9 more police killed in Amazon protests in Peru

[Turborama]

Source: AP

President Alan Garcia labored Saturday to contain Peru's worst political violence in years, as nine more police officers were killed in a bloody standoff with Amazon Indians fighting his efforts to exploit oil, gas and other resources on their native lands.

The new deaths brought to 22 the number of police killed — seven with spears — since security forces moved early Friday to break up a roadblock manned by 5,000 protesters.

Protest leaders said at least 30 Indians, including three children, died in the clashes. Authorities said they could confirm only nine civilian deaths, but cabinet chief Yehude Simon told reporters that 155 people had been injured, about a third of them with bullet wounds.

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The violence began before dawn Friday when security forces moved to break up a roadblock protesters mounted in early April. About 1,000 protesters seized police during the melee, taking more than three dozen hostage, officials said.

Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5j9pNpad9T95Yc7VQREA4BViTQRhwD98LKG8G1

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Photos of the conflict at the link.

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Rainforest Resources Conflict in Northern Peru Turns Bloody

Source: Environment News Service

BAGUA, Peru, June 6, 2009 (ENS) - Peruvian Special Forces staged a violent raid early Friday on a group of indigenous people who were sleeping at a road blockade outside of Bagua in the remote northern Peruvian Amazon. At least 25 civilians are confirmed dead and over 100 were wounded and nine police officers are confirmed dead in the raid.

For the past two months, indigenous people have blocked waterways and roads across the Amazon, demanding the repeal of legislative decrees issued last year to bring Peru into compliance with the U.S.-Peru Free Trade Agreement, which took effect early this year. The protesters claim the decrees will allow deforestation and privatization of their traditional lands and natural resources.

More than 600 police attacked several thousand unarmed Awajun and Wambis indigenous peoples on the Fernando Belaúnde Terry road, including many women and children and forcibly dispersed them using tear gas and live ammunition.

Demonstrators refused to move from the roadblock as police in helicopters fired teargas grenades and live ammunition. Eyewitnesses report that police also attacked from both sides firing live rounds into the crowd as people fled into surrounding steep hillsides, where many were trapped. As the demonstrators were being killed and injured, some wrestled with police, fighting back in self-defense, which resulted in the reported deaths of the nine police officers.

Read more: http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/jun2009/2009-06-06-01.asp

[MasonJar]

1. Here we go again: exploiting indigenous peoples and denuding the rainforests.

What a force for evil we have become.

[Vidar]

2. In Latin America, the US constantly supports evil.