Ryssland försvårar för arktiska jagande urbefolkningar

Det finns ett 40-tal urbefolkningar i norra Ryssland. Ett sådant är evenkerna som jag skrivit om tidigare och som genom framlidne Tomas Johansson på Institutet för forntida teknik har en särskild plats inom svenskt hantverk. För de flesta av dessa folk är jakt fortfarande en aktiv och viktig del av ekonomin.

Nu kan man fråga sig varför jag tar upp detta, jo de ryska myndigheterna har i sin strävan efter att minska fristående organisationer roll och stärka statens kontroll förbjudit den organisation som samordnar de arktiska urfolken i Ryssland.  RAIPON, som organisationen heter samordnar 41 olika ursprungsfolk omfattande ca 300.000 människor.

I Barents Observer kan man läsa:

Over the 20 years of its existence, RAIPON has worked actively to protect indigenous peoples’ human rights and legal interests, as well as to promote their right to self governance. RAIPON represents 41 groups of Indigenous peoples, in total some 300,000. They live in 60 percent of the whole territory of the Russian Federation from Murmansk to Kamchatka.
Federal legislation passed over the last years has made it increasingly easy for Russian authorities to crunch bothersome non-governmental entities. However, RAIPON is far from an ordinary NGO operating in a specific field of interest, but an organization representing a wide range of interests and serving a significant part of Russia’s Arctic population. Furthermore, the association has been heavily engaged in a number of legislative processes involving Russian Arctic territories and represents Russian indigenous interests in a number of international fora.

Allvaret i det hela förstärks:

Anja Salo is adviser on indigenous peoples issues with the Norwegian Barents Secretariat. She says a possible closure of RAIPON will have serious impact on the indigenous peoples in the Barents Region.
"If Raipon as an organization is shut down it will  have serious impact on the indigenous peoples in the Barents Region. They represent both the Nenets people, the Veps people and the Sami people on the Russian side in important forums such as the Arctic Council and the UN. The indigenous peoples in Russia will lack a common political voice in order to influence on the decision making process on the federal level, and it will also restrict the activity of international cooperation in the field of indigenous affairs, says Anja Salo to BarentsObserver.
"Raipon has a unique knowledge about the indigenous situation in Russia and has an enormous network around the world. Because of that  they are a key partner for the Working Group of Indigenous Peoples in the Barents Region," says Anja Salo.