At UN
Indigenous
Forum,
Rapporteur
Wants
Australia
Invite, Tar
Sands
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS, April
27 -- When a
Permanent
Forum on
Indigenous
Issues related
press
conference
was held on
April 27,
Inner City
Press asked
the Special
Rapporteur on
the Rights of
Indigenous
Peoples,
Victoria
Tauli-Corpuz,
about
Australia
prime minister
Tony Abbott
closing down
aboriginal
communities.
Tauli-Corpuz
said she is
concerned and
would like to
be invited to
visit
Australia, the
Kimberley
Group is
making that
request. Her
co-panelist
from Canada
answered Inner
City Press
about tar
sands, video
here.
Back
on April 22,
Inner City
Press for the
Free UN
Coalition for
Access asked
Ghazali
Ohorella about
opposition to
a telescope on
sacred land in
Hawaii, and
about Western
Papua,
mentioned in
the Forum the
day before.
Oherella named
the sponsors,
including from
Canada and
Japan, adding
the
construction
was postponed
when
indigenous
people
occupied the
mountain.
On
West Papua,
Forum member
Valmarine Toki
said the story
is sad, but
the inclusion
on the UN
Fourth
Committee's
list of French
Polynesia
should be
celebrated.
Ambassador Odo
Tevi of
Vanuatu,
praised the
day before,
apologized
their was only
so much he
could say.
When the Forum
started up on
April 20,
Inner City
Press asked
about the
World Bank's
“Climate
Fund,” and
Australian
Prime Minister
Tony Abbott's
closing down
aboriginal
communities
and what he
called the
“lifestyle
choice” they
represent.
The new chair
of the
Permanent
Forum,
Professor
Megan Davis,
said that
Abbott's
comments had
not gone down
well in
Australia, and
not only about
aboriginal
people. She
asked if
farming,
heavily
subsidized, is
not lifestyle
choice. Some
surmise it's
hydrocarbons
under the land
that explains
the closing of
the
communities.
And now Abbott
is going to
New Zealand -
where he faces
further
protests of
his remarks
and actions.
Joan Carling,
also on the UN
panel on April
20, told Inner
City Press
that the
Climate Fund,
REDD and
similar
project
involve
reducing the
forests to the
carbon issue
and to
payments.
Footnote:
While the
April 20 press
conference was
in the UN
Press Briefing
Room, there
was no UN
transcript or
even summary
made. Worse,
the UN
collaborated
with its UN
Censorship
Alliance
(some of whose
board members
have tried to
get the
investigative
Press thrown
out of the UN)
in shifting
the Chagos
Refugees
Group's
Olivier
Bancoult into
an almost
empty session
in UNCA's
private club,
not on UNTV,
not reported.
(Inner
City Press previously
asked about
the
Chagossians,
here to
outgoing UK
Ambassador
Mark Lyall
Grant, who
seemingly
against
character
turned
censor-inward
in farewell.)
Inner City
Press based on
similar
collusion by
UNCA quit the
group and
co-founded the
Free
UN Coalition
for Access which
is covering
the Forum and
how the UN
treats it.
Watch this
site.
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