Los Angeles – A noisy group of about 20 sign-waving
demonstrators marched outside the annual meeting of Occidental Petroleum
Corp. OXY.N on Friday to protest the prospect the company could drill for
oil in a war-torn region of Colombia they say belongs to the U’wa Indian
tribe.
The picketers, organized by the group Amazon Watch, marched outside the
meeting at the Century Plaza hotel in Los Angeles, beating drums and waving
signs with messages of “Stop the Oxycution of the U’wa People” and “Oxy Out
of U’wa Land.”
Amazon watch organizer Kevin Koenig said the group is opposed to
Occidental’s attempts to find oil on Colombian land that they say belongs to
the U’wa people and a proposed U.S. aid package to Colombia that would be
used in part to protect the oil pipeline from rebel insurgents.
Earlier this week, the United States indicted a Colombian rebel group and
six of its members for the 1999 kidnap and murder of three U.S. human rights
workers who were giving environmental and educational assistance to the
U’wa.
“U.S. taxpayers are footing the bill for Occidental’s decision to have its
oil operation in the middle of a civil war zone,” Koenig said.
He acknowledged that Occidental is no longer drilling on or near U’wa land
but said Amazon Watch has heard that the company would like begin new
exploration in the same area soon.
“It’s highly suspect from them that they have abandoned that area,” he said.
“They still have designs on getting at what they originally estimated was
1.4 billion barrels of oil on U’wa territory.’
Occidental spokesman Lawrence Meriage pointed out that the company’s attempt
to find oil near U’wa land ended nearly a year ago, when it failed to find
sufficient reserves to justify further development. As a result, he said,
Occidental returned the land to the Colombian government.
Occidental continues to pump oil in the country under a previous operation,
but that is nowhere near the U’wa land, Meriage said.
“They’ve hijacked this group of indigenous people, glommed it onto something
that serves their own interest, and it’s rather shameful the way they’ve
been parading this around,” Meriage said. “It’s part of their prior agenda
to shut down oil operations everywhere because (they believe) this is bad
for the planet if we have oil or hydrocarbons in general.”
Amazon Watch has been a regular organizer of protests outside the Occidental
annual meetings since the late 1990s.
In 1999, one U’wa member traveled to the meeting, explaining that drilling
destroys nature’s life blood. He said 5,000 tribal members were threatening
to kill themselves by jumping off a cliff if Occidental drilled on their
ancestral territory.
In 2000, Occidental Chairman Ray Irani fought back by suing Amazon Watch and
Rainforest Action Network for harassment after the groups picketed outside
his home.
