Colombian Indians protest oil drilling - Yahoo! News

TIBU, Colombia - Hundreds of Bari Indians, most clad in loincloths and carrying bows and arrows, came down from the hills in their first march ever Thursday to demand that the state-owned oil company stop drilling on sacred land abutting their reservation.
The 700 protesters rallied in one of Colombia's most war-ravaged regions on Columbus Day — commemorated as "Dia de la Raza" or "Indigenous People's Day" in much of Latin America — to remind the world that they have been decimated and forced into isolation by oil drilling.
"Don't forget that this is our territory," a Bari chieftain, 55-year-old Atrigbuanina, intoned as the Indians laid a plaque in front of Tibu's heavily fortified police station. "Why is the Colombian state not respecting our rights?"
Ecopetrol, the state-owned oil company, is racing to find oil deposits so Colombia can avoid losing petroleum self-sufficiency by 2011. The company recently said it wants to sell a 20 percent share to a foreign investor to help spur exploration.
But the Indians demand exploratory drilling be halted. They had hoped for a meeting in Tibu with a government delegation, but authorities canceled abruptly, saying they had information the march had been infiltrated by rebels. State government and local military and police leaders attended a post-march assembly nonetheless.
The Bari chose Oct. 12, which commemorates Christopher Columbus' first voyage to the Americas, because it's the date Indian rights groups consider the start of a genocide against their peoples. Activists marked the day in Bolivia, Venezuela, Mexico and the Dominican Republic.
In Venezuela, a pilgrimage honoring Indian goddess Maria Lionza was timed to coincide with the day Columbus first set foot on Venezuelan soil in 1498. In the Dominican Republic, residents held a ceremony at Columbus' purported tomb.
But in Honduras, the Black Fraternity Organization marched to protest such events because of the slave trade Columbus' discovery drove. And 100 Indians rallied in Chile to demand farmland.
Bolivia's first Indian president said native peoples were finally shaking off the vestiges of colonial repression.
"My friends, it has been 514 years since the Western invaders thought to finish us off, since they sought to exterminate the indigenous people," Evo Morales said. "We have not only defended ourselves, we have not only resisted ... here in Bolivia, we have begun to liberate ourselves."
The plaque laid by the Bari in Tibu commemorates the 1932 destruction of a Bari settlement. The town is surrounded by some of Colombia's richest oil and coal reserves — and extensive illegal coca cultivation — and borders Venezuela.
"Fuera Ecopetrol" — Ecopetrol Out! — the Indians chanted as they marched down Tibu's main street carrying banners and thrusting bows and arrows into the air. Naked children marched with their elders, and some women wore only skirts.
Deputy Interior Minister Maria Isabel Nieto called The Associated Press to say military intelligence indicated rebels were accompanying the Bari, and that government and Ecopetrol officials had to leave the area.
But state and local officials, as well as human rights groups and U.N. representatives, were present for the peaceful march, and there was no evidence of outlawed armed groups.
Javier Marin, an activist with the Minga human rights group, said the claim of guerrilla involvement was an excuse to avoid talks.
"They're capable of negotiating with criminals but not with Indian communities," he said, referring to a 2004 peace agreement with right-wing militias, who are backed by wealthy landowners and are responsible for some of Colombia's most brutal massacres. Some 30,000 have officially demobilized, but many have rearmed and now work closely with the police and military.
Colombia is rich in mineral resources, often found in regions like this one, where rebels compete with the paramilitaries for control and the state holds little sway.
The Bari want Ecopetrol to halt drilling and planned seismic probes in an area where — although outside their reserve — they hold noncompetitive marathons of 20 to 25 miles.
The Bari's religion involves "paying tributes to nature for providing air, water, fish and other elements that allow people to live," said Ashcayra Arabadora, a member of the Bari's ruling council.
He said oil companies began to extract crude from the region in 1932 after decimating the Bari, whose numbers in Colombia have plunged from 16,000 then to 3,000 today. Some 9,000 Bari live in Venezuela, he said.
The Interior Ministry said it authorized drilling on the seven-acre site after a helicopter overflight found no Bari settlements nearby.
Ecopetrol spokesman Mauricio Tellez said the company often offers to finance social projects for nearby communities, "but with the Bari it wasn't possible."
Colombia has fewer than 1 million indigenous people, but many are well-organized and have stalled major projects near their lands.
The government suspended construction on a Caribbean port for coal export after an Indian group said it would be cut off from a ceremonial mound. And the U'wa tribe has used the courts to frustrate efforts by Occidental Petroleum to drill for oil.
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AP writer Darcy Crowe in Bogota, Colombia, contributed to this report.