Demand to
the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights, about the repression, the death
and the incarceration against the Indigenous People to cease *
5 of February 2001
Ambassador Jorge Enrique Taiana
Executive Secretary
Inter-American Commission of Human Rights
Dear Ambassador Taiana:
The Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (the
"Conaie"), represented by Mr. Antonio Vargas and the Center of
Economic and Social Rights (the "CDES"), represented by its General
Coordinator, Paulina Garzón, under the legal sponsorship of doctor Patricio
Pazmiño Freire, we respectfully present to the Commission of Human rights (the
"Commission") the following petition against the Government of the
Republic of Ecuador, in accordance with Articles 41 (f), 44 and 51 of the
American Convention of Human rights (the "Convention") on behalf of
the natives (men, women and children) that since January 22, 2001 came to
participate in peaceful demonstrations in opposition to the economic measures
decreed by the government of Doctor Gustavo Noboa Bejarano.
This demand shows serious violations committed by the Ecuadorian
Government represented by Dr Gustavo Noboa Bejarano in his role of President of
the Republic, the . Juan Manrique in his role of Minister of Government and
Police and the Vice-Admiral Hugo Unda, Minister of Defense, when arranging
actions and measures that violate sacred fundamental rights in the Political
Constitution of the Republic, several international treaties ratified by
Ecuador, as well as the International Pact of Civil and Political Rights, the
American Convention of Human Rights, the Convention on the Rights of Children,
the Convention on the Elimination of all types of Discrimination Against Women
and Agreement 169 of the International Organization of Work.
In Ecuador, as fruit of its political fragility, corruption and economic
crisis, in the last years have they have dismissed two Presidents of the
Republic, without spilling a single drop of blood, at the present time, the
violent and repressive measures ordered by the government of Dr Gustavo Noboa
B., has shot many natives and nearly five thousand natives detained, that is to
say, surrounded by elements of the National Police and the Army, in the patios
of the Polytechnical University Salesiana.
In a quite suspicious way, coinciding with the arrival of the natives in
the capital of the Republic, the Monday 1st of January of this year, have
appeared graffiti on the walls of the city with phrases saying: "Be a
patriot, kill an Indian", and in the Park of the Little Tree dead dogs
have been thrown, the site of the initial concentration of the march, with
placards that said "Do not play with fire, Manueles...you are going to
die"
Antecedents
Different indigenous, student and workers organizations of
The indigenous protests are the result of a whole history of
discrimination, abandonment and massive poverty, especially suffered by the
indigenous people. In recent years,
These people and nationalities are terribly limited in political
participation and representation. Less than 3% of the members of the National
Congress are indigenous, nor is there a single native in the Ministerial
Cabinet. Many of the official positions and mass media do not have open doors
to the dialogue nor a single active participant of this sector of the
population. For them, one of the few resources to express their opinions, to be
listened to and to participate in the political life of the country, is through
the massive mobilization towards the capital.
For cultural reasons, the decisions that the indigenous communities take
in cases that affect them in general terms, are taken in assemblies through
traditional mechanisms by means of a decentralized and general procedure that
has resulted in the acceptance and participation of all the members of the
community. This means that the indigenous demonstrations are conformed to by
most of their members, even old women and children to have a nonviolent
character.
Approximately, between 8,000 and 10,000 natives have arrived at the city
of
Relation of the facts
The government of Ecuador has decided to respond with violence and
repression to these peaceful mobilizations, dispersing the natives in the
highways with tear gas, shots, preventing them from traveling towards the
Capital by transport forcing them to walk hundreds of kilometers, and
confiscating the cars brought food from the provinces for the demonstrators.
When Sunday 28th of January arrived, a police wall - under direct orders
of the president of Republic, Dr Gustavo Noboa, Government Minister, Juan
Manrique, and the Minister of Defense, Vice-Admiral Mario Unda, prevented these
people from being reunited and from camping in the Little Tree Park in the
neighborhood of the House of Culture, this being a park for public use.
By disposition of the National Government, from the first hours of 29th
of January 2001, it was not allowed for the demonstrators within the UPS to
receive humanitarian aid from the citizens of Quito and international
organizations providing medicine, clothes, foods, disposable diapers and
potable water. In addition, the services for light, potable water and telephone
were cut in the whole of the UPS.
