Mr.
James Mulva
President
CONOCO-PHILLIPS
Dear Mr. Mulva
The Interfederation Committee of the Shuar and Achuar Indigenous nations of Ecuador, assembled in the city of Quito today, has decided to address this letter to you in order to express once more our rejection to oil extraction activities in our territory.
We have been sustaining this position since we learned that the Ecuadorian government, in 1996 and 1998, awarded concessions of Blocks 23 and 24 to oil extraction companies, which directly affect our sacred territory without giving us any notice, consultation or asking for our consent.
We reject the entrance of oil extraction companies into our territory because we are conscious that their activities will only bring contamination and misery to our indigenous communities, as it has been happening in the northeastern part of the Ecuadorian Amazon, for more than thirty years.
In the years that we have been resisting the entrance of oil companies like CGC, ARCO and then Burlington into our territory, we have directly verified that their activities bring violence, division and a lot of conflict to our people. We have denounced human rights violations committed against us by these companies before organizations like the Constitutional Tribunal and the Civil Anti Corruption Commission of Ecuador, the International Labor Organization, the Commission and the Inter American Human Rights Court, and the rapporteur of Indigenous Communities of the UN. Despite the fact that these organizations have heard and recognize our concerns, these companies insist on continuing oil extraction activities in Blocks 23 and 24 against our will as legitimate owners of these territories.
When we found that Conoco/Phillips bought Burlington, we decided to send a delegation of two representatives of our peoples to their annual meeting in order to inform them about our positions. In that instance, you explained that Blocks 23 and 24 were under revision.
For this reason, we are now writing to you asking that you please inform us of the results of these revisions and to ask you once more that Conoco/Phillips respect our will, our culture and our rights by desisting for ever entering into Blocks 23 and 24. We will remain vigilant, so our rights are respected in accordance to the effective International and National laws.
[see original for signatures]Shuar and Achuar Federations of Ecuador
