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US Covers Up Indigenous Border Abuses at OAS: Brenda Norrell
Relacionado a un país: Estados Unidos (EE.UU)

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US Covers Up Indigenous Border Abuses at OAS: Brenda Norrell
Translated into Spanish by: Michelle Cook
US State Department and BIA attempt to cover up their crimes,
interrupt Lipan Apache testimony on human rights abuses at the border,
during hearing of Organization of American States

By Brenda Norrell

WASHINGTON -- As Lipan Apache Margo Tamez delivered powerful testimony
on the US government's human rights violations at the Texas/Mexico
border before the OAS Inter-American Commission on Human Rights,
members of the US State Department and BIA interrupted to cover up
their crimes.
After introducing herself in the Apache language, Tamez described how
her family's land is being seized without consent or consultation for
the US/Mexico border wall. Tamez said the lands of her people would be
divided and result in relocation, especially for the elderly. Tamez
said the place where they pray is on the other side of the border. She
described what is happening to Indian people all along the border, in
this new wave of genocide of Indian cultures and ceremonies along the
border.
During the hearing today, Oct. 22, members of the Texas border
delegation, a working group based at the University of Texas, pointed
out how the poor are affected the most by the border wall, while the
playgrounds of the rich, such as a golf course, are avoided. They also
pointed out that Homeland Security had voided all federal laws,
including environmental laws and laws protecting American Indian
cultural and burial places. Traditional communities of the Tigua in
Texas and Kumeyaay in California also have members living on both
sides of the border and the border wall cuts through their traditional
territories.
Interrupting Tamez, US State Department and BIA officials attempted to
cover up the violations of human rights, with a lengthy, empty verbal
tap dance.
The representative from the BIA, Nina Siquieros of the Tohono O'odham
Nation, attempted to paint a rosy picture of the Arizona border wall,
but she did not reveal the testimony of Tohono O'odham Ned Norris to a
Congressional committee in April. At that time, Norris testified that
Homeland Security and Boeing had violated all federal laws. Norris
said the border wall construction had human bones in heavy machinery
tracks.
The Commission was not told of the O'odham ancestors' remains that
were dug up and removed in secret on Tohono O'odham land.
During the US government's attempt to coverup the crimes, there was no
opportunity for the Tohono O'odham opposing the wall, such as Ofelia
Rivas, founder of the O'odham Voice Against the Wall, to speak. There
was no voice of those doing humanitarian work, including Mike Wilson,
Tohono O'odham, to speak for the dead.
Tamez, in conclusion, pointed out that Chairman Norris had opposed the
border wall and came to Texas to support the Lipan Apache. Tamez also
said the Indigenous Alliance without Borders has brought together
Indigenous Peoples from all along the border, from California to
Texas, who oppose the border wall and the violations of human rights
resulting.
Although the US State Department claimed the border wall was necessary
to keep terrorists out of the country, one member of the human rights
commission questioned what would keep a terrorist from coming through
the hole in the wall at the Texas golf course.
"They don't attack when you have a golf course?" he asked the State
Department, who didn't respond at the time.

Watch the video of the hearing:
http://www.oas.org/OASpage/videosondemand/home_eng/videos_query.asp?sCodigo=08-0341


--
Brenda Norrell
Censored News
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com
Listen at Earthcycles:
http://www.earthcycles.net

October 23, 2008 | 10:37 AM Comentarios  0 comentarios

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