign-on by the end of the day on Monday, April 23.

Thank you so much for your time and energy.

En paz y lucha,

Ana Maria
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ana Maria Murillo, Director
U’wa Defense Project c/o Amazon Watch
1 Hallidie Plaza, Suite 402 ~ San Francisco, CA 94102
Tel (415) 487-9600 x22 ~ Fax (415) 487-9601 ~  anamaria@amazonwatch.org
U’wa Defense Project provides legal, community development, research &
advocacy support to the Indigenous U'wa people in Colombia as they work
to defend their life, land & cultural autonomy.


April 18, 2006

Honorable Alvaro Uribe
President of the Republic of Colombia

AND

Mr. Isaac Ivanovich
President, ECOPETROL

VIA EMAIL AND FAX


We write you on behalf of XXX non governmental organizations,
representing XXX countries to express our utmost concern with respect to
renewed plans by ECOPETROL to initiate seismic testing and oil
exploration on legally titled territories of the U’wa indigenous people.
The U’wa, a traditional culture of 5,000 people, inhabit territory that
spans over 5 departments-- much of it pristine, fragile cloud forest,
which has sustained the U’wa physically, culturally, and spiritually for
millennia.

As you are aware, since the early 1990’s when Occidental Petroleum
acquired the Samore / Siriri oil blocks, the U’wa have repeatedly
expressed their strong opposition to oil exploitation both within their
legally titled reserve, as well as on their ancestral homelands. The
U’wa consistently maintain that the project will have tremendous and
irreversible environmental, social, and cultural impacts that threaten
the integrity and very survival of their people. The protracted
struggle that culminated in OXY’s departure captured headlines and media
attention worldwide. Thousands of Colombians including rural and
farmers’ organizations, union leaders, lawmakers, environmentalists,
scholars as well as international investors, scientists, and
environmental and human rights defenders organized an unprecedented and
truly historic world wide campaign in support of the U’wa people.

Today, the U’wa once again are calling on their allies in Colombia and
internationally to declare their solidarity and to support the U’wa in
their resistance to oil and gas activities planned in the heart of their
territory.

On behalf of an international network of more than 5,000 U’wa supporters
worldwide, we write to urge your government to permanently abandon your
plans for the Siriri and Catleya oil blocks, which overlap a major part
of the “U’wa Resguardo Unido.” We call on your government and ECOPETROL
to respect the unwavering decision of the U’wa People as expressed by
repeated pronouncements by the U’wa Traditional Authority to reject all
oil and gas exploration and exploitation on their sacred ancestral
homelands.

We remind your government of the 1997 legal complaint brought by the
U’wa to the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights of the
Organization of American States. At the request of Colombia’s ministry
of foreign affairs, a team of OAS-Harvard University investigated the
case and made a number of recommendations in June 1998 that the
Colombian government subsequently approved in September 1998. Among the
recommendations the Colombian government accepted were three important
ones: 1) all oil activities be suspended inside the U’wa territory, 2)
that the U’wa territory be delimited and legalized; and 3) that before
any oil activities resume in the U’wa territory there be a process for
“obtaining the consent of the U'wa to activities proposed for their
territory.”

We believe any effort to move forward with oil and gas exploration and
production in the Resguardo Unido violates both the spirit and letter of
the Colombian government’s agreement to follow the OAS Harvard
recommendations. Plans to proceed with the Catleya and Siriri projects
without the U’wa’s consent violates both Colombian and international law
which guarantee indigenous peoples the right to self determination for
activities that affect their territories and way of life.

The U’wa territory contains montane cloudforests that scientists
consider to be one of the planet’s most biologically diverse and most
endangered ecosystems. The U’wa are traditional people who depend on
clean water, intact forests, and biodiversity of flora and fauna for
their physical and spiritual survival. The oil project will likely
bring pollution, environmental degradation, and violence. It will also
have devastating affects on the U’wa culture and way of life. The
closest example of oil activity to the larger U’wa territory is in the
department of Arauca, where it has been marred by violence and poor
environmental practice, resulting in devastating socio-environmental
impacts such as polluted local rivers and streams, soil, and ground
water.

The environmental impact of oil extraction is only exacerbated by
Colombia’s civil conflict. As has become standard through Colombia’s 40
years of conflict, oil infrastructure, has been a magnet for violence,
often trapping innocent indigenous communities in the crossfire. The
prospect of oil drilling on U’wa land will bring this reality to the
heart of U’wa territory and threatens their daily livelihood and future
survival.

The eyes of the international community are once again focused on the
U’wa, the Colombian government, and this project. We urge you to
unconditionally respect the rights and territory of the U’wa, and to
abandon your plans of oil and gas exploration and exploitation from
within the U’wa reserve and its surrounding area.


Respectfully,



Cc: President of the Colombian Congress
Ministry of the Interior and Justice, Ethnicities Department
Ministry of the Environment, Livelihood, and Territorial
Development
Ministry of Energy and Mines
Ministry of Culture
Ministry of Foreign Relations
U.S. Embassy Bogota
Colombian Embassy, Washington DC

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Estimados Colegas,

Queremos invitarlos a firmar esta carta dirigido al goberno colombiano
que hace un llamado de la manera más urgente para que se respeten
incondicionalmente los derechos y territorio de los U’wa, y que se
abandonen los planes de exploración y explotación de petróleo y gas
dentro del resguardo U’wa y en sus alrededores.

Por favor firmen electronicamente, envianome su NOMBRE, SU ORGANIZACION,
SU CARGO, y SU DIRECCION DE CORREO ELECTRONICO antes de las 5pm el
viernes 21 de abril, 2006.

Muchisimas gracias por su tiempo y su energia en apoyo del Pueblo Uwa.

En paz y lucha,

Ana Maria
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ana Maria Murillo, Directora
U’wa Defense Project en Amazon Watch
1 Hallidie Plaza, Suite 402 ~ San Francisco, CA 94102 EEUU
Tel (415) 487-9600 x22 ~ Fax (415) 487-9601 ~  anamaria@amazonwatch.org
UDP (U’wa Defensa Project- Proyecto por la Defensa del Pueblo U’wa)
“Es la misión de la UDP, brindar apoyo legal, desarrollo comunitario,
investigación y abogacía a la comunidad indígena U’wa en su lucha por
defender su vida, territorio y autonomía cultural"