Indigenous Americans and Racism
MEXICO CITY — Indians remain second-class citizens across the Americas, discriminated against by their governments and unfairly harassed by authorities, Amnesty International charged Thursday.
The human rights group, which compiled a report to mark the 510th anniversary of the arrival of Europeans to the Americas, found that governments from Canada to Chile have failed to respect Indians’ rights and their centuries-old traditions.
“Basic rights of indigenous communities, including the right to land and to cultural identity — in the use of language, education and the administration of justice — are systematically violated,” Amnesty International said.
“At the same time, racism and discrimination entrenched in most societies make indigenous people more vulnerable to human rights violations including torture and ill-treatment, ‘disappearance’ and unlawful killings,” the London-based human rights group concluded.
Its report found that Indian efforts to reclaim territory that belonged to their ancestors in Canada, Argentina and Chile have been met with “violent opposition” from landowners and large corporations.
It also criticized a Mexican plan to build a corridor stretching from Puebla state in central Mexico to Panama. The report likened the plan to a project to dig a canal through Indian burial grounds in Nicaragua and plans to build an oil pipeline across Indian lands in Ecuador.
It criticized Canadian authorities for not solving the 1995 shooting of an Indian man and said that “nobody has been held responsible” for the recent killings of several Indian leaders in Honduras.
The report detailed the case of a Brazilian Xavante Indian leader forced to flee his home after getting death threats. It said Indian leaders in Nicaragua, Ecuador and Bolivia had also been threatened.
It cited Honduras for not implementing Indians rights agreements it reached in 2000 and Mexico, whose legislature watered down an Indian rights constitutional amendment so much that the Zapatista rebels rejected it when it was passed last year.
The report made no mention of Indians in the United States.
The report was especially critical of Guatemala and Colombia.
It said that Guatemala had done little to help Mayans recover from a 1960-1996 civil war. In Colombia, the report said paramilitary groups have killed and kidnapped several prominent Indian leaders.
July 11th, 2003 at 5:31 pm
THIS IS A SCAM I RECEIVED THIS EMAIL THE OTHER DAY
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