With a handful of legal victories highlighting the month of August, the divide between Indigenous Peoples and the world’s corporate bodies seemed to increase with each passing day.
If protests weren’t being held against oppressive development schemes, such as in Papua New Guinea, Peru, Sudan, the Phillipines, and India, then there were violent attacks against indigenous people, court decisions handed down that abrogate their rights, and call after call for unity and autonomy from the world’s colonial states.
Underreported Struggles #17, August 2008
August 31
World Bank helps to destroy indigenous rights in Cambodia
Ethnicity and Local Governance Cambodia (ELGC), a research project that analyzes state-minority relations in Cambodia, has published a report on the World Bank’s involvement and complicity in the destruction of Indigenous Peoples rights in Cambodia.
August 30
Maya and Other Indigenous Groups Demand Protection for Native Languages
Indigenous writers from around the Americas met at the Colegio Nacional Thursday and Friday to participate in Encuentro Internacional de Literatura en Lenguas Indígenas (International Meeting for Literature in Indigenous Languages). At the end of the congress, the group issued a manifesto that included an action plan to protect indigenous languages throughout the Americas.
August 29
PNG landowners continue to halt nickel mine construction
“Angry Papua New Guinea landowners say they will continue to halt construction at a Chinese owned nickel mine until they meet with the PNG government next week. Police reinforcements have been sent to the mine site to protect Chinese employees, some of who were assaulted by locals.”
Judge upholds land rights in Raposa-Serra do Sol
The first of eleven Supreme Court Judges ...