West Papua: Real Avatar Ecocide

Reality Sandwich has a blog on the eco-cide in West Papua

www.realitysandwich.com...

Here's a documentary on this issue of the largest open pit mine in the world and it's destruction of ecology and social justice -- it's a genocidal situation:

www.youtube.com...

There's still some uncontacted tribes while thousands others flee into the jungles (starving to death) as the military expands for further wealth extraction:

www.survivalinternational.org...

The lawsuit against Freeport McMoran was just thrown out in the u.s but you can still sign up for action alerts here:

www.fcxsucks.com...

[edit on 8-3-2010 by drew hempel]

[edit on 8-3-2010 by drew hempel]

Probably biggest difference is that in Avatar the natives win. I don't see much for firepower in their hands in the story you posted and most similar situations result in the same thing.

It is sad to be honest that this happens but "tribes" are outdated as far as being able to protect themselves goes...

Thank you for bringing light to the real issues of abuse and genocide, that involve villages and scores of idigneous peoples. Shell's corporatons have practiced genocide to remove ingidenous people and villagers from their land, disenfranchise them and commit reigns of terror, its obscene. I boycotted them for years.

reply to post by Smell The Roses


Well not in all cases -- this Solomon island kicked out their mine and fought off the Papua New Guinea (and then Indonesians), then did innovation for self-sufficiency despite a blockade, inspiring others:

video.google.com...

[edit on 8-3-2010 by drew hempel]

reply to post by Unity_99


Yes I boycotted Total Oil since they used slave labor in Burma and then I got the U of MN to divest $1.5 million from Total Oil back in 1998. It was not enough but there was a lawsuit as well. I even went to L.A. to protest --

www.youtube.com...

en.wikipedia.org...-11

Despite the European Union's sanctions against the military dictatorship Myanmar, Total is able to operate the Yadana natural gas pipeline from Burma to Thailand. Total is currently the subject of a lawsuit in French and Belgian courts for the condoning and use of the country's civilian slavery to construct the named pipeline. The documentary 'Total denial' shows the background of this project.[12] The NGO Burma Campaign UK is currently campaigning against this project.

[edit on 8-3-2010 by drew hempel]

Yeah the Unocal lawsuit was a precedence:

www.globalpolicy.org...

The settlement bolsters other Alien Tort Claims Act cases, he said, and "signals to corporations that this law is applicable to them, and they are going to face major litigation." Other U.S. companies facing similar lawsuits include Exxon Mobil Corp. in Indonesia; Fresh Del Monte Produce Inc. in Guatemala; ChevronTexaco Corp. in Nigeria; and Occidental Petroleum Corp., Coca-Cola Co. and coal miner Drummond Co. in Colombia.

However, Susan Aaronson, a corporate social responsibility expert at the University of North Carolina, said she was "deeply ambivalent" about the Unocal settlement. A trial might have helped answer "larger questions" about U.S. companies' responsibilities for ensuring that human rights are protected in foreign countries where they do business, Aaronson said.

reply to post by Unity_99


Here's the Shell Nigeria documentary -- "the Case Against Shell"

www.youtube.com...

June 2009:

www.huffingtonpost.com...

NEW YORK — Royal Dutch Shell agreed to a $15.5 million settlement Monday to end a lawsuit alleging that the oil giant was complicit in the executions of activist Ken Saro-Wiwa and other civilians by Nigeria's former military regime.

[edit on 8-3-2010 by drew hempel]

Genocide in West Papua:

www.youtube.com...

Secrets and Lies in West Papua --

www.youtube.com...#!v=Al3NKJud9FQ&feature=related

Two American teachers gunned down by the mine.

Meanwhile the tribes fight back with bows and arrows.

www.international.ucla.edu...

JOHN RUMBIAK is the leading Papuan human rights defender and an advocate for self-determination for the people of West Papua. Despite repeated death threats and harassment, Rumbiak documented the killing of thirty-seven indigenous Papuans in 1994 near the US-owned Freeport gold mine. Two US teachers were murdered near the Freeport mine in 2002, and Rumbiak's in-depth investigation exposed the involvement of the Indonesian military.

[edit on 8-3-2010 by drew hempel]

Awesome thread. I just got involved. Let's make a difference!

www.minesandcommunities.org...

