THE TSUNAMI’S HIDDEN CASUALTIES

Indigenous Cultures "Wiped Off the Map" as Governments Exploit the Disaster

by Sarah Robbins

On December 26, 2004, the Indian Ocean tsunami wreaked unimaginable havoc, leaving devastation in its wake and a still-climbing death toll that’s already topped 160,000. But world media have taken little note that entire indigenous cultures–already battle-weary from generations of colonization, inappropriate tourism, war, and disease–may have been swallowed by the waves. And the national governments of some impacted countries are accused of actually exploiting the disaster against restive indigenous populations.

While government officials and aid workers toiled to assess damage and casualties on Thailand’s beaches and even Indonesia’s civil war battlegrounds, the gravest toll may be among small, already-threatened populations in places barely known to the outside world. "This disaster is really about indigenous populations who have been completely wiped off the map," says Rudolph Ryser, chairman of the Center for World Indigenous Studies, based in Olympia, WA. "We suspect that off the west coast of Sumatra, where a number of islands were completely obliterated, some of those populations have been wiped out."

Indonesia was hit the hardest—about 115,000 deaths in total–and the war-torn province of Aceh, on Sumatra, was the closest to the earthquake. Aceh’s coastline was shattered, villages were destroyed, and much of Banda Aceh, the capital, was obliterated. Relief efforts are complicated by the Indonesian government’s military campaign against the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), which has been engaged in a struggle for independence from Indonesia since 1976. Before the disaster, the Indonesian government had banned foreign journalists and observers from visiting the province, and now aid workers must register with officials before leaving. GAM’s international supporters accuse the Indonesian military of obstructing aid efforts.

"It’s important for people to realize that these countries have been engaged in battles against the indigenous population for the last generation," says Ryser. "Indonesia has been involved in a war against the West Paupuans, and of course the people of Aceh."

In Sri Lanka–where more than 30,000 people were killed and over a million displaced–questions arise over whether the government has given enough aid to the northeastern part of the country, which is controlled by Tamil rebels. The country’s aboriginal inhabitants, the Veddhas, may also be profoundly affected. "They’ll suffer enormously," Ryser says, "because they were very small, and are right in the middle of the target area."

The death toll in the Indian province of Tamil Nadu was 7,800, and indigenous peoples may be disproportionately affected there as well. "There’s been such substantial physical disruption, and I’m not sure the Indian government is going to be so friendly," Ryser says, noting that the Yenadi and Bondo indigenous peoples are particularly threatened.

Cascading down a the Bay of Bengal like a broken necklace, the 572 islands that constitute the Andaman and Nicobar archipelago–36 of which are inhabited–were also hit hard. The India-governed island chain–days’ sailing from the mainland–was a source of tension and speculation in the wake of the disaster, as the Indian government barred foreign aid from the archipelago. Fear mounted that those who survived the tsunami’s initial impact now faced starvation.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, most of the fatalities occurred in Katchal, once dubbed "Sunrise Island," in the Nicobar chain. Of its population of 8,300, over 300 have been confirmed dead, while up to 4,500 remain unaccounted for.

The archipelago has a history of displacement of its native population. After the 1857 Indian Mutiny, the British established prisons on the islands, though prisoners sent there often died of disease or were shot by natives unhappy with the encroachment onto their traditional lands. The Japanese occupied some of the islands during World War II, further displacing native communities. The penal colony was closed in 1945 and is now a tourist attraction. After independence, many Bengali and Bangladeshi settlers came to the islands, as did Tamils from Sri Lanka. Of the twelve indigenous tribes that once occupied the islands, six remain. For years, the islands have faced a situation of unsympathetic cohabitation between the native population and the settlers–with the latter facing a threat of actual extinction.

After settlers from the Indian mainland, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, the largest population in the archipelago is the Nicobarese tribe. These estimated 22,000 people have for the most part cordial relations with the settlers, and have even adopted some of their ways. The other tribes maintain greater distance, and their isolation from modern society has allowed them to preserve the hunter-gatherer ways of their ancestors. The Jarawas, who only came in contact with government authorities in 1996, remember bitter experience with violence and disease in World War II and still stay clear of outsiders. They live in six jungle settlements in the Andamans, surviving on wild pork and fish killed with arrows. On Jan. 6, seven Jarawa tribesmen, who had marched out of the forest armed with bows and arrows to establish contact with outsiders after the disaster, reported that all 250 of their people had escaped inland and were living on coconuts. The tribesmen, speaking through an interpreter, objected to an Associated Press photographer taking their picture, saying that they fall sick when photographed.

