by Deep Green Resistance News Service | Jun 16, 2012 | Biodiversity & Habitat Destruction, Indigenous Autonomy, Property & Material Destruction
By Amazon Watch
While the Brazilian Government prepares to host the Rio+20 United Nations Earth Summit, 3,000 kilometers north in the country’s Amazon region indigenous peoples, farmers, fisherfolk, activists and local residents affected by the construction of the massive Belo Monte Dam project began a symbolic peaceful occupation of the dam site to “free the Xingu River.”
In the early morning hours, three hundred women and children arrived in the hamlet of Belo Monte on the Transamazon Highway, and marched onto a temporary earthen dam recently built to impede the flow of the Xingu River. Using pick axes and shovels, local people who are being displaced by the project removed a strip of earthen dam to restore the Xingu’s natural flow.
Residents gathered in formation spelling out the words “Pare Belo Monte” meaning “Stop Belo Monte” to send a powerful message to the world prior to the gathering in Rio and demanding the cancellation of the $18 billion Belo Monte dam project (aerial photos of the human banner available upon request).
Demonstrators planted five hundred native açai trees to stabilize the riverbank that has been destroyed by the initial construction of the Belo Monte dam. They also erected 200 crosses on the banks of the Xingu to honor the lives of those lost defending the Amazon.
Also this morning, hundreds of residents of Altamira held a march to the headquarters of dam-building consortium NESA. The actions are part of Xingu+23, a multi-day series of festivities, debates and actions commemorating 23 years since the residents of the Xingu first defeated the original Belo Monte dam. Residents have been gathering in the community of San Antonio, a hamlet displaced by the consortium’s base of operations and in Altamira, a boomtown of 130,000 severely affected by the dam project.
Antonia Melo, the coordinator of Xingu Vivo Movement said, “This battle is far from being over. This is our cry: we want this river to stay alive. This dam will not be built. We, the people who live along the banks of the Xingu, who subsist from the river, who drink from the river, and who are already suffering from of the most irresponsible projects in the history of Brazil are demanding: Stop Belo Monte.”
Sheyla Juruna, a leader from the Juruna indigenous community affected by the dam said, “The time is now! The Brazilian government is killing the Xingu River and destroying the lives of indigenous peoples. We need to send a message that we have not been silenced and that this is our territory. We vow to take action in our own way to stop the Belo Monte dam. We will defend our river until the end!”
Protestors and affected communities are highlighting the glaring gap between reality and the Brazilian government’s rhetoric about Amazon dams as a source of “clean energy” for a “green economy.” The Belo Monte dam is the tip of the iceberg of an unprecedented wave of 70 large dams proposed for in the Amazon Basin fueled by narrow political and economic interests, with devastating and irreversible consequences for one of the world’s most precious biomes and its peoples.
A delegation of international observers and human rights advocates including Brazilian actor Sergio Marone of the Drop of Water Movement came to witness and lend visibility to the actions.
Slated to be the 3rd largest hydroelectric project in the world, Belo Monte would divert 80 percent of the Xingu River’s flow through artificial canals, flooding over 600 square kilometers of rainforest while drying out a 100-kilometer stretch of the river known as the “Big Bend,” which is home to hundreds of indigenous and riverine families. Though sold to the public as “clean energy,” Belo Monte would generate an enormous amount of methane, a greenhouse gas 25-50 times more potent than carbon dioxide.
by Deep Green Resistance News Service | Apr 14, 2012 | Property & Material Destruction
By Valentina Za and Joe Brock / Reuters
A crude oil pipeline owned by Italian oil and gas group Eni was attacked on Friday in Nigeria’s onshore Niger Delta and a militant group claimed the strike.
Attacks in the restive region have been fewer since an amnesty for militants in 2009, although large-scale oil theft and sporadic pipeline sabotage still occurs.
“We can confirm a pipeline, leading to Tebidaba, in the Clough-Creek area has been attacked,” an Eni spokeswoman said.
Eni’s unit Agip owns the Tebidaba-Brass pipeline, which has been subject to several attacks in recent years.
The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), which was the main militant group prior to the amnesty, claimed Friday’s attack and warned of more to come.
“At 0210 fighters of MEND attacked and destroyed one wellhead and one manifold on trunk lines belonging to Agip … more attacks to follow,” a statement e-mailed to reporters said.
MEND has been largely inactive since most of its militants agreed an amnesty with the government in 2009, ending a wave of attacks that at one stage cut oil production down by half.
