Survival condemns regressive election pledges on Jarawa tribe

Election candidates have promised to remove a protective buffer zone and to bring the Jarawa tribe into the mainstream, despite the threats this poses to the tribe.© Survival

 

Survival International has condemned dangerous pledges made by political candidates during the Indian 2014 Lok Sabha elections, which would put back the Jarawa’s rights by decades.

The regressive pledges include: bringing the Jarawa tribe into the mainstream; removing a protective buffer zone around their reserve; and building two bridges along the illegal Andaman Trunk Road – all of which could be devastating to the welfare of the Jarawa.

In what have become known as ‘human safaris’, the Jarawa already face degrading intrusions into their forest home by hundreds of tourists traveling along the Andaman Trunk Road each day intent on spotting members of the tribe.

Hundreds of tourists pass through the Jarawa reserve every day.

© www.andamanchronicle.net /Survival

The current administration has promised an alternative route to the Andaman Trunk Road by March 2015, which would remove tourists from the road. But new pledges by both the Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidates to build two new bridges along the existing route inside the Jarawa reserve make the opening of an alternative route increasingly unlikely.
Currently, no commercial or tourist establishments are allowed within a buffer zone around the Jarawa reserve. But political candidates from both the BJP and the Congress Party have now promised to remove the buffer zone – a highly regressive step.
The current MP for the Andamans and candidate for the BJP, Bishnu Pada Ray, has also promised to bring the Jarawa into the mainstream should he get re-elected – a policy viewed as entirely unacceptable by the international community. India’s President also recently condemned attempts to forcibly assimilate tribal peoples as it has led to the disappearance of entire tribes.
Policies of ‘mainstreaming’ tribes have had devastating consequences in the past and have been particularly destructive for the Jarawa’s neighbouring tribe, the Great Andamanese, who were decimated by attempts to settle them. Only 53 members survive today.
Survival’s Director Stephen Corry said today, ‘Bishnu Pada Ray’s scandalous proposals show utter contempt for the Jarawa’s survival – attempts to force the tribe to integrate will destroy them. The very notion of mainstreaming is rooted in a colonialist attitude and the outmoded conviction that governments know best. In fact, this approach is always disastrous.’

Once a Muslim, always a Muslim

Dr. Marzuki Mohamed, ANU alumnus, and advisor to the Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia recently argued that Malaysia is NOT a secular state.
The timing of Dr. Marzuki’s assertions of course fits a larger strategy undertaken by the ruling party: to use religion as a wedge between Muslims and non-Muslims in general, but also between the parties in the opposition coalition, especially the Islamist PAS, and the social democrats, DAP. Islam is also of course used to ensure compliance, and to stifle dissent.
Having next to nothing to rely on: suffering from massive deficits on the leadership and policy front, and with an increasingly debilitating track record in the economic, social and political front, this is indeed a sound strategy as there are sufficient number of Malaysians, and especially Malaysian Muslims to fall for this – that UMNO is the protector and the guarantor of the sanctity of Islam. To  paraphrase and slightly modify Samuel Johnson, “religion is indeed the last refuge of a scoundrel.”
Another ANU alumnus, Dr. Kikue Hamayotsu, give credence to the argument that Islam is used simply as a means to ensure the continuation of this corrupt regime. In her article, she argues that:

It is commonly assumed that greater enforcement of Syariah [Islamic law] is the result of growing Islamism in civil society and/or the state. This article investigates the most burning political issue relating to the state enforcement of Syariah in contemporary Malaysia, that of apostasy. The author argues that it is the electoral imperative of the secular Muslim ruling elites, especially prime ministers, to cultivate broader support to achieve political survival, not only among their traditional power base in the rural Muslim constituencies, as is conventionally argued, but equally importantly among the urban non-Muslim (especially Chinese) constituencies, which has also conditioned the state enforcement of Syariah. The author’s findings from Malaysia and observations on Indonesia further suggest that electoral competitiveness – rather than authoritarianism or theocracy – conditions state enforcement of Syariah, contrary to expectations.

In an earlier posting on New Mandala, Dr. Ahmad Farouk Musa had argued that Islam would flourish best only under a secular state.
It never ceases to amaze me, that there are still sufficient number of Muslims who actually believe that they can, and should be legislated to heaven!

Dongria’s message to Vedanta ahead of AGM: “We won’t leave our land”

The Dongria Kondh have vowed to defend their sacred mountain from being mined for bauxite.

© Lewis Davids/Survival

 

Ahead of the AGM of Vedanta Resources in London today, India’s Dongria Kondh tribe has sent a strong message to the company’s chairman Anil Agarwal.

‘Even if Anil Agarwal himself comes here, we won’t leave our land. We will use all our strength to make them leave this place. Let us live our lives in peace,’ two Dongria women said to Survival.
The FTSE100 company is intent on mining the Dongria’s mountain for bauxite.