Only a few families of the indigenous Andamanese ethnicity remain, as 150 years ago missionaries, in their attempt to "civilize" the people, ended up exposing them to measles and mumps. The 40 remaining Sentinelese, another hunter-gatherer society that subsists largely on wild boar, have not been contacted directly by the government, as they are typically hostile, but they have been seen from the air.

The largest group on the Andaman Islands are the Onge, most of whom, according to a representative of the islands’ Tribal Welfare Department, were found safe in the forested highlands of the interior. "Development has been taking place all around these people," Ryser said. "There were 678 members of the Onge tribe in 1901. Now there are only 101." Their ability to survive the tsunami is likely attributed to their ancient wisdom. Sophie Grig, a campaign officer for Survival International, said that a member of the Onge tribe told rescue workers that they took the ocean’s suddenly receding waters–a signal of the oncoming tsunami not heeded elsewhere–as a sign to rush for higher ground.

The most threatened group in the archipelago are the Shom Pens, who are scattered across 17 villages on the Great Nicobar islands, situated at the closest point to the epicenter of the quake. Only 250 tribe members existed before the disaster, and the area around their remote villages has been devastated to the point that relief workers are forced to reach them by foot.

Ryser says that in order to preserve the remnants of these cultures, the relief effort must be focused and sustained. "When you have so many people in a society rubbed out in a day, you lose major parts of the cultural infrastructure," Ryser says. "The equivalent would be losing teachers, doctors, political leaders. It’s not about money, it’s about the restoration of a whole society in all its aspects. Clearly we need different policies all over the world, and India’s tribal policies are the worst."

The Indian government is the only affected nation to refuse outside help, and though the death toll in the Andaman and Nicobar islands may account for half of that in all of India, the government has denied humanitarian groups access. This is likely due to the archipelago’s strategic sensitivity. The Indian military uses Car Nicobar as a listening post, and other islands are used to monitor oil shipments through the Strait of Malacca between Sumatra and the Malay Penninsula.

But tourism may ultimately be a greater threat than military activities to indigenous cultural survival in the islands. The region is celebrated for its marine life and pristine beaches–Andaman’s Havelock Island beach was recently rated one of the best in the world by Time magazine–and the influx of tourists has increased almost tenfold since 1980. The Andaman Association, an NGO that supports indigenous peoples in the islands, has posted a letter on its website written by tribals who want protection from the illegal presence of non-tribals on traditional lands.

Ryser charges that state officials are using the disaster to integrate indigenous populations into the majority culture. Almost 10,000 people have been evacuated to the capital, Port Blair, and 21,000 or more are living in relief camps. Not all natives seem disappointed by this prospect. Washington Post reporter Rama Lakshimi met Patlo Ma, a tribal coconut farmer whose extended family traveled through the jungle for two days, surviving on bananas and coconuts. "We want to go to the city of Port Blair and lead a different kind of life from now on," he is quoted by Lakshimi.

Ryser notes that the brief media focus on tribal peoples in the archipelago represents a rare exception in a world where indigenous cultures are under daily attack. "This is interesting to us because CNN sent 38 reporters over there, and it’s pretty dramatic with all the water rushing around," he says. “But there are 100 people dying every day in the Congo, all of whom are indigenous people. There are 100 indigenous populations in Iraq, but we cover it up by calling them all Iraqis. I guess if there’s a message here, we need to notice that indigenous people are suffering enormously all over the world, not only because of natural disasters, but because of human disasters."

RESOURCES:

Andaman Association page on the disaster

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Special to WORLD WAR 4 REPORT, Jan. 17, 2005
Reprinting permissible with attribution

WW4Report.com

THE WAR’S TOLL AT HOME

With all eyes on the troops in Iraq, their families—a huge and growing segment of the population—are suffering largely in media silence

by Peter Gorman

Lynn Jeffries is a single mother from Lubbock, Texas, whose son Nathan was deployed to Iraq in late 2003. A registered nurse who worked for years in an emergency room at a Lubbock hospital, Jeffries says that shortly after her son was deployed, she found herself unable to take care of trauma patients and left the emergency room for work as a hospice nurse. "I just started crying at everything," she says. "I was so angry about this war, but at the same time I felt like I couldn’t fight against it without betraying my son. It just ate at me every day, more and more."

