News from Survival International

Vedanta snubs British government again

Fri, 12 Mar 2010 12:05:54 +0000

Vedanta Resources plans to mine the Dongria Kondh's homeland.
© Survival

Vedanta Resources has once again snubbed a British government investigation into its planned mine in Orissa, India, by labelling government calls for a change in its corporate behaviour ‘one-sided’, and urging it to ‘rest the case’.

In September 2009, the British government upheld a complaint against FTSE 100 company Vedanta by Survival. The government’s National Contact Point (NCP) for the OECD Guidelines on multinational enterprises concluded that Vedanta had ‘failed to respect the human rights’ of the Dongria Kondh, whose sacred mountain Vedanta wishes to mine. The NCP concluded that a change in the company’s behaviour was ‘essential’.

Today the British government released the final review of its investigation, based on reports from both Survival and Vedanta on whether the company has made the changes demanded by the government last September.

Survival’s submission, based on a detailed field investigation, concluded, ‘We found not the slightest evidence that [Vedanta] has done anything at all. On the contrary, the company appears to have ignored the NCP’s recommendations in their entirety.’

Vedanta, however, has simply asserted, ‘Vedanta wishes to make clear that it does not accept the UK NCP’s conclusions … Vedanta considers the UK NCP’s criticisms both inaccurate and inappropriate’ because ‘Vedanta’s group of companies is a predominantly Indian organisation, in terms of both ownership and management structure.’ It adds, ‘We expect the UK NCP to take a constructive and consultative approach, rather than taking a one sided view by an NGO undertaking and their aggressive media campaigns with relative disregard to the actual facts’, and ends, ‘please now respect our position and rest the case.’

Contrary to its statement, Vedanta Resources is a British company, formed in the UK for the purpose of floating on the London Stock Exchange. It is, therefore, bound by British company law, and expected to abide by British corporate guidelines.

Vedanta’s planned mine has attracted a torrent of recent criticism, from the Church of England and the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust to Amnesty International and the Norwegian government.

Survival Director Stephen Corry said today, ‘Vedanta’s response today will come as no surprise to anyone who’s had dealings with the company. They have adamantly refused to change the way they operate, which can best be characterized as bullying and obstructive. It looks like only the weight of public pressure, which is increasing every day, will bring about a change in their behaviour.’

Note to editors: The OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) Guidelines on Multinational Enterprises are the key principles for ethical corporate behaviour for companies based in the OECD member states.

Bari Indians speak at landmark Supreme Court hearing

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 18:32:00 +0000

Bari prepare for communal fishing, Venezuela
© Fiona Watson/ Survival

Thirteen Bari Indians of the Sierra de Perijá mountains in western Venezuela attended an historic hearing at the Supreme Court in Caracas last week, to defend their right to own their ancestral land.

Venezuelan law guarantees indigenous peoples the right to own their land and the Constitution stipulates that all indigenous land must be demarcated by 2001. However, the Bari are still waiting for their land title to be granted.

It was the first time that the Bari have been allowed to speak at such a hearing, despite having pushed the courts to listen to them for the past ten years.

At last week’s hearing, a Bari leader said, ‘Sabaseba, our god, ordered us to look after our mountains. The land of Venezuela is Sabaseba’s home. The Court must protect it, as well as our human rights’.

The verdict of the hearing is yet to be delivered.

The Bari Indigenous Reserve, where most of the Bari live, is now being invaded by miners, loggers and drug traffickers.

The lives and livelihoods of the Bari are threatened as these outsiders are bringing diseases such as tuberculosis to the area, as well as destroying the forest and polluting the rivers, which threatens the fish and animals upon which the Bari rely for their survival. They also incite violence, and attack and harass the Bari, often linking them to the drugs trade.

One Bari man has been detained in prison for five months after he and two other Bari were arrested by the National Guard, taken across the border to Colombia, tortured and made to pose as drug-dealers for photographs.

The Bari man does not have proper access to lawyers or to an interpreter, which is in violation of the Venezuelan constitution. It is reported that his health is in a fragile state.

Speaking about the arrested man, one Bari leader said, ‘He is innocent. The whole community is witness to that. You are draining us of our blood and our life’.

Survival has raised the issue with the Venezuelan government and asked for his immediate release, as the authorities have not provided any credible evidence to justify his arrest and detention.

