The point is it is their land. They cannot survive against commercial interests encroaching. The net result of which is extermination or abject subjugation.Originally Posted by Eorna
They feel their land, health, livelihood and community is threatened by the government's giveaway of the area, and its precious resources, to multinational oil and gas exploration.
Peru Government Minister Resigns in Protest + Eyewitness Reports Accuse Peruvian Police of Disposing the Bodies of Dead Indigenous Protesters
Peru Government Minister Resigns in Protest, from IKN
Carmen Vildoso, Peru's Minister of Women and member of the Peru cabinet, has just resigned in protest over her government's handling of the Bagua protest and particularly because of the government spin in reporting incident to Peru
Amazon Watch Press Release:
This PRESS RELEASE was reported on IKN. You can watch vid footage and live web conference with Gregor MacLennan (Program Coordinator for Amazon Watch) from Yesterdays Democracy Now showEyewitness Reports Accuse Peruvian Police of Disposing the Bodies of Dead Indigenous Protesters
Garcia Government Makes Troubling Racial Slurs and Fear-mongering
Indigenous Leaders and Allies Call for an End to Violence on All Sides
High Resolution Images and B-ROll from June 5th Bagua, Peru Tragedy Available for Download
Bagua, Peru (June 8, 2009) – In the aftermath of Friday's bloody raid on a peaceful indigenous road blockade near Bagua in the Peruvian Amazon, numerous eyewitnesses are reporting that the Special Forces of the Peruvian Police have been disposing of the bodies of indigenous protesters who were killed.
"Today I spoke to many eyewitnesses in Bagua reporting that they saw police throw the bodies of the dead into the Marañon River from a helicopter in an apparent attempt by the Government to underreport the number of indigenous people killed by police," said Gregor MacLennan, spokesperson for Amazon Watch.
"Hospital workers in Bagua Chica and Bagua Grande corroborated that the police took bodies of the dead from their premises to an undisclosed location. I spoke to several people who reported that there are bodies lying at the bottom of a deep crevasse up in the hills, about 2 kilometers from the incident site. When the Church and local leaders went to investigate, the police stopped them from approaching the area," reported MacLennan.
Police and government officials have been consistently underreporting the number of indigenous people killed by police gunfire. Indigenous organizations place the number of protesters killed at least at 40, while Government officials claiming that only a handful of indigenous people were killed. Also the Garcia Government claims that 22 police officers were killed and several still missing.
"Witnesses say that it was the police who opened fire last Friday on the protesters from helicopters," MacLennan said. "Now the government appears to be destroying the bodies of slain protesters and giving very low estimates of the casualty. Given that the demonstrators were unarmed or carrying only wooden spears and the police were firing automatic weapons, the actual number of indigenous people killed is likely to be much higher."
"Another eyewitness reported seeing the bodies of five indigenous people that had been burned beyond identification at the morgue. I have listened to testimony of people in tears talking about witnessing the police burning bodies," continued MacLennan.
At least 150 people from the demonstration on Friday are still being detained. Eye-witness reports also confirm that police forcibly removed some of the wounded indigenous protesters from hospitals, taking them to unknown destinations. Their families expressed concern for their well being while in detention. There are many people still reported missing and access to medical attention in the region is horribly inadequate.
The Organizing Committee for the Indigenous Peoples of Alto Amazonas Province issued this statement: "It is appalling that political powers have acted in such a cruel and inhuman manner against Amazonian Peoples, failing to recognize the fundamental rights and protections guaranteed to us by the Constitution. We express deep grief over the death of our indigenous brothers, of civilians and the officers of the National Police."
The government expanded the State of Emergency and established a curfew on all traffic in the region from 3 pm to 6 am. Indigenous and international human rights organizations are worried about plans of another National Police raid on a blockade in Yurimaguas close to the town of Tarapoto where thousands are blocking a road.
President Alan Garcia is being widely criticized for fomenting a climate of fear mongering against indigenous peoples by drawing parallels to the brutal Shinning Path guerrilla movement of the 1980s and early 1990s, and by vaguely referring to external and anti-democratic threats to the country.