Jeffries’ depression grew until, she says "at one point I thought of taking my own life in order to get my son home. It’s just made me a little crazy. I’ve never felt so helpless in my life–there are days I could not even leave the house."

Jeffries’ son was home on leave when she spoke with this reporter, and she said she was feeling a little better–but having difficulty facing that her son is scheduled for redeployment to Iraq early in 2005. "What will happen the day I have to put him back on the plane to go back? I would do anything to have him go to Canada, but he says his friends need him and he can’t leave them."

Teri Wills Allison of Austin, is a mother of two boys–one of whom is deployed in Iraq. She says that the depressions she began to have after her son left for Iraq got so bad that "though I’d never taken pills before I’ve needed Xanax just to get through the day since my son’s deployment."

Jeffries and Wills Allison are not unique. They are part of a growing number of military families who find themselves dealing with what psychologists are beginning to recognize as Secondary Traumatic Stress Disorder. Like the better-known Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Secondary TSD can clearly be debilitating.

Says Wills Allison: "We, the mothers and fathers of the boys in Iraq–we’re getting by, but barely. Some of them tell me they need a six-pack before bed to fall asleep. Others can’t leave the house for fear they’ll come home to have that call from the military waiting on the machine. Some families are just torn apart by this."

Some more than others. In late November, Marine Lance Cpl. Charles Hanson Jr., was killed in a roadside bombing of his convoy in Iraq. One week later, on Nov. 30, his stepdad, 39-year-old Mike Barwick, entertained guests at his Crawfordville, FL, home with stories of the stepson he loved so much. Three days later, just hours before guests were coming for a viewing at the home Barwick shared with Hanson’s mother, Dana Hanson, Barwick shot and killed himself. Family members were quoted in the local newspapers as saying it was clear he simply couldn’t live with the pain.

Misha ben-David, a drug and trauma counsellor in Austin, says he remembers his family being torn apart when his father went to Vietnam, and is beginning to fear the same thing will happen now that his son is being deployed to Iraq. "The stress on the family is unbearable," he says. "I can already hear my ex-wife starting to freak out, retreating into a ‘rah-rah, do you love your son or not?’ frame of mind. We’ve got so much pressure on us from people like the Fox network to see this as a black-and-white issue–either you’re for the war and a patriot or you’re a no good, liberal, anti-American. Add to that stress that it’s your child that might be killed, or wounded, or permanently maimed and you’ve got a lot of family members going crazy out there."

"Every member of every family who has ever sent a loved one to war has suffered," says Nancy Lessin from Massachusetts, whose stepson, Joe Richardson, served in Iraq during the invasion and is expected to be called back for a second deployment there any day. "But this one is different. The stresses are different."

Lesson is a co-founder, with her husband, Charlie Richardson and a friend, Jeffrey McKenzie, of an organization called Military Families Speak Out. MFSO was started in November, 2002, after Joe Richardson and Jeffrey McKenzie’s son–who is scheduled for a second tour in Iraq in 2005–was initially deployed to Iraq. "We realized we had no place to turn, no one to talk to about our anger at this war, about the feeling of helplessness we had, about our outrage over our sons being used in this unjust war. So we started our own organization." Since its inception, MFSO has grown to over 2,000 members, most of whom are against the war in Iraq.

Lesson was asked why she thinks the suffering of families is different in this war than in other wars. "Because this is a war that didn’t have to happen. This is a war built on lies. We were told that this war was about weapons of mass destruction, about Iraq’s ties to al-Qaeda and the Twin Towers horror. But there were no weapons of mass destruction, no ties to al-Qaeda. We were told ‘Mission Accomplished’ when Saddam Hussein fell, but there was no mission accomplished.”

