Truth Commission on Amazon massacre establishedGovernment dialogue with indigenous leaders continuesBy Bill Weinberg, Today correspondent |
Photo courtesy Erik Claudio Indigenous leaders in Peru’s Amazon region of Madre de Dios issued a joint statement rejecting a Hunt Oil contract on their traditional territories following a meeting with Hunt representatives at the offices of the Native Federation of the Río Madre de Dios (FENAMAD). Hunt is currently opening trails in preparation of seismic exploration within the local indigenous reserve, while FENAMAD has gone to court seeking an injunction to halt the work. |
“The directors are divided – the
company has changed their discourse,” he said, referring to
indigenous members of the reserve’s governing council. “But there is
a firm position in all the communities against the oil activities.”
On Sept. 9, FENAMAD brought suit before the Madre de Dios Superior
Court of Justice – the equivalent of a local district court –
seeking an injunction against Hunt’s exploration work. “We have to
attack on every level – using the courts but ready to defend our
territory physically,” FENAMAD secretary Jaime Corisepa said.
At the end of the meeting, Iviche announced that if Hunt doesn’t
withdraw from the reserve, the communities are prepared to carry out
a “desalojo” – eviction.
Silvana Lay, a forestry engineer who serves as Hunt’s director of
environmental health and safety for the Lot 76 project, defended the
company’s position.
“We weren’t going to come in until the Master Plan was approved. We
waited two years, and during that period we met with the communities
and gave information. We have the signatories of everybody saying
the work can go ahead – within the rules, of course. And then we
received a call saying the work cannot go ahead.”
FENAMAD attorney Milton Mercado rejected Lay’s portrayal. “The only
consultation has been with Shintuya and Puerto Luz,” he said,
referring to the two communities whose titled lands Hunt actually
intends to work in.
He said there has been no consultation with the other communities
that have access to the reserve for hunting and gathering, and whose
leaders make up the reserve’s governing council, known as the
Administrative Contract Executive or ECA.
“The ECA has never signed any document allowing Hunt in the
reserve,” he said. While the reserve’s Master Plan worked out by the
ECA and Peru’s public lands agency allows oil exploitation in a
general sense, it makes no reference to the Hunt contract. And this
provision was added above the protests of the communities.
Consultation is mandated by the International Labor Organization’s
Convention 169, to which Peru is a signatory. The principle is
also enshrined in Article 6 of Peru’s constitution.
As tensions mount in Madre de Dios, dialogue between AIDESEP and the
government of President Alan Garcia continues in Lima. Seven members
of the commission to investigate the Bagua massacre have been chosen
– three by AIDESEP, three by the executive branch, and one to
represent Peru’s regional governments.
The move came after weeks of dialogue with AIDESEP, and growing
international pressure. Days earlier, the United Nations Committee
on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination issued a formal
recommendation that the government of Peru open an “exhaustive,
objective and impartial investigation, including indigenous
representatives” into the deadly violence at Bagua.
There are still conflicting accounts of the violence that ensued
when National Police troops broke up an indigenous road blockade at
Devil’s Curve in Bagua district of Peru’s Amazonas region June 5.
The official claim of 34 deaths including only nine Natives is in
sharp contrast to as many as 40 deaths among indigenous rainforest
inhabitants reported by AIDESEP.
Salomon Awanash, an Awajon leader from Bagua and AIDESEP spokesman
emphasize that establishment of the truth commission is only a first
step. The initial issue behind the June protest campaign that
climaxed with the Bagua violence – Garcia’s controversial
“legislative decrees” on land and resource use issued in preparation
for the new Free Trade Agreement with the United States – remains
unresolved.
“Of the 100 decrees issued by Garcia, none favor the indigenous
peoples,” Awanash said. “If the government does not comply with our
demands, we are ready to return to our paro.”
Awanash recalls that this struggle has been underway since Garcia
released the decrees in April 2008 – and has resulted in some key
victories.
“Decrees 1015 and 1073 were overturned last August following our
protests, and later ruled unconstitutional by the congressional
constitutional commission,” he said. “But we called a national paro
this April that continued through June 5 with the events at Bagua
and the lamentable deaths of indigenous people, police and the civil
population.”
In the outcry over the Bagua violence, two more of Garcia’s decrees
– 1090 and 1064 – were overturned by Peru’s congress. “These decrees
would have directly affected indigenous lands and our rights, our
flora and our fauna,” Awanash said.
But AIDESEP is still demanding the repeal of several other decrees –
1089, 1020 and 994, according to Awanash.
Photo courtesy Native Federation of the Río Madre de Dios |
So far, the Garcia administration
has only met two demands – that the government recognize AIDESEP at
the dialogue table, and establishment of the Bagua investigation
commission. More general demands for a sustainable development model
for the Amazon that includes education, health, environmental
protection and indigenous participation on decision making may be
met with a national plan for the rainforest, scheduled to be
released at year’s end, when the truth commission is also to turn in
its findings.
More immediate outstanding demands are for restitution to the
families of those killed at Bagua, and what Awanash calls a “halt to
the persecution.”
With charges stalled against the commanding generals at Bagua, 41
AIDESEP leaders are facing charges related to the incident. Eight
have been detained – and one, Santiago Manuin, remains in the
hospital, gravely wounded. Three, including AIDESEP president
Alberto Pizango, are in exile in Nicaragua. The remainder are in
hiding. AIDESEP said any violence by its followers was in
self-defense, and wants all charges dropped.
Awanash stresses that every government proposal in the talks must be
taken back to regional leaders for discussion. “We are leaders, but
we do not make decisions. Every decision is taken in coordination
with the base.”
Despite the high price paid at Bagua, the fact that indigenous
leaders are now speaking face-to-face with cabinet ministers is
unprecedented, Awanash notes.
“For the first time in our history as Peruvian indigenous peoples,
we have been recognized by the government since the events of June
5. The government has always maintained that the Amazon is vacant,
that there is nobody there – only forest, water and natural
resources. Since June, we have been recognized at a national and
international level, and we are exercising our rights.”
Awanash said the process by which the decrees were promulgated
violated international principles on indigenous rights. “The
government proposals were made without consulting the communities.
We have the right to be consulted on the development of our lands.”
While consultation is the fundamental principle, he goes further –
virtually dismissing the possibility of corporate exploitation of
Peru’s indigenous lands.
“There is no international corporation that complies with our
demands. Whatever development takes place on our lands, we want it
to be under the control of our communities. We want collective
development, in which all are equal participants.”
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