DEMANDING IMMEDIATE RELEASE OF TEN ANTI-MINING ACTIVISTS

Cheryl, Akki and Dora, who have been resisting mining at Maina, are the youngest and oldest anti-mining activists in the group. There are 200 mining trucks parked in their neighbourhood, with labour hired to dig ore even at night!!!







Environmentalist Sebastain Rodrigues, Father Mathais and other villagers seen sharing their environmental concerns at the Colamb anti-mining Public Meeting few days ago.



People from many villages came to the public meeting to share their concerns due to increasing mining in their respective areas.

Local activists protesting against mining activities in Maina have been arrested at Quepem Police Station today (11/10/08) at 3:00 p.m.

We demand their immediate release.

We appeal to all citizens of Goa to show solidarity to the struggling people, who are resisting mining-terrorism in the area.

PLEASE CALL QUEPEN POLICE STATION AT 0832662253 AND DEMAND THEIR IMMEDIATE RELEASE.

Among those arrested were Cheryl D'Souza San Francisco, Akki D' Souza, her eight year-old daughter, her mother Dora D'Souza, who is 85 years-old and other activists including Sebastian Rodrigues, and Kurush Tandonwala.

With no response from the Chief Minister's office and continued threats by the local mafia-mining company goons, Cheryl and her family decided to protest today by chaining themselves to the trucks and refusing to be compensated by local mining authorities for her farmlands. Cheryl, along with others from mining-affected villages in Goa, Cowrem, Rivona and Maina resisted 200 trucks from transporting ore outside the area.

The incident turned ugly when local mafia beat up the activists of Mand Adivasi Resource Centre, GAKUVED, Cheryl and her family, their cameras have been destroyed.

We appeal to the activists of the mass movement to write to the CM and the Governor for immediate release of the following:

Cheryl D'Souza
Rita Fernandes
Akki D'Souza
Kurush Canteenwala

Shashikala Devidas
Dora D' Souza
Sebastian Rodrigues

We demand that mining activities be immediately stopped at Maina, which are being conducted in the buffer zone of the sanctuary.

We demand that Environmental Clearance for mining at Maina be withdrawn, since these activities severely affect the ecological balance in that area.

Mining activities are illegal and should end since they also violate the Forest Conservation Act.

For photographs of Public Meeting, click here

Posted by Vijay Pratap, Shaweta and Sayantoni from South Asian Dialogues on Ecological Democracy-CSDS (website link), Delhi