Lesson portrays a betrayal of the government’s most fundamental commitment to its soldiers. "All of our loved ones signed up to protect our country and our country’s constitution. They took a vow to give their lives, if necessary. But the assumption was that they would be fighting for a just cause. And if this were a just war–while Charlie and I would still have been terrified of that knock on the door or that telephone message telling us that Joe had died–we would have been able to move on. But in this war, a war for oil markets and corporate interests, a war in which every reason given for fighting it has proven to have been a lie, I don’t know that we would ever be able to move on if that knock on the door came. And what that has done to the families of the men and women fighting this war is horrible.”

There is also the added stress–not just on the soldiers, but on the family members as well–of involuntary tour extensions, multiple deployments, shortages of both body and vehicle armor. "Put it all together, and what you’ve created is an emotionally explosive situation," says ben-David.

This is also the first war in which soldiers have access to the internet, intended by the military to keep morale up by giving soldiers regular contact with their families. But there have been unintended consequences to such regular contact as well. Says Lessin: "It’s not a letter every couple of weeks, where parents can try to imagine that everything is OK. With the internet we’re learning that our loved ones don’t have enough food or water or weapon replacements or armored vests, things that leave us feeling helpless."

"Don’t even get me started on that," says Sharon Allen, a single mother from Fort Worth, whose son is in Germany preparing for a second deployment to Iraq. "While he was in Iraq the first time, my son wrote me that the Halliburton people who were hired to bring things like mail and water and parts for the troops said it was too dangerous to go where my son was, and that the company would have to send people to a safer place to get what they needed. They were in the middle of a war, and they couldn’t. My son said the only way he kept his tank going was to steal parts from another tank. Can you imagine giving that choice to a 22-year-old? I’m a wreck knowing he’s going back."

Wills Allison eloquently described her feelings of helplessness in an essay she wrote titled "A Mother’s View”, that initially appeared on the internet. "A just war there may be, but there is no such thing as a good war. And the burdens of an unjust war are insufferable. I know something about the costs of an unjust war, for my son, Nick–an infantryman in the US Army–is fighting one in Iraq… First, the minor stuff: my constant feelings of dread and despair; the sweeping rage that alternates with petrifying fear; the torrents of tears that accompany a maddening sense of helplessness and vulnerability… I feel like a mother lion in a cage, my grown cub in danger, and all I can do is throw myself furiously against the bars, impotent to protect him."

One of the worst aspects of this war, wrote Wills Allison, is the wedge it’s driven between her and much of her family. "They don’t see this war as one based on lies. They’ve become evangelical believers in a false faith, swallowing Bush’s fear-mongering, his chicken-hawk posturing and strutting, and cheering his ‘bring ’em on’ attitude as a sign of strength and resoluteness… These are the same people who have known my son since he was a baby, who have held him and loved him and played with him, who have bought him birthday presents and taken him fishing. I don’t know them anymore."

The military offers social services and family counseling for husbands, wives and children of servicemen and women deployed overseas. But the services are only available to those who live on base. As few parents do, they have almost nowhere to turn for support.

There are a couple of exceptions. In August, 2003, under the watch of Lt Col Anthony Baker, Sr., the National Guard began working with Guard families in crisis situations, sometimes in a one-to-one setting. The Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS)–a non-profit with strong ties to the Department of Defense and the Dept. of Veterans’Affairs–primarily provides services to those who have lost a loved one while serving in the armed forces. But director Bonnie Carroll says the people who staff the 24-hour hotline (1-800-959-8277) will try to help anyone in a crisis situation resulting from the stress of a loved one deployed in Iraq.

"We’ll try the best we can," Carroll says. But for most families, MFSO.org and a few other internet forums are the only places filling the void. "It’s the only place I can go at 4 AM when I can’t sleep, even with the Xanax, to talk with people who feel like I do," says Wills Allison. "One of my friends has a son who returned home with such PTSD that he had flashbacks of the smell of burning flesh, of the sight of dead people torn to bits on the side of the road." While home on leave, Allison says, he crawled to his mother’s bed every night to cry and fall asleep. "And then he was redeployed. His mother is barely holding on. There’s no-one in the military there for her."

Cathy Wiblemo, deputy director for health care at the American Legion, the veterans’ organization that serves as a watchdog on the Veteran’s Administration, says there is simply no funding to provide services for the families of deployed or returning soldiers. "We do have a hotline [1-800-5040-4098] referral service for family members where we try to find them the services they need in their local community, but in terms of paying for those, they’re on their own.

