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Date: Tue, 22 Feb 2000 15:40:22 +0100 (MET)
From: Ria Verjauw <rverjauw@mail.dma.be>
Subject: TEXT EP RESOLUTION - Dineh Big Mountain

                T H E    T E X T
G O O D    N E W S
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thursday the 17th February 2000 :

during the plenary sessions in Strassbourg,
the EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT adopted the URGENCY RESOLUTION,
against the forced relocation, the ongoing violations of
human-, religious- and landrights of the Dineh at Big Mountain.

TEXT:
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As adopted by the European Parliament on 17 February 2000

Native Americans in the US - Dineh
B5-0152, 0157, 0163, 0171 and 0174/2000

European Parliament resolution on native Americans in the US - Dineh

The European Parliament,

-       recalling the provisions on rights of indigenous peoples contained in the
Vienna Declaration adopted by the World Conference on Human Rights stressing
the need to protect the economic, social and cultural well-being of
indigenous peoples including their distinct identities and cultures,

-       having regard to its resolutions on the rights of indigenous peoples, in
particular that of 9 February 1994  and 19 January 1995 ,

-       recalling the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, as
well as the principles of Agenda 21 and the Convention on Biological Diversity,

-       having regard to United Nations General Assembly Resolution 36/55 -
Declaration on the elimination of all forms of intolerance and of
discrimination based on religion or belief,

-       having regard to Resolutions 1989/97 and 1990/34 of the UN Sub-commission
on prevention of discrimination and protection of minorities on the
"Relocation of Hopi and Navajo families",

A.      mindful of the Dineh people who reside in the Hopi Partition Lands (HPL)
in the United States and are facing eviction through the implementation of
the Relocation Act (Public Law 93-531), obliging them to sign the
Accommodation Agreement,

B.      aware of the fact that the US Government will start the relocation
process very soon,

C.      concerned that the recent Public Law 104-301 and its Accommodation
Agreement will mean the Dineh (Navajo) families in the Black Mesa region
being forced to abandon their land, given the denial of sufficient
livestock, thereby threatening the Dineh's cultural and socio-economic
survival, confiscation of
firewood causing families severe hardship, especially in winter, and the
withdrawal of rights regarding water, hunting and medicinal gatherings,

D.      aware of the fact that Dineh families residing in HPL live near the
Peabody Coal Company coal mining lease areas on Black Mesa, which the Bureau
of Indian Affairs granted water rights to the Navajo aquifer, the sole water
source of the Dineh and Hopi, whose wells are rapidly drying up, thereby
threatening their spiritual and religious existence,

E.      considering the fact that on Black Mesa there are 10,000 sites of special
significance for the cultural heritage of the Dineh people,

F.      aware of the fact that 94 million gallons of water contaminated with
uranium mining waste broke through a United Nuclear Corporation storage dam
on 16 July 1979, pouring into the Puerto river in New Mexico and the Little
Colorado river where Dineh families from HPL had been evicted to contaminated
radioactive areas along the Little Colorado river's so-called New Lands,

G.      concerned about the health of the Dineh families living in the vicinity
of existing mining facilities on Black Mesa and those who relocated to the
New Lands,

1.      Calls on the US Government's law-enforcement officers to halt all
harassment of Dineh families resisting relocation;

2.      Calls on the US Government to respect the land rights of the Dineh people
as well as the provisions for indigenous peoples of the Vienna Declaration;

3.      Calls on the US Government not to proceed with the Accommodation
Agreement  until the US Congress mandates formal congressional hearings to
re-assess the impact of mining in the region;

4.      Calls on the US authorities to organise integration programmes for the
Dineh people who have been relocated;

5.      Calls on its delegation for relations with the United States to discuss,
at its next meeting, the Dineh (Navajo) and Hopi people's human rights,
development, cultural and religious rights and their
treatment by the United States;

6.      Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the
Commission, the US Government, the US Congress, the Navajo and Hopi Tribal
Councils and the Governor of the State of
Arizona.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

During the penary session in Strassbourg, interventions about the Dineh Big
Mountain were made by:
- Johan Van Hecke (Belgian MEP: Christian Democrats)
- Kathleen Van Brempt ( Belgian MEP: Socialists)
- Dirk Sterckx ( Belgian MEP: Liberals)
- Patsy Sorensen ( Belgian MEP: Greens)

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 

A new step forward, in the good direction, has been taken :
"against violations of human rights ALL OVER THE WORLD the same attitude and
measures need to be taken, no other interests may play a role in taking a
clear stand and in acting, with non-violant means, against violations of
human-, relisious- and landrights.
We go on.

for FOR MOTHER EARTH BELGIUM - Working Group on Indigenous Peoples -
Ria Verjauw

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