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NEWS |
24/05/06 LAURAVETLAN INFORMATION AND EDUCATION NETWORK OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLE (LIENIP) 02/05/06 The Government of Russia included the Veps people in the list of indigenous small-numbered peoples of the North
15/04/06 News from the State Duma. Analysis of work of the State Duma Committee on Natural Resources and Landuse at amendments to the Draft of the Forest Code
12/04/06 The Coordinating Meeting of the directors of LIENIP information centers was held in Moscow from 16 to 21 March.
02/04/06 Archeologists: Before the construction of the gas pipeline to China it is necessary to carry out archeological exploration in Altai highlands
02/04/06 It is necessary to save “the window to China” cut out by Peter I on the Irtysh River: Gorny Altai press about construction of the gas pipeline “Altai” from Siberia to the People’s Republic of China
25/03/06 The authorities declare again about the intention to return the mummy of “the Princess of Ukok” to Altai
24/05/06
LAURAVETLAN INFORMATION AND EDUCATION NETWORK OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLE
(LIENIP)
Contributed by Ulia Gosart (of Udmurt indigenous people) on behalf of Lauravetlian Information and Education Network of Indigenous Peoples of the Russian Federation – LIENIP
Dear Mr. Chairperson, indigenous sisters and brothers, friends!
I am speaking on behalf of Lauravetlian Information and Education Network of Indigenous Peoples of the Russian Federation – LIENIP.
While we strive for the rights of our people, as many other indigenous organizations do around the globe, we face many difficulties. And when some of the difficulties come as the result of our own doing and that of our own leaders, then often it feels that the situation can not be more dispiriting.
We do not want to point a finger. We just want to bring attention to our situation. The situation that is getting more and more serious every year.
The modern political movement of indigenous peoples in Russia officially started at the end of the 1980-s. In 1991 there were only 2 indigenous peoples organizations from then USSR known to the UN – The Association of the Small numbered Peoples of the North and the Chukotka branch of the Innuit Circumpolar Conference. By the year 2000, according to the UN statistics, there were 36 indigenous organizations from the Russian Federation. Nevertheless, the number of indigenous representatives from Russia in the international forums today not only remains small, but often it consists of representatives of the same organization. To our view, the situation reflects the deliberate politics of exclusion.
It is a fact that Russia’s economy is mostly oil, gas, gold, timber and other natural resources. It is understandable what kind of intense struggle is going on inside of Russia for the control over these resources. Ninety percent of which are coming from the traditional territories of indigenous peoples. Thus, decisions regarding the economic development of these resources are vital to the economic well being of the indigenous peoples of Russia. Unfortunately, the persons, charged with the responsibility of representing and protecting indigenous rights to these resources, do not represent the indigenous peoples as a whole. Thus, the indigenous communities stand little chance of receiving the benefits they desperately need.
In this situation, we believe it is vital that indigenous peoples have direct, credible and timely knowledge of what is being said and done in their name, and of those who represent their interests. Be it a local venue or an international arena.
Therefore, we want to bring to the attention of the Forum the lack of direct contact between traditional indigenous leadership (as, for example, councils of elders) and the international community in general, and the Permanent Forum in particular.
We must remember that, for many, the indigenous movement is also a recovery from repressions of the state, from economic hardships, from religious suppression. The indigenous communities are the poorest among the poor. It is no surprise that in Russia, as in many other parts of the world, struggle for rights can turn into a struggle for better housing, for better education for one’s own children, for higher earnings. The fact that a position of leaders may be used to first enrich themselves is a very sad reality of life. However, when it becomes an end in itself, when an exclusivity of one’s own status is used to deliberately exclude others from the benefits of those resources, then the struggle for rights of indigenous peoples turns into a competition for the place under the sun. This competition, to our view, is the main cause of the current disintegration of the indigenous movement in Russia on national and international levels. Moreover, we believe that the international network that supports indigenous peoples has contributed to this breakup.
Let us explain.