The Amazonian indigenous peoples' mobilizations have been peaceful, locally coordinated, and extremely well organized for nearly two months. Yet Garcia insists on calling them terrorist acts and anti-democratic. Garcia has even gone so far as to describe the indigenous mobilizations as "savage and barbaric." Garcia has made his discrimination explicit, saying directly that the Amazonian indigenous people are not first-class citizens.
"These people don't have crowns," Garcia said about the protesters. "These people aren't first-class citizens who can say – 400,000 natives to 28 million Peruvians – 'You don't have the right to be here.' No way. That is a huge error."
Ironically, Peru was the country that introduced the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples on the floor of the General Assembly when it was adopted in September 2007.
A coalition of indigenous and human rights organizations will protest in front of the Peruvian Embassy in Washington D.C. on Monday, June 8 at 12:30 pm.
Indigenous peoples have vowed to continue protests until the Peruvian Congress revokes the "free trade" decrees issued by President Garcia under special powers granted by Congress in the context of the Free Trade Agreement with the United States.
Among the outpouring of statements condemning the violence in Peru were those from Peru's Ombudsman's office, the chair of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, a coalition of 45 international human rights organizations, Indigenous organizations from throughout the Americas, and the Conference of Bishops of Peru. Also famous personalities including Q'orianka Kilcher, Benjamin Bratt, Peter Bratt, and Daryl Hannah and Bianca Jagger called on the Peruvian Government to cease the violence and seek peaceful resolution to the conflict.
AIDESEP, the national indigenous organization of Peru has called for a nationwide general strike starting June 11th.
In the U.S.: Nick Magel 1-419-283-2728 nick@amazonwatch.org
In Peru: Gregor MacLennan + 511 - 993 916-389
Related Vid, ( CAUTION ! disturbing pictures ):
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ur9duUg0Wo"]June 5th. 2009 - PERU Genocide[/ame]
*** Some OIL companies with interests in the Peruvian Amazon region: ***
British French; Perenco (big gas group in UK), Argentina; Plus Petrol, Canada; Petrolifera, Spain; Repsol, Brazil; Petrobras... + much more
http://www.survival.es/noticias/4643
http://barcelona.indymedia.org/newsw...5576/index.php
*** Barcelona solidarity actions begin with the indegenous of Peru ***
Wednesday night; vigil and concentration @ Peru consulate. With green colored candles
Thursday, "Manifestastion/ demo for Bagua" - 13h (mid-day Dublin time)
http://barcelona.indymedia.org/newsw...5597/index.php
Last edited by dunk; 9th June 2009 at 05:31 PM.
map of the resource giveaway,
taken from film in above link
Timeline from source
June 5th. 2009 ...Violent Confrontations in Bagua Peru:
Initial information:
* Around 2am, the police began amassing near protesters, who were blocking the road in a locale called Curva de Diablo. Protesters did not move.
* Around 5:30 am 6:00 am helicopters dropped teargas from above. On the ground, police started to attack, firing gun shots from outset.
* As protesters were feeling, the police were shooting at and killing indigenous people.
* Reportedly in self defense, some indigenous people took control of police firearms and shot back, killing several police officers (The police are claiming that the protesters were armed with guns from the beginning and initiated the exchange of gunfire, a claim denied by eye-witnesses)
* When an international NGO worker was trying to film and photograph the situation, a policeman fired a teargas bomb in her face. She said that the police also were prohibiting other press from filming.
* As injured and dead were being transported toward the town of Bagua Chica, they have been detained at a police control post at Milagros. Only injured police have been allowed to pass. Injured indigenous have been detained at the police station, an undetermined number dying there for lack of medical attention.
* An ambulance driver was also attacked and injured.
* Protesters have retreated to the Cruce de Bagua, between where they were blocking the road and the town of Bagua.
* In Bagua, the police firing shots into the air as they looked for indigenous leaders. Two non-indigenous residents are reported killed. Now the non-indigenous population is protesting police presence and have reportedly taken control of the police station and government offices including the APRA offices, COFOPRI and PRONAA.
* Reports of deaths include at least four indigenous protesters (Santiago Valera, Luis Yankun, Feliz Dupis, and Luis Jintas), two Bagua towns people, and four police officers.
