Jebra Ram Muchahary testified at the United Nations during the Second Indigenous Permanent Forum held during May 12-May 23, on the unique challenges faced by the Bodo people of Assam, as well as the problems shared in common with other indigenous peoples, whose representatives attended the Forum. He also raised several issues affecting the Bodo, during a meeting sponsored by the World Bank, in the offices of the UNEP (United Nations Environment Program). Below is a personal communication from Muchahary submitted for publication exclusively on Calicutnet.

Well, right from my childhood I have been experiencing what is called backwardness. Living in a remote village 5 kilometres away from a small sub divisional town called BIJNI I have been seeing al these years ILL HEALTH, POVERTY, LACK OF PROPER COMMUNICATION, LACK OF HEALTH CARE, LACK OF MEANING FUL EDUCATION AND NO PROPER ROAD COMMUNICATION, NOT TO MENTION ABOUT THE ELECTRICITY AND TELEPHONE WHICH ARE LIKE A DREAM for us.

It is interesting to share why I joined school job in Bhutan and not at home country? I was very sensitive and patriotic right from my child hood and I love my family members, my village, my people as it is our world full of enthusiasm and social co-operative life. We live in green village very close to forest as we depend directly or indirectly on the forest and forest products for our lively hood. we collected fire wood from the forest which we need. we went for hunting for our requirments.

We started to demand a separate polity called BODOLAND from 1987 AND I was an active member( General Secretary) of our students union called ALL BODO STUDENTS' UNION (ABSU), Shillong unit. My involvement for my people drew bad attention to the government and they tried to arrest me and hence I had to go to Bhutan for my refuge. I stayed five years there till 1993 and I came back in 1993 after Bodo accord as our people and the government entered in a peace accord to create Bodoland Autonomous Council (BAC).After coming back from Bhutan I began to join ICITP ( Indian Confederation of Indigenous and Triba peoples) and its movement and this is how I am here in the UN level to still find some good solution to our causes in order to improve my peoples' fate. Sincerely yours

Indigenous Peoples’ Life Experiences – Coming Soon! 

Calicutnetnet has asked persons attending the Indigenous Peoples’ Permanent Forum at the UN (May 12 – May 23) to tell their stories to our e-readers. Calicutnet will print these as they come in.  

The bottom-line driven infotainment, corporate media in the US has completely ignored the event. There are no reports in the mainstream media, in the papers or on TV and radio, about the presence and activities of indigenous peoples from all over the world who are bringing their legitimate concerns and grievances to the United Nations during May. Incomprehensibly, the UN’s own DPI,  Department of Public Information, denied access to Calicutnet  to cover the events.  The delay in posting these events was largely due to the DPI refusal to grant access to Calicutnet to cover the Permanent Indigenous Forum 

The Brown Sahibs of the UN phallocracy, guarding their jobs and perquisites, rubber stamping at every turn the policy of unilateralism and dominance of the US, fail every day to carry out the core precepts of the UN’s own Preamble.  The DPI orchestrates the celebration of World Press Freedom Day at UN HQ every year, and at the same time denies access to independent, non-corporate media.  

Not fazed by the DPI’s repeated failure and refusal to grant unfettered access to independent, non-corporate, online  media, Calicutnet is giving indigenous peoples’ representatives the opportunity to tell their unique and often moving stories, in their own words. Of course we must rely on the responses of individuals who came to the Forum, to submit their stories. Some may be understandably concerned that their participation on Calicutnet will be viewed unfavorably by DPI’s functionaries.  Indigenous persons however, have shown themselves to be resilient in the face of official and bureaucratic indifference to their genuine concerns.  

First person stories reflecting the lived experience of indigenous persons in many parts of the world, as well as other kinds of personal accounts, will be posted as they are received. 

As part of the Indigenous Peoples’ Series, accounts of lived experiences from persons belonging to indigenous groups in the entire South Asia region will be especially welcome. Please send these to us for posting. 

