Amnesty International Bournemouth Poole Christchurch Group

As a local group we are signed up to the South America Region Network. Their coordinators focus specifically on the countries featured below and send us actions when they turn up. At our January meeting we wrote letters to President Santos in Columbia sample letter columbia and President Correa in Ecuador sample letter Ecuador

In this update the focus is on Ecuador, where the government is cracking down on environmental and indigenous organisations opposed to oil and mining activities and there is concern for the safety of activists. There is also feature developments in Colombia: a draft letter to President Santos to follow-up last month’s visit by members of the San Jose Peace Community; and an Urgent Action as a result of the murder of a member of a peasant farmer organisation and concern for the safety of others. In Brazil, a leading indigenous activist has been murdered and there is concern for the safety of construction workers in the run-up to next year’s World Cup while, in Peru, the government has temporarily blocked a gas project that threatens indigenous communities.

Ecuador

There are growing concerns for the safety of Carlos Zorrilla, an environmental activist in Ecuador, and others who have protested against development projects in the northern region of Intag. President Correa has repeatedly attacked their activities during his weekly televised addresses to the nation. These concerns are reinforced by the sudden police closure of environmental organization Fundación Pachamama on 4 December and the failure of government officials to allow such organizations and activists to carry out their activities. Attached is a draft letter,  which we hope you will be able to use to write to President Correa.   sample letter Ecuador
Links to Urgent Actions:
http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/AMR28/003/2013/en/bd514043-8393-48f7-8d2f-9f2fa65aa8a9/amr280032013en.pdf

http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/AMR28/004/2013/en/a4371d7b-159c-45cf-92b7-35c2d8c4a62f/amr280042013en.pdf

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There have been some high profile cases involving the Russian Authorities, such as the continued detention of the Pussy Riot members and now the Greenpeace trials.  But at our last meeting we wrote letters on behalf of 5 men who have recently been denied political assylum in Russia.  There is some bitter irony in their trying to seek refuge in the Russian Federation, but fleeing from Kyrgyzstan they had little choice in where they went. Amnesty International believes the men would be at serious risk of torture and other ill-treatment and their rights to a fair trial would be denied if returned to Kyrgyzstan.

There is a sample letter here:- russian deportation letter to the Minister of Foreign Affairs. If you also look at this urgent action details re russian deportation, apart from more details it also has other addresses to send the letter to, such as the Prosecutor General and UK Ambassador.

We have just received another Russian Federation Action – this time the detention of Mikhail Kosenko in a psychiatric hospital. Amnesty International believes he is clearly a prisoner of conscience – Mikhail Kosenko press release – and this is a disturbing return to past practices of the USSR. There was the recent case of Raisa Radchenko in the Ukraine, fortunately now released.

Please send a letter to the Russian Authorites on behalf of Mikhail Kosenko – sample here, but please adapt as you wish. Mikhail Kosenko Letter

As we explained in a post in July, as a local group we are signed up to the South America Region Network. Their coordinators focus specifically on the countries featured below and send us actions when they turn up. Some have already featured on this blog – such as Chile – but most of the actions you can still send letters.

COLOMBIA

On 22 August Danilo Rueda, a member of the human rights NGO Inter-Church Justice and Peace Commission was threatened by two men. This follows an attempt to kill a member of the organisation in the Curvaradó River Basin, in the north-western department of Chocó. The Inter-Church Justice and Peace Commission has been working with the communities of the Curvaradó and Jiguamiandó River Basin but had to leave due to death threats. Urgent action: http://amnesty.org/en/library/info/AMR23/039/2013/en
Elker León Cataño is a community leader of families forcibly displaced from the Hacienda Bellacruz farm in Cesar Department in 1996 by paramilitaries operating with the armed forces. On 20 August three armed men asked to see him at his home but he managed to escape. He is also a member of the Horizon Colombian Association of Displaced Population (Asociación Colombiana Horizonte de Población Desplazada, ASOCOL). Three members of this group were shot at on their way back from filing a complaint with the Valledupar office of the Human Rights Ombudsman about threats by paramilitaries. Other members of the group have found men who appeared to be keeping the ASOCOL office under surveillance. These threats have taken place after a ruling earlier this year which could result in restitution of land to the families. Urgent action: http://amnesty.org/en/library/info/AMR23/038/2013/en

Paramilitaries have arrived in areas around the Cacarica River Basin in north-western Colombia. They are said to be in possession of a list of community leaders who they label as guerrilla collaborators. Many paramilitaries left Unguía Municipality in Chocó Department to go to the Cacarica River Basin reportedly to “teach a lesson” to the inhabitants. Witnesses say around 100 paramilitaries were seen boarding boats and on 9 September paramilitaries entered the Cacarica River Basin. There are regular army checkpoints in this area but they had been removed when the paramilitaries arrived. Urgent Action: http://amnesty.org/en/library/info/AMR23/041/2013/en

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