Context:
* On Tuesday the constitutional committee of congress was suspended from debating the constitutionality of the other legislative decrees because the APRA participants did not turn up.
* Yesterday congress was scheduled for the second time to debate the constitutionality of 1090, but again suspended the debate.
* Yesterday the Defensoría del Pueblo published a report to the constitutional tribunal on the unconstitutionality of law 1064.
* Yesterday the local chief of police confirmed that he had orders from above to open the roads in the next 24 hours. The indigenous protesters had agreed not to allow anyone passed.
Genocide and oppression !!! ...in the name of development and greed.
I have just recently come back from Peru and my heart is breaking about what is happening to these people.
I have just started a facebook group encouraging people to write to the Peruvian embassy to register their protest at the treatment of the Amazonian people.
Login | Facebook
Please join this group and spread the word.
A young gentleman I met while over there.
INCA KOLA NEWS: Bagua: Good primer style note from Reuters
...That lays out the basic issues of the Bagua massacre, what led up to it and the current situation in a fair, evenhanded way.
Recommended for those of you who don't want to spend your life on the subject but do want a good handle on what it's all about.
ANALYSIS-Peru Amazon conflict exposes rift over economic policy
By Marco Aquino
BAGUA GRANDE, Peru, June 9 (Reuters) - Potentially lucrative oil and mineral reserves lie in Peru's vast Amazon region, but its Indian inhabitants are furious at being left out of plans to profit from the jungle.
Weeks of tribal protests against government plans to open up communal lands to oil drilling, mining and logging boiled over last week into violent clashes with police that killed more than 60 people.
For angry subsistence farmers, President Alan Garcia's efforts to break up the land into parcels of private property to lure foreign investment is the latest slight in a long history of official neglect.
"We live in misery while others come in and take our natural resources and we don't get anything in return," said Sirilo Awachi, a 42-year-old farmer who lives near the poor Amazon town of Bagua Grande.
Brandishing homemade wooden spears and wearing red face paint, thousands of demonstrators battled police to demand that the government repeal new laws that open up Peru's Amazon region to foreign mining and energy companies.
Indian leaders said 40 demonstrators were killed and accused police of opening fire from helicopters, The government said 24 police officers died, some with their throats split. Both sides have accused the other of launching brutal attacks.
The tensions are testing Garcia's drive to tap Peru's natural resource wealth to stoke economic growth. The South American country is a leading producer of silver, copper, zinc and gold, and is home to sizable oil and natural gas reserves.
The unrest also reflects growing frustration among the poor that the benefits of a recent economic boom, fueled by the mining industry, has failed to trickle down in a country where one out of three Peruvians live in poverty.
WOODEN SHACKS, NO WATER OR POWER
The Amazon area is Peru's most underdeveloped region, where Indians tend to their own crops living in wooden shacks with no access to running water or electricity.
"We Indians don't have a future. We don't have schools, we don't have hospitals. We are marginalized," said one protester, Juan Tineo, 30.
Political commentator Cesar Hildebrandt said the conflict is rooted in a history of governments overlooking jungle areas, where just over 10 percent of Peru's nearly 30 million people live.
"In Peru, the jungle has always been seen as a source to be raided for timber, oil and gas. It's never been seriously considered a territory where people actually live," he said, adding that the neglect has hardened Indian groups now building political movements.
Facing the most serious political crisis since he took office in 2006, Garcia lashed out at the protesters, calling them "terrorists" and casting them as obstacles to economic development.
Garcia initially faced calls to sack ministers but they have died down, partly because the deaths were far from urban centers and because he portrayed the police action as an anti-terrorist effort.
Peru was torn apart by a civil war between the army and indigenous "Shining Path" rebels in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and many urban residents are scared of Indian groups.
Some of Garcia's aides have suggested the Amazon protests are backed by left-wing opposition leader Ollanta Humala, who has ties to Venezuela's socialist president, Hugo Chavez.
Garcia is one of the most pro-Washington leaders in Latin America and has frequently traded accusations with Chavez, a strident anti-American.
But Manuel Saavedra, director of the Lima-based polling group CPI, said Garcia failed to consult indigenous groups about the government plan.
