Eyewitness Reports Accuse Peruvian Police of Disposing the Bodies of Dead Indigenous Protesters

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Amazon Watch

Eyewitness 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

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.



Read more: http://www.amazonwatch.org/newsroom/view_news.php?id=1843

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This information was taken from a post by DU'er magbana, in the Latin America forum, linked after a message to President Garcia you may want to sign:

Send a Message to the President of Peru:
http://www.amazonwatch.org/peru-action-alert.php

Magbana's original post, with addition information:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=405x16071

[AlphaCentauri]

1. I won't be surprise if the Peruvian government portrait the indigenous as members

of the guerrilla, SP. I remember reading an article last year about the supposable regrouping of the shinning path guerrilla so the government may have been planning the propaganda before labor and indigenous leaders started to march on the streets.

[Judi Lynn]

2. EFerrari has mentioned the connection between Garcia, executive powers awarded him

and the new FTA with the US which appears to have set this all in motion.

I'm certain you're right.

Garcia created death squads in the 1980's in his first term, as discussed in an article someone posted here in the last few days. Another article in the Latin America forum today mentions he has sent in paramilitaries to that area presently.

You might want to check info. in magbana's post in the Latin America forum. BoRev has discovered the Washiington Times has already blamed this on Hugo Chavez. Figures, doesn't it?

magbana's BoRev info:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=405x16065

[EFerrari]

3. Garcia is spinning full tilt boogey. He's saying they fired first.

The press initially only reported the police deaths and not the protester deaths. The usual.

[Judi Lynn]

4. Oh, SURE they did. They fired their spears. God, that's sick.

They probably sneaked out of the forest and "fired" their spears at unsuspecting people.

There are people foolish enough to believe him, too.

[EFerrari]

5. When the police approached, they knelt in the road with their arms up.

Some of those people were executed at point blank range.

Borev has a link for pictures that I put up in #3, my GD thread. Some of them are horrendous.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x5805063

[Judi Lynn]

6. Unbelievable vision of hell there. There are some savages involved in this

and they most clearly are not the indigenous people.

Doesn't seem possible a President could visit this hell upon these truly helpless people who have no where to go. They can't relocate to their condos in Miami, or their places in Palm Beach like people of Alan Garcia's ilk.

This is their entire world he is destroying for their children, even as he murders the parents.

[pjt7]

7. This ain't good.

[Bacchus39]

12. there have been several articles on the resurgence of Sendero Luminoso

much more recent than last year.

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/americas/04/21/peru.shining.path/index.html

[Judi Lynn]

8. Peruvian police fire on unarmed indigenous tribes' oil and gas protest

Peruvian police fire on unarmed indigenous tribes' oil and gas protest
Both sides report at least 30 deaths and many more
Rory Carroll, Latin America correspondent, and agencies guardian.co.uk,
Friday 5 June 2009 23.20 BST

Indigenous tribes who are protesting about oil and gas projects in the Amazon clashed with Peruvian security forces on Friday, leaving dozens dead and injured.

The bloodshed broke out before dawn when police tried to lift a road blockade by thousands of Awajun and Wambis Indians near Bagua in the remote province of Utcubamba, 870 miles north of the capital Lima.

Both sides reported at least 30 deaths - including nine police - and dozens wounded. Each blamed the other for the mayhem.

Police in helicopters fired live rounds at peaceful protestors and dropped tear gas canisters, killing 22 protestors, indigenous leader Alberto Pizango told reporters in the capital Lima. "I hold the government of President Alan García responsible for ordering this genocide."

The government said police were attempting to retake control of a lawless area when they came under attack from tribes who were armed with guns and set fire to government buildings.

The advocacy group Amazon Watch backed the indigenous version of events. "Eyewitnesses report that police attacked from both sides firing real bullets into the crowd as people fled into the hills. As the unarmed demonstrators were killed and injured, some wrestled the police and took away their guns and fought back in self-defence, resulting in the deaths of several police officers."

More:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jun/05/amazon-tribes-police-protest-deaths

[Judi Lynn]

9. Massacre of Indigineous Amazonians in Peru - 25 dead and counting

Massacre of Indigineous Amazonians in Peru - 25 dead and counting
Monday June 08, 2009 20:28

"This government disregards the indigenous people.” was what they said a week before being shot at from helicopters

http://www.indymedia.ie.nyud.net:8090/cache/imagecache/local/attachments/jun2009/300_0___20_0_0_0_0_0_3599476912_a34e0d597a_m.jpg

Massacre of Indigineous
Amazonians in Peru

An ongoing, many month old peaceful protest in the Bagua region of the north western area of Peru was brutally attacked this week by state forces, resulting in the deaths of, at least, 25 native Indigenous Amazonian Peruvians. A motorway in the "curve of the devil" region had been blocked by local communities of the area who 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.

