A high court in the oil rich Rivers State in Nigeria has ordered the revocation of the Act of Occupation of indigenous lands by a giant oil company because this agreement did not have the consent of indigenous peoples.

A court in the oil rich Rivers state in Nigeria has ordered the Nigerian subsidiary of Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) to forfeit a key land to the indigenes, after the oil firm obtained a Certificate of Occupancy (C of O) to the land from the state government, without the knowledge of the indigenes, the local media reported Wednesday.

The ruling by Justice M.O. Opara of the Rivers state high court sitting in Bori meant that Shell will forfeit to the indigenes of the area (people of Bonny) its Bonny terminal, which houses its oil tank farm with a storage facility of over 12 million barrels of crude oil, a landing pad for helicopters, an indoor berthing facility for six ocean-going tankers, an expatriate club, and residential quarters, among others.

Setting aside the C of O, the court ruled: "Shell is ordered to forfeit it's right as a tenant under the 1958 Deed of Lease for the direct denial of it's landlords title by setting up a rival title; the Certificate of Occupancy which is now a replacement for the 1958 lease agreement."

Justice Opara said that the claimants, as customary owners and consenters, are the landlords of Shell in respect of all the piece or parcel of land lying between the towns of Bonny and Finima in the Bonny Local Government area of Rivers State, as contained in a Deed of Tenancy made on 22 July 1958.

Source: Afrique en ligne

Omo Tribes in Ethiopia Body Painting

Posted by Xarj.

In the confines of Ethiopia, centuries away from modernity, Hans Sylvester photographed during six years the tribes where men, women, children, old people, are geniuses of an ancient art. At their feet, the Omo river, astride a triangle on Ethiopia, Sudan and Kenya, the vast Rift Valley which slowly separates from Africa, a volcanic region which provides a vast range of pigments, red ochre, white kaolin, copper green, yellow or light gray ash.

The Omo Tribes are genius of painting, and their bodies of two meters high are a huge canvas. The strength of their art lies in three words: fingers, speed and freedom.

More Information at :

http://www.xarj.net/2008/omo-tribes-ethiopia-body-painting/

COMPTROLLER GENERAL OF PERU INTERVENS INRENA INVOLVED BY THE RETURN OF 40 MILLION DOLLARS IN WOOD OBTAINED ILLEGALLY IN TROPICAL FOREST OF Ayaviri. LORETO. PERU

The daily Pro and Contra, Servindi Radio and the Voice of the Jungle announced that:

Comptroller General's Office has intervened to Inrena, to conduct investigations into the case and the corresponding audit, where senior officials of the current management of this institution, apparently would be seriously committed to this criminal act. "Not only the Yavari is outrageous, there are other dealers who cut wood outside their plots illegally, the authorities should be tougher," said Paul McAuley, president of the Environmental Network of Loreto. "The benefici from this outrageous decision are powerful loggers engaged in the illegal extraction of timber species like mahogany and cedar (...) we are talking about 40 millions of dollars," he said, his brother Paul.

The daily Pro and Contra, of Loreto Peru, said that thousands of cubic meters of cedar and mahogany, trees that are in danger of extinction in the Peruvian rain forest, which have a high price in the domestic and international markets have been illegally extracted by 11 forest concessionaires of the Loreto region in the area Yavarí, Peru.

Servindi said that according to the National Institute for Natural Resources INRENA, forest concessionaires engaged in serious crimes, in a visual inspection found on that there are no indications of work in the areas listed according to the Operational Plan. This means cut down trees in unauthorized areas, and species that is in season for ten years as mahogany (Switenia macrophylla) and cedar (Cedrela odorata) in the rivers Putumayo, Yavarí, and Tamaya Purús. (Law 27308). For these reasons, the Mayor of INRENA Ing. Edgardo Lizarraga ordered the freezing of wood valued at $ 40 million.

In March 2008, the new chief of Inrena, José Luis Camino, published in the official gazette El Peruano Resolution No. 076-2008 authorizing the return of the seized timber to forest concessionaires. The scandal was compounded by the dismissal of Ing. Edgardo Lizarraga and his coaching staff who approved the detention of illegal timber and the appointment of temporary and irregular of Pesantes Rebaza, only for the repayment of $ 40 million in timber in a speedy manner. Environmental organizations and indigenous organizations solicited to the authorities clarification of these reports that would reflect the corruption of state agencies.

More information: The voice of the jungle.

Pro and Contra Journal of Loreto and www.servindi.org.

Indigenous leader of Colombia complaint with the OAS and the UN armed intervention of the Colombian government against peaceful demonstrations by indigenous peoples.

Rafael Coicué, indigenous representative of the Nation Nasa of Northern Cauca, Colombia (Association of Indigenous Northern Cauca ACIN), said that the military forces of Colombia are continuing despite only to two weeks ago that President Uribe said in Washington that the situation human rights in Colombia was improving.

The latest attacks, accumulate 120 wounded and four dead, including himself Coicué Rafael lost his sight in one eye victim of the aggression of the military. At the United Nations Rafael Coicué was received by Esmeralda Brown of the Methodist Office for the United Nations and the Movement for Peace in Colombia.

COLOMBIA: UNITED NATIONS CALLS FOR URGENT ACTION AGAINST ALLEGED EXTRAJUDICIAL EXECUTIONS.

Rafael Coicué is a member of the Nasa Nation located in the Northern Cauca region of Colombia. Mr. Coicué is a representative of the Association of Indigenous Councils of Northern Cauca (ACIN) and one of the most respected leaders of the contemporary indigenous movement in that region.

On July 3rd, 2008, during an indigenous mobilization in his native Corinto, Mr. Coicué was shot, losing all the functions of his left eye in the process. Coicué is convinced it was not a random act that almost killed him, but a direct attempt on his life because of the work he’s involved in. He will be in Washington, testifying before the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights regarding repeated violations committed against Colombia’s indigenous communities by the Colombian government, including the backlash carried out by the Army and Police against indigenous protesters in Cauca over the past ten days.

The United Nations human rights office in Colombia has called on the authorities to take urgent measures to stop a wave of apparent extrajudicial executions after 25 bodies were found in the north of the country. The dead, many of them young, have been identified as residents of southern Bogota, according to a news release issued by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).

The Office said it had already officially informed the authorities of other disappearances and deaths of young people from other cities who, according to various accounts, have been promised work in the provinces, only to be reported as killed in fighting with the army a couple of days later. Since February at least 35 such bodies have been reported.

For more details go to UN News Centre at :

http://www.un.org/news