The Permanent Forum is one of the few opportunities for the indigenous peoples to participate on the international arena in a process that directly affects their lives. Unfortunately, the present Forum is not an open space for every indigenous to speak up, but an intricate instrument, used only by politically active organizations, immediately associated with the system. Imagine a series of concentric circles, centered around the locus of the indigenous movement – the UN system of support. The outer, dispersed, and most invisible among these circles will represent the body of the traditional leadership of the indigenous communities. At the same time the closest to the system will be the circle of indigenous elite.
The result is that while the UN functions well as an administrative apparatus, its static character works to create visibility rather than actual participation of the representatives of the traditional indigenous leadership in the Forum procedures. In reality most of the indigenous traditional representatives have limited or no access to information. When they do interact with the IPO leaders, who officially work on their behalf, the communication is done, as a rule, in a manipulative rather than educative way. As a result, members of traditional leadership body have no control of those, who pursue their own interests behind their backs. In such conditions it is very difficult – and for us almost impossible – to create communication channels between the UN system of support and the traditional indigenous leaders, with whom we work directly.
We clearly see that the indigenous movement in Russia today is in real danger of becoming an instrument of enrichment of a few, who interpret their personal interests through the light of globally recognized values and ideas. It is especially so, since in Russia, as in many other parts of the world, an indigenous person is still treated not as an individual, but as a stereotype, which needs to have a patronizing “strong” hand of a “leader” to survive.
We believe that situation is critical, and the following measures must be taken immediately:
First: The Permanent Forum and the supportive network for the world indigenous peoples must stop its preferential treatment of some indigenous organizations. It must work as a multileveled net of interactions and have an open dialog with all organizations and representatives of the indigenous peoples;
Second: The Forum’s efforts on preservation of indigenous cultures, traditional knowledge, and distinct indigenous identities must work in practice, be relevant to our communities and not only be events with impressive and lofty reports and with no real impact;.
Third: The assistance to the traditional leadership to participate in the global indigenous movement must be a necessary condition for the Forum existence rather than a mere fulfillment of the requirement of the Forum’s mandate. The Secretariat, every person who works there, must be responsible for its actions. It must be accountable not only to the UN system, but to those, in the name of whom the Forum actually exists. Communication channels with the communities, not solely the “partners” between the system and the peoples, must be created. And it must be up to the Secretariat to find and develop those channels. They must develop the needed mechanism while keeping in mind that as a rule, indigenous traditional leaders have no access to the internet and often operate within oral cultures;
Fourth: We call for willingness of the UN agencies, governments and representatives of intergovernmental organizations to be open and willing to work with everyone, not solely those, who have personal connections within the system.
Dear Mr. Chairperson, indigenous sisters and brothers,
We want to emphasize that true fulfillment of the goals of the Millennium will not be possible without full and open participation of every member of the society, without engagement on every level. And definitely it will be possible only with inclusion of our traditional indigenous leaders.
We thank you very much.
02/05/06
The Government of
The
order of the Chairman of the RF Government Mikhail Fradkov on 17 April approved
the list of indigenous small-numbered peoples of the North, Siberia and the
In
connection with this decision of the Government of Russia, the Chairman of the
Veps Culture Community, Zinaida Strogalshikova, on the meeting of the Head of
the Karelia Republic with the leaders of national organizations on 28 April,
asked Sergey Katandinov to start the work on preparing necessary decisions of
Karelia authorities for implementation of the correspondent legislation related
to the Veps, as well as to initiate preparation of the decisions for the
Government of Russia about measures on support of the Veps from the funds of
the federal program “Economical and Social Development of Indigenous Peoples of
RF till
Youth Law Information Indigenous Center
“Nevond”
Tel.: +7
(8142) 764689
15/04/06
News
from the State Duma.
Analysis
of work of the State Duma Committee on Natural Resources and Landuse at
amendments to the Draft of the
On 10
April 2006 the session of the Working Group of the State Duma Committee on
Natural Resources and Landuse was held under the chairmanship of N. Komarova,
where the amendments to the Darft of the RF Forest Code were discussed.