Britain’s Foreign Office criticized for misleading public about Botswana

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 10:32:00 +0000

Bushman boys
© Survival

A London barrister has criticized the UK’s Foreign Office for failing to acknowledge on its website that the Botswana government illegally and forcibly removed Gana and Gwi Bushmen from their ancestral lands.

Gordon Bennett represented the Bushmen in their four-year legal battle against the Botswana government after it evicted them from the Central Kalahari Game Reserve. The case was the longest and most expensive the country has ever seen, and culminated in 2006 when the Botswana High Court ruled that the evictions were illegal and unconstitutional and that the Bushmen have the right to live in the reserve.

However, Mr Bennett has criticized the Foreign Office for failing to address this in its country profile of Botswana. ‘Its website refers to arguments advanced by the government to justify its relocation of the Bushmen, but it does not explain that the court ruled that the relocation was indeed unlawful’.

Mr Bennett also challenged the Foreign Office’s reference to a ‘constructive dialogue’ between the Bushmen and the government, which it describes as ‘ongoing’. ‘I remain in regular contact with Bushmen who have returned to the reserve’, he said, ‘but do not believe that any of them have participated in discussions with the government’.

The Foreign Office also says nothing of the government’s continued policy of preventing the Bushmen from returning home by banning them from accessing a water borehole on their lands, at the same time as drilling more boreholes for wildlife and allowing the opening of safari lodges with swimming pools on the Bushmen’s lands. Nor does it mention the legal proceedings recently launched by the Bushmen in a bid to gain access to their borehole.

Mr Bennett said, ‘The FCO will understandably not want to take sides in this dispute, but its website is in danger of misleading the public. I am surprised that it makes no reference at all to the difficulties faced by Bushmen denied their human right to water’.

The Foreign Office’s profile of Botswana is at odds with the US State Department’s 2008 report, which heavily criticizes the government for its ‘continued narrow interpretation of a 2006 high court ruling’. While the FCO notes the government’s claim that evicting the Bushmen ‘was necessary to enable them to benefit from the country’s development’, the US report acknowledges they were ‘forcibly resettled’ and describes the Bushmen as ‘economically and politically marginalized’ and without ‘access to their traditional land’.

The UN Special Rapporteur for indigenous peoples, Professor James Anaya, also recently condemned the Botswana government for denying the Bushmen access to water which he describes as not in keeping with the ‘spirit and underlying logic of the [2006 High Court] decision, nor with the relevant international human rights standards’. Anaya also called on the government to reactivate the borehole ‘as a matter of urgent priority’.

Survival’s director Stephen Corry added, ‘The Foreign Office is failing in its duty to give the British public an accurate picture of Botswana’s human rights record. Anybody considering going to Botswana should be aware of the government’s continued persecution of the Bushmen so they can make an informed decision about whether or not this is a country they want to visit.’

Legal blow for controversial Andaman tourist resort

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 10:23:00 +0000

A Jarawa man and boy by the side of the Andamans Trunk Road
© Salomé

Weeks after the last member of the Bo tribe died on the Andaman Islands, an Indian court has moved to protect the neighbouring Jarawa tribe by suspending the operation of a controversial tourist resort.

India’s Supreme Court ordered on Monday that the company, Barefoot India, must close its resort near the Jarawa’s reserve, pending further deliberation by the court.

Despite concerns for the future of the tribe, Barefoot had challenged the legality of a ‘buffer zone’ around the reserve. The buffer zone was designed to protect the Jarawa by preventing tourism and other commercial activity near their land. The resort lies within the disputed zone.

But concerns remain over a highway running illegally through the tribal reserve, and the poachers, tourists and other outsiders it brings into daily contact with the Jarawa. The Indian government has ignored a 2002 Supreme Court ruling that the road must be closed.

Most of the Bo tribe, whose last member Boa Sr died in January, died of diseases brought by British colonists in the nineteenth century. The Jarawa, who resisted contact with outsiders until 1998, are expected to have little immunity to many outside infections and could be wiped out by an epidemic.

Many of Barefoot’s visitors will have recently stepped off long-haul flights. Research indicates that about 20% of airline passengers develop colds or other viral infections within a few days of their flight.

Survival’s director Stephen Corry said today, ‘Nobody wants to see the Jarawa go the same way as Boa Sr’s people. This week’s court decision to suspend the Barefoot resort is a positive sign. But if the Indian government is serious about protecting the Jarawa it must close the road and keep intruders off their land.’

