IN A dispute reflecting two worlds, Indian leaders from Colombia, whose people are occupying land owned by Smurfits, yesterday met senior executives at the company's Dublin headquarters.
"We had a constructive exchange of views," a Smurfit executive said of the meeting about a dispute almost two decades old. The Indians see it as part of a 500year-old problem they have had with Europeans.
Ms Blanca Heli Conda Quit umbo, the elected governor of the Paez people's community in La Paila, and Mr Emilio Conda Cruz, a former governor, were brought to Ireland by the Third World solidarity group Action from Ireland.
They met Mr Michael Petti grew, company secretary, and Mr Jim Fitzharris, assistant secretary, at the group's Clonskeagh offices. Mr Joe Murray of AFrI said the chief operating officer for Smurfit Latin America, Mr Pietro Filesi, had offered to set up a meeting in Colombia between the Paez and all interested parties, including the government there. Mr Murray agreed the discussion was "good and open" but hoped the follow-up would bring a solution.
The Paez people are occupying a farm in La Paila, a mountainous region in south-west Colombia which was bought during 1979 and 1980 by the Smurfit Carton de Colombia, the country's largest paper-making enterprise.
The Paez community accuses the company of conspiring to deny them their traditional rights to the land. They also claim they have been harassed by the army and police, acting in support of the company's pine plantation operation, whose total area is 100,000 acres in Cauca state.
The dispute in south-west Colombia reflects a clash between a traditional sense of rights earned by working and caring for the land and one based on legal title and documents. The Paez have no title to the Smurfits' diamante farm, which they say they "took back" from the company in the last two years.
The multinational says no Indian settlement existed in the area at the time of its purchase of 1,800 hectares (4,447.8 acres) for afforestation. It accuses the indigenous people of forcibly occupying the land. AFrI's guests say this is true legally, since Colombia's pre-1991 constitution recognised Indians only as "savages" or people "en route to civilisation". The company says that in 1981 the Paez invaded its forest farms, destroyed trees, burned houses and attacked employees.
At an AFrI meeting in Dublin on Monday night, Ms Conda said they had come to Ireland "to see what solidarity there is". The company has said it will continue "efforts to establish peaceful coexistence with the Paez Indians".