fPcN interCultural:

friends of Peoples close to Nature

The Guarani Indians of the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso do Sul suffered a setback last week when FUNAI, the government's Indian affairs department, suddenly suspended studies being carried out to identify their territories.

FUNAI’s president Mercio Meira arrived in the state capital to be greeted by a demonstration of farmers opposed to Guarani land rights.
After a tense meeting with the state governor and rural producers' associations, Meira temporarily suspended the studies. Survival has just received reports that they have been resumed.

The Lani Singers will be special guests on BBC Radio 3 this Saturday 27th September, when they make an appearance on the World Routes show.
Deeply emotive and compelling, their songs are rooted in the sacred rituals of the Lani tribe – a tribe whose way of living has remained largely unchanged since the Stone Age. But their music has also come to embody a powerful modern day message - the struggle that their fellow people endure under a brutal and illegal Indonesian occupation.

Two hundred and ninety one Papuan tribal people have died from cholera since April this year in West Papua, Indonesia, according to local church officials, sparking fears of a major epidemic.

In 1961, a global cholera pandemic began in Indonesia. It spread rapidly to other countries in Asia, Europe, Africa and finally, in 1991, to Latin America. There were nearly 400,000 cases and over 4,000 deaths from cholera in the Americas that year.

KUALA LUMPUR: Police yesterday stopped a march by a group of indigenous people seeking greater protection of their rights. Some 150 members of the Indigenous Peoples Network of Malaysia (JOAS) had planned to go to Istana Negara to hand over a memorandum to the king.

The memorandum was to urge the government to honour the United Nations Declaration for the Rights of Indigenous People (DRIP), to which Malaysia is a signatory.

A cut together compilation from a number of films with voice commentary by a Papua activist. This is a good introduction to this border conflict between tribal culture and civilisation. Ripped from the DVD "Indigenous Resistance in New Guinea"

made by Solidarity South Pacific: www.eco-action.org/ssp - respect!

The ongoing logging of the state forests in northern Finland for years has reached now the potential to wipe out very soon the Saami reindeer herding economy. The film describes the deforestation in Finland and the extinction of the Saami culture.

This is the 52st in a series of monthly reports that focus on developments affecting Papuans This series is produced by the non-profit West Papua Advocacy Team (WPAT) drawing on media accounts, other NGO assessments and analysis and reporting from sources within West Papua. This report is co-published by the East Timor and Indonesian Action Network (ETAN) Back issues are posted online at http://etan.org/issues/wpapua/default.htm Questions regarding this report can be addressed to Edmund McWilliams at edmcw@msn.com.

Summary:
* 40 Members of US Congress Force Look at Justice in West Papua in the Cases of AI Prisoners of Conscience Filip Kamra and Yusuf Pakage
* New Report Reveals Evidence of TNI Role in 2002 Murder of U. S. and Indonesian Civilians and US Government Cover-up
* Indicted War Criminal Removed from Post in West Papua... and Promoted
* Police Killing of Peaceful Papuan Protester Draws International Protest and Calls for Investigation
* Human Rights Victims' Families in West Papua Meet to Discuss Absence of Justice
* Papuan Tribal Chief to Sue Freeport over Environmental Pollution
* US Court Action Regarding Exxon-Mobil Collusion with TNI Could Expose Freeport to Court Action in U. S.
* UK Environmental Justice Urges UK Government to Press for Ecological Justice and Human Rights Protection in West Papua
* Local Papuan Community Points to Central Government's Violation of "Special Autonomy" in Awarding Mining Contracts