~snip~
Basta!
As word is spreading at this attrocious massacre, there is outrage. Governments can no longer carry on playing this game (remember bloody sunday). We, in all parts of the world, are angry. We stand with our brothers and sisters of Peru. We stand with their spokesperson Miguel Palacin and his condemnation of the massacre, last week at the Continental Summit of Indigenous People: "This government disregards the indigenous people" - sadly now, we know how right he was. We are all hij@s de Pachamama (sons and daughters of mother earth) we say Basta - Enough; Enough destruction, misery, sadness and death. As is stated in America Latina: "Another World is not only possible, it's absolutely necessary!"

Ironically, or perhaps with a sinister twist, the massacre happened on World Environmental day, and also days after the 20 year commemoration of the Tienanmen square massacre in China, which led to global outrage at what governments do to their people.

http://www.indymedia.ie/article/92604

[truedelphi]

10. What a terrible thing to contemplate, and even worse

That it is happening.

I just met someone who is thinking of moving to Peru, as he feels that it embodies the highest spritiual pricnicples.

I immediately thought - then I bet the Powers that Be will move in and offset that energy.

Solidarity to the indigenous.

[EFerrari]

13. Garcia's bet is that it's still okay to kill indians on the American continent.

That no one will mobilize. I hope he is wrong.

[Judi Lynn]

11. 'Many missing' after Peru riots

Page last updated at 15:10 GMT, Monday, 8 June 2009 16:10 UK
'Many missing' after Peru riots

Dozens of people are missing feared dead in northern Peru after some of the country's worst violence for 10 years.

At least 30 indigenous protesters and 24 police officers are reported to have been killed in two days of clashes.

Local people say a military curfew is preventing them from hunting for those still unaccounted for. Witnesses report seeing bodies dumped in a river.

President Alan Garcia has accused the protesters of "barbarity" and said "foreign forces" were also involved.

The violence erupted on Friday after 2,500 Indians - many of them carrying spears and machetes - protested over government plans to drill for gas and oil in what they consider their ancestral lands

~snip~
"The police were shooting to kill, but that's not all, because they hid the dead," one man told the BBC.

"They took them to the ravine and threw them from the helicopter in plastic bags. There are also dead on the river banks. Up there beyond the hill, there are more, as if it were a common grave."

President Garcia has roundly rejected the allegations. He accused the protesters of disarming, tying up and slitting the throats of the officers taken hostage.

President Garcia has blamed foreign forces - widely understood to mean Bolivia and Venezuela - for inciting the unrest, saying on Sunday they did not want Peru to use its "natural resources for the good, growth and quality of life of our people".

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8088350.stm

http://external.cache.el-mundo.net.nyud.net:8090/elmundo/imagenes/2006/04/28/1146189892_g_0.jpg



http://photos.upi.com.nyud.net:8090/topics-Alan-Garcia/45285066c2fbb1caea1ef2681dd9fc18/Alan-Garcia_1.jpg

http://3.bp.blogspot.com.nyud.net:8090/_7Se7iswAanA/SOvS9iPj_OI/AAAAAAAADGY/Nertzguv3QA/s320/alan_garcia_sssssh2.jpg

Peru's President Alan Garcia

[Judi Lynn]

14. Up to 100 dead in Amazon clashes: activist

Up to 100 dead in Amazon clashes: activist
By News Online's Amy Simmons

Posted Mon Jun 8, 2009 4:39pm AEST
Updated Mon Jun 8, 2009 4:59pm AEST

http://www.abc.net.au.nyud.net:8090/reslib/200906/r382204_1781694.jpg

Many Peruvians - not just Indigenous - are
upset by plans to open land in Peru's
Amazon region to oil, gas and mineral
exploration (User submitted: Ben Powless)

Up to 100 Amazon natives have been killed after Friday's military crackdown on protesters in Peru and the situation is expected to worsen, says a Canadian Indigenous rights activist.

Twenty-two-year-old Ben Powless is working alongside Peru's national organisation of Amazon Indigenous people, AIDESEP, and fears more lives will be lost, with the government now labelling protesters as "terrorists".

Many Peruvians - not just Indigenous - are upset by plans to open land in Peru's Amazon region to oil, gas and mineral exploration, even though much of the land is officially protected.

The Government has recently signed a number of free trade agreements with the United States and Canada, seeking to change domestic laws and encourage foreign investment in the Amazon.

