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Publicatie Laka-bibliotheek:
The Rights of the Indians of the Americas. (1980)

Auteur	Fourth Russel Tribunal
Datum	november 1980
Classificatie	3.01.5.10/17 (VS - URANIUMMIJNBOUW)
Voorkant

I. Introduction

This tribunal has witnessed something remarkable in the midst of a tragedy.
Many voices have spoken before us and have expressed vividly the vitality and 
the capacity for resistance, found among the Indian people. In contrast to what has 
occurred in many other parts of the world in similar circumstances, a significant 
number of Indian nations and communities in the Americas have preserved their 
own identity and cultural initiative, in spite of the unremitting efforts of genocide 
and ethnocide directed against them.
It may well be that the most severe persecution in human history, lasting for almost 
five hundred years, has been mounted against the native peoples of the Americas. 
We refer to the wars of conquest, the fatal contagions brought to the Americas as a 
part of European contact; the enslavement and forced labor systems; integration by 
violent means into a colonialist economic system incompatible with their 
community organization of production and way of life and inconsistent with their 
self-determination; and the prohibition of their religions and the use of their 
languages.
The program of cultural destruction and social oppression of the native People of 
the Americas did not cease when the several countries of the American continent 
declared their independence. On the contrary, they simply assumed new forms. 
Since then, the machinery of internal colonialism has been continuously 
consolidated, ruthlessly seeking the desintegration of Indian communities. Now 
we are seeing an intensification of aggression led by governmental and local 
ruling groups, often dominated by transnational centers of powers.
In the countries where the Indian people are in a majority the artificial nature of 
states which do not express the multi-ethnic and multi-cultural character of the 
people becomes clearer each day. Today the Indians are questioning this false 
situation and are seeking a radical transformation.
In countries where the Indians are islands in a sea of alien culture, the governments 
deny to the Native People the right to be and continue to be themselves. And in all 
situations, in practice, the Indians are reduced to the status of raw material for other 
people's use. Many cases submitted to the fourth Russell tribunal have demonstrated, 
with powerful eloquence, the usurping character of the governmental bodies which 
are supposedly dedicated to the protection of the native people and to the 
safeguarding of their rights. We have been confronted with concrete cases of 
genocide and ethnocide: massive killings of Indian people; harassment of their 
traditional homelands and expulsion from their historic territories; plundering of 
their natural resources; extreme exploitation of their labour and violation of the 
spiritual foundations of their cultures for which both the land and the living 
creatures are sacred.

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