Indigenous Leader Abducted in Colombia

As if to prove the direct human rights implications of EDC funding, one of its most outspoken critics, Kimy Pernia Domicó, was abducted at gunpoint by right-wing paramilitaries on June 2. Pernia had visited Canada on several occasions to speak out against the Urrá hydroelectric project that had flooded his people, the Embera-Katío, out of their ancestral lands in north-western Colombia. The project was partially funded by the EDC, like many other projects around the world that have led to appalling human rights abuses (see Reckless Lending for details). Over a month later, there is still no word of Pernia, and no-one has claimed responsibility for his disappearance. Despite letters and appeals from people around the world, including fifty-six Members of Parliament, the Colombian Government has refused to take any action.

Please contact ICCHRLA (the Inter-Church Committee on Human Rights in Latin America) to find out how you can help, at 129 St. Clair Ave. W., Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M4V 1N5; tel. (416) 921-0801; or visit their web site at http://www.web.net/~icchrla/.