We have received news of the assassination of three young members of the Inga Indigenous people in Putumayo. Elkin Farit Sigindioy Chindoy, Armando Mutumbajoy Muchavisoy and Jaime Alirio Becerra Chindoy, between 22 and 24 years of age, who belonged to the community of Oso Cocha-Yunguillo in the Municipality of Mocoa-Putumayo, were viciously murdered by gunfire on 6 October 2018 by unknown actors. The Inga people of Colombia, who live in Caquetá, Cauca, Putumayo and Nariño, are facing physical and cultural extinction because of the armed conflict, drug trafficking, mining, oil exploitation and indiscriminate damage to the Andean and Amazonian forests.
The original denunciation of the murders is in Spanish on the ONIC website.
REPUBLIC OF COLOMBIA
INDIGENOUS TERRITORIAL ENTITY OF ATUN WASI IUIAI “AWAI”
OF THE INGA PEOPLE OF COLOMBIA
MANDATE OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY
30 November, 2017
Political Constitution of Colombia of 1991, Articles 7, 246 and Provisional Article 56, Agreement 169 of the ILO, Article 8.1 and Decree No. 1953 of 2014
STATEMENT REGARDING THE COLLECTIVE ASSASSINATION OF MEMBERS OF THE INGA PEOPLE OF COLOMBIA
(8 October, 2018)
The Traditional and Government Authorities of the Inga People of Colombia, with reference to the powers conferred by the Autonomous Territorial Law, Law of Origin, Articles 7, 10 and 246 of the Political Constitution of Colombia, ILO Convention 169 ratified by Colombia through Law 21 of 1991, Article 8.1 Decree 1953 of 2014, the United Nations Declaration and the Inter-American Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and other relevant norms, present the following:
FACTS
1. The Inga people of Colombia, who live in Caquetá, Cauca, Putumayo and Nariño, are facing physical and cultural extinction because of the armed conflict, drug trafficking, mining, oil exploitation and indiscriminate damage to the Andean and Amazonian forests. Their struggle to survive in the territory that belongs to them and their continued demand that their human rights, together with the rights of the Earth, are respected, have been met with forced displacements, massacres, targeted assassinations, stigmatisation, confinement, fumigations with glyphosate by the government, bombings and attacks on the life, or murder, of their leaders and authorities, which at times has included them being kidnapped inside their own territory by numerous armed actors.
2. On 6 October, 2018, the following members of Colombia’s indigenous Inga people were viciously murdered by gunfire:
Elkin Farit Sigindioy Chindoy, Armando Mutumbajoy Muchavisoy and Jaime Alirio Becerra Chindoy, young people between 22 and 24 years of age, who belonged to the community of Oso Cocha-Yunguillo in the Municipality of Mocoa-Putumayo.
DEMANDS
FIRSTLY, to the Colombian State: Appoint, through the Office of the General Prosecutor of the Nation, a research team of the highest professional level and calibre, in coordination with the Inga authorities, to investigate these events, punish those responsible for the planning and execution of the crime and uphold all the legal guarantees for the integral safeguard of the Inga people in Colombia and their authorities. Through the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Justice, the National Protection Unit, the Ombudsman’s Office and the Attorney General of the Nation, ensure that action is taken within the full scope of its powers to protect the rights of the affected families, community and the Inga people.
SECONDLY, to the Honourable Constitutional Court: In accordance with the framework of monitoring compliance with the mandates of Sentence T-025 of 2004, Auto 04 of 2009 and other concordant norms, urgently hold an extraordinary session to listen to the Inga people and the other 14 indigenous peoples present in Putumayo, regarding the various acts of violence to which they continue to be subjected, and which have left them facing the threat of physical and cultural erasure.
THIRDLY, to the United Nations system and organisations charged with upholding human rights, international humanitarian law and international cooperation: Direct efforts towards the comprehensive protection of the physical, cultural and spiritual existence of the Inga People, supporting the efforts that this people is making towards social, economic and environmental advances, along with the rights of the Earth, and urge the State and Government of Colombia to immediately guarantee and protect, continuously and without delay, the collective, individual and territorial rights afforded to the Inga people in accordance with customary law, the Constitution and the Law.
Your answers and messages of support can be sent to: etipicawai@gmail.com
TRADITIONAL AUTHORITIES AND GOVERNMENT OF THE INDIGENOUS TERRITORIAL ENTITY OF ATUN WASI IUIAI “AWAI” OF THE INGA PEOPLE OF COLOMBIA
MANA SISAI – Do not steal, MANA LLULLAI – Do not lie, MANA KILLAI – Do not be idle, ALLI KAI – Be decent, SUMA KAUSAI- Live well.