She takes a stark view of the situation. "The truth is that the VA is not ready to supply the services that are going to be needed for the returning vets. And if we can’t even provide those services for soldiers, how could they possibly be available to family members?"

Unfortunately, because the phenomenon of Secondary Traumatic Stress Disorder is just beginning to be recognized, there are no studies on the numbers of people severely affected to the point where they are functioning less well than normal. It might be thousands; it might be tens of thousands. It’s also unknown how long the stress will last even after the family members return home.

"We’ll find out as we go along," says ben-David. Until we do, they’re on their own–just incidental collateral damage.

RESOURCES:

Military Families Speak Out

Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors

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Special to WORLD WAR 4 REPORT, Jan. 17, 2005
Reprinting permissible with attribution

WW4Report.com

COLOMBIA & IRAQ: HALLIBURTON MAKES THE CONNECTION

by Daniel Leal Diaz

The Bogota daily El Tiempo recently reported that the US military contractor Halliburton has recruited 25 retired Colombian police and army officers to provide security for oil infrastructure in Iraq. One of the men, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the officers met in Bogota on Dec. 2 with a Colombian colonel working on behalf of Halliburton Latin America, who offered them monthly salaries of $7,000 to provide security for oil workers and facilities in several Iraqi cities. The claim was confirmed by a Colombian government source, said El Tiempo, but denied by a Halliburton representative in Bogota. US media have reported that former soldiers from Chile, South Africa and Spain are being recruited to beef up Iraqi security forces. Halliburton, the oil services giant once run by US Vice President Dick Cheney, has won billions of dollars in Iraq contracts, but has been accused of overcharging and accounting irregularities. (Al-Jazeera, Dec. 13; AP, Dec. 17)

Colombia is a member of President Bush’s "coalition of the willing" in Iraq, but hasn’t sent troops because its army is battling a guerilla insurgency with US aid at home. The wars in Iraq and Colombia are coming to reflect each other more and more.

Rights abuses by the military continue in Colombia’s rural communities. On Dec. 29, in the self-declared "peace community" of San Jose de Apartado, Antioquia department, a 10-year-old girl, Flor Alba Nerio Usuaga, was shot in the back, while running with some campesinos that refused to stop when an army patrol told them to. According to a statement from the community leaders, the campesinos had seen guerillas in the area, and were afraid of getting caught in cross-fire. The girl survived, and is now in the hospital in nearby Apartado city.

On Dec. 22, in La Cristalina, one of San Jose’s outlying communities, three campesinos, including 70-year-old Miguel Arango, were forcibly detained by army troops in their own houses. Accused by the troops of being guerilla collaborators, Arango was tortured by having his head held under water repeatedly. The family was finally set free. (San Jose de Apartado statement, Jan. 2)

On Sept. 29, in the peace community of Cacarica in neighboring Choco department, three residents, including an 11-year-old boy, were detained by the military’s XVII Brigade after being accused of being members of the guerilla militia. In the course of a three-hour interrogation, they were threatened with death and humiliated. One soldier told an officer through his radio, "one of them has the face of gonorrhea." (Cacarica statement, Dec. 7)

Sadly, such rights violations are also taking their toll in Colombia’s mayor cities. An employee of a Coca-Cola plant, affiliated to the beverage workers union SINALTRAINAL, is the latest target. The events took place Nov. 25 in the city of Cucuta, Norte de Santander department. Gustavo Lindarte received a bullet in his right leg in what was apparently an attempted assassination. The president of SINALTRAINAL, Javier Correa, said that Lindarte’s life is "in serious risk." Cucuta’s government functionaries have been nationally and internationally denounced by rights groups for maintaining links with the right-wing paramilitaries. The mayor of the city, Ramiro Corzo, is currently in jail on charges of collaborating with outlawed paramilitaries. (ANNCOL, Dec. 9).

