DENVER, June 24: Five years after the earth summit in Rio de Janeiro, indigenous groups from around the world say multinational corporations are trampling on agreements made to protect the environment.

``It's been five years since the Rio declaration, but the changes it mandates have been slow in coming,'' says Alan O'Hashi of Global Response, a Colorado-based body that organised an international tribunal here at the weekend.

The hearing was conducted by an international panel of judges from the Karen, Komi, Ogoni, Quichua, Mapuche, Nuxalk, Siam, and Western Shoshone indigenous nations. Held to coincide with the meetings of leaders from the `Group of 7' major industrialised countries plus Russia, the hearing focussed on the environmental and human rights impacts on indigenous territories of the operations of mega-corporations.

The indigenous groups from Asia, Africa, South, and North America, condemned companies from the United States, Europe and Japan for wholesale violations of the rights of native people. The groups charged a number of companies with violating international law and principles of the United Nations.

Shell was accused of cooperating with the military regime of Nigeria, which has suppressed protests by Ogoni people.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.