FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Nicole Rohrkemper
Lansing, Michigan (USA)
Feb. 22, 2012 at 9:00 a.m. EST
MICHIGAN PEACE TEAM VOLUNTEERS ORGANIZING RESPONSE TO EMERGENCY REQUEST FROM
INDIGENOUS TRIBES IN PANAMA
Michigan Peace Team (MPT) staff and volunteers are working in high gear to arrange an Emergency Response to Panama's Ngabe-Bugle Comarca (autonomous
indigenous tribes or “reservations”), after receiving a request for
assistance. The emergency team request was received late Monday,
February 19, 2012. The Peace Team has been requested to arrive within
days, as negotiations and demonstrations regarding mining rights on
native lands resume on February 27th, 2012 after the Carnival holiday.
MPT's
Emergency Response Peace Team will provide observation and reporting of
human rights violations to the United Nations, and offer protective
accompaniment to people who are threatened with police violence. The
team will follow the lead of local Ngabe leaders, and are also
coordinating and partnering with Costa Rica Peace Team.
Currently,
nonviolent demonstrations against mining on indigenous lands have met
with police violence (tear gas, rubber bullets, and other weapons
labeled of U.S. origin). Locals report that the government has cut cell
phone reception on at least one occasion. There have been seven deaths
acknowledged by the Panamanian government in relation to this matter,
and many more reported by local civil society organizations, in addition
to hundreds of injuries. Indigenous people and their supporters have
reported hundreds of injuries at the hands of police and an unknown
number of arrests.
Organized to be nonviolent in nature, the demonstrations and protests surrounding this issue have been on-going in several areas of Panama,
including Bocas del Toro, Panama City, and San Lorenzo. One nonviolent
protest included blocking the main thoroughfare: the Panamanian Highway.
Previous
rounds of negotiations between the Ngabe-Bugle tribes (headed by first
woman tribal leader Silvia Carrera) and Panamanian President Ricardo
Martinelli's government have stretched out over many months. The
Ngabe-Bugle people have opposed government mining on native lands and
appealed through the Panamanian court system. Recently at least one
decision (a law that would provide environmental protection to their
lands) is reported to have been overturned.
Michigan
Peace Team (MPT) trains volunteers from all walks of life in nonviolent
action and communication, and deploys peace teams to areas of conflict
worldwide to work with local people to reduce violence and deaths in
high-tension situations. Over the past near-20 years, MPT has deployed
hundreds of Peace Team volunteers in response to requests from dozens of
locations all over the world, including Bosnia, Iraq, Chiapas (Mexico),
Juarez (Mexico), Algonquin Territories in Canada, and Haiti. MPT has
continued to maintain a long-term presence of rotating teams in the West
Bank (Palestine), and also regularly deploys Domestic Peace Teams
throughout the United States.
All
of MPT's peace teams, including this emergency peace team, are funded
by donations from the general public. People wishing to make a donation
to this emergency effort would be greatly appreciated, and may do so
via our website.
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