U'WA DEFENSE WORKING GROUP

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 31, 2000, 10:00 p.m.

U'wa Indians Win Injunction
Against Occidental in Colombian Courts
In Washington U'wa Roberto Perez Offers Statement

Washington, DC (March 31) -- Handing the U'wa an important victory, a Colombian court has ordered Occidental Petroleum Corp to halt all construction work on the Gibraltar 1 well site on sacred ancestral land of the U'wa tribe. The court injunction came down Thursday and was announced this afternoon in Colombia by Alberto Calderon, president of the state oil company Ecopetrol.

According to Reuters, the judge ruled that the drilling on the site would violate "fundamental rights" of the U'wa people including their right to life.

Roberto Perez, the President of the U'wa Traditional Authority who has been in Washington since March 27 for meetings with the US Government and Oxy investors, issued the following statement in response to the verdict:

"The injunction speaks of the suspension of the project not cancellation. We have taken an important step and are happy because we have advanced in our struggle even though this has come at great sacrifice. We must defend the life of the U'wa and that is why we are here in Washington turning to international support because in Colombia our demands had been falling on deaf ears. Today we have been speaking with members of Congress explaining the violations of our rights. We have asked members of Congress to give us their solidarity and pressure the president of the Republic of Colombia for the cancellation of the project in Samoré on our ancestral territory."

Mr. Perez will be available for interviews in Washington until mid afternoon on Saturday and in the United States through next week. Please contact the following telephone numbers to arrange interviews.

Contacts: Atossa Soltani, 202-256-9795 asoltani@igc.org
Lauren Sullivan, 415-305-7246 lsullivan@ran.org
Stephen Kretzmann, 510-551-7953 kretzmann@mindspring.com
David Rothschild, 202-785-3334 dmrothschild@igc.org


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