News archive » 2007

Peru: BBC’s Bruce Parry begins Amazon adventure
21 December 2007
Bruce Parry, star of the BBC’s hit TV series Tribe, has begun a journey from the source to the mouth of the river Amazon, for a new series, ‘Amazon’, to be broadcast next year.

Malaysia: Penan headman missing, feared murdered
20 December 2007
A headman from the Penan tribe of Sarawak, Malaysia, has gone missing and his community fear he may have been murdered. Kelesau Naan was last seen on 23 October when he left on a hunting trip.



Indonesia: Police arrest, torture and kill Papuan tribal people
17 December 2007
Police in West Papua are killing, torturing and intimidating the province's tribal people with impunity. Police shot dead two Papuan women and injured another as they protested on 5 December near the British and American-owned Freeport mine.

Botswana: Bushmen appeal to President
17 December 2007
On the first anniversary of their historic court judgment, the Bushman organisation First People of the Kalahari released an open letter to Botswana's President Mogae.


India: Officials concede Narmada dam illegal
13 December 2007
A director of the government agency responsible for India’s controversial Sardar Sarovar Narmada dam has admitted that the construction of the dam has led to the illegal submergence of houses and farms.




Brazil: Amazon Indians blockade dam site
10 December 2007
The remote Enawene Nawe tribe have blockaded the construction site of a hydroelectric dam in the Brazilian Amazon, which they say will destroy their vital fishing grounds.





Guyana: Historic court case begins
3 December 2007
An historic land rights case has opened in Guyana’s Supreme Court, lodged by the Akawaio and Arekuna people of the Upper Mazaruni river basin.


Global: HIV/AIDS spreading among tribal peoples
29 November 2007
HIV/AIDS is spreading among tribal peoples due to increased contact with outsiders and dramatic social change, says Survival International in its new report, ‘Progress can kill’.




Botswana: Bushmen – back to court?
20 November 2007
Bushmen in Botswana today announced they plan to return to court within a matter of weeks if the government continues to prevent them from returning home.










Tanzania: Hadzabe celebrate land victory
6 November 2007
A safari company representing clients from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has confirmed that it has withdrawn from a deal on the Hadza tribe’s land.


UK: Survival advert condemns torture of Bushmen
5 November 2007
Survival has placed a full-page advert in the UK’s Independent newspaper today, condemning the torture of Bushmen evicted from their land in the Kalahari in Botswana and appealing to the British public to support them.



Botswana: Torture of Bushmen - shocking details
31 October 2007
Shocking new details have emerged of the torture and beating of a group of Bushmen in Kaudwane resettlement camp, Botswana. Fifteen men were arrested in late September for hunting, and at least ten of them were tortured.



















Botswana: Bushmen hunting charges withdrawn
4 September 2007
Twenty-one Botswana Bushmen arrested in June and July for hunting to feed their families were celebrating today after all charges against them were dropped.

Botswana: Six Bushmen arrested for hunting
3 September 2007
Six Gana and Gwi Bushmen have been arrested by Botswana police for hunting on their ancestral land in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve in Botswana. This follows twenty-one arrests for hunting in June and July.

Peru: Highway condemned because of uncontacted tribes
30 August 2007
Plans for the construction of a highway in one of the most remote parts of the Peruvian Amazon have been rejected by a local indigenous organization because of the danger it poses to uncontacted tribes living there.











Peru: Uncontacted tribes flee ‘red gold’ rush
2 August 2007
A large group of uncontacted Indians has appeared in a remote village in the Amazon rainforest near the Peru-Brazil border, a Brazilian government official and expert on uncontacted tribes has reported.


Bangladesh: Jumma leader sentenced to 17 years in jail
27 July 2007
Ranglai Mro, a Jumma leader from the Chittagong Hill Tracts in Bangladesh, has been sentenced to 17 years in jail after protesting against the eviction of his people from their land to make way for an army training centre.




Peru: Indians ask court to ban oil exploration
20 July 2007
Peru?s Amazon Indian organisation, AIDESEP, has applied to the courts for oil exploration and drilling to be banned in parts of the Peruvian Amazon inhabited by uncontacted tribes.


Brazil: Guarani leader assassinated
17 July 2007
Ortiz Lopes, a Guarani Kaiowá Indian, was murdered by a gunman on 8 July. The assassin approached his home, called him outside and shot him at point blank range.






Brazil: Enawene Nawe blockade succeeds
29 June 2007
The Brazilian government has agreed to several key demands of the Enawene Nawe Indians after they blockaded a major highway. The government's Indian agency, FUNAI, will survey lands claimed by the Enawene Nawe and other tribes, with the aim of officially




Peru: Appeal to top human rights body on uncontacted tribes
15 June 2007
Peru's national indigenous peoples' organization has lodged an urgent appeal to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), Latin America's top human rights body, out of concern for some of the world's last uncontacted tribes.


Brazil: Indians and NGOs unite to oppose to Xingu dams
5 June 2007
Indigenous peoples and NGOs have met in the Amazon town of Altamira in Brazil to discuss their concerns about a series of hydroelectric dams planned for the Xingu river, one of the Amazon's main tributaries.


Italy: Bushman leader lobbies politicians
4 June 2007
Bushman leader Roy Sesana will return to Botswana today from Italy, where he met with the Vice President of the Senate, the Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs and the former Minister of Culture.

Brazil: Remote Amazon tribe to travel to Brasília
4 June 2007
The remote Enawene Nawe tribe have dismantled their three day blockade of one of the main highways in Mato Grosso state and are set to travel to the Brazilian capital, Brasília, to meet government officials.