As in Iraq, designs on local oil resources are a major factor in the war. In the spring of 2001, Guimer Dominguez, president of Occidental Petroleum’s Colombian operations made a private visit to the fortress-like U.S. Embassy in Bogota to plead for help. A bombing campaign by leftist guerillas had nearly shut down Oxy’s Cano-Limon oil field in Arauca department. Dominguez threatened to permanently shut Oxy’s operations unless security improved. The pull-out would have been a harsh blow to Colombia’s government, which is heavily reliant on oil royalties. "Oxy will not resume production at the Cano-Limon field until the [Colombian government] addresses the security situation in Arauca significantly," then-US Ambassador Anne Patterson wrote in a confidential memo to the State Department after Dominguez visited the embassy. A subsequent Colombia aid package sent to Congress by the Bush administration included a provision to send US military advisors to train Colombian soldiers to protect oil infrastructure. Patterson worked closely with both Oxy and the Colombian government to draw up the plan. The US has now trained some 2,000 soldiers to protect the Cano-Limon pipeline. Attacks on the pipeline have dropped from 170 in 2001 to only 17 in 2004. Colombia’s government is receiving $500 million more from Oxy’s oil operations annually. (LAT, Dec. 29)

Finally, these abuses are taking place as Colombia’s fragile democracy appears to be degenerating into a US-backed authoritarian state. Colombia’s Congress approved on Nov. 30 an amendment to the constitution that permits President Alvaro Uribe, the Bush administration’s closest ally in South America, to run for re-election in 2006. Uribe signed the measure, making it official, Dec. 27. His term is to expire in August 2006, and the Colombian constitution has until now barred re-election. Wrote the New York Times: "The Bush administration has quietly but steadily supported a re-election drive by government supporters who argue that Mr. Uribe needs four more years to help extricate Colombia from its long, drug-fueled conflict with Marxist rebels. Since 2000, the United States has provided Bogota with 3.3 billion in mostly military assistance, and President Bush offered more when he visited Colombia on Nov 22." (NYT, Dec. 28)

The US has transformed Colombia’s soldiers into some of the best mercenaries in the world through decades of a mutating war that never seems to end: communism, drugs and–the latest version–terrorism. As Halliburton exploits this expertise for the Iraq campaign, Colombia becomes poorer in every dimension: violations of human rights, indiscriminate violence, loss of sovereignty and a crumbling democracy.

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Special to WORLD WAR 4 REPORT, Jan. 17, 2005
Reprinting permissible with attribution

WW4Report.com

BOLIVIA: NEW “WATER WAR,” VIOLENT LAND CONFLICTS

by Weekly News Update on the Americas

EL ALTO: PROTESTS OUST WATER COMPANY

On Jan. 10, members of more than 600 neighborhood organizations in the Bolivian city of El Alto mobilized in an open-ended peaceful civic strike to press a series of demands, including cancellation of the city’s water and sewer contract with the private consortium Aguas del Illimani. The Federation of Neighborhood Boards (FEJUVE), which organized the strike, says the water company charges rates that put water and sewer service out of reach for a majority of El Alto residents. The protesters were also demanding that the government reverse its Decree 27959 of Dec. 30, which instituted price increases of 10% for gasoline and 23% for diesel, causing the cost of basic goods to skyrocket.

The water and sewer system of El Alto and neighboring La Paz was privatized to Aguas del Illimani in July 1997 when the World Bank made water privatization a condition of a loan to the Bolivian government. The Aguas del Illimani consortium is owned jointly by the French water giant Suez (formerly Suez Lyonnaise des Eaux) and a set of minority shareholders which include an arm of the World Bank. Suez’s water and wastewater business, which is run through its subsidiary Ondeo, is the second largest in the world. El Alto residents say that by pegging rates to the dollar, the company raised water prices by 35%. A water and sewer hookup for a single household now costs over $445, while many Bolivians earn about $2.50 a day. The company has also failed to expand water service to the outlying areas of the municipality, residents complain. The latest population census showed that 52% of El Alto residents lack basic water and sewer services.

FEJUVE called the strike for Jan. 10 after five months of protests and negotiations failed to win a solution to El Alto’s water crisis. On Jan. 9, FEJUVE rejected a Jan. 6 government decree–a last-ditch effort to halt the strike–which called for "review" of the contract with Aguas del Illimani, de-dollarization of the company’s rates and expansion of its service. "The ‘Bolivianization’ of the rates is a promise from November of last year," complained FEJUVE president Abel Mamani Marca. "Now they want to talk about expansion of the service, but they don’t say anything about non-fulfillment of the contract terms or of irregularities in the bidding for the concession. Aguas del Illimani has not complied, they have to go," he said.

