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Peace talks between the government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) resulted in a cease-fire in the 12-year war between the two sides. The LTTE, fighting for a Tamil homeland separate from the Sinhalese-controlled government of Sri Lanka, has wage a relentless war that has been brutal on both sides, resulting in at least 30,000 dead and damage and expenditures in the billions of dollars. The war also led to the suicide-bomber assassinations of India's Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, Sri Lanka's President Ranasinghe Premadasa, and a prominent candidate in last year's presidential election, Gamini Dissanayake.
International observers have been sent to monitor the cease fire, while the more difficult questions of political control and economic rehabilitation of the island are negotiated. The LTTE asserts claims to the northern and eastern provinces of the island, and has consistently demanded political control, if not independence, for a nation to be known as Tamil Eelam. The government of Sri Lanka, led by President Chandrika Kumaratunga since her election in August 1994, appears ready to acknowledge Tamil autonomy in the north and east, and has committed itself to a 40 billion rupee (US$816 million) economic rehabilitation program for the war-torn region.
The foreign ministers of Portugal and Indonesia have agreed that the United Nations should sponsor talks between factions supporting and opposing integration into the Indonesian state. Indonesia invaded East Timor in 1975, after Portugal ended its colonial control. An estimated 300,000 people on the island have died in fighting between Timorese dedicated to independence for East Timor and the Indonesian army.
[see FWB Vol. 3, no. 2]
On 31 January 1995, the people of the Mescalero Apache Nation defeated a referendum that would have allowed the Tribal Council to continue plans for their proposed MRS (monitored retrievable storage) Nuclear Waste Dump on the reservation. This means that the project is cancelled for the foreseeable future. Tribal Council Chairman Wendell Chino was "stunned" by the 490-362 vote. He had expected the proposal to be overwhelmingly supported.
Rufina M. Laws, the Mescalero founder of Humans Against Nuclear Waste Dumps (HANDS), declared: "The people have prevailed. Nuclear waste is a heavy burden to lay on our children and their children and their children's children and their children's children's children and their children's children's children's children ..."
The defeat of the referendum was not the end of the
issue, however. A countermovment of tribal officials and
other dump proponents, bent on persuading the Mescaleros of
the proported "economic advantages" that would result from
the project, has now succeeded in placing a second
referendum
Updates
before the people. Tribal officials reported that 700 of
about 1200 registered voters signed a petition calling for the
second referendum, scheduled to be held on 9 March.
[Thanks to Michele Lord.]
The forty-eight year Karen battle for independence from Burma was dealt a major blow in January when the Burmese army overran the Karen capital of Manerplaw. In a massive military offensive, involving as many as 15,000 troops, Burma attacked approximately 4,000 troops of the Karen National Union (KNU) army. As many as 20,000 refugess are reported to have fled across the Burma-Thailand border as a result of the fighting. The KNU has apparently relocated its headquarters temporarily across the border, in Thailand.
The Karen rebellion is reputed to be the strongest and most determined of the indigenous armed struggles for independence against the Burmese government in Rangoon. The Karen have been fighting since 1948, when the Burmese government reneged on a plan of federation that guaranteed indigenous autonomy within the Burmese union.
According to New York Times reports, the Burmese military offensive is part of a larger strategy that involves a future attack against the indigenous Shan State Army, in the Shan area, northeast of the Karen territory. The Shan army is led by Khun Sa, who has been villainized by both the Burmese and western intelligence agencies for allegedly financing his army through the cultivation and trading of opium in the infamous Golden Triangle region of Southeast Asia.
[see FWB Vol. 3, no. 2]
In what appears to be one of the most active and successful indigenous armed resistance movements in the world today, the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN) has scored a number of military victories throughout Nagaland and Manipur in recent months. According to press reports from India, the NSCN travels with virtual impunity throughout much of Nagaland and in four districts of neighboring Manipur. The NSCS also works in close communication with the indigenous National Liberation Front of Tripura.
