SOLIDARIOS PROTEST AT VATICAN DOME
Thu, 24 Feb 2000
Greetings to The whole of Italy and all the people from different countries from all over the world that are here today.
We are Solidari@s con Itoiz a group campaigning and working to defend the earth and more specifically against an irrational and devastating dam which they want to build in the Basque country in the name of "progress".
We have chosen this place to make our public and non violent protest because it is one of the most famous places in Italy and one of the most visited places by people of all nationalities. From here and using this square as a loud speaker we want to pass the message to the world that earth must be looked after and that is in our hands.
Three of our colleagues have hanged from the San Pietro dome, intending to put a banner up with the following writing: SOS ITOIZ - STOP THE DAMS. They intend to stay up there as long as they can.
The Itoiz dam is, like many other projects carried out by humans in many points of the planet, a destructive, wasteful, anti- environmental and an illegal project and we can even describe it as criminal.
Destructive, because filling up the dam nine villages of the valley will disappear and another six will be directly affected. Traditional ways of life which have lasted for thousands of years till our days, based on respect towards earth will disappear together with a historical-artistical "patrimony" of uncountable value (non economical).
Wasteful, as the project is within a pharaonic hydraulic policy which is driving us towards disproportional spending of this prime material ( water) instead of learning and teaching more efficient and cleaner ways of using it. We must not forget that water is the most needed prime material and the one we are polluting the most.
Anti-environmental, because the dam will flood 3 areas considered natural reserves, two ZEPAS ( special areas for the protection of birds) in valleys where the transition between the pirenaic and Mediterranean climate takes place. A place where time, earth and the sun have created a very special microclimate in which many animal species live and are in clear danger of extinction.
Illegal, because the dam has been declared illegal and invalid by the National Court, as confirmed by the High court. In spite of all this, none of these bodies have done anything to stop the works, which has left clear the injustice of Justice.
Criminal: this adjective is as true as it is real, because the Spanish government have hidden documents of an study for over 15 years. This study declares the dam as a very high risk dam and it could have catastrophic consequences. This way they were trying to hide the fact that the lives of many people were in danger (as it happened in the Vaijont dam in 1963 in which more than 2000 people were killed), but the opposition got hold of the study and made it public.
For all these reasons and the unfair sentence of 4 years and 10 months that 8 members of the group have been given (for stopping the works of the dam in a very clean way), we are touring Europe in protest; it began at the European parliament in Strasbourg with a public press release.
We have been touring since September last year visiting different countries doing actions and protests as well as video-talks. Our aim is to inform and to get support from all kinds of social groups in order to get international support to pressure the Navarra government and the Spanish government, who are responsible for this barbaric project.
The opposition in our land is powerful but we think that the responsibility is not only of the people that live in this land but everybody's; one thing we all have in common is the union with earth.
We must realise and make the ones that try to rule our lives realise that earth does not belong to anybody, the different generations lent it to us and many more are still to come.
LETS DEFFEND THE EARTH
STOP THE DESTRUCTION OF OUR PLANET
THEY WILL NOT PASS THROUGH ITOIZ
More information about the tour:
http://www.s-o-s-itoiz.org.uk
Photos and update http://www.tmcrew.org/int/itoiz
Itoiz | Dam Protests | www.agp.org (archives) | www.all4all.org