Peru: in solidarity with the indigenous struggle
11-06-2009
On Friday 5th June 2009, a contingent of armed military police, accompanied by Armed Forces special personnel, opened fire on around 1,000 indigenous settlers who had been demonstrating in Bagua, northeast Peru, for more than 50 days. The conflicts have resulted in more than 30 deaths. The government declared a prison sentence for the principal leader of the protests, Alberto Pizango, president of AIDESEP (Interethnic Association for the Development of the Peruvian Forest), who has asked for asylum in Nicaragua.
The protestors demand the repeal of a series of 102 laws passed by the Peruvian Government, which allow multinational companies to devastate and exploit the indigenous reserves and other protected areas in the Amazon rainforest. The objective of such laws is the effective implementation of the Free Trade Agreement signed with the United States, and result in the non-respect of pacts, conventions and covenants signed by Peru, like the ILO covenant 169 and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People, as well as the Peruvian Constitution and other national laws. The set of measures also ignores the recognition of Peruvian indigenous peoples’ equality and dignity and their right to exercise their identity and their own forms of development, growth and transformation.
Peruvian organizations and movements are calling for a national day of struggle in solidarity with the Amazonian indigenous peoples, on the 11th June, as well as the immediate suspension of the state of emergency, and an end to the violence perpetrated by government forces. They call for national and international solidarity to allow dialogue to prevail over and above force, to prevent a genocide from taking place in the Amazon region and to safeguard the right of the Indigenous Peoples to self-determination.
Messages of solidarity can be sent to AIDESEP, by email to: aidesep@infonegocio.net.pe. You will find out (in Spanish) the solidarity message wrote by the WMW NCB in Peru (in Spanish only) in the link:
http://www.marchemondiale.org/structure/cn-groupes/ameriques/perou/indamazonia0610/es/
The protestors demand the repeal of a series of 102 laws passed by the Peruvian Government, which allow multinational companies to devastate and exploit the indigenous reserves and other protected areas in the Amazon rainforest. The objective of such laws is the effective implementation of the Free Trade Agreement signed with the United States, and result in the non-respect of pacts, conventions and covenants signed by Peru, like the ILO covenant 169 and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People, as well as the Peruvian Constitution and other national laws. The set of measures also ignores the recognition of Peruvian indigenous peoples’ equality and dignity and their right to exercise their identity and their own forms of development, growth and transformation.
Peruvian organizations and movements are calling for a national day of struggle in solidarity with the Amazonian indigenous peoples, on the 11th June, as well as the immediate suspension of the state of emergency, and an end to the violence perpetrated by government forces. They call for national and international solidarity to allow dialogue to prevail over and above force, to prevent a genocide from taking place in the Amazon region and to safeguard the right of the Indigenous Peoples to self-determination.
Messages of solidarity can be sent to AIDESEP, by email to: aidesep@infonegocio.net.pe. You will find out (in Spanish) the solidarity message wrote by the WMW NCB in Peru (in Spanish only) in the link:
http://www.marchemondiale.org/structure/cn-groupes/ameriques/perou/indamazonia0610/es/