Brazil: Amazon tribe block highway to stop hydroelectric dams
1 June 2007
A remote Amazonian tribe are blockading a major highway in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso in protest at a series of hydroelectric dams that will destroy their vital fishing grounds. The Enawene Nawe Indians set up their blockade yesterday morning.


UK: Bushman leader delivers letter to Tony Blair
25 May 2007
Bushman leader Roy Sesana went to Downing Street yesterday to deliver a letter from his people to Prime Minister Tony Blair. On Wednesday he addressed MPs and peers at Westminster to ask for their support.


UK: Bushmen travel to Westminster to seek support
22 May 2007
Bushman leader Roy Sesana will meet with British MPs at Westminster this Wednesday 23 May to seek support for his people’s ten-year struggle to return to their land in the Kalahari desert, Botswana.

Peru: Outrage at oil chief's plans for uncontacted tribes
21 May 2007
Peru’s national indigenous peoples’ organization has strongly condemned plans by state oil company Perupetro to forcibly contact some of the world’s last uncontacted tribes, a move that threatens them with extinction.



Brazil: Indian anger at Pope's comments
14 May 2007
Brazilian Indians have reacted with anger to Pope Benedict XVI's claim during his recent trip to Brazil that their ancestors had been 'silently longing' to become Christians when Brazil was colonised 500 years ago.



India: Andaman Islands defy Supreme Court on Jarawa
7 May 2007
This week marks the fifth anniversary of an order by the Supreme Court of India that an Andaman Islands highway, which threatens the lives of the Jarawa tribe, must close. The government has defied the order, and the road remains open.



Botswana: CNN Critics see democracy eroding
27 April 2007
A Reuters report published on CNN yesterday cites the governments treatment of the Kalahari Bushmen and the banning of 17 people including Survival International staff as evidence of Botswanas eroding democracy.





Peru: Oil chief ? Do uncontacted tribes really exist?
22 April 2007
The president of Perupetro, the government body responsible for granting oil exploration licences, has caused outrage after calling into doubt the existence of uncontacted Indian tribes in the Peruvian Amazon.







UK: Leaders back Survivals message
10 April 2007
Leading figures in British public life, including the Prime Minister, the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Archbishop of Westminster, have backed the message of Survival's cartoon book There you go! that enforced development destroys tribal people.

Venezuela: Indians mining victory
4 April 2007
Venezuelas environment minister has announced a presidential decree banning the building of new coal mines planned for the Sierra de Perijá in the state of Zulia. The expansion of existing mines is also prohibited.

Malaysia: Penan rebuild blockade
3 April 2007
Members of the Penan tribe have rebuilt their logging blockade, a month after it was dismantled by police and loggers.



India: Isolated tribe not primitive says leading minister
21 March 2007
On the UN Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, Survival is celebrating the success of its campaign against the use of terms like primitive and stone age to describe tribal and indigenous peoples in the media.

Botswana: Water ban - Bushman leader travels to London
19 March 2007
The Botswana government has banned the Kalahari Bushmen from using their own water as UN World Water Day approaches on 22 March. A Bushman leader is travelling to London this week to protest against the ban.


Bangladesh: Arrest and torture of tribal leaders
8 March 2007
The army and police in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, Bangladesh, arrested two Jumma tribal leaders this week, adding to the growing number of arrests since a state of emergency was declared in January.


Bangladesh: Army and police arrest and torture Jummas
6 March 2007
The army and police in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, Bangladesh, have arrested at least nine Jumma tribal leaders this month after planting firearms in their homes. Some of those arrested have also been tortured.




Botswana: Bushman court ruling online
26 February 2007
A copy of the landmark ruling made by the Botswana High Court in the case of the Kalahari Bushmen against the Botswana government is now available online.


India: Canadian tribe reaches out to Jarawa
21 February 2007
A leader from the Innu tribe of sub-arctic eastern Canada has made a heartfelt plea to the Indian government to protect the Jarawa of the Andaman Islands, published last week in the Times of India.

Malaysia: Police clear Penan blockade
21 February 2007
Members of a nomadic tribe who had been preventing loggers from bulldozing their rainforest home for two years have had their blockade dismantled by Malaysian police.




Brazil: Guarani children face starvation
9 February 2007
The Mato Grosso do Sul state government has cut food aid to Guarani Indians. This is a severe blow to thousands of Guarani families who rely almost entirely on monthly food rations to survive.

Malaysia: Iban victory over wrongful arrests
9 February 2007
Forty-two Iban tribespeople, who were arrested in 1997 for defending their forest homeland against attempts to clear it for oil palm plantations, have won their case for wrongful arrest.




Global: BBC: First contact with isolated tribes?
25 January 2007
A BBC film to be broadcast on Thursday 1 February documents an expedition to make first contact with an isolated tribe in West Papua - and asks whether such people really exist. Survival estimates that approximately 107 uncontacted tribes exist worldwide


Indonesia: Thousands flee army operation in West Papua
22 January 2007
In recent weeks large numbers of Indonesian soldiers, including special forces, have been deployed to the Punkak Jaya region of West Papua, causing an estimated 5,000 tribespeople to flee into the jungle.

Botswana: Bushmen return home despite police presence
15 January 2007
A group of forty Bushmen have managed to return to their homes in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve this weekend, despite a heavy police presence and attempts to persuade them to stay in the relocation camps.