Message to Anil Agarwal 

The Dongria tell the Vedanta chairman to leave them in peace.

The company’s failure both to consult with the Dongria, and to get all the necessary clearances for the mine before starting works on its refinery, has damaged Vedanta financially, as well as its reputation. Last week, it was announced that running its refinery without being able to mine locally has cost the company over US$540 million (£340 million).

In 2010 the Indian government found Vedanta guilty of ‘total contempt’ for the law and for the rights of the Dongria Kondh. It was denied permission to mine in the Niyamgiri Hills, the only home of this ‘particularly vulnerable’ tribe. But an appeal in the Supreme Court could overturn this historic decision.
Dongria spokesman Lodu Sikaka said, ‘If the company stops trying to take our mountain, we will stop suffering. But if they stay, we will suffer, the mountains will suffer, the earth, the forests, the water and winds will suffer. Because of this we have started getting lots of different diseases, fever, diarrhoea. Because of these illnesses, some of us have died.’

Lodu’s Message

 

Dongria call on Vedanta to leave ahead of AGM

Stephen Corry, Director of Survival said today, ‘Ignoring tribal rights does not pay: it devastates people’s lives, destroys companies’ reputations and – as Vedanta has found – is financially reckless. The Dongria have the right to be consulted, and to give – or withhold – their consent. If Vedanta had talked to them first and respected their fundamental attachment to their land, they would have saved themselves and the Dongria a lot of trouble.’

Aurukun: Mining for a future

One determined aboriginal woman fights for her destitute community's share in Australia's mining profits.

Aurukun in Queensland is one of Australia's most remote aboriginal communities. It is also considered one of the most destitute and dysfunctional. Unemployment hovers at around 80 per cent and the local school is one of the worst-performing in Queensland. Tribal violence is part of everyday life and there are around 100 government agencies for a population of only 1,200.

Gina is an aboriginal businesswoman from Aurukun and like her mother before her, she is not after hand-outs or hand-ups from the welfare system. She wants to make a meaningful difference in her community - the Wik people - by providing skills and economic opportunities for them.

"I believe in my people like they believed in me. I believe that we can have change, have a better life for our children. I don't want my daughter and her children to suffer from what we've suffered here. The social fabric of my community has deteriorated over the last 30 to 40 years and it will continue to deteriorate if we don't do something now .... We need to get onto it now, because we're burying people all the time, our people are dying," Gina says.

She is fighting for a seat at the table with the big companies that are making a fortune from bauxite mines on tribal lands. It is a long and sometimes lonely journey and Gina's work is constantly interrupted by the desperate realities of aboriginal life.

As she battles on, trying to get a group of young men prepared for training in the mines of far away western Australia, she witnesses the fall-out from the heritage of Australia's appalling aboriginal policies.

The ever-present alcohol, locally known as 'grog', the daily violence and the emotionally charged issue of aboriginal child protection are no side-show to Gina's work - they are the very reason she is passionately determined to build an economic base in Aurukun. And, small step by small step, she is getting there.

This Witness film gives us a rare insight into aboriginal life from the perspective of an empowered and determined community woman who is trying to make a real difference.

Revealed: Survival International alerted Andaman authorities to human safaris two years ago

Vehicles queue to enter the Jarawa reserve along the Andaman Trunk Road © G Chamberlain/ Survival

The Andaman authorities were alerted to the existence of human safaris two years ago by Survival International – but the problem has continued.
On January 11, 2010, Survival wrote to the Lieutenant Governor of the Islands, warning him that ‘a number of tour operators are promoting tours which include sightings of, or encounters with, the Jarawa tribe .’
Survival received no response to the letter or subsequent appeals, even after launching a boycott of the Andaman Trunk Road with local organization Search.
In July 2011, Survival wrote again as a matter of ‘great urgency’, in response to ‘severe international concern about the Jarawa’s predicament and the threat that tourists pose’, but still the problem continued.
Four months ago, a complaint was also lodged by social worker Arvind Rai Sharma, after he saw a tour company’s promotional video of Jarawa women and children being ‘humiliated in front of tourists’.
Speaking to Survival, he said, ‘I personally handed in the letter to the Andaman authorities, and met the Director of Tribal Welfare. But they still did not take my complaint seriously, even though it was such a sensitive matter’.

Tourist films Jarawa on the Andaman Trunk Road © Survival

Survival’s Director Stephen Corry said today, ‘It’s extraordinary that the local government appears only now to realize the extent of these ‘human safaris’. Survival first wrote to the administration in 2010 to highlight the issue. If they’re serious about finally tackling this problem, they need to close the Andaman Trunk Road, ten years after the Supreme Court told them to. It’s the only real solution.’
Read Survival’s letters to the Andaman administration from 2010 (pdf, 294 KB) and 2011 (pdf, 229 KB)
Read Arvind Rai Sharma’s letter to the Andaman administration (pdf, 5.3 MB)