Pemuda Adat Harus Melawan

Serlin Mobalen pemuda adat Malamoi, Papua Barat mengungkapkan perasaannya soal wilayah dan masa depan masyarakat adat mereka. Ia mengatakan itu dalam sesi wawancara khusus kemaren pagi di sela-sela acara Kongres Masyarakat Adat Nusantara Kelima (#KMANV) berlangsung.

Menurutnya sebagai pemuda adat patut besar untuk menjaga dan mempertahankan wilayah adat dari perusahaan apa pun yang datang ingin merampas hak-hak masyarakat adat. Sejak ia mengenal AMAN hingga hari ini di kampung terus-menerus mengajak pemuda adat untuk sama-sama berjuang di tanah leluhurnya.

Gagah, tegas dan tak sedikit pun canggung saat diwawancara, berhadapan dengan kamera, diminta menjawab lima pertanyaan yang memang sudah disiapkan penanya, cuaca panas Tanjung Gusta yang panas tak satu pun di antaranya membuatnya gugup.

Selalu senyum, tenang dan setia menunggu pertanyaan-pertanyaan dari Ajeng—kru INFIS. Serlin tak sekalipun kelihatan bimbang atau goyang. Ia tenang dan berkali-kali mengucapkan bahwa perannya di komunitas adatnya adalah mengajak para pemuda adat untuk sama-sama menyadari persoalan yang datang ke hadapan mereka. 

Serlin seperti pemuda adat lainnya, menunjukkan ketegasan sikap pemuda adat yang berdiri kukuh dan taat pada prinsip.

[Jakob Siringoringo]

 

 

Murder of Berta Cáceres Remains Unresolved

Indigenous leaders and Latin American environmentalists continue to be killed

A year ago, Berta Cáceres, Honduran indigenous environmentalist leader was killed by gunmen hired by dark powers who sought to curb the resistance of the indigenous leader and Honduras social organizations to the construction of the Agua Zarca hydroelectric dam on the Gualcarque River, vital for the survival of indigenous peoples and local communities.

 

This murder raised a wave of international outrage and has become a symbol of the resistance against projects that threaten the environment and human rights, whether hydroelectric, mining, infrastructure, agribusiness, illegal deforestation, among others.

 

In last January, in Tegucigalpa, capital of Honduras, Global Witness presented a report that shows connections between political elites, powerful businessmen and criminal organizations, and links them to the wave of violence against environmental indigenous leaders.

 

Behind the Agua Zarca project is Desarrollos Energeticos SA (Desa),  information published by the newspaper The Guardian shows that the board of directors of this company includes politicians, military and businessmen; including a high military intelligence rank – whom Berta had denounced for offering her a bribe to stop resistance – a former justice minister, as well as a manager of one of the richest banks in Central America[1].

 

A year after the death of Berta Cáceres, the intellectual authors of the killing remain unidentified. What the Honduran government has managed to do is to approve a package of legal norms that reinforce the repression against social movements and which introduce the possibility of applying the figure of terrorism to social movements.

The Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH) has denounced the approval of these laws in order to persecute and criminalize the social movements. This comes just as social organizations prepare several actions to demand justice for the murdered Berta Caceres.

 

Another emblematic case is the kill of Isidro Baldenegro, Rarámuri indigenous leader, who had been fighting illegal loggers for decades in the Sierra Madre of Mexico. He was murdered in the remote community of Coloradas de la Virgen, “heart of a fight of more than 30 years against the illegal loggers of the forest”, in the State of Chihuahua, Mexico.

 

Berta Cáceres and Isidro Baldenegro fights were recognized with the Goldman Prize; their death reflects the deadly reality that latin american indigenous leaders are facing while protecting the environment and their peoples rights. In 2015, 50 people were killed in Colombia, 26 in Peru and 12 in Guatemala, 10 in Honduras and 8 in Honduras, according to Global Witness.

[1] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jan/31/honduras-environmental-activists-global-witness-violence-berta-caceres

By Fabio Víquez

BARISAN PEMUDA ADAT NUSANTARA

KONTAK KAMI

Sekretariat BPAN, Alamat, Jln. Sempur, Bogor

officialbpan@gmail.com

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