News archive » 2008
Indonesia: HIV/AIDS set to soar in West Papua
18 November 2008
A recent investigation by the Aljazeera programme ‘101 East’ has shown the devastating impact of the HIV/AIDS crisis amongst the tribal people of West Papua, Indonesia. Paraguay: Emergency report to UN about uncontacted tribe
18 November 2008
Survival International has sent an emergency submission to the United Nations (UN) about the plight of Paraguay’s last uncontacted Indians, whose forest is being rapidly destroyed by Brazilian cattle-ranchers. Botswana: Bushmen condemn Mo Ibrahim
12 November 2008
Kalahari Bushmen who were evicted from their land by the government of Botswana’s former President Festus Mogae today condemned African billionaire Mo Ibrahim and his Foundation for giving Mogae their ‘Achievement In Africa Leadership Award’. Brazil: Police shoot Tupinambá Indians
29 October 2008
Several Tupinambá Indians in the Brazilian state of Bahia have been shot with rubber bullets, as large numbers of heavily armed federal police entered their community without warning in a conflict over land rights. 
Peru: Washington hears threats to uncontacted tribes
28 October 2008
Peru's national Amazon Indian organisation has appeared before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), based in Washington, to detail the threats facing Peru's uncontacted tribes.
Botswana: Survival denounces 'good governance' award to Mogae
19 October 2008
Survival International today criticised the Mo Ibrahim Foundation for awarding its 'Achievement in African Leadership' prize to Festus Mogae, the former president of Botswana who oversaw the eviction of the Kalahari Bushmen from their land. 
Nepal: PM to implement international law for tribal peoples
15 October 2008
Nepal’s Prime Minister has promised to include indigenous peoples’ rights in the country’s new constitution, in line with his country’s commitment to uphold the only international law for tribal peoples, ILO Convention 169. 
Brazil: Amazon tribe’s protest shuts down dam site
12 October 2008
Indians from the Enawene Nawe tribe in the Brazilian Amazon occupied and shut down the site of a huge hydroelectric dam on Saturday, destroying equipment, in an attempt to save the river that runs through their land. 
India: Tribe vows to fight mine with axes and arrows
12 October 2008
One of India’s most isolated tribes, the Dongria Kondh, is preparing to stop British FTSE 100 company Vedanta from mining aluminium ore on their sacred mountain, after police and hired thugs forced protestors to dismantle a barricade. 02.jpg)
Malaysia: Penan mount logging road blockade
7 October 2008
Penan communities in Sarawak, Malaysia, have mounted a road blockade against the logging company Interhill in an attempt to stop the destruction of their last remaining rainforests. 
Brazil: Opposition to Guarani land rights intensifies
25 September 2008
The Guarani Indians of the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso do Sul suffered a setback last week when FUNAI, the government's Indian affairs department, suddenly suspended studies being carried out to identify their territories. 
India: Jarawa tribe apprehend poachers
23 September 2008
Frustrated by the invasion of their land by outsiders, members of the Jarawa tribe of the Andaman Islands, India, have apprehended two groups of poachers in their reserve. 
India: British mining company under pressure over mine
19 August 2008
British mining company Vedanta is under intense pressure over its plans to mine the Dongria Kondh tribe’s land in India, as a Scottish investment group sells its shares and Amnesty International joins the campaign in support of the tribe. Brazil: Urgent petition launched to support Indians
18 August 2008
Indigenous peoples and their supporters in Brazil have launched an urgent petition calling on Brazil’s Supreme Court to uphold the ratification of Raposa-Serra do Sol, an indigenous territory in the Amazon region, northern Brazil. Link to www.makunaimagri 
Peru: Amazon Indians protest against government
18 August 2008
Thousands of Amazon Indians are protesting against the Peruvian government. Protests have been going on for more than a week and involve an estimated 14,000 Indians from all over the Peruvian Amazon. 
Colombia: Amazon nomads face 'imminent extinction'
12 August 2008
Colombia’s last nomadic hunter-gatherer tribe, the Nukak, is in ‘imminent danger of physical and cultural extinction’, according to the Permanent People’s Tribunal (PTT), which investigates and tries human rights violations around the world. 
UK: Damien Hirst donates 'Beautiful Love Survival'
5 August 2008
The world’s most famous living artist, Damien Hirst, has designed a unique work ‘Beautiful Love Survival’, which will be sold to raise money for Survival in his forthcoming sale ‘Beautiful Inside My Head Forever’. 
Malaysia: Malaria strikes Penan
3 August 2008
Reports say that two Penan villages in Sarawak have been struck by malaria, leading to eighteen Penan individuals being flown to hospital. 
UK: Vedanta promises no mining without tribe's 'permission'
31 July 2008
British mining giant Vedanta's Chairman Anil Agarwal told the company’s AGM today that his company would only go ahead with its highly controversial bauxite mine in Orissa, eastern India, with the ‘complete permission’ of the Dongria Kondh tribe. 
Indonesia: West Papuans beaten and charged with subversion
23 July 2008
Six West Papuans are to be charged with ‘subversion’ after peacefully raising the banned West Papuan independence symbol, the Morning Star flag. The protest took place in the town of Fakfak, which is 550 miles to the west of the capital, Jayapura. 
Brazil: Uncontacted tribe photos no hoax
23 June 2008
The British newspaper The Observer claimed on 22 June that it has now ‘emerged’ that the uncontacted tribe whose photos received worldwide publicity were neither ‘lost’, nor 'undiscovered' nor ‘unknown’. 
