[R-G] International solidarity protests against Peruvian forest laws

[Anthony Fenton]

http://www.indiancountrytoday.com/global/latin/47043272.html

International solidarity protests against Peruvian forest laws
By Rick Kearns, Today correspondent

Story Published: Jun 8, 2009

Story Updated: Jun 8, 2009

NEW YORK – Thousands of demonstrators on two continents have joined  
the struggle to defend the rights of indigenous peoples in Peru, who  
have been staging road and pipeline blockades for more than 50 days.

Advocates are fighting against a series of Forest Laws that facilitate  
the seizing of indigenous land by various corporations as part of a  
Free Trade Agreement with the United States, and that criminalize  
protest and provide immunity to military who kill demonstrators.

This year’s demonstrations follow actions staged last year when  
Peruvian indigenous leaders shut down parts of the country and lifted  
the strikes weeks later after being promised concessions. The  
concessions, according to spokespeople, did not materialize and the  
Inter-ethnic Association for the Development of the Peruvian Amazon or  
AIDESEP renewed the struggle in April with the help of 40,000  
indigenous peoples. As the blockades and counter-measures unfolded,  
some allies have responded with protests of their own. One of the more  
highly visible actions took place in New York City May 23 in front of  
the Peruvian Mission to the United Nations.

Indigenous leaders from the U.S., Colombia, Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador,  
Mexico, Peru and other countries were in New York to attend the eighth  
session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.  
Egberto Tabo, general coordinator for the Coordinating Body for the  
Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon Basin, read from a statement  
entitled “Solidarity with our Peruvian brothers and sisters.”

“As indigenous leaders from the five continents, we are profoundly  
concerned about current events in the Peruvian Amazon. This past May 9  
the Peruvian Government declared a State of Emergency in various  
districts. … The State of Emergency is nothing more than a  
disproportionate response to the legitimate complaints and demands for  
indigenous rights. … and is worsening conflicts, criminalizing social  
protest and putting at even greater risk indigenous peoples rights.”

Tabo said COICA, and the 63 other organizations that signed the  
petition, received support from the UN Permanent Forum. The  
signatories had a list of requests and denunciations aimed at the  
Peruvian government. According to the statement, the protestors  
requested the lifting of the emergency decree and they denounced  
government press releases sent to Peruvian media that avoided  
addressing the main concerns of the demonstrations, as well as  
demanding that the government respect the International Labour  
Organization treaty 169 “…which has constitutional status in Peru. …  
and which both establish that Native peoples should be consulted  
regarding all actions that impact them.”

“It is clear that the development of the Amazon is being carried out  
ignoring the wishes of the indigenous people and that the Amazon is  
seen as having natural riches that should be sold to the highest  
bidder,” Tabo said. “We cannot continue to allow a group of  
transnational companies to divide up the Amazon, as if it were just a  
business without consideration given to the territory of ancestral  
peoples, or without taking into account that this is the ‘lungs of the  
world’ and the greatest source of fresh water on the continent. We  
will not permit the continuation of this exploitation.”

Among the signers of the statement were the National Organization of  
Indigenous Peoples of Colombia, and the Confederation of Indigenous  
Peoples of Bolivia, the Council of All the Lands of Chile and the  
National Network of Mayan Peoples of Guatemala. The list included  
indigenous and allied groups from Ecuador, Mexico, Panama, Argentina,  
the U.S., Peru, Kenya, Papua, Suriname, Algeria, South Africa,  
Democratic Republic of the Congo, Haiti, Canada (Assembly of First  
Nations), Venezuela, Brazil, Nepal and India. The U.S. featured  
several organizations including Amazon Watch, Diné CARE, Environmental  
Defense Fund, Hawaii Institute for Human Rights, Indigenous  
Environmental Network, and the Xicana Indigenous Woman’s Network.

Tabo presented the statement to a representative of the Peruvian  
Mission who gave no comment upon receiving the document.

In the week after the New York demonstration, allies and sympathizers  
in Los Angeles, Calif., as well as Lima and Puno, Peru held events to  
call attention to the struggle of the indigenous peoples of Peru.  
While UN Permanent Forum officials did not issue a formal response  
during the New York protest, Chair Victoria Tauli-Corpuz released an  
official statement June 2, after the meeting.

“The Chair of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues expresses her  
deep concern on the reports received during the Eighth Session of the  
UNPFII, regarding the current situation in Peru. According to the  
information received, a state of siege was decreed by the Peruvian  
Government on 8 May 2009 in response to the mobilization of indigenous  
peoples in the Amazon region against extractive industries concessions  
in the area without the adequate consultations and respect for their  
free, prior and informed consent.

“The Chair wishes to recall that the Peruvian Government is under the  
obligation to consult and respect indigenous peoples’ rights as a  
Party to ILO Convention 169. Furthermore, Peru led the negotiations on  
the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and  
was one of the countries which actively supported the adoption of the  
Declaration, which calls for the full respect of indigenous peoples’  
rights, including the rights related to their traditional lands,  
territories and resources and to their free, prior and informed  
consent.”

According to comments made by AIDESEP President Alberto Pizango in the  
first week of June, further protest actions in Peru will continue.  
(One of the protest issues involves criminal charges filed against  
Pizango for his involvement in the blockades.)