Protect the Rights of Indigenous Peoples – Fair Trial for Alberto Pizango!

The 5th June 2010 marked the first anniversary of the ‘Massacre of Bagua’. On this day the police near to this town used brutal force to break up a peacefully-held street blockade by thousands of indigenous demonstrators. According to official statistics, 34 people died and at least two hundred were injured. These casualties included both native people and police. The Peruvian government held the President of AIDESP (Associación Interétnica de Desarollo de la Delva Peruana – the National Organization of the Amazon Indigenous people of Peru) Alberto Pizango, responsible for the massacre and immediately issued an arrest warrant against him.

Alberto Pizango had previously, on 15th May 2009, called in a press conference for an ‘Indigenous Uprising’ against the government, although on the following day he withdrew this appeal. In spite of this, the government held him responsible for the events in Bagua and publicly blamed him for incitement to commit criminal acts, rebellion and mutiny. If convicted, he faces a 35 year prison sentence. Subsequently Pizango went into exile in Nicaragua. On 26th May he returned to Peru to face up to the charges against him. He further declared that he wanted to bring about urgently-needed reconciliations between the indigenous and the non-indigenous peoples. Immediately after his arrival he was arrested by Peruvian