The world’s indigenous peoples are making themselves heard in international arenas, and at the national level, where their growing mobilisation is translating into political muscle. But many challenges remain in the fight for recognition of all their rights.

COLOMBIA: Awa Indians Hemmed in by War
By Constanza Vieira*
BOGOTA (IPS) – Colombia?s FARC guerrillas admitted to killing eight Awa Indians who they accused of being army informants. Expert on military affairs Ariel Avila said this indigenous community in the war-torn province of Narino had formed vigilante “self-defence” groups.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=45921

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SOUTH-EAST ASIA: ‘Bali Process’ May Address Rohingya Crisis
By Marwaan Macan-Markar
CHA-AM, Thailand (IPS) – South-east Asian governments are examining the possibility of using a seven-year-old regional mechanism, known as the ??Bali Process,?? to find an answer to minority Muslim Rohingyas fleeing ethnic cleansing in military-ruled Burma.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=45926

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RIGHTS-AUSTRALIA: New Drive Against Racism
By Stephen de Tarczynski
MELBOURNE (IPS) – With new figures showing that 44 percent of Australians were either born overseas or have at least one parent who was, community organisations have welcomed a stepped-up government programme to tackle racial, cultural and religious intolerance.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=45891

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CHILE: Gov’t Unleashes Anti-Terror Law on Mapuche Activist
By Pamela Sepulveda
SANTIAGO (IPS) – “They burst in aiming machine guns at us. They found him in the hallway, they grabbed him by the hair, they threw him on the floor and they beat him up,” Ida Huenulef told IPS, describing the arrest of her son Miguel, the first indigenous Mapuche activist to be charged under the Anti-Terrorist Law by the government of Chilean President Michelle Bachelet.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=45861

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RIGHTS-BURMA: Rohingya Issue Figures in Regional Summit
By Marwaan Macan-Markar
CHA-AM, Thailand (IPS) – Burma?s military regime has set a tough challenge for regional leaders to grapple with when they gather for a summit over the weekend in this resort town south of Bangkok.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=45894

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SOUTH-EAST ASIA: Burma’s Muslim Rohingyas – The New Boat People *
By Marwaan Macan-Markar
BANGKOK (IPS) – It happened decades ago when this region was gripped by the fallout of the United States? war in Vietnam. But the ?boat people? phenomenon is back, and this time it has to do with Burma?s Muslim Rohingyas fleeing harsh realities at home.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=45850

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COLOMBIA: Rebels Kill Awa Indians as Army Informants
By Constanza Vieira*
BOGOTA (IPS) – A local group of Colombia?s FARC guerrillas acknowledged that it had killed eight members of the Awa indigenous group, who it accused of being army informants.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=45889

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COLOMBIA: A Hundred-Year War on Drugs
Analysis by Constanza Vieira*
BOGOTA (IPS) – The anti-drug, anti-insurgent Plan Colombia is, paradoxically, at the heart of the tragedy involving Awa indigenous people who were murdered this month by the FARC guerrillas.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=45857

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RIGHTS-AUSTRALIA: Year Later Apology to Lost Generations Looks Hollow
By Stephen de Tarczynski
MELBOURNE (IPS) – One year after the historic apology made to indigenous Australians by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd on behalf of the nation, conjecture remains over whether enough has been done to support the acknowledgement of wrongs inflicted on the first Australians.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=45829

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POLITICS: Rhetoric and Reality Clash on Obama’s First Foreign Visit
By Chris Arsenault
VANCOUVER (IPS) – On his first foreign visit as U.S. president, Barack Obama’s rhetoric of “hope” and “change” came face to face with the hard, divisive policy realities of climate change from Canada’s tar sands, a growing insurgency in Afghanistan and the sputtering world economy.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=45830

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