The Nagas have made several recent attacks on crack Indian army units, including the renowned Assam Rifles garrisoned in northeastern India. Several Indian army officers have also been killed in fighting with the NSCN since August 1994. One night prior to a recent visit to Nagaland by the new Chief of Army Staff of the Indian forces, General S.K. Roychowdury, the NSCN attacked an army garrison in Mocockchong, reportedly killing ten Indian army soldiers and the local superintendent of police.
The NSCN has increased its activities in its tradtionally-claimed territories, and has also made inroads into the international political arena, sending delegations to the 11th and 12th sessions of the UN Working Group on Indigenous Peoples. The NSCN asserts that Nagaland has never been conquered, and that the territory was illegally annexed by India after the British departed in 1947. The NSCN has engaged in armed struggle against India since the 1950s.
[see FWB Vol. 3, no. 3]
In mid-1994, peace negotiations were to have taken place between the governments of Papua New Guinea and Australia and the Bougainville Revolutionary Army, on the island of Bougainville. Before the negotiations could begin, however, the Papua New Guinea and Australian governments installed a South Pacific peace-keeping force on Bougainville to police a ceasefire in the ongoing war between the Papua New Guinea Defense Force and the Bougainville Revolutionary Army.
The peace-keepers were supposed to have been disinterested parties to the conflict, but their point of origin made them suspect. However, the Bougainvilleans were interested in negotiating, because years of the sustained blockade imposed by Papua New Guinea has affected them very adversely. Their infrastructure has run down, it has become almost impossible to obtain medical supplies, and health conditions resulting from the war are disastrous. Peace negotiations appeared to be welcomed by both sides to the conflict.
Due to fears for their safety from attack and immunity from arrest, the Bougainvilleans refused to appear personally at the negotiations. The civilian state is so weakened in Papua New Guinea that the Bougainvilleans still do not trust the military and its operations on Bougainville. Thus, hostilities continue. There have been approximately 8000 deaths since the current PNG blockade of Bougainville began.
[Thanks to David Hyndman.]
On 25 December 1994, the National Indigenous Convention issued a declaration resulting from the proceedings held in the Heart of the Mountain, in Tlapa, Guerrero, one month before the most recent fighting between Zapatista/Maya rebels and the Mexican army recommenced in Chiapas. The declaration stated:
"Profoundly concerned over the struggle of our brothers in Chiapas, we salute their efforts to remove the yoke of exploitation and oppression. We take as our own the 13 positions of the EZLN and understand the reasons for their decision to take up arms as the only method to be heard. From the Heart of the Mountain in Guerrero we declare: `YOU ARE NOT ALONE.' Neither are you alone in terms of the conditions under which you live. The situation of the Indigenous Pueblos of Chiapas is the same for all the Indians of this country."
The demands contained in the declaration include: the institutionalization of indigenous autonomy in Mexico; equal participation in government; the abolishment of "indigenism" as the operant form of administration; national democratization; and the compliance with international agreements on indigenous peoples' rights.
[Thanks to Tonatierra.]
On 21 December 1994, the Waikato Maori Nation and the government of New Zealand signed a settlement of a 130 year-old land claim. The settlement recognizes Waikato control of 14,000 hectares of land, with the total settlement in land and revenue estimated at US$109 million. The settlement was reached through the Waitangi Tribunal, a body established to mediate Maori claims of violations of the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi, and other land claims violations. Approximately 400 claims have been filed in this process. Nine have been settled to date.
The government of New Zealand is seeking to resolve all of the land claims within the next ten years, at a cost of no more than approximately NZ$1 billion (US$650 million). The $1 billion dollar cap has been harshly criticized by several prominent Maori leaders and analysts who assert that total Maori claims could top NZ$80 billion. A meeting of Maori leaders from across the country is scheduled for 29 January 1995 to discuss the proposed cap and other recent land claim developments.
Fourth World Bulletin • Fall 1994/Winter 1995
Copyright © 1996 by the Fourth World Center
Created by Aigis Communications, Ltd