"There was never any dialogue. He didn't talk to the communities enough to sell them on the idea," he said.
Some of the controversial laws that have upset indigenous groups were passed last year as Garcia moved to bring Peru's regulatory framework into compliance with a free-trade agreement with the United States.
The total area being granted to multinational companies covers more than 70 percent of the Peruvian Amazon, according to a study by scientists at Duke University. At least 58 of the 64 areas are on lands titled to indigenous peoples, it said.
The government has restored order in Bagua Grande, the focal point of last week's protests, and indigenous groups manning ro******************************************s in another Amazon town, Yurimaguas, have signaled they will ease their protest.
But there has been no final solution to the conflict and neither side shows signs of giving up. "We are seeing two sides with extreme positions," said Hildebrandt. (Writing and additional reporting by Kevin Gray in Lima; Editing by Kieran Murray)
Irish "star" Colin Farrell has been protesting with the indegenous Peruvian communities in LA, before the massacre - tell people, maybe your little sister digs him and his mates, if she digs them, she might dig the idea of supporting this struggle, she might even take to the streets to show solidarity with the Peruvian indegenous.... and maybe Colin too.
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I15dDC9BeaM]YouTube - Los Angeles protest in support of Peru's Indiginous Peoples rights , May 26,2009[/ame]
Find out more from YouTube - OnQinitiative's Channel
Celebrities Colin Farrell, Woody Harrelson, Qorianka Kilcher , Jesse Garcia, Alex Meraz and Clifton Collins pull together in an effort to call attention to Peru's Indigenous peoples plight and struggle for survival , health and basic human rights In the wake of the FTA and the Peruvian governments attempts to allow multinational oil, gas, logging and mining corporations to take over their land, without previous consultation or consent of the local inhabitants.
The May 26th protests outside the Peruvian Embassy in Los Angeles were organizes by On-Q initiative/Peru Youth Activists in support and solidarity with Perus 48 day long indigenous protests, involving over 1200 indigenous Amazon communities and more than 30 thousands indigenous protesters who, in peaceful protests, are blockading roads and river traffic throughout the Amazon, demanding the repeal of a series legal decrees imposed by the Garcia Administration under the pretext of implementing the Free Trade agreements (FTA) with the United States.
The new laws favor free access for multinational companies over indigenous rights and directly undermines indigenous peoples rights recognized in the national constitution as well as in international treaties, including the United Nations declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples and the International Labor Organization (ILO) Convention 169.
On may 9th in an effort to silence indigenous community opponents of extractive industrie and suppress the peaceful protests, the Garcia regime declared a state of emergency , allowing the deployment of military forces , and the use of violence and repression as weapon against the just fight of a peaceful and humble people whose only arm is their voice and simple presence.
Furthermore, In an aggressive harassment campaign, the Garcia government has filed criminal charges of treason and sedition against 6 indigenous leaders including Alberto Pizango, president of AIDESEP, Perus national indigenous organization representing over 350,000 indigenous peoples in the Amazon
We thank the "Harmony Keepers" for providing harmony and peace for the Los Angeles Protests and DANZA CUAUHTEMOC for their ceremonial dances and prayer.
Solidarity actions in Holland today at Peruvian embassy at den Haag. (link found via IMC-PERU)
Petition to the Ambassador of Peru in NL
Dear Mr. Allan Wagner Tizón, Ambassador of Peru in The Netherlands,
To the Peruvian Consulate and Embassy in The Netherlands:
The following Dutch organizations in solidarity with Latin America, want to express our deep concern with the slaughter of Indigenous people on the morning of Friday 5 June in Bagua, area of Corral Quemado and Curva del Diablo in the Peruvian Amazon. We are outraged with the dozens of dead and wounded people on both sides, mainly members of the Indigenous People Awajun.
WE DEMAND AN INMEDIATE HALT TO THE STATE VIOLENCE BEING WAGED AGAINST INDIGENOUS PEOPLES IN THE PERUVIAN AMAZON AND INSIST THAT THEIR RIGHTS BE RESPECTED.