Under the amnesty thousands of militants gave up their weapons, joined training schemes and drew stipends. Security sources say remaining gangs in the Niger Delta do not have the capacity to do the damage seen in the past.
But a resurgence of militant activity is an unwelcome headache to President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration, whose security forces are already stretched by an Islamist insurgency raging in the north.
From Reuters: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/04/13/eni-attack-nigeria-idUSL6E8FD19Z20120413
by Deep Green Resistance News Service | Apr 4, 2012 | Biodiversity & Habitat Destruction, Colonialism & Conquest, Defensive Violence, Indigenous Autonomy, Property & Material Destruction
By Ahni / Intercontinental Cry
Two people have died and three others are injured following a confrontation between indigenous peoples and loggers of an endangered tree in Panama.
The conflict began began on March 30, when a group of Wounaan attempted to burn logging equipment that was being used by a group of loggers working for Maderera company to cut Cocobolo timber, a type of rosewood that’s prized around the world.
The endangered hardwood is often used to make gun grips, knife handles, police batons, high-end billiard cues, marine equipment, chess pieces and various musical instruments (marimbas, clarinets, xylophones, acoustic guitars). It is also sought after in China for use in furniture.
Details of the attack are still limited, but according to recent testimony, one of the loggers began firing a weapon at the Wounaan leader Aquilino Opúa was gravely injured during the attack.
The injured leader, it was said, walked through the mountains for at least an hour before making it back to his community, where he soon passed on. The enraged community quickly mobilized to confront the loggers. Upon their arrival, a second melee followed, which resulted in the death of Ezequiel Batista, one of the tractor drivers.
At least three other Wounaan were injured during the two confrontations.
Prior to these events, Wounaan leaders had issued a statement and ultimatum, giving the Panamanian government until April 19 to issue collective titles to their lands as guaranteed by Law 72 of 2008. They also demanded the complete removal of all settlers in the Chiman zone (who had already clashed with the Wounaan on two other occasions this year) and the end of all indiscriminate logging in the area.
“We demand the government to remove the settlers of our land and take responsibility for what happens, because we are willing to defend our land with blood,” said Edilberto Dogirama, president of the Embera-Wounaan General Congress.
Panama’s National Environmental Authority (ANAM) had then suspended all logging permits for two weeks to avoid any conflicts in the region. It had also ordered an eviction of all persons involved in the timber industry.
At least one logging group–that is, company–did not comply with the official order.
Javier Tejeira, Deputy Minister of Government, yesterday said that Police carried out a weekend raid to evict the remaining loggers.
An inquiry into these events is currently ongoing. So far, no arrests have been made.
From Intercontinental Cry: http://intercontinentalcry.org/panama-wounaan-attacked-by-loggers-for-defending-endangered-cocobolo-trees/
by Deep Green Resistance News Service | Mar 6, 2012 | Property & Material Destruction, Repression at Home
By Jana Winter / Fox News
Law enforcement agents on two continents swooped in on top members of the infamous computer hacking group LulzSec early this morning, and acting largely on evidence gathered by the organization’s brazen leader — who sources say has been secretly working for the government for months — arrested three and charged two more with conspiracy.
Charges against four of the five were based on a conspiracy case filed in New York federal court, FoxNews.com has learned. An indictment charging the suspects, who include two men from Great Britain, two from Ireland and an American in Chicago, is expected to be unsealed Tuesday morning in the Southern District of New York.
“This is devastating to the organization,” said an FBI official involved with the investigation. “We’re chopping off the head of LulzSec.”
The offshoot of the loose network of hackers, Anonymous, believed to have caused billions of dollars in damage to governments, international banks and corporations, was allegedly led by a shadowy figure FoxNews.com has identified as Hector Xavier Monsegur. Working under the Internet alias “Sabu,” the unemployed, 28-year-old father of two allegedly commanded a loosely organized, international team of perhaps thousands of hackers from his nerve center in a public housing project on New York’s Lower East Side. After the FBI unmasked Monsegur last June, he became a cooperating witness, sources told FoxNews.com.
“They caught him and he was secretly arrested and now works for the FBI,” a source close to Sabu told FoxNews.com.
Monsegur pleaded guilty Aug. 15 to 12 hacking-related charges and information documenting his admissions was unsealed in Southern District Court on Tuesday.
