|
Thomas Adona, the very respected elder and "primus-inter-pares" of the
Batak People in the Langogan valley on Palawan Island, was brutally
murdered on 23. of last month, as only now transpired from his remote
tribal area on Palawan in the Philippines. He was killed by a Yantok
Philipino, an intruder who wanted to harvest rattan, an important
local commodity, without having the consent from the local Batak
People.
Adona was speared through one eye and through his head, after having
launched a renewed protest against the continuous discrimination of
the people of his tribe by the Philippinos, who the Batak call
Christianos.
Elder Adona was assassinated in Mangapin, a camp, where Batak people
are forcibly concentrated since several years by national and local
government orders, an area which is now dominated by the Christianos.
The restrictive orders to forcibly concentrate the Batak people were
enacted by the governance of the Philippines and are not opposed by
conservation organizations like the Haribon Foundation, the World Wide
Fund for Nature (WWF), Friends of the Earth (FoE), who say that they
have conservation interests in the area. The numerous Missionary-,
Legal Rights-, Conservation- and Development-Organizations operating
in Palawan under various agendas with the majority Philippino people
did not comment on the killing.
Adona was since many years well known by all those national and
international organizations, who work for the rights of indigenous
peoples. Shocked over the brutal murder, Hartmut Heller of FPCN/FdN
(Friends of People Close to Nature) stated: "Adona always tried to
live with his family and within his whole clan his traditional life
as independent hunter-and-gatherer. He was a part of the rainforest
- and like the rainforest he got killed brutally. But, despite the
many threats Adona and his people had received and despite the efforts
by the government and other organizations to subdue and restrict the
Batak, he was on the forefront to defend the traditional life of his
people and the protection of the natural heritage of their ancestral
land. Over the twelve years I knew him, we became very close friends
and his assassination is a tragic loss. Adona will be a symbol for the
loss of the natural heritage and culture of the Batak people and
ignite their resistance!"
Like Buyon-og, another tribal Batak elder, who died last year under
unclear circumstances, Adona tried to preserve traditional Batak
life, culture and the forests outstandingly. But despite all the
peaceful efforts of the Batak people, their ancestral forests and
land have been heavily degraded within the last few years by outside
developers. Wild boars, formerly an important prey for the Batak, are
extinct in many forests of the Batak's country. These wild pigs have
been massively poached by intruders with commercial interests, using
firearms and grenades (pig bombs). Despite many attempts to rectify
the situation, the Batak are today not even allowed to gather rattan
or almasiga, the resin of the cauri pine, in their own land. These
products are essential in Batak barter trade, but official licenses
to collect these valued products on the Batak ancestral lands are in
the hands of powerful people in the cities, who employ Philippinos
from the slums, like the murderer of Adona, to do the harvest.
All Batak are now forced to be concentrated in camps, to go to church
and to send their children to religious or state schools, where they
are taught that the traditional life in the forest and in harmony with
nature, as their parents and all their ancestors performed it, has to
be seen as bad, uncivilized and underdeveloped. Only a core group of
traditional Batak resists still against the terror.
Since one year, all the Batak are also under heavy terror by several
aggressive missionaries. Even the mayor of the Provincial capital
Puerto Princesa City, a Mr. Hagedorn, was reported to have
successfully arranged, that the adult male Batak and Tabauas, who
live in association with the Batak, received a tattoo on their upper
arms. That sign shall show that they would be members of a certain
Christian sect. But the tattoo bearers do not even know the meaning
of these registrations on their skin.
Only nine Batak extended family-groups resist so far and try to
continue to live independently. Hartmut Heller of FPCN witnessed and
testified to the indigenous peoples rights caucus that these people
are threatened almost daily by "officials" and intruding outsiders
as well as especially by one aggressive missionary, supported and
financed by a South-Korean sect, from a settlement lower down the
river from Mangapin, where many other Batak are forcibly encamped.
The sect calls themselves Korea Independent Baptist One Way Church
and is ordered by a missionary by the name AUM SU-YONG. This group
apparently belongs to the International Winners Mission Inc.Phils.
a Korean Association. Also other indigenous people in East Asia like
the Aetas and the Agta suffer under their Baptist impact.
In their respective statements FPCN-UK (Friends of Peoples Close to
Nature), FdN-Germany and ECOTERRA International urge the Government
of the Philippines to stop the ongoing ethnocide of the Batak people
on Palawan Island immediately and to restitute their human and land
rights. It is expected that the Government of the Philippines will
act swiftly to apprehend the murderer, investigate possible
instigators of that assassination, bring the culprit(s) to justice and
report back to the international human rights caucus.
The international community is requested to support and assist in
the struggle for survival of the last traditional Batak as well as of
the other endangered people of hunter-gatherer culture worldwide.
Permission to reprint and distribute widely granted under the
conditions of unaltered text or quotation and citation of source.
Documentation and possibilities to interview witnesses can and will
be provided to media, institutions or organizations interested in
assisting the Batak people or other indigenous people of hunter-
gatherer culture and/or in contributing to the realization of their
human rights.
WILD_ROAR. ISSUE: 28. April 1999
PLEASE CONTACT: ECOTERRA Intl. Nairobi Node
ph/fax: +254-2-891070
e-mail: wildnet@ecoterra.net
|
