04/05/2009
Yesterday, Emilio Basto, a Nasa native who usually runs el rebusque, a
morning show in Nasa and Spanish on Radio Payumat, where he listens and
exchanges with indigenous peoples from the fields, explains the process
and the contexts, opens a debate on critical issues, does interviews so
that everyone in their homes understands the project of aggression and
continues to think and resist, was arrested by the police in Santander
de Quilichao.
Dear Friends,
The following is a communique I just received from
our friends in Cauca, from the Association of Indigenous Councils of
Northern Cauca, ACIN, and specifically, their communication team, which
has been at the forefront of getting the word out about the struggles
of Colombia's indigenous and popular movement.
Please circulate
it widely as we try to build and strengthen the solidarity with ACIN
and the dozens of communities they represent.
MAMA
"We want to help build a new country by sharing the truth and showing realities";
Emilio Basto, Indigenous Communicator at Police Headquarters in Santander de Quilichao, April 4th 2008.
Accused of a Crime: Showing documentaries to a community.
This is the framework within which our Tejido de Comunicacion is under attack:
http://www.vimeo.com/3988570 and http://www.vimeo.com/3964962
Yesterday,
Emilio Basto, a Nasa native who usually runs el rebusque, a morning
show in Nasa and Spanish on Radio Payumat, where he listens and
exchanges with indigenous peoples from the fields, explains the process
and the contexts, opens a debate on critical issues, does interviews so
that everyone in their homes understands the project of aggression and
continues to think and resist, was arrested by the police in Santander
de Quilichao.
Emilio was coming back from Tacueyo, in the
mountains of Cauca, where he was showing documentaries at one of the
video fora, which are part of an agenda planned to "sweep" the entire
territory to engage people in debating diverse issues. He carried with
him a number of videos, including "The revolution will not be
televised," "Water, our life, our hope," and "Spakapa is not for sale".
He also had two documentaries done in Colombia, "The cost of Land" from
the Paciufic Coast focusing on displacement for Palm Oil industries,
and ACIN's own "Country of the people without owners," the latest
documentary produced by our team that tells the story of last year's
Minga, the National mobilization against the FTA and the economic model
being imposed.
Emilio was accused of carrying subversive
material and inciting to violence. He was interrogated for 2 hours
without access to lawyers, phone calls or protection. His finger prints
were registered as well as all information regarding his activities.
There was talk about weapons, which he could not understand. He
explained what he does and what we do. He demanded respect for his
obligations as a journalist, for the freedom of expression, for the
indigenous process and rights. Finally, they let him go, but we do not
know whether there are charges against him or whether they will use
this event in a judicial process against the communication network or
in a physical attack against his life and the lives of all of the other
members of our communication team in ACIN.
This is the rule, the
pattern and what we must expect, as you will be able to see on the
videos attached below on Mario Murillo's note on the presentation at
the Interamerican Commission for Human Rights.
The attack against Emilio was the latest in a series of attacks against ACIN's communication Tejido:
1.
October 2008, during our coverage of the indigenous mobilization and
while the armed forces of Colombia were shooting against unarmed
natives, our website and listserve was blocked.
2. December
14th, 2008, an act of sabotage against the transmission equipment of
Radio Pa'Yumat, leading to the silencing of this radio station until
now. Two days later, Edwin Legarda, the husband of indigenous leader
Aida Quilcue, was murdered by the Colombian Army in an attempted
magnicide against her.
3. December 16th, 2008. Live radio
interview on La W, a National radio station with a massive audience. We
had called in to break the news in Colombia and the world of the
assasination of Edwin Legarda, with direct information from the ground.
The anchor, Fernando Sanchez Cristo, called us back for the interview
an hour after we gave him the facts and put us on during a section of
recognition to the armed forces of Colombia in their war on terror. The
Commander of the Third Brigade gave his version of the facts first: The
vehicle refused to stop at a police post and was suspected to be FARC.
Manuel Rozental, on the line from Cauca, explained that the car had
received 16 shots from automatic weapons, 14 of these in the front, a
fact that contradicted the army commanders version. They shot him
intentionally from the front. There was no police post. The general
went off the air and Rozental was engaged in a live exchange with
Sanchez Cristo on these lines:
JSC: You are the same Dr Rozental, a surgeon that works in Canada?
MR: Yes that's me
JSC:
You are a close friend of the sons of the international representative
of FARC there and you write for the Journal resistencia
MR: I know
them well, as any Colombian engaged in solidarity efforts does. I have
never written for Resistencia and what you are attempting to discredit
a witness in the air in order to cover up a crime. I am not FARC, have
never been and my life has been committed to a peaceful effort for
social justice. I am part of an indigenous process committed to social
justice, freedom and change through peaceful means. I hope we have not
reached a stage where every journalist in commercial media serves a
regime to silence the voices and rights of people
JSC: So do I Dr Rozental. You are right
MR: Who provided you with this false information against me?
JSC: A listener sent it on email, but don't worry about it.
Strangely,
this interview was never posted on their webpage (all others are) and
our request to obtain the copy of the interview and of the listener's
message was never answered. All this points at Military Intelligence
providing distorted information to discredit and threaten the witness
on air.
4. February 7th, 09. Gustavo Ulcue. Nasa, member of the
ACIN Communication network and webmaster, had just left his home in
Santander de Quilichao, when two armed men arrived in a motorcycle,
forced his brother to let them into their house at gun point and looked
for Gustavo inside. They took away his laptop and told his brother
Gustavo was lucky not to have been found as they came to kill him.
Gustavo had to go into hiding. The armed men have been seen near his
house since then. No police action was taken.
5. March 4th, 2009. Cambio
(the equivalent of Time or Newsweek in Colombia) publishes a report
against Hollman Morris, where it states falsely that Rozental and
Morris are helping ELN (National Liberation Army) in their territorial
struggle against FARC for the indigenous territory of Northern Cauca;
These lies have been followed in the past by the assassination of those
named. Rozental had to flee Cauca.
6. March 14th, 2009. For the
second successive night, Hugo Dagua, arrives late at his modest ranch
in Santander de Quilichao on his motorcycle. He had been conducting a
video forum at an indigenous peoples encounter with participants from
Ecuador and Colombia, where the video "Country of the People without
owners" was launched. He noticed a motorcycle with two people following
him and managed to escape. He is the main technician of the radio
station and runs his own radio program. Hugo is under community
protection measures and his wife and his year old son had to be moved
out of town into their community in the mountains for safety.
Other
threats and attacks against the communication process have been
occurring. Now Emilio has been attacked. ACIN's communication network
has been awarded the recognition as the best alternative media in
Colombia in October 2007 and has become the strongest voice for a
peaceful alternative in Colombia and an awareness raising and debate
space for the base.
This is a crime in Colombia. As the
policemen told Emilio yesterday: you are inciting violence with those
documentaries. We will keep walking our word. Please see the following
note and video.
April 5th 2009
Manuel Rozental
Santander de Quilichao Cauca
--
Mario A. Murillo
Host/Producer, Wake UP Call
WBAI Pacifica Radio
99.5FM in New York; www.bai.org
(212) 209-2978
[Colombia Solidarity Campaign adds: Please write to the Colombian Embassy in your country. In the UK this is email:
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in order to raise awareness, and try to provide some protection. Please also copy your email to us at
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so we have a record of actions.]
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