Colombian leaders in London to launch ‘campaign against extinction’

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 14:50:53 +0000

Nukak mother and child.
© David Hill/Survival

Two indigenous Colombian leaders are on a European tour to launch an international campaign aimed at protecting at least eighteen tribes facing the ‘imminent risk of extinction’.

The campaign is being launched as indigenous peoples in Colombia suffer ‘massive violations of their rights’, says ONIC, the country’s national indigenous peoples’ organisation. These violations are caused by ‘the internal armed conflict in Colombia, the lack of social and differential policies on the part of the Colombian state for indigenous peoples, and the imposition of a devastating development model in indigenous territories.’

The two leaders, Luis Fernando Arias Arias and Neida Janeth Yepes Rodriguez, are due to speak at a public event at Amnesty International’s Human Rights Action Centre in London on Tuesday 16 March.

One of the aims of the campaign, coordinated by ONIC and other indigenous organisations, is to raise ‘awareness in Colombian society and in the international community of the high risk of extinction suffered by indigenous peoples. . . Of these peoples, eighteen have a population of less than 200, and 10 have a population of less than 100.’

ONIC ‘considers that the critical situation for the indigenous peoples of Colombia is the responsibility of all of humanity. When an indigenous people disappears, a whole world is gone, with its respective culture, spiritual vision, language, ancestral knowledge, and traditional practices.’

One of the tribes at risk is the Nukak, many of whom have been driven from their land by Colombia’s civil war.

The launch of the campaign comes shortly after the death of the last member of a tribe in India, a tragedy that made global headlines.

Spokespeople from Survival, Amnesty and ABColombia are also due to speak at the event in London.

Where: Amnesty International UK, The Human Rights Action Centre, 17-25 New Inn Yard, EC2 3EA

When: Tuesday 16 March 18:30-20:30

Act now to support the Nukak.

Stars line up in West End to celebrate tribal peoples

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 10:39:00 +0000

Mark Rylance has been a Survival supporter for many years.
© Mark Rylance

Survival is proud to announce ‘WE ARE ONE – a celebration of tribal peoples’, a fundraising evening in aid of Survival International created and directed by Mark Rylance, on Sunday 18 April at the Apollo Theatre in London.

The evening will be a performance of tribal prose and poetry from some of the UK and Hollywood’s leading actors and musicians including Julie Christie, Mackenzie Crook, Sinead Cusack, Colin Firth, Emilia Fox, Michael Gambon, Sophie Okonedo, Mark Rylance, Derek Jacobi, Danny Sapani, John Sessions, Kevin Spacey, Juliet Stevenson, Ken Stott, Zoe Wanamaker, and James Wilby.* There will also be a performance by Bruce Dickinson, Jon Lord and Ian Paice.

Get your tickets for this one-off show from the Apollo website.

This unique theatrical event is inspired by the words and images of tribal peoples featured in the recently published book ‘WE ARE ONE – a celebration of tribal peoples’, created and edited by Jo Eede and published by Quadrille Publishing, to mark the 40th anniversary of Survival.

Survival is a human rights organization that campaigns for tribal peoples, helping them to protect their lives, lands and futures. Mark Rylance has been a supporter of Survival for many years. He said: "As a child, I was enriched and inspired by the lives and stories of the world’s tribal peoples. As an adult, I have also been inspired by the ceaseless work of the organization Survival International, and their movement to protect these tribes – from the rainforest of the Amazon to the icy reaches of the Arctic.

“A new anthology called ‘We are One’ portrays tribal peoples today – their communities, art, humour, rituals, languages and wisdom, as well as their connections to their homelands and their struggle for recognition and survival – through a powerful collection of prose, poetry and photographs.

Arhuaco man, Colombia.
© Survival

“To celebrate 40 years of Survival’s work and enjoy the beauty of the spoken word from such rich oral cultures, I am gathering my friends from the theatre on the set of Jerusalem for a wonderful spring afternoon of eloquent recitals and stunning images from ’We are One’.

“To hear such moving words from our brothers and sisters who still live so intimately attached to their lands, is to be reminded that they have much to share with the world, and that we all have a deep need for a sense of belonging to each other, and to nature.”