In parallel, a massive discrimination against the natives (men, women
and children) has been exerted and they have been prevented to walk in the
streets bordering the Polytechnical University Salesiana (UPS) solely because
they are indigenous and wearing clothes that characterizes them as such,
whether they are or are not part of the mobilization. An alarming fact that
cannot be stopped from being denounced, because of the profound implications of
discrimination and racism, is the action of the police in the province of
Imbabura, who started to stop chauffeurs and to confiscate the vehicles of
transport cooperatives, exclusively for the "crime" of having a
native name as it happened to the car of transport no. 2 of the Cooperative
"Imbaburapac".
During all these days the University has remained besieged, the basic
services have partially recovered thanks to the pressure of public opinion and
it has prevented, in many cases violently and arbitrarily, (as the national
press reports and some organizations of human rights and ONG´s have denounced
it) the access of cars, trucks and people with donations of essential supplies
like water, medicines, disposable diapers, foods and food supplies. The use of
tear gas has been constant and indiscriminate, causing asphyxia specially in
women, children, and the old, and leaving several wounded.
This situation is becoming progressively aggravated, if one considers
that in the night of Friday 2nd of January the national government has dictated
Executive Decree no. 1214, and by the authority of the Ministers of Defense,
Hugo Unda, and of Government, Juan Manrique, who proceeded to execute it immediately.
The State of Emergency is declared in all the national territory, like the
Mobilization of the FF.AA. and the National Police, authorizing the Public
Force to make the requisitions that have been determined in Articles 54 and 55
of the National Security Law, at the same time citizen rights are suspended in
numbers 12, 14 and 19 of Article 23 of the Constitution, that is to say the
rights of: mobilization, free circulation, free association and the
inviolabilidad of the home.
These facts allow us to anticipate that if the government exerted acts
of violence, at moments that the Constitution was in full force, it may be
presumed that at the end of the day the violent action, the repression and the
violation of the fundamental rights can be more direct and could affect and
place in imminent risk the security and the life of the natives, mainly those
most vulnerable like the old, the children, and the women who are surrounded in
the UPS.
Violations of rights
The actions of the national government have violated the following
fundamental rights guaranteed in the Political Constitution of the Republic and
treaties of human rights:
The right to freedom of opinion and expression, the right to free
movement, the right to have meetings and the right to peaceful association and
the right to equality:
The government has violated fundamental rights that are consubstantial
for the life of a democracy by taking repressive measures to prevent the
exercise of rights of liberty of expression and association. The natives in a
peaceful way, without arms, in the public light, accompanied by groups of
singers and dancers, walking, showed their rejection of the government's
economic measures, and, in these circumstances, they have suffered a degree of political
and military repression that is excessive and unusual in the recent political
history of the country. The impact and the citizen commotion that caused these
governmental actions deserved the immediate reaction of the H. National
Congress, that dated 31st of January 2001, by means of legislative agreement,
rejected the violence and governmental repression.
The right to special protections for children and women, the right to
health, the right to personal integrity.
When not providing foods and cutting the basic services, as well as when
preventing receiving humanitarian aid, it put in risk the life and wholeness of
children, women and the old, who now face serious physical and psychological
consequences, violating minimum norms of international humanitarian rights. The
government has a special obligation towards the children, adolescents and
women. The Constitution, in harmony with international instruments, grants
status to vulnerable groups, and the government is obligated to take care of
and to grant the favor of its protection in situations of disaster and armed
conflicts. Nevertheless, the public force constantly takes actions of
intimidation and psychological pressure against the natives, through the
mobilization of hundreds of operants with anti-riot cars and light tanks.
The right to not being stopped arbitrarily, and the right to due
process.
The government of Ecuador, when arranging to prevent the free
circulation of the demonstrators outside the perimeter of the UPS, jailed in
fact near to 5000 natives during the 29th and 30th of January 2001, violating
norms of due process and personal freedom.
The right to equality without discrimination for ethnic or cultural
reasons.