As a result of Monsegur’s cooperation, which was confirmed by numerous senior-level officials, the remaining top-ranking members of LulzSec were arrested or hit with additional charges Tuesday morning. The five charged in the LulzSec conspiracy indictment expected to be unsealed were identified by sources as: Ryan Ackroyd, aka “Kayla” and Jake Davis, aka “Topiary,” both of London; Darren Martyn, aka “pwnsauce” and Donncha O’Cearrbhail, aka “palladium,” both of Ireland; and Jeremy Hammond aka “Anarchaos,” of Chicago.
Hammond was arrested on access device fraud and hacking charges and is believed to have been the main person behind the devastating December hack on Stratfor, a private company that provides geopolitical analysis to governments and others. Millions of emails were stolen and then published on Wikileaks; credit card numbers and other confidential information were also stolen, law enforcement sources told FoxNews.com.
The sources said Hammond will be charged in a separate indictment, and they described him as a member of Anonymous.
by Deep Green Resistance News Service | Feb 10, 2012 | Property & Material Destruction
By Emma Amaize / Vanguard
After cessation of hostilities for some months in the Niger-Delta, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger-Delta, MEND, weekend, threatened to bomb telecommunication giant, MTN, SACOIL and other investments of South Africa in Nigeria because of alleged interference of President Jacob Zuma in its struggle for justice in the Niger-Delta.
The militant group issued the warning in an internet post by its spokesman, Jomo Gbomo, shortly after it bombarded the National Agip Oil Company, NAOC, trunk line at Brass in Bayelsa state on Saturday.
In a disguised reference to the tribulation of its assumed leader, Henry Okah and postponement of his trial in by a South-African court, the militant group said the South Africa President has reduced himself to a mercenary of President Goodluck Jonathan.
According to it: “In the dark days to come, MTN, SACOIL, and other South African investments will pay a heavy price for the interference of Jacob Zuma in the legitimate fight for justice in the Niger Delta by its people. The South African President has reduced himself to the position of a hired thug for Goodluck Jonathan.”
The group, which also announced a new phase for its struggle for justice, claimed responsibility for the January 28 bombing of the Ogbogbabene country home of the Minister of Niger-Delta, Elder Peter Godsday Orubebe in Burtutu Local Government Area of Delta State.
In the words of the group, “On Saturday, the 4th of February at 19:30hrs, fighters of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (M.E.N.D) attacked and destroyed the Agip trunk line at brass in Bayelsa State in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria.
“This relatively insignificant attack is a reminder of our presence in the creeks of the Niger Delta and a sign of things to come”, it stated.
“We have constantly warned Nigerians about Goodluck Jonathan and his train of idiots running Nigeria. Events of the last few months have vindicated our position on the inability of this moron to lead Nigeria anywhere but downwards”, the group added.
“Rather than address serious issues facing the nation and its citizens, Goodluck Jonathan squanders public funds on tribalistic sycophants and thugs calling themselves ex-militants.
For more, please see the full article by Vanguard: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2012/02/mend-directions-of-a-new-upsurge/
by deepgreenresistance | Nov 29, 2011 | Property & Material Destruction
By Agence France-Presse
Masked gunmen on Friday blew up a gas pipeline which supplies Egyptian gas to Israel, the official MENA news agency reported, in the eighth such attack this year.
The saboteurs planted explosives under the pipeline, around 60 kilometres (40 miles) west of the town of El-Arish in the north of the Sinai peninsula, before fleeing, witnesses said.
No one was injured and, due to maintenance operations at the time of the blast following recent attacks, there was no gas in the pipeline, MENA reported.
The pipeline, which carries gas through the Sinai and on to Jordan and Israel, has already been attacked seven times this year, the first during the mass uprisings that drove president Hosni Mubarak from power in February.
The last attack was carried out two weeks ago, when two explosions struck the same section of the pipeline. The army was deployed in the region since the blasts.
Gas deliveries to Israel, agreed under Mubarak, have come under heavy criticism in Egypt.
Israel generates 40 percent of its electricity using natural gas, and Egypt provides 43 percent of its gas supplies.
Egyptian authorities have on several occasions announced measures to step up protection of the pipeline and try to arrest those behind the attacks.
Egyptian gas also covers 80 percent of Jordan’s electricity production demand — 6.8 million cubic metres a day.
Egypt’s Sinai region is particularly security sensitive due to tensions with the Bedouin community living there.
Many goods are smuggled to the Palestinian enclave of Gaza through the Sinai, which the Israelis also charge is a rear base for militant attacks against its territory.
From The Raw Story: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/11/25/egypt-gas-pipeline-blown-up-again-state-media/