The
most heated discussion was caused by amendments to article 26 “
Taking
into account the common tendency of “work” of the Committee at the Draft of the
Forest Code a conclusion can be made they took only time out, so that
afterwards in a hazed form to fix the right of owners and lessees of the forest
plots to limit the rights of people on their own. Much harder and clearer the
Chairman of the Committee N. Komarova suppressed the attempt to fix the
guarantees of the rights of indigenous peoples on forest use in the places of
their residence. All the amendments proposed by the deputies of the State Duma,
representatives of the Council of the Federation and legislative bodies of RF
regions were rejected. Fully ignored was the opinion of the representative of
the Committee of the State Duma on Affairs of Nationalities, supporting
amendments fixing forest use free of charge for indigenous people in the places
of their traditional residence and economical activity. The attitude of the
Committee on Affairs of Nationalities was sustained by a representative of the
public movement “The
Life of
most indigenous peoples fully depends on the forest use. The Draft Forest Code
does not give possibilities to allot forest plots to communities, families,
indigenous organizations. At the same time there were created legislative
facilities for almost any natural or juridical person, including foreigners,
companies or stateless persons, to own or rent the territories of residence of
indigenous peoples.
Neither
Draft Forest Code nor any other law oblige the forest lands owners and lessees
to secure the rights of indigenous peoples on forest use. And the state
authority bodies were released beforehand from the duty to protect the rights
of indigenous peoples. The ruefully known Federative Law #122 declared invalid
article 4 of the Federative Law “About guarantees of the rights of indigenous
peoples of the North, Siberia and the Far East of the Russian Federation”,
which vested the state authority bodies with the duty to secure the rights of
indigenous peoples on traditional lifestyle.
The
situation, where indigenous people have the same position as animals and plants
of a certain forest plot, was made not occasionally. Actually, they can be
“transferred” to owners or lessees, and use the forest only under the
conditions offered by the holder. The Draft (article 22) stipulates only
written agreement with an owner or a lessee of the land for such activities as
haymaking, pasturage, placing bee-hives and apiaries, wild-honey farming,
procurement of wood sap, wild fruit, berries, nuts, mushrooms and other forest
food products, as well as medicinal herbs and technical materials, other forest
materials, growing vegetables, melons, crops, technical plants, etc.,
procurement of products from the plantations, digging out the trees, bushes and
lianas for planting them on lands of other categories, keeping and breeding
animals in semi-wild conditions.
No
exceptions are envisaged for indigenous peoples. So, indigenous peoples living
their traditional lives and having no sources of income will have to pay a
tenant or an owner for the right to live on their native lands. The right of
indigenous peoples on forest use considering traditional lifestyle formally
proclaimed by article 27, actually is cancelled by articles 18, 19, 20, 21, 22,
23, as by the procedure of forest use indigenous peoples will be equal not only
to people having other sources of income, but even to commercial structures
using the forest for profit.
The
concept of the draft deeply contradicts the standards of international law. So,
ILO Convention 169 provides not only the possibility to use natural resources
free of charge, but to transfer the lands and natural resources to ownership of
indigenous communities. Moreover, all the rural population of Russian regions
will find themselves in difficult situation. Such VITALLY IMPORTANT ways of
forest use as haymaking, pasturage, procurement of wood sap, placing bee-hives
and apiaries, wild-honey farming, picking moss will be possible only after
written agreement with the owner, tenant or other holder of the land. This ways
of forest use do not belong to public accessible ones, which are free of
charge. So, with this Code passed, Russian population will lose the possibility
to support their living with their own free farming.
The
analysis of the Draft of RF Forest Code shows full protection of rights of
owners and lessees of certain forest plots, but not of rights of Russian
citizens, to whom the forests belong as public wealth.
Edition
of articles 18, 22, 26, 27, 28 is a coordinated system on limitation the right
on forest use for most people of
12/04/06
The
Coordinating Meeting of the directors of LIENIP information centers was held in
During
the meeting there were discussed the issues of the Network’s development and
further expansion. A perspective plan of work for the following two years was
developed. A few meetings and conferences took place in the scope of the
Coordinating Meeting.