Canada: Prime Minister to apologise
10 June 2008
Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper is due to deliver a formal apology today to the thousands of Aboriginal Canadians who passed through the country's residential school system. Peru: Uncontacted tribe pictures provoke public outrage
5 June 2008
Photographs published last week of an uncontacted tribe in Brazil near the Peruvian border have provoked public outrage, with over 1,300 people writing letters to Peru’s government to demand an end to illegal logging. 
UK: Survival to protest outside London PR firm
26 May 2008
Survival will protest tomorrow, Wednesday 28 May 2008, outside London PR firm FINSBURY (45 Moorfields, London EC2Y 9AE) urging them to resign their account representing Anil Agarwal and his company Vedanta, in the interest of human rights. 
Brazil: Enawene Nawe Indians mount blockade
22 May 2008
Indians from the Enawene Nawe tribe mounted a blockade of a road bridge in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso on Sunday, to protest against a complex of dams to be built upriver from their land. 
Russia: Chukchee author Yuri Rytkheu dies
19 May 2008
The writer Yuri Rytkheu, from the Siberian Chukchee tribe, died in St. Petersburg last week. Rytkheu was known as the most significant indigenous author in Russia. India: Tribe – ‘Vedanta is destroying us for profit’
14 May 2008
As FTSE 100 mining company Vedanta announces record profits today, India’s remote Dongria Kondh tribe is claiming the company will destroy them forever if it goes ahead with plans to mine their sacred mountain. Brazil: Amazon Indians hold mass rally to oppose dams
12 May 2008
The largest indigenous gathering in the Brazilian Amazon in nearly twenty years will take place from May 19 to 23 in the town of Altamira, Pará, to protest against a series of huge hydroelectric dams. 
Paraguay: Ayoreo Indian dies after first contact
6 May 2008
A Paraguayan Indian, who lived without contact with the outside world until 1998, has died of tuberculosis. Survival has called his life, ‘a symbol of the fate of indigenous people in the Americas since Columbus’. 
Brazil: Removal of illegal invaders suspended
17 April 2008
Violence by farmers illegally occupying indigenous land in the Brazilian state of Roraima has led the Brazilian Supreme Court (STF) to suspend a police operation to remove them. Peru: Uncontacted tribes go 'round the world'
16 April 2008
The threats of extinction to uncontacted tribes in the Peruvian Amazon have turned the tribes’ plight into one of global concern, with members of the public all around the world increasingly aware of the desperate situation facing them. Peru: Uncontacted tribes flee across the border
10 April 2008
Uncontacted tribes in Peru are fleeing across the border to Brazil because illegal mahogany loggers are invading their territory and killing them, according to an uncontacted tribes expert. 
Brazil: Yanomami slam government over mining
10 April 2008
Yanomami and Yekuana Indians from two communities have denounced the Brazilian government’s attempts to persuade them to accept large-scale mining on their land. 
Brazil: UK’s Channel 4 to expose mining on Yanomami land
9 April 2008
The acclaimed Channel 4 current affairs series, ‘Unreported World’, is to broadcast a documentary tomorrow exposing the devastating effects of illegal goldmining on the land of the Yanomami Indians in the Brazilian Amazon. 
Botswana: Survival launches Bushman water campaign
31 March 2008
Survival launches a new letter-writing campaign today asking the new President of Botswana, Lt Gen Ian Khama, to allow the Bushmen of the central Kalahari to access water on their land. 
Kenya: Ogiek leader receives death threat
14 February 2008
A leader of the Ogiek tribe in Kenya has received a death threat by telephone. An unknown caller told Mr Mpoiok Kobei, ‘We need your head before Tuesday nineteenth, this month.’ 
UK: Kalahari Bushmen on BBC television
13 February 2008
The Kalahari Bushmen featured on prime time UK television on Sunday evening, in the BBC’s current affairs series ‘Tropic of Capricorn’. 
Julie Christie named ‘Survival ambassador’
1 February 2008
Multi-award-winning actress Julie Christie was today named as an ambassador for Survival International, the worldwide movement to support tribal peoples. 
Brazil: Uncontacted Indians saved
23 January 2008
After an intensive Survival campaign, Brazil’s Indian affairs department, FUNAI, has announced that it is restricting all entry into the Rio Pardo territory, home to a tiny group of about 30 uncontacted Indians who are on the brink of extinction. Botswana: Mine ‘consultation’ process fatally flawed
22 January 2008
Representatives from the consultancy firm Marsh Environmental Services today begin a whirlwind twelve-day consultation programme in and around the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR), in Botswana. 
Brazil: Tribunal upholds Indians’ land rights
16 January 2008
A Brazilian federal tribunal has upheld the government’s recognition of the Apyterewa indigenous territory, home to the Parakaná Indians in the Amazonian state of Pará. Malaysia: Penan receive death threats
9 January 2008
A small community of Penan tribal people in Sarawak, Malaysia, report that an official from the company logging their forests has threatened them with death. Malaysia: Penan headman found dead, suspected murdered
4 January 2008
Penan tribal headman Kelesau Naan of Sarawak, Malaysia, who went missing on 23 October, has been found dead. His relatives suspect he has been murdered due to his resistance to illegal logging on the Penan’s land. Kenya: Election violence affects Ogiek
4 January 2008
Survival has received reports that many Ogiek areas are effectively closed off due to the post election violence in Kenya. Police have barricaded roads leading to one area, so that people cannot leave the community.
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