Brutal Massacre of Peruvian Indigenous by Peru Army and Police
Sunday, June 7, 2009- Over the last two days, deep in the Peruvian Amazon, confrontations between nonviolent indigenous protesters and police have left more than 60 people dead. As many as 30,000 Indigenous people have sustained protests for almost two months in response to as series of Presidential Decrees issued last year under the US-Peru FTA implementation law. Several of these decrees directly threaten Indigenous territories and rights.
The Garcia government is mounting a massive propaganda campaign, trying to say that the Indigenous protesters attacked the police, and accusing them of being terrorists, but substantial evidence points to a police attack on defenseless protesters. The head of Peru’s Justice Ministry has issued a warrant for the arrest of Alberto Pizango, on sedition charges. Pizango is President of AIDESEP, the main Indigenous organization involved in the protests. Arrest warrants have been issued for several other leaders as well.
Despite the fact that a bi-partisan Congressional Committee has found these decrees to be in violation of the Constitution of Peru, President Alan Garcia continues to use them to issue concessions to transnational companies for extractive activities in the Peruvian Amazon. Seventy two percent of the Peruvian Amazon has been let in concessions for petroleum exploration and extraction, negatively impacting the environment and health of indigenous communities. The decrees also violate ILO Convention 169, of which Peru is a signer, requiring prior informed consent with indigenous peoples regarding activity impacting their lives and territories.
Indigenous protests were organized to block the entry of large machinery for extractive activities into the zone. Communities have shut down roads and waterways; filling roads with people and rocks and interrupting river traffic by tying cables across waterways. These were the only means available to this illegal onslaught by the government which would destroy their lands and lives.
Early Friday morning, police in helicopters and on foot, opened fire on peoples at roadblocks in Bagua. Official counts have not been released, but reports indicate that 28 indigenous protestors and 10 police were killed, with hundreds more wounded.
On Saturday it was reported that 38 police had been taken hostage by 3000 protesters, and police attacked the crowds in an attempt to free the hostages. Reports state that 9 more police were killed in the confrontation and that seven more are missing. Reports of indigenous casualties are scarce but estimated to be about 30.
Police have been accused of burning bodies of indigenous people killed and throwing them in the river. Indigenous leaders also denounced that police entered the hospital in Bagua and began shooting to scare the families of the wounded away and then carried the wounded out of the hospital. Yesterday, a large spontaneous demonstration in Lima in support of the Amazonian indigenous was broken up by police.
The UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues issued an urgent call to the government of Peru, demanding that the violence against the Indigenous people cease, that medical attention be made available to the wounded and that the Peruvian government abide by its international obligations regarding the protection of all human rights, especially their right to life and security.
The tragic violence currently unleashed in the Peruvian Amazon is directly linked to the U.S-Peru FTA. Today, indigenous leader and protestor Luis Huansi stated from a roadblock: "We will not give up until they reverse the laws that damage us. They want to take away our lands and forest and make our traditions disappear.”
The protests will not end with this violence. There have been calls for international tribunals to hold the government responsible for this massacre. We call for an end to the legalization of this thievery and destruction of the planet promoted by our government through implementation of FTAs.