A
meeting with the members of the Advisory Committee of the Council of Europe on
the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities was
organized on 18 March. “L’auravetl’an” presented an alternative report on
implementation of this Convention in the
Moreover,
some meetings with representatives of the Social Movement “
The
participants of the Coordinating Meeting visited public hearings on the issues
of municipal housing service held in the State Duma of RF, met with the
chairman assistant of the State Duma Committee on natural resources and landuse
Vladimir Kashin, chairman of the State Duma Committee on the problems of the
North and the Far East Valentina Pivnenko, deputy of the State Duma from the
Altai Republic Sergey Pekleyev and the deputy of El-Kurultay State Meeting Ivan
Belekov (presently the speaker of the State Meeting).
During
their work, the members of the Coordinating Meeting participated in the
information seminar on the projects of European initiative in the field of
democracy and human rights. Also, they had a meeting with the director of the
UN Information Center in Moscow A.Gorelik where the questions of reciprocal
cooperation were discussed.
Representatives
of five regions of
All the
participants expressed their satisfaction with the work done and made the
decision to hold the following reporting Coordinating Meeting in July this year
in Altai during the celebration of 250-th anniversary of Altai people’s joining
02/04/06
Archeologists:
Before the construction of the gas pipeline to
In case
of constructing “Altai” gas pipeline from Western Siberia to
“In our
country the construction must be conducted with archeological exploration,”
Polos’mak remarked. If it is found out there are some archeological artefacts
on the place of construction, they are urgently studied, and excavations are
made there. The expenses for archeological work are covered by the initiator of
the construction.” Speaking on the plans of construction of the gas pipeline
through the Ukok Plateau, where in 1993 the team she headed found a mummy of a
woman, now known as “the Princess of Ukok”, Polos’mak stated, “If all the mentioned
above conditions are observed, I don’t see any special obstacles for
construction of the pipeline. It is essential to solve the issue of protection,
study of those multiple historical memorials which are located in Altai on the
places of proposed route of the construction.”
“Ecologically
the gas pipeline is much safer than the oil pipeline. Moreover, Altai,
including highlands, needs the gas pipeline very much. Altai in whole needs the
State’s support, and the construction of the gas pipeline can become the first
real step of the State on the way of development of this territory,” Natalya
Polos’mak considers.
On 21
March, during his visit to
The Authorities
of Gorny Altai stated repeatedly about the intention to leave untouched the
part of the frontier between
At
present, the Ukok highland is one of the most difficult to reach objects of
nature in the south of the
02/04/06
It is
necessary to save “the window to
Review
of newspapers of the
We
should follow the example of Peter I and construct the gas pipeline to
29
March the Listok newspaper writes that it made a poll of its readers on the
subject of their attitude to the possible construction of the gas pipeline on
the territory of the
The
Postscriptum paper on 30 March published the article of the editor Nokolay
Vitovtsev devoted to the problems of Russian-Chinese and Russian-Kazakhstan
relationships in the light of proposed construction of the gas pipeline from
the Western Siberia to
We can
understand that “the conventional name” for the gas pipeline, which would have
to go through Altai, hides the geopolitical sense. The country is ruled by
people from the “Northern Capital” built by Peter I simultaneously with the
fortresses on the
25/03/06
The
authorities declare again about the intention to return the mummy of “the
Princess of Ukok” to Altai
Mikhail
Kozlov, the chairman assistant of the Altai Republic Government,
plenipotentiary of the Altai Republic in Moscow, has the intention to do his best
to return the mummy of the “Princess of Ukok” found by archeologists at the
beginning of 1990-s in Altai.
As
“The
return of the “Princess of Ukok” would be the proof of importance of saving the
intercultural and interethnic dialogue in
The
concert was initiated by active members of the Interregional Public Foundation
of Promotion of Study and Maintaining of Culture of Peoples of Europe, Asia and
However,
Altai indigenous people’s attitude to the fact the scientists found the mummies
is extremely negative. Altai intellectuals began asserting the Ukok Plateau was
always considered a sacred place for Altai people, they knew about the woman’s
burial, as in the unearthed barrow there was “Princess Kadyn”, who had been
worshiped by shamans for thousands of years. In Altai there is quite a powerful
movement for return of the mummy “home” and ban of further archeological
research. Actually, there are two lines among the supporters of the idea. One
part suggests to return it to Altai and exhibit in
The
Ukok Plateau is on the south edge of the modern territory of the
