Christian call made for indigenous land rights in Argentina

-13/06/06

Church organizat


Christian call made for indigenous land rights in Argentina

-13/06/06

Church organizations and human rights groups have called on Roy Abelardo Nikisch, the governor of the Argentine province of Chaco, to address the claims of indigenous people who have been displaced from their lands.

A planned meeting with the governor on 6 June 2006 was cancelled when he refused to meet with 20 delegates from different ethnic groups.

At the same time, hundreds of indigenous people were demanding a solution to the land conflict outside Mr Nikischís offices.

“We call on [the authorities] to receive them and listen to them as they deserve, and truly to take into account their justified demands,” says a letter sent from the Latin American Council of Churches, the US World Church Service (Southern Cone Region), the Argentine Federation of Evangelical Churches (FAIE), and the Ecumenical Movement for Human Rights (MEDH).

Representatives of the Protestant and ecumenical organisations said that it is not appropriate for them as “white people to interpret the needs of these communities [which] were on the lands before our ancestors got off [their] boats.”

Instead, they declared, the right thing to do is to recognise and lobby for their current needs in the light of continued suffering and the denial of basic rights.

“We must hear their voices and from there act, bringing about justice according to the role that society has granted each of us in this historic moment,” the letter declared.

It went on to say that the demands of the indigenous population accords with the National Constitution ñ which recognizes the pre-existence of indigenous peoples, their right to the lands they traditionally occupied, to an inter-cultural bilingual education, to their own language and culture, and to their participation in issues that affect them.

The church leaders are calling for a resumption of ìserious dialogueî in the Argentine province.

[Also on Ekklesia: World churches end assembly with call to ease debts of Latin America; Latin American churches rethink debt problem; Journeys With Garth Hewitt Latin America; Theological congress to parallel world churches assembly; Book about radical priest questions morality of US foreign policy; Catholic leader says yes to unity, justice and peace; Bolivia erupts against inequality and poverty; Christian calls for inquest on Pinochet arms scandal; Brazilian churches take part in national disarmament campaign; Venezuela Protestants challenge Chavez on CIA mission link]


Christian call made for indigenous land rights in Argentina

-13/06/06

Church organizations and human rights groups have called on Roy Abelardo Nikisch, the governor of the Argentine province of Chaco, to address the claims of indigenous people who have been displaced from their lands.

A planned meeting with the governor on 6 June 2006 was cancelled when he refused to meet with 20 delegates from different ethnic groups.

At the same time, hundreds of indigenous people were demanding a solution to the land conflict outside Mr Nikischís offices.

“We call on [the authorities] to receive them and listen to them as they deserve, and truly to take into account their justified demands,” says a letter sent from the Latin American Council of Churches, the US World Church Service (Southern Cone Region), the Argentine Federation of Evangelical Churches (FAIE), and the Ecumenical Movement for Human Rights (MEDH).

Representatives of the Protestant and ecumenical organisations said that it is not appropriate for them as “white people to interpret the needs of these communities [which] were on the lands before our ancestors got off [their] boats.”

Instead, they declared, the right thing to do is to recognise and lobby for their current needs in the light of continued suffering and the denial of basic rights.

“We must hear their voices and from there act, bringing about justice according to the role that society has granted each of us in this historic moment,” the letter declared.

It went on to say that the demands of the indigenous population accords with the National Constitution ñ which recognizes the pre-existence of indigenous peoples, their right to the lands they traditionally occupied, to an inter-cultural bilingual education, to their own language and culture, and to their participation in issues that affect them.

The church leaders are calling for a resumption of ìserious dialogueî in the Argentine province.

[Also on Ekklesia: World churches end assembly with call to ease debts of Latin America; Latin American churches rethink debt problem; Journeys With Garth Hewitt Latin America; Theological congress to parallel world churches assembly; Book about radical priest questions morality of US foreign policy; Catholic leader says yes to unity, justice and peace; Bolivia erupts against inequality and poverty; Christian calls for inquest on Pinochet arms scandal; Brazilian churches take part in national disarmament campaign; Venezuela Protestants challenge Chavez on CIA mission link]