Details of the evening: Sunday 18th April, 5 – 7pm, Apollo Theatre, 39-45 Shaftesbury Avenue, London W1D 7EZ

Ticket prices: £20, £35, £50, £100 (£100 includes an invitation to the after-show party).
Telephone: 0871 297 0741, or www.nimaxtheatres.com

For further information contact Miriam Ross at +44-(0)20 7687 8734

(*cast subject to availability)

Notes to editors:

The anthology ‘We are One’ is a collection of statements from the world’s tribal peoples, from the Yanomami of the Brazilian Amazon, to the semi-nomadic Penan of Malaysia and the Innu of Canada’s sub-arctic tundra. These are supported by powerful essays and extracts from Richard Gere, Zac Goldsmith, Colin Firth, Bruce Parry, Jane Goodall, Joanna Lumley, Damien Hirst, Satish Kumar, Tony Juniper, Jonathan Porritt, Arundhati Roy, A.C. Grayling, Laurens van der Post, Doris Pilkington-Garimara, and many others.

The book is illustrated with photographs by leading photojournalists, including: Sebastiao Salgado, Mike Goldwater, Steve McCurry, Mirella Ricciardi, Carol Beckwith, Yann-Arthus Bertrand, Tim Allen, Claudia Andujar.

We Are One celebrates the lives, homelands, rituals, languages, ideas and values of tribal peoples and explores the relevance of their knowledge and beliefs to the present time. It is both a portrait of the beauty and diversity of tribal peoples, and a call to arms that examines many of the contemporary humanitarian and environmental issues inherent in their fight for survival.

Peru bars oil companies from uncontacted tribes’ reserve

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 13:19:00 +0000

Twenty-one of the uncontacted Indians known to use the reserve recently made off-limits to oil and gas companies.
© Heinz Plenge Pardo / Frankfurt Zoological Society

A reserve inhabited by uncontacted tribes in the remote Peruvian Amazon can no longer be explored by oil and gas companies.

The Madre de Dios Reserve was created in 2002, but three years later a Chinese company, Sapet, was given permission to work there in an area known as ‘Lot 113’. Sapet’s contract has now expired and, according to a Perupetro map dated 31 December 2009, the reserve is not to be included in the latest ‘auction’ of land to companies currently scheduled to be held in May.

Twenty-one of the uncontacted Indians who live in the reserve were photographed from the air just over two years ago.

‘The news of the definitive elimination of ‘Lot 113’ from Perupetro’s oil maps is an important decision because, as well as guaranteeing the integrity of isolated peoples in Madre de Dios, it is an excellent precedent for the protection of isolated peoples in other regions and countries whose territories are included in oil lots,’ said local indigenous organization FENAMAD.

In 2006 Sapet agreed not to work in the reserve after lobbying by FENAMAD and national indigenous organization AIDESEP. But Perupetro maps described the reserve as open for exploration until very recently.

In many other parts of Peru the government continues to allow companies such as Perenco, Repsol YPF and Petrobras to work on uncontacted tribes’ land.

Survival director, Stephen Corry, said today, ‘It’s great news that the Madre de Dios Reserve has been excluded from Perupetro’s oil lots. Peru must now apply that precedent to elsewhere in the country and make sure that no region inhabited by uncontacted Indians is invaded by oil and gas companies – especially in the upcoming auction.’

Guatemala adopts indigenous rights into Constitution

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 15:05:50 +0000

A Mayan woman during a kite festival at Santiago Sacatepequez, Guatemala
© Christophe Chat-Verre/Survival

The Constitutional Court of Guatemala has adopted ILO Convention 169 on indigenous and tribal peoples into the country’s Constitution.

Guatemala ratified Convention 169, the only international law for tribal peoples, in 1996. It is one of twenty countries to have ratified the Convention, which recognizes tribal peoples’ land rights and says they should be consulted prior to the approval of any projects on their lands.

The Court ruled that all the rights provided for in the Convention have constitutional status, which means that the State must consult with indigenous people before approving any mining and hydroelectric licenses, laws and regulations in their territories.

The ruling is a success for Guatemala’s indigenous peoples, the Maya, Garifuna and Xinca, giving them greater control over projects that affect them. It is also significant for tribal peoples across the world, showing the growing strength of Convention 169.

Survival is calling on all countries to ratify ILO Convention 169; the more countries that do so, the greater force it will have.

UN report condemns Botswana’s treatment of Bushmen

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 09:56:00 +0000

UN Special Rapporteur Prof. James Anaya has called for 'urgent' action on water for the Bushmen
© Colegio de Antropólogos de Chile

Report demands ‘urgent’ action by government over water

The UN’s top official on indigenous rights has condemned Botswana’s continued persecution of the Bushmen in a new report.

Prof. James Anaya, UN Special Rapporteur for indigenous peoples, highlights the government’s harassment of the Bushmen and Bakgalagadi tribes in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, who, despite winning a 2006 High Court ruling that their eviction from the reserve was unlawful, continue to face ill-treatment.

In the report Prof Anaya writes that the ‘denial of services to those currently living in the reserve does not appear to be in keeping with the spirit and underlying logic of the [2006 High Court] decision, nor with the relevant international human rights standards.’

He states that, ‘Indigenous people who have remained or returned to the reserve face harsh and dangerous conditions due to a lack of access to water, a situation that could be easily remedied by reactivating the boreholes in the reserve. The Government should reactive the boreholes or otherwise secure access to water for inhabitants of the reserve as a matter of urgent priority.’

He also notes that, ‘the Government’s position that habitation of the reserve by the Basarwa [Bushmen] and Bakgalagadi communities is incompatible with the reserve’s conservation objectives and status appears to be inconsistent with its decision to permit Gem Diamonds/Gope Exploration Company (Pty) Ltd. to conduct mining activities within the reserve, an operation that is planned to last several decades and could involve an influx of 500-1200 people to the site, according to the mining company.’

Finally he recommends that the Government should ‘fully and faithfully implement’ the 2006 High Court ruling and facilitate ‘the return of all those removed from the reserve who wish to do so, allowing them to engage in subsistence hunting and gathering in accordance with traditional practices, and providing them the same government services available to Botswanans elsewhere, including, most immediately, access to water’.

Survival’s director Stephen Corry said today, ‘Criticism is now growing of the government’s continued, appalling refusal to allow the Bushmen access to water. It is deeply unpleasant, bullying behaviour, and shocks those who learn about it. Survival now directly reaches more than a million people and we will ensure they know about this. It’s astonishing that the government continues to behave in this way. As long as it does so, the Bushmen issue will remain a cancer at the heart of Botswana’s international reputation.’

Calm returns to Chittagong Hill Tracts, but fear remains

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 16:35:22 +0000

Calm is returning to the Chittagong Hill Tracts in Bangladesh after last week’s attacks on the Jumma tribal people by the Bangladesh army and settlers.

However, reports from the area suggest that thousands of Jummas have been made homeless after settlers, supported by the army, burnt more than 400 tribal houses to the ground.

Two Buddhist temples, two churches and a school were also burnt down. Tensions had been raised when settlers, supported by soldiers, expanded their settlements on Jumma land.

After the attacks in Baghaihat, where at least two people were shot dead by the army and hundreds of homes were razed to the ground, the violence spread to other areas of the Chittagong Hill Tracts. More than 60 Jumma houses were destroyed in the Khagrachari region. Restrictions on movement, and fear that they would be attacked by settlers, or arrested under false charges, made it difficult for many Jummas to venture out of hiding, and hampered efforts to confirm the number of dead and injured.

The EU has condemned the attacks and called for an independent investigation into the incident, and for those responsible to be brought to justice. Jumma groups and organizations such as Survival International, Amnesty and the CHT Commission, have also condemned the attacks and called for an investigation. There have been peaceful demonstrations in Bangladesh, India, USA, Britain and Australia.

Hundreds of thousands of settlers have been moved into the Hill Tracts over the last sixty years, in a policy supported by successive governments, displacing the eleven Jumma tribes and subjecting them to violent repression.

In 1997 the government and the Jummas signed a peace accord that committed the government to removing military camps from the region and to ending the theft of Jumma land by settlers and the army. The accord offered hope, but military camps remain in the Hill Tracts and violence and land grabbing continue.

Yanomami fear for their lives as miners invade their land

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 12:00:41 +0000

Yanomami shaman and spokesman Davi Kopenawa has made an urgent appeal for support as the Yanomami territory in northern Brazil is being invaded by gold-miners.

