Indians win concession from government

After a protest by over one hundred Waorani Indians in the Ecuadorian capital last month, the government has announced the creation of a commission to investigate the impact of oil exploitation on Indian lands.

The commission will be headed by a Minister, but include human rights and environmental activists.

Much of the Ecuadorian Amazon has been destroyed in the last forty years by hundreds of oil wells, and subsequent road construction and massive colonisation by poor Ecuadorians. Several tribes have seen virtually all their lands destroyed.