Cinta M. Kaipat
Peter J. Pangelinan Perez
PaganWatch

November 19, 2004

Mr. David B. Cohen
Deputy Assistant Secretary for Insular Affairs
Department of the Interior
1849 C Street, NW
Washington DC 20240

Dear Mr. Cohen,

We are founding members of PaganWatch, a watchdog group of Chamorro and Refalawasch people and supporters who are working together to protect the beautiful and pristine island of Pagan in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI). We are writing on behalf of the residents of Pagan, as well as the greater indigenous CNMI community to ask for your help in protecting our natural and cultural heritage, our coral reefs, and our rights as the indigenous people of the Northern Marianas. We are also writing to ask you to help us protect what appears to be a tremendous opportunity for the CNMI to become financially secure through the development of a local natural resource.

Our small, beloved island is under threat of being strip-mined by permission and permit from the Marianas Public Land Authority (MPLA). MPLA has repeatedly refused to allow either the residents of Pagan or the greater CNMI community to participate in the decision as to whether or not to mine their island. MPLA has made it clear that the decision of whether or not to issue a mining permit and the terms of the permit rests solely with them and that the indigenous people who own the land have no say so in the matter.

If Pagan is turned over for mining, there is little doubt that it means the end of the simple life that the residents of Pagan love and cherish. Because the permit requestor has no mining experience, no operation plan, no environmental impact plan, and no secure funding for the project, there is great risk of significant and permanent harm to the land and surrounding waters as well.

The public land on Pagan belongs to the indigenous Chamorro and Refalawasch people of the CNMI. This is clearly recognized and established in Article III of the Covenant and is maintained under Article XII of the CNMI Constitution. Marianas Public Land Authority (MPLA) was created as an autonomous agency to administer indigenous land use permits and leases. All income realized from the productive management of these lands goes to the Marianas Public Land Trust (MPLT) for the benefit of the indigenous people.

MPLA may have responsibility for administering land-use permits and leases, but that does not give them the right make land use decisions on their own and in secret. MPLA is violating the right of the indigenous people to free, prior and informed consent in matters affecting their lands, territories and resources.

PaganWatch has been working for many months to get indigenous representation on this monumental decision to mine the 5th largest island in the Marianas. All our efforts are ignored by the Board of Directors of MPLA who alone are deciding on this issue. They do not allow us to see any documents, nor to know the terms discussed. Their meetings with Azmar take place behind close doors. Although the doors are closed to us, they are open to Azmar supporters. These supporters include members of the CNMI Senate who, along with MPLA officials, have even held meetings at the home of Azmar founder Ken Moore in Arizona and met at Senator Luis Crisostomo's home here on Saipan.

We were successful in getting the CNMI House of Representatives to author and vote unanimously for the "Pozzolan Mining Act of 2004" which was then blocked in the Senate by supporters of Azmar. The Act would have required the formation of a task force consisting of representatives from all local and Federal permitting agencies as well as local representatives from Pagan families and the CNMI community, and would freeze any permit discussion and mining until the task force had a chance to evaluate the mining opportunity and formulate the terms under which mining could proceed if it was desired. Although the Senate blocked the Act, one Senator issued a letter to MPLA requesting that a task force be established and that the task force include representatives of the Pagan families and greater CNMI community. MPLA still ignored the calls for a task force.

We have made every effort at a local level to get MPLA to allow the indigenous people to participate but to no avail. The Board of Directors at MPLA appears simply determined to issue this permit. Last Tuesday, November 16, 2004, despite overwhelming public opposition to Azmar, MPLA decided to enter into a 15-day period of secret negotiations with Azmar.

PaganWatch takes the position that what MPLA is doing is illegal because it violates the word and intent of the Covenant Agreement and the CNMI Constitution that both recognize that public lands belong to the indigenous people. When the CNMI government created MPLA to administer permits, they did not simultaneously give away the indigenous peoples right to decide on how their lands are to be used. Yet the local CNMI government seems powerless or unwilling to stop MPLA.

We realize that while we have overwhelmingly achieved our initial goals of bringing the issue out into the open, recruiting supporters in government and elsewhere, and providing MPLA with the information and reasons to do the right thing, our strategy has not succeeded. We now recognize that undue pressure and manipulation is occurring at MPLA as a result of many political and personal relationships between board members and Azmar supporters. It appears that nothing we do at a local level is going to make any difference. So we must look outside our local government for help.

As you may recall, when I brought this issue to your personal attention while you were on Saipan last June to attend the EPA Conference, you assured me that you would monitor this situation so that there was fairness to all sides, including fairness to the former residents of Pagan, as well as to any outsider investors. Well, Sir, The lack of fairness to the former residents and to the vast majority of the indigenous community here in the CNMI is unmistakable.

You and Secretary of the Interior Gail Norton are clearly concerned about the economic health of the region and have demonstrated through action that you want to help. Despite our pleas to MPLA officials to present a Request for Proposal for this project at the recent economic conference in Los Angeles to attract other bidders, MPLA ignored our request and continued secret negotiations with one company - Azmar!

This mining opportunity in Pagan is a once in a lifetime opportunity for long-term prosperity. But not under the terms of the permit currently under consideration by MPLA. We have learned that the permit would send windfall profits from mining outside the region. The profit split gives only 7% of the revenues to the CNMI in return for strip-mining our island of 200 million tons of pozzolan worth between $50 and $100 per ton at today's prices and potentially much more in the future due to anticipated scarcity of pozzolan worldwide. Potentially billions are at risk!

But this is about much more than money. It is about the right of the indigenous people of the CNMI to participate in the determination of the future of their lands. It is also about protecting not only our natural heritage and coral reefs, but about protecting our cultural heritage as well. And it is about honoring the word and intent of the Covenant agreement that delegated the responsibility of protecting the indigenous people from exploitation to the local government. When the local government ignores this responsibility, we must look to the Federal government to step in and insist that the Covenant agreement be honored.

PaganWatch is just a group of citizens who are doing our best to fight for what's right. We have no funding and our time given to this fight is taken from our families and our jobs. We realize that the fight could be taken up in Federal court, but that is a fight that requires extensive time and money. We hope that by your intervention and influence that the obvious unethical and illegal action of exclusion by MPLA can be stopped.

It is in the interests of everyone that the laws of the land are obeyed, that the land and waters of these islands are protected, and that the government remains open to the participation of the people it serves. Please help us.

Sincerely,

Cinta M. Kaipat
President, United Northern Mariana Islanders Association
PaganWatch

Peter J. Pangelinan Perez
Paganwatch

Cc: Media