Later on Jan. 9, President Carlos Mesa Gisbert made a national television address in an attempt to stem the mobilizations in El Alto and a 48-hour civic strike planned for Jan. 11-12 in Santa Cruz department against the fuel price increase. Mesa urged Bolivians not to participate in strikes or protests, and threatened to resign if violence breaks out. He justified the fuel price increase by arguing that cheaper subsidized Bolivian fuel was being smuggled into neighboring countries, causing a national shortage.

On Jan. 10, thousands of El Alto residents hit the streets, setting up road blockades which cut off traffic in and out of La Paz, and shutting down El Alto’s international airport, which serves as the main airport for the capital. At the same time, in the city of Cochabamba, factory workers, students, campesinos, retirees, homemakers, unemployed workers and others joined in a march organized by the Departmental Labor Federation (COD) against the fuel price increase and to protest Mesa’s Jan. 9 speech, while truckers held a separate march against the fuel hike. The national Bolivian Workers Federation (COB) also coordinated marches on Jan. 10 in La Paz and Potosi.

Later on Jan. 10, the government tried to convince El Alto residents to halt their strike by announcing a new decree, 29745, which would institute a series of economic measures to encourage investment in El Alto. The decree would suspend the charging of utility taxes for 10 years and of the value-added tax and another tariff for two years in the municipality.

On Jan. 11, residents of the outlying El Alto neighborhoods of Ballivian and Alto Lima–which lack water and sewer hookups–seized several Aguas de Illimani facilities, including a water tank. That same day, Mesa sent FEJUVE a letter, saying he was beginning "the necessary actions for the termination of the concession contract" with Aguas del Illimani. The heads of the neighborhood associations met at FEJUVE headquarters to discuss the letter; after three hours, they decided to continue their strike. They gave Mesa’s government 24 hours to promulgate a decree immediately cancelling the contract with the water company; otherwise, protesters would seize the company’s facilities. Shortly afterwards, a government official called Mamani to tell him the decree would be ready the next morning.

On the morning of Jan. 12, as El Alto remained paralyzed and the civic strike in Santa Cruz entered its second day, the government gave FEJUVE an unsigned decree, prompting the neighborhood associations to convene another assembly. FEJUVE rejected the new decree, saying it needed to make clear that Aguas del Illimani would leave Bolivia "immediately." After 6 PM, the government presented Supreme Decree 27293–already promulgated–stating that the government would take the "necessary actions" to terminate the contract "immediately" and to guarantee water and sewer service for El Alto and La Paz. This time, after each neighborhood association had a chance to discuss the document with its members, FEJUVE called an end to the strike–but warned that its members would remain on alert to make sure the company does not remove any equipment from its facilities, and would continue pressing other demands. "Electropaz is next," activists warned, referring to the electricity company for El Alto and La Paz, operated by the Spanish transnational Iberdrola.

On Jan. 13, El Alto residents had already planned to march into La Paz; some 20,000 participated in what became a victory march, celebrating the cancellation of the contract with Aguas del Illimani. (La Jornada, Mexico, Jan. 13; Los Tiempos, Cochabamba, Jan. 10-3; Pacific News Service, Dec. 17; Servicio Informativo "Alai-amlatina," Jan. 10; La Prensa, La Paz, Jan. 7, 9)

The former Municipal Autonomous Drinking Water and Sewer Service (SAMAPA) will be revived to take over water and sewer service in La Paz and El Alto for a three-month period while a new entity is established. FEJUVE is working on proposals for the new company, possibly a cooperative or with partial worker control. "We have two proposals, but the objective is that it will be a company with majority citizen participation and with minimal municipal and state participation," said Mamani. Meanwhile, the Regional Workers Federation (COR) of El Alto plans a march on Jan. 17 to La Paz to demand repeal of the fuel price hike and passage of a new gas law that includes nationalization. (Bolpress, Jan. 16)

The Jan. 11-12 civic strike in Santa Cruz department was called by the Santa Cruz Civic Committee, which is dominated by regional agribusiness interests; the Santa Cruz Departmental Labor Federation (COD) also backed the protest, against the instructions of its national affiliate, the COB. Another 13 campesino and indigenous organizations in Santa Cruz department rejected the strike, accusing large-scale farmers of using it to try to destabilize the country’s democratic system. The Santa Cruz FEJUVE backed the civic strike, and FEJUVE members and factory workers began an open-ended hunger strike on Jan. 13, which the Civic Committee said it would join beginning on Jan. 17 unless the government reverses the fuel hike. Some sectors in Santa Cruz and other cities were also protesting public transport fare hikes instituted by drivers in response to the fuel increase.