Threat to blockade Freeport-McMoran's massive Grasberg copper-gold mine Samuel Wanda Reuters 21 December 2009 TIMIKA, Indonesia - Tribal leaders in Indonesia's easternmost Papua province on Monday threatened to blockade Freeport-McMoran Copper & Gold Inc's huge mine after police killed a separatist commander last week. Kelly Kwalik had led a militant wing of the Free Papua Movement (OPM) and was one of the members who had campaigned against the presence of Freeport, which operates the Grasberg copper and gold mine.

www.youtube.com...

22 minute documentary

Pride of Warriors -- new documentary on West Papua finally plays on t.v. February 2010

www.fpcn-global.org...

Congratulations must be forthcoming to Al-Jazeera English for finally standing up to the Indonesian military censorship machine. Last night at 7:30pm AEST Al Jazeera English finally broadcast director Jono van Hest's long postponed documentary on West Papua, Pride of Warriors. A further live screening across AJE and online will occur on Thursday morning Australian time at 10:30am.

www.scoop.co.nz...

film about nonviolent struggle in West Papua Friday, 10 July 2009, 12:03 pm Article: West Papua Media Alerts Al Jazeera pulls film about nonviolent struggle in West Papua By Jason MacLeod Recently, I watched Pride of Warriors, a documentary about resistance in West Papua. The film maker, Jono Van Hest had asked me to comment on the film’s content as he prepared it for public broadcast by Al Jazeera. Then, after an article about the film appeared in the Jakarta Post it was suddenly pulled-off air, allegedly under duress by the Indonesian government, only days before the film was about to premiere. The documentary was inspired by the arrival of 43 West Papuan refugees in Australia in January 2006. Faced with an Indonesian ban on foreign media, van Hest smuggled six video cameras into West Papua. The result of this unparalleled access into the West Papuan resistance is a film that gets behind the media headlines to give an upfront and personal account of nonviolent resistance in West Papua. Two things about the film (and the storm-front that has opened up in the wake of Al Jazeera’s decision not to screen it) stand out for me.

[edit on 8-3-2010 by drew hempel]

[edit on 8-3-2010 by drew hempel]

She was so heart-broken at her son's death she cut her fingers off as a sign of grief:

www.youtube.com...

500,000 West Papuans killed by Indonesia --

here's the March report based on Obama's March trip to Indonesia

www.fpcn-global.org...

West Papua -- the secret war in Asia:

video.google.com...#

West Papua the secret war in Asia

Similar things are happening on a rather large and growing scale in Africa. It's not only that pernnial boogyman, the big bad evil west, though. China's up to its knees in shady African dealings, as are some other Asian nations.

How food and water are driving a 21st-century African land grab

An Observer investigation reveals how rich countries faced by a global food shortage now farm an area double the size of the UK to guarantee supplies for their citizens

...Ethiopia is one of the hungriest countries in the world with more than 13 million people needing food aid, but paradoxically the government is offering at least 3m hectares of its most fertile land to rich countries and some of the world's most wealthy individuals to export food for their own populations.

The 1,000 hectares of land which contain the Awassa greenhouses are leased for 99 years to a Saudi billionaire businessman, Ethiopian-born Sheikh Mohammed al-Amoudi, one of the 50 richest men in the world. His Saudi Star company plans to spend up to $2bn acquiring and developing 500,000 hectares of land in Ethiopia in the next few years. So far, it has bought four farms and is already growing wheat, rice, vegetables and flowers for the Saudi market. It expects eventually to employ more than 10,000 people.

But Ethiopia is only one of 20 or more African countries where land is being bought or leased for intensive agriculture on an immense scale in what may be the greatest change of ownership since the colonial era...

...“The foreign companies are arriving in large numbers, depriving people of land they have used for centuries. There is no consultation with the indigenous population. The deals are done secretly. The only thing the local people see is people coming with lots of tractors to invade their lands.

“All the land round my family village of Illia has been taken over and is being cleared. People now have to work for an Indian company. Their land has been compulsorily taken and they have been given no compensation. People cannot believe what is happening. Thousands of people will be affected and people will go hungry.”...

More at source:
www.guardian.co.uk...

Tribes and Tribulations:

www.engagemedia.org...

The Penis Gourd People Assembly Council investigates the cause of the genocide:

my.opera.com...

Rebels of the Forgotten World

www.youtube.com...