We demand, in solidarity with organizations in Peru:
- The respect of and compliance to the Convention 169 (ILO) and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples signed by Peru, that includes the self-determination of indigenous peoples. Our indigenous brothers and sisters have the right to determine their political condition and to decide on how natural resources (including the subsoil) should be allocated for their economic, social and cultural development. The consultation of indigenous people by the Peruvian government is, in this case, not only a courtesy, but an obligation to uphold the right to free, prior and informed consent of Indigenous Peoples.
- To denounce and cancel the Free Trade Agreement with the USA. It is through this agreement that the APRA government intends to impose a model of plundering and irresponsible consumption of our resources that undermines the national interests in favour of a corrupt business sector that has a record of environmental damage, plundering and exploitation of native people, and played a part in bringing about global warming and the world economic crisis.
- The immediate abolition of all unconstitutional Law decrees.
- The lifting of the State of Emergency in the Peruvian Amazon.
- An immediate end to the persecution of social leaders, the criminalization of social protest and the criminal charges against Alberto Pizango (the main leader of AIDESEP) for conspiracy, rebellion and sedition.
- AN INMEDIATE HALT TO THE STATE VIOLENCE BEING WAGED AGAINST INDIGENOUS PEOPLES IN THE PERUVIAN AMAZON AND RESPECT FOR THEIR RIGHTS.
- Prosecution of those responsible for the massacre.
We demand that your Embassy pass this denunciation on to the Peruvian government and with the declaration that you are against the above mentioned violations of human rights.
Signatures:
Organización Autónoma de Jóvenes para América Latina, Ojalá
XmenosY Fondo de Solidaridad
ICAD (Comite Internacional contra las desapariciones forzadas y la tortura) Holanda
FIAN Holanda
Aseed Europe
HIJOS Holanda
Mapuche-FOLIL
Fundacion Centro Latino Americano en Amsterdam
Carbon Trade Watch
La Revista Klasse !
Good report by Amy Goodman on the Democracy Now website .
Peruvian Police Accused of Massacring Indigenous Protesters in Amazon Jungle
Independent journalist Henry Pillares interviewed indigenous leader Alberto Pizango last month for the group Amazon Watch.
ALBERTO PIZANGO: [translated] They’ve said that we indigenous peoples are against the system, but, no, we want development, but from our perspective, development that adheres to legal conventions, such as the United Nations International Labour Organization’s Convention 169, that says we, the indigenous peoples, have to be consulted. The government has not consulted us.
Not only am I being persecuted, but I feel that my life is in danger, because I am defending the rights of the peoples, the legitimate rights that the indigenous people have. I feel I am being persecuted, and the situation can get much worse with my criminal prosecution.The day before the protests, the clashes, the local police chief and the local mayors and the indigenous leaders all had a meeting, where the police chief said he had orders to bring order and open up the road, if the indigenous people didn’t move. What happened that night was the police—about 500 police approached the protesters, and at 5:30 in the morning, they started firing tear gas and then live bullets into the crowd of indigenous people on the road, who were waking up and some still sleeping at that time in the morning.
What resulted seems to be—appears to be a total massacre. I was speaking to a local leader who talked about how they had got down on their knees and held their hands up, and the police had fired straight into their bodies as they asked for them not to shoot. What followed then was—seems to be a series of running battles along the road as the indigenous people tried to flee into the hills and flee back to the town of Bagua Chica, as the police continued to fire tear gas from helicopters and from the ground and fire live bullets from the helicopters and from the ground. And people talk about how they were aiming at their bodies and shooting to kill. I’ve just been listening to some audio reports, of hearing the police shouting, “Shoot them in the head! Shoot the dogs in the head!” as they ran for cover.
Text of the US Peru Free Trade Agreement here
Final Text | Office of the United States Trade Representative
The Heritage Foundation see the FTA as a specific means of combatting Bolivian and Chilean influence in the Region:
Six Strategic Reasons to Support a U.S.-Peru Free Trade Agreement
The FTA will allow heavily subsidised US foodstuffs to be imported without duty: local agriculture is under threat.
Oxfam America: Trade Deal with Peru Fails to Measure Up for Development
Alan Garcia aspires to be like the Saudis or the Nigerians, or the Venezuelans. Oil might have been good for say Norway, but otherwise the outcome is mixed.
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