Thanks. 

Chithra KarunaKaran
Contributing Editor
Focus on the UN Series
http://www.calicutnet.com

The CCDD Manipur is a coalition of indigenous peoples' groups working to continue the traditional and customary livelihoods of the peoples of the region, among them Meitei, Hmar, Zeliangrong, Naga and others. Recently, activists among the  Indigenous peoples of Manipur have called for scrapping the Tipaimukh High Dam Project. The writer quoted below is Debabrata Roy Laifungbam of CCDD, who attended the Second Indigenous Peoples' Forum at the UN. In his letter, Roy gives his impression of a meeting in Bonn, Germany that he attended after the UN meeting: 

Citizens' Concern for Dams & Development CCDD_Manipur@hotmail.com wrote: 

Dear Chithra,

I am afraid the Bonn meeting was very disappointing because the whole Kyoto Protocol framework under the UNFCCC ( United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change is a fraud with not real commitment or action to reduce GHG emissions. It is really a new  market mechanism to trade  in futures and enclose air and atmosphere spaces by  privatising them. One of  the last frontiers to go after the commons and  community lands, waters, etc.  Communities, especially indigenous peoples, have no  voice in the Kyoto  Protocol or its CDM, which is jargon filled and a  lot of pseudo-scientific  bull about CO2 credits and calculations that are  very airy-fairy and  contentious, also excluding so many other factors as  social and enviromental  impacts of carbon sequestration or "sinks" projects  in the selective  Southern countries where DFI is applicable. It is  ironic and extrmemly  cynical that a Convention to tackle global climate  change has no regard to  the environment or the social dimensions!!! 

I shall write but later as I am now inAmsterdam, totally exhausted and

home-sick!! 

Best,

Roy 

D.Roy Laifungbam is a founder and Director Indigenous health and human

Rights) of Centre for Organisation Research & Education (CORE), an indigenous peoples' centre for policy andhuman rights, based in  Manipur in the North eastern region of India. CORE, established in 1987, responds to the immense deprivation of information relating to development and human rights that the region faces till today. Laifungbam has been consistently advocating for a real space within India as well in the international arenas of policy dialogue, formulation and implementation for the indigenous and tribal peoples of the region to fully exercise a self-determined future that is respectful of past and future generations and as trustees to a rich natural inhertance for the world. He is also an outspoken and independent human rights defender. 

Citizens Concern for Dams and Development is an indigenous rights coalition based in the small northeastern Indian state of Manipur. India's mountainous northeast is joined to the rest of the country by only a 20 kilometre-wide strip of land sandwiched between Bangladesh and Bhutan. The region also borders Burma and Tibet. Hundreds of distinct indigenous groups live in the region which has long suffered ethnic and political violence and repression by the Indian government. 

CCDD is currently focusing on lobbying for the rights of the thousands of indigenous people who would be displaced the proposed Tipaimukh hydropower project. Tipaimukh, a 1500 megawatt high dam on a tributary of the mighty Brahmaputra, is one of scores of large dams planned in the region, including some of the world's biggest hydropower projects. The valleys that would be flooded contain some of the most ecologically valuable ecosystems remaining in South and Southeast Asia. 

Hydropower promoters are likely to try to gain carbon credits to subsidize these destructive projects in the name of climate protection. They may also claim that these huge dams should be eligible for funds being established to help developing countries adapt to the increased floods and drought that will be caused by climate change. Critics claim that dam projects frequently worsen the destructiveness of floods and that better and cheaper forms of water storage and management are available. 

Citizen's Concern for Dams and Development is pushing for the promoters of Tipaimukh and other dams to follow the recommendations of the World Commission on Dams, in particular that: (1) no dam should be built on indigenous people's land without without their free prior and informed consent and (2) comprehensive and participatory assessments of water and energy needs, and of the different options for meeting these needs, should be developed before proceeding with any project.