Pitfalls and Pipelines - Philippine Indigenous Peoples Links

144 Pitfalls and Pipelines: Indigenous Peoples and Extractive Industries
may have such a program. (Although sadly, in the case above,
even “respectable” human rights observer groups are now no
longer allowed into West Papua.) 29
In the similar conflict of the Ogoni people in Nigeria
(see case study in Chapter 2.1), which is tied to oil production,
the government had ordered the militarization of the
area in order to protect production. This included providing
Shell with military support, resulting in human rights violations,
torture and rape. In his presentation to the 2009 Manila
Conference, Legborsi Saro Pyagbara of the Movement for the
Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) described the conflict
as being two-layered, one between the Ogoni and state, and
the other between the Ogoni and Shell. The state had ensured
that ownership of lands and mineral resources was removed
from the community and passed to the Federal Government.
When community agitation followed as a result of this legislation,
the government responded with militarization. It
was these actions that led to the formation of the Movement
for the Survival of the Ogoni People. MOSOP has become a
rallying point for the Ogoni, based on non-violent protest,
and has spent a great amount of energy in grass-roots meetings
and training to consolidate local support against violent
repression. 30
One of the more disturbing contemporary trends has
been the attempts to brand legitimate protesters as “terrorists.”
This stems essentially from the idea of a Western “war on
terror,” as launched by George Bush after the 9-11 attacks. In
February 2011, Wikileaks revealed cables from diplomats—in
the U.S., Canada, U.K., Australia, Switzerland, and South
Africa—that specifically targeted activists from Bolivia, Peru
and Venezuela (although similar examples also exist from
India to Indonesia). As a Peruvian journalist noted in 2007,
“Whoever opposes mining is seen as a terrorist and anti-patriotic.”
31 It is a label that is far too often applied to indigenous
communities with concerns over extractive industries, where
a perceived lack of patriotism can be dealt with via “antiterrorist”
legislation. The “de-legitimization” of protest may
seem an easy option for the state, but of course through trying
to extinguish lawful protest, it risks creating violent protest if