On Jan. 11, in an unsuccessful attempt to halt the Santa Cruz strike, Mesa issued six new decrees supposedly designed to support agriculture, stimulate the economy and generate jobs. At least one of the decrees seems to reduce tariffs on imports; others extend rural debt forgiveness for small farmers and facilitate the importing and distribution of farm machinery. (LT, Jan. 11, 12, 14; LP, Jan. 9)

Bolivian campesinos are planning to mobilize against the government starting on Jan. 17. Campesino sectors led by Felipe Quispe Huanca are planning a national hunger strike to demand that Mesa step down, and sectors led by Roman Loayza plan to join indigenous people and colonists in blocking roads to demand reversal of the fuel hike or the calling of early elections. (Servicio Informativo "Alai-amlatina," Jan. 13) Sectors of the Only Union Confederation of Bolivian Campesino Workers (CSUTCB) led by Quispe have also threatened to seize military and police installations. (LJ, Jan. 13) Cocaleros in Los Yungas region of La Paz department are planning to block highways to protest construction of an anti-drug police base in the region. The COB, Quispe’s sectors of the CSUTCB, the Coca Producers Association (ADEPCOCA) and the Committee to Defend Coca Leaf of Traditional Origin signed a "revolutionary unity pact" on Jan. 10 in which they agreed to coordinate protest actions. Campesinos in Tarija, Oruro and Chuquisaca departments are not expected to participate in the national highway blockades because they don’t recognize Quispe’s leadership. (Bolpress, Jan. 16)

The "water war" that ended the Aguas del Illimani contract brought comparisons to a successful April 2000 revolt in Cochabamba that forced the cancellation of a water contract with a consortium led by the Bechtel corporation. Bechtel and its shareholders in the Aguas de Tunari consortium later filed a $25 million legal action against Bolivia in a secretive trade court operated by the World Bank. This past December, Deputy Minister of Basic Services Jose Barragan revealed that Bechtel now wants to drop the claim in exchange for a token payment equal to $0.30. According to Barragan, the resolution is being held up by another Aguas de Tunari partner, the Abengoa corporation of Spain. (PNS, Dec. 17)

From Weekly News Update on the Americas, Jan. 16

SANTA CRUZ: ONE DEAD IN LAND CLASH

On Dec. 20, Bolivian police surrounding the Paila estate in San Julian municipality, Santa Cruz department, fired their weapons at landless campesinos who were trying to reoccupy the site. The 150 landless families had been evicted from the estate the previous week after living there for two years. The eviction came after the Eastern Agricultural Chamber (CAO), a rural business group, began pressing the government to get tough on squatters in the region.

Landless resident Medrin Colque Mollo was killed by a bullet to the chest, 20 others were injured (including one wounded by gunfire) and two disappeared. Eight police agents were also injured, one by gunfire. Campesinos say it was the police commander who killed Colque. Some 115 police agents had been stationed at the property for a week when the conflict occurred; after the clash, police commander Freddy Soruco sent in another 120 agents. The landless residents insist they will not give up their struggle to obtain 50 hectares of productive land per family. (Los Tiempos, Cochabamba, Dec. 21-2; Bolpress, Dec. 25)

Authorities from La Paz arrived on Dec. 22 to begin talks with the landless residents at Paila. The same day, Presidency Minister Jose Galindo Nedder said the government planned to distribute 30,000 hectares of land starting in January to landless campesinos in the area of San Julian. The Bolivian Movement of Landless Rural Workers (MST) said it doubted the government’s offer and was urging its members to "take up arms" to defend themselves against forced evictions. (LT, Dec. 23)

From Weekly News Update on the Americas, Dec. 26

See also WW4 REPORT #104

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Reprinted by WORLD WAR 4 REPORT, Jan. 17, 2005
Reprinting permissible with attribution

WW4Report.com