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DAM-L Police Interrupt Peaceful Anti-Dam Protest in Honduras (fwd)
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From: Right to Water <right-to-water@iatp.org>
To: dianne@sandelman.ottawa.on.ca
Subject: Police Interrupt Peaceful Anti-Dam Protest in Honduras
Date: Thu, 19 Jul 2001 23:22:02 -0500
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Message-ID: <20010720041149130.AAV478.513@[208.141.36.73]>
Right to Water (right-to-water@iatp.org) Posted: 07/18/2001 By svarghese@iatp.org
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Police Interrupt Peaceful Anti-Dam Protest in Honduras
by Daniel Graham
(Telephone 504-220-5280 at COFADEH office in Tegucigalpa)
July 18, 2001 TEGUCIGALPA, HONDURAS. Approximately fifty National
Police troops descended on the Legislative Palace at 12:30 am this
morning to forcibly remove 300 peaceful demonstrators from the
premises. The police used shields and clubs to push the demonstrators
out from under the pillar-supported capitol and onto the plaza in front
of the neighboring National Art Gallery. The demonstrators clashed
briefly with the police, wielding pieces of firewood as weapons, but
soon dropped the wood at the behest of protest leaders.
The demonstrators have been camped beneath the capitol building since
marching on the Honduran capital on July 4 to protest legal
irregularities and brutality on the part of energy company Energisa, a
privately-owned concern that is attempting to build a 4.4-megawatt dam
in the buffer zone of Sierra de Agalta National Park. The protesters
demand the removal of Energisa from the municipality of Gualaco in
Olancho department in eastern Honduras. They also demand a thorough
investigation into the June 30 murder of community leader Carlos
Roberto Flores, 29, by six Energisa security guards.
Gualaco mayor Rafael de Jesús Ulloa denounced Minister of Security
Gautama Fonseca's decision to remove the protesters from the capitol.
He also complained about the lack of central government support for the
rural municipality since Energisa's initial arrival in 1994.
"International NGOs need to know that our rights have been violated in
Olancho. Energisa never consulted the municipality before beginning
construction of its dam project, and the central government has done
nothing to support our community in the face of this menace."
The 210 protesters from Gualaco, Olancho, have been joined this week by
more than 80 members of The Civil Counsel of Popular and Indigenous
Organizations of Honduras (COPINH), a primarily Lenca Indian rights
organization that has joined in solidarity with the Olancho
demonstrators. Cándido Martínez, spokesperson for the 80-member COPINH
contingent, promised that as many as 10,000 Lencas would be arriving
later this week to offer their support to the Gualaquo contingent as
well as to observe el Día de Lempira (Honduras's Indian Pride Day) to
honor the martyred Lenca Chief, on July 20.
Observers speculate the forced removal of the demonstrators may be
related to official visits by delegates of the Organization of American
States (OAS) and by high-ranking Taiwanese officials.
Source: IRN
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