~snip~
Human rights abuses

In the long-term, he says the issue is one of Indigenous rights and liberties.

"The Indigenous groups here, especially in the Amazon region, are fearing for control of their livelihoods and really fighting for control of the land they have lived on, and that they have lived on forever," he said.

"Any development anywhere usually has to take into consideration the people who live there and who would be impacted - this is something that has been established by the United Nations and the recent UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples."

Ultimately, Mr Powless says achieving this would mean a renegotiation of the laws, which have been pushed through the Government without any oversight from the Indigenous people.


Indigenous 'terrorists'

However, Mr Powless says he is not optimistic, particularly due to Government attempts to paint Indigenous protesters as terrorists.

"In the context of a country that has been fighting an insurgent group for over 20 years now and they have a long history of dealing with what they consider terrorism in a very violent, militarised means, for them to start coming out and calling the Indigenous groups here terrorists seems to suggest that they're preparing to respond to them with more military means," he said.

"Without serious pressure coming nationally and internationally, letting the government know that they can't commit human rights abuses anymore, and without people saying that there needs to be negotiation and that they can't just go in with the military and stop people's legitimate protests, then I'm not really convinced that the Government is going to step down."

Mr Powless says this is the biggest incident the Peruvian Amazon has seen in the modern era.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/06/08/2592391.htm?section=world

[Judi Lynn]

15. Forests Of Peruvian Amazon Stained With Blood

Forests Of Peruvian Amazon Stained With Blood
Tuesday, 9 June 2009, 2:31 pm
Press Release: COICA
Green Forests Of Peruvian Amazon Stained With Blood

Bonn, June 8, 2009

The Coordinating Body of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon Basin - COICA - is outraged over the recent events in the cities of Jaen, Bagua Chica, and Bagua Grande in Peru.

We express our profound rejection of the repressive methods used by the Peruvian Government, which are criminal and undemocratic. Since last May, the government has declared a state of emergency and repression in several districts of the Amazon in response to a strike called by Peruvian indigenous organizations demanding the legal and legitimate respect of their territories, and respect of their rights, which have been violated by a dozen of legislative decrees that promote the entry of multinational companies into Amazonian lands to the detriment of local indigenous communities.

SEARCH NZ JOBS

We condemn the killing of more than 30 indigenous brothers (Awajun and Wampis) and dozens wounded, including farmers, mestizos, and whites attacked for their solidarity with indigenous peoples.

We accuse the government of Alan García of political manipulation and authoritarianism given the Constitution Committee of Peru's National Congress's declaration that the legislative package which provoked the strike-signifying environmental, labor, intellectual property, and biodiversity management reforms--is unconstitutional.

We accuse the government of Alan García of failing to find a timely and legitimate solution to AIDESEP's proposal to repeal the ordinance 1090 and other decrees ((to facilitate the Free Trade FTA between Perú and United States), which could have prevented this massacre.

We regret and condemn the reactions of the Peruvian government, its Ministers, and the media, for blaming the disgrace in Bagua on Peruvian indigenous bothers, and their concealment of information regarding indigenous peoples killed (by hiding their bodies). This only shows that the government of Alan García feared being accused of crimes and human rights violations.

We appeal to the independent press and human rights institutions to investigate, monitor and report on actual events actually taking place in Peru, as opposed to relying on information in the national press manipulated by the government.

We urge the international community create a commission to investigate and review the facts, and urge the Government of Peru to implement the ILO Convention 169 and other international treaties on indigenous peoples and human rights.

We demand that the government of Alan García be tried before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and respond to the international community about the massacre that occurred in the Amazon territories, where the armed forces confronted unarmed indigenous peoples.

We call on the indigenous movement of the world to show solidarity with our Peruvian brothers and to demand that the government of Alan García immediately stop this repression and murder wave in the Peruvian Amazon.

We urge the whole world to recognize that the environment is not only “biodiversity” but also the people that co-exist with biodiversity. Therefore, it is very painful for us that the celebration of World Environment Day, June 5, has been stained with the blood of our brothers, who were the keepers of the land in their struggle for environmental protection.

We emphasize our position as peaceful Amazonian indigenous peoples, although we will respond courageously in defense of our rights, our lives and the environment.

For the respect of life and integrity of the people! For the protection of our Amazon! For a common front in support of indigenous peoples!

COICA - Coordinator of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon Basin
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0906/S00068.htm

[NorthernSpy]

16. Here comes the helicopter...

Here comes the helicopter
Second time today
Everybody scatters
And hopes it goes away
How many kids they've murdered
Only God can say

If I had a rocket launcher
I'd make somebody pay


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7vCww3j2-w