UK-based human rights organisation focusing on indigenous tribal people, Survival International, has unveiled a Web site featuring films, photos, articles and Google Earth maps to draw attention to the fate of the world's estimated 100 uncontacted tribes.
It says, the Google Earth maps on the site will not help anyone make 'first contact' with these people, but it aims to help stop oil companies, loggers and other industrial projects from invading the lands of these tribes. “This maps show the territories of uncontacted tribes around the world,” it adds.
The territories are typically thousands of square kilometres in size, and the locations are deliberately approximate, it says.
“No one should go to tribes which aren't in regular contact with outsiders. It's dangerous for everyone. We only publicise their rough location because this helps to protect the tribes and their lands,” the organisation says.
The non-governmental organisation (NGO) explains that the main objective of the Web site is to let the members of the public know about the existence of these uncontacted tribes and help support them. It says technology is the only way that it can get its message across.
According to Survival International, the Web site will also help the campaign to raise funds to save these tribes. It says it is funded almost entirely by concerned members of the public and some foundations.
“We will not take national government money, because governments are the main violators of tribal peoples' rights, nor will we take money from companies which might be abusing tribal peoples,” says the organisation.
The uncontcated tribes were in the world spotlight two years ago when Survival International released photos showing Indians, deep in the Brazilian Amazon, aiming bows and arrows at a government aircraft circling overhead.
The photos made headlines around the world and threw uncontacted tribes into the international spotlight, provoking public outrage at the threats to their land, livelihoods and lives.
"In spite of this, however, uncontacted tribes around the world are facing extinction," the British-based organisation said in a report titled Uncontacted Tribes Face Extinction, and governments, companies and others ignore their rights, and invade and destroy their land with impunity."
Oil workers and illegal loggers are invading the lands of uncontacted tribes in Peru, it says in the new Web site.
“They risk introducing infectious diseases which could wipe the Indians out. Peru's president has even denied the tribes exist. They won't survive unless the invasions stop,” it says.
The British NGO has recently been fighting the government of Botswana. Survival International and the government of Botswana have been in and out of court in the case where the organisation is at loggerheads with the government for the return of the Bushmen to Central Kalahari Game Reserve, from where they were evicted.
The Bushmen won the case and they have since then been allowed to return.
The NGO experienced a 'massive' cyber attack last year, which knocked its Web site offline and it blamed Botswana.
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