When arranging that all native (nonparticipants of the mobilization)
must abandon their means of transport, it prevented circulation in the city,
and confiscated units of transport due to the fact of having indigenous names,
the government of Ecuador adopted racist measures that harm the right of
equality of all Ecuadorians.
In the words of the Dr Julio Prado Vallejo, illustrative member of the
Inter-American Commission of Human rights, before the serious situation "a
fervent call to the Government to stop the repression that the Police
indiscriminately is carrying out to prevent legitimate manifestations of
indigenous communities who protest the economic measures" (the Express of
Guayaquil, Thursday, 1st of February 2001, p. 2, first edition).
By the character of Social State of Right of Ecuador, and by
subscribtion and to having ratified the International agreements, Pacts and
Declarations in the matter of human rights, it is under the jurisdiction of the
Commission and therefore is subject to the scrutiny and investigation of the
disposition, admissibility and reasonableness of the means adopted by the
National Government in relation to the facts related here, the same as they
carry responsibilities at national and international level and delegitimize the
adopted actions.
Not settling down such responsibilities, the immediate and medium
consequences for our country will mean the perpetuation of a political model
based on repression, segregation and racial exclusion for reasons of poverty,
and it will be forced to prevent human rights justice.
Request
The Republic of Ecuador ratified the American Convention on December
28,1977 and the Protocol of San Salvador on March 25, 1993. Consequently, the
petitioners respectfully request that the Commission:
Initiate the procedure in this case according to the procedure
enunciated in Articles 46 and 51 of the Convention and 19 of the Statutes of
the Commission.
Exhaust all the procedures established by the Commission in order to
clarify and to prove the facts and violations alleged by this request.
To consider that the stated facts demand of the Commission the urgent
adoption of exceptional measures of protection to guarantee the integrity and
to avoid irreparable damages that the thousands of natives who are in the UPS
could undergo, before the certain threats of an imminent evacuation on the part
of the public force, under the discretionary judgement under the Decree of
Emergency; basing our request on articles 41, letter b) of the Convention and
18, letter b) of the Statute of the Commission, and, under the protection
established in article 29, numeral 2 of the Regulation of the Inter-American
Commission of Human rights, we request that immediately the Commission
interposes urgent precautionary measures against the Ecuadorian Government to
prevent them from carrying out violent actions of force and the evacuation of
the natives who are in the interior of the UPS and in this way to assure the
due respect of human rights.
Declare that the government of Ecuador has violated Articles 19 and 25
(2) of the American Declaration; Article 9 (1), (2), Article 12, Article 19 and
Article 24 of the Pact of Civil and Political Rights; Article 13 (1) and 15 of
the American Convention of Human Rights; Article 1, Article 2 (c) and Article 4
(b), (h) of the Inter-American Convention on Violence Against Women; Artice 3,
Article 19 (1) and Article 24 (1) of the Convention on the Rights of Children;
Article 3 of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination;
Article 10 (1), (2-f) of the Protocol of San Salvador; Article 23 (2), (3),
(7), (9), (14), (19), Article 24 (4 and 6), Article 42, Article 47, and Article
48 of the Political Constitution of Ecuador; exhorting them to repair and
compensate for the damages committed against the natives who have suffered harm
and injuries as a result of the police and military repression and, sends the
proceedings to the Inter-American Court of Human rights.
By virtue of the nature, content and reach of Executive Decree no. 1214
with which the State of National Emergency is declared, limiting and
restricting the civil liberties and guarantees, for the petitioners, and, in a
particular way for the natives who are surrounded in the UPS, it becomes
impossible to attend before the national events to obtain an pronouncement on
the tenor of this request and, particularly, in order to assure the
precautionary measures for urgent protection of rights, principally before the
imminent facts of force that can cause serious damage to the fundamental rights
of the natives.
In the next few days we will send the documents of proof (videos,
photos, testimonies etc..) that will support and demonstrate the assertions of
this request.
The petitioners respectfully request that all future communications on
this case are sent to telefax: (5932)560449, Quito, Ecuador.
Mr. Antonio Vargas
CONAIE
Mrs. Paulina Garzón
CDES
Dr. Patricio
Pazmiño Freire
* Instituto Científico de Culturas Indígenas
(ICI).
Cuestiones de América Nē 7,
Noviembre de 2001
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