Davi said, ‘The arrival of miners is increasing, and the Yanomami are very worried… Soon there will be conflicts between the miners and the Yanomami… I know how the miners treat the Yanomami and I am also very sad because some Yanomami are working at the mining sites in return for food. They will fall ill; they’ll catch malaria and sexually transmitted infections, because the miners will use the Indian women as they have done in the past’.

He added, ‘I am very angry with FUNAI (the Brazilian government’s indigenous affairs department) and the police; they have not controlled the entrance of miners. The Yanomami territory is being invaded’.

Davi Yanomami’s warning comes just months after he met with President Lula to ask him to remove all the gold-miners working illegally in the Yanomami territory.

The Yanomami’s land is recognized as an indigenous territory and it is illegal for miners to operate there. However, it is estimated that over 1,000 miners are in the area and the Yanomami warn now of a further influx.

The miners transmit diseases such as malaria and flu which are potentially fatal for the Yanomami who have little resistance to such introduced diseases. 500 new cases of malaria were found in the Yanomami population of Brazil in 2009. Their total population there is around 16,000.

The miners also pollute the rivers with mercury, contaminating drinking water and fish consumed by the Indians.

Yanomami health is suffering and critical medical care is not reaching them because of corruption and incompetence in Brazil’s National Health Foundation (FUNASA).

The danger of violence to the Yanomami is ever present as the miners are usually armed.

During the 1980s, the Yanomami suffered immensely when up to 40,000 Brazilian gold-miners invaded their land. Miners killed some Yanomami, destroyed many villages, and exposed them to diseases to which they had no immunity. Twenty percent of the Yanomami died in just seven years.

If the miners now working illegally on Yanomami land are not evicted as a matter of urgency, the Indians risk similar destruction and death.

Please write to the President of Brazil and ask him to take urgent action to remove the miners.

‘Open the dam and let the water flow’ – desperate plea from Omo Valley

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 16:38:00 +0000

A Kwegu boy outside his hut. The Omo Valley tribes are finding it hard to feed their children in these times of drought.
© Survival

Many tribal people in the Lower Omo Valley in Ethiopia are starving as the region is in the grip of a drought and the river’s annual flood has failed.

The Kwegu, a small hunter-gatherer tribe, have been badly hit. Survival has received reports that two Kwegu children and four adults died from hunger in November.

A Kwegu man sent this message: ‘Go and give this news to your elders, we Kwegu people are hungry. Other tribes have cattle, they can drink milk and blood. We don’t have cattle; we eat from the Omo River. We depend on the fish, they are like our cattle. If the Omo floods are gone we will die.’

The rains have not fallen properly for three years in the Omo Valley, home to eight different tribes and around 200,000 people. The annual flood of the Omo River, a lifeline for the region, has decreased in recent years, and in 2009 it failed completely.

A Mun tribesman said, ‘Before the flood waters would come and we would have big cultivation sites. Now, all the cultivation sites … have got no water.’

It is not clear why the rains have stopped, or why the flood failed. What is clear, is that the Gibe cascade – a series of five dams planned for the Omo River – is likely to stretch an already strained region, and its people, to breaking point.

Some Kwegu blame the dam. One said, ‘Our land has become bad. They closed the water off tight and we know hunger. Open the dam and let the water flow.’

Gibe I is already complete, damming one of the tributaries of the Omo River. The Gibe II dam blocks the same river, and recently was a major source of embarrassment for the Ethiopian government and Italian firm Salini Construttori, after part of it collapsed just ten days after opening.

The Gibe III dam is about one third complete. A 50 meter cofferdam was recently built as part of the ongoing dam construction. Some believe it may have contributed to the lack of the annual flood.

If completed, Gibe III will be the second largest hydroelectric dam in Africa.

Experts warn it will irrevocably devastate the Omo River’s flood cycle, which is crucial to the Omo Valley tribes’ livelihood and survival.

The Ethiopian government claims Gibe III, aside from generating enough electricity to power the country several times over, will increase the safety of the downstream tribes by stopping giant floods from sweeping away livestock and people. But the tribes are clear – without the annual flood, they cannot survive.

A Mun tribesman said, ‘Now that the floods are gone we have a big problem. We are afraid of death. The rainy season hasn’t come for three years. Why haven’t the rains been working all this time? Did the sky not sign his work papers? Did he forget to work?’

‘There is no singing and dancing all along the Omo River now. The people are too hungry. The kids are quiet.’

‘The big rains have been gone for three years and now, we come to the Omo and there is no water.’