Panama City, Panama – While on location shooting the film adaptation of John le Carré´s “The Tailor of Panama”, Director John Boorman (Emerald Forest) along with actors, Pierce Brosnan, Geoffrey Rush, and John Polito joined indigenous leaders from the U´wa People of Colombia and the Kuna People of Panama yesterday in a tree planting ceremony in a Panama City park.
The ceremony commemorated three US humanitarians, Terence Freitas, Ingrid Washinawatok and Lahe ´ena´e Gay, who were murdered in Colombia last year while on an educational mission to assist the U´wa tribe (pronounced oo-wah).
The U´wa are an indigenous people of approximately 8,000 who live in the Colombian cloud forest. The U´wa are locked in a struggle against Occidental Petroleum of Los Angeles (OXY), which plans to drill for oil on land the U´wa consider sacred.
The U´wa who believe that oil is the blood of mother earth, have repeatedly stated that they are willing to die peacefully defending their land from the oil project. Current resistance to OXY´s plans include 4,500 people peacefully blocking the proposed drill site, and a seven-days old hunger strike by four indigenous members of the Colombian Congress and Senate.
For the Hollywood stars, the planting of a tree is close to their hearts. Pierce Brosnan, renowned for his portrayal of James Bond in the 007 films, is slated to open Earth Day 2000 in Los Angeles. Brosnan is also involved in National Tree Day of Australia which he hopes will become a worldwide campaign, of which today’s ceremony was a moving example.
Digital format photos will be released on www.amazonwatch.org later this week.
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U’WA DEFENSE WORKING GROUP is endorsed by the following organizations: Action Resource Center, Amazon Watch, Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund, EarthWays Foundation, Indigenous Environmental Network, Project Underground, Rainforest Action Network, Sol Communications, U’wa Defense Project, International Law Project for Human Environmental and Economic Defense
