E/CN.4/2003/90 page 15 restated its position that megaprojects are the main cause of current conflicts between the indigenous peoples and the State. As examples, the organization mentions the U’wa people and its ongoing conflict with the Occidental Petroleum Co. (Oxy) over oil drilling on indigenous territory; the Emberá-Katío and the Urrá hydroelectric dam, the Wayúu and coal mining activities; another dam under construction in Saldaña where the Pijao people live; logging on Chamí forests by the Smurffit company; and the conflict between Inga, Kofane and Siona communities and oil companies over drilling and road building. More tensions are predicted among the Sikuani due to the channelling of the Meta River and an African palm plantation project, as well as the Emberá people in relation to the building of the proposed Inter-Oceanic Atrato-Truandó Canal.51 42. The survival of the Emberá-Katío people is at stake. Several of their most important and prominent leaders have been killed in the last five years. The Urrá I dam was proposed and is being built without their consent, involving involuntary displacements, social and economic disorganization and cultural disruption. They resent the construction of this dam as a threat to their way of life, and some of the impacts that have already been reported seem to support this view. These include diseases which were unknown to the area, scarcity of fish and other basic elements of their diet and, most significantly, the disruption of the river, which represents a central place in the spiritual relationship of the Emberá-Katío people to their land. 43. The situation of the Emberá-Katío is not unique, because other indigenous peoples in the country face similar threats. Moreover, they have become, like other indigenous communities, victims of a violent civil conflict between armed parties involving the national security forces, the revolutionary guerrillas, the paramilitary groups, as well as criminal elements linked to drug trafficking. They have proclaimed their autonomy and neutrality in these conflicts, demanding only that their territories, cultures and ways of life be respected. Unfortunately, this has not been the case and so their fundamental human rights have been and continue to be systematically violated. The Emberá-Katío face the danger of not being able to survive this violence as a distinct people: a clear case of ethnocide. India 44. The Sardar Sarovar Dam in India is the largest of 30 large, 135 medium and 3,000 small dams to be built to harness the waters of the Narmada River and its tributaries, in order to provide large amounts of water and electricity for the people of Gujarat, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh. With a proposed height of 136.5 m, the Government claims that the multipurpose Sardar Sarovar Project (SSP) will irrigate more than 1.8 million hectares and quench the thirst of the drought-prone areas of Kutch and Saurashtra in Gujarat. Others counter that these benefits are exaggerated and would never accrue to the extent suggested by the Government. Instead, the project would displace more than 320,000 people and affect the livelihood of thousands of others. Overall, due to related displacements by the canal system and other allied projects, at least 1 million people are expected to become uprooted or otherwise affected upon completion of the project. Indeed, the development surrounding the Narmada River has been labelled “India’s greatest planned human and environmental disaster”, a far cry from former Prime Minister Nehru’s idealization of dams as the “secular temples of modern India.” 52