Quito, Ecuador – On December 17, 2003 the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, based in Washington D.C., extended the Precautionary Measures granted in favor of Sarayaku for an additional six months.
This extension is primarily based on the grave incidents that occurred on December 4th and 5th of 2003 when several Sarayaku inhabitants traveling on the way to Puyo were assaulted physically and verbally by a group of individuals without any preventive action or intervention taken by the Ecuadorian government in regards to this incident.
“That is the reality of our struggle while we are defending our ancestral and cultural rights, as well as everything that our territory provides us, the authorities simply ignore obligatory international resolutions that should be complied with. However, we will continue our struggle, without any fear, because we know that the Constitution and International Laws and Conventions assist us and back-up our position,” said Marlon Santi, President of Sarayaku. He concluded that “this struggle is not only one in defense of our rights, but it is a struggle for the benefit of all Ecuadorians and for that reason we will continue.”
In the same sense, Jose Serrano, lawyer from the Center for Social and Economic Rights (CDES), which provides legal counsel to Sarayaku along with CEJIL (Center for Justice and International Law), observed that “the extension of the precautionary measures should not be solely understood as a new resolution made by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to protect the inhabitants of Sarayaku, but also implies a severe attention call to the Ecuadorian government’s systematic practice of violating human rights and in this specific case, the collective rights of the indigenous peoples.”
Serrano also affirmed, “if the Government does not assume its obligation to comply with the international resolutions that are issued to protect human rights in a responsible, serious and immediate manner then chaos is generated which in the end destabilizes, socially and judicially, all Ecuadorians. In this regard, it is urgent that a priority response be given to this new resolution and that they become immediately implemented.”
The precautionary measures were ordered in May of this year and included as principle points that the physical integrity of Sarayaku¹s community members and its leaders be respected, that an investigation of the incidents which occurred in January of 2003 should take place, and that special protection be given to the relationship that Sarayaku people have with their territory.
However, since the precautionary measures were not complied with, and actually the situation worsened, the Commission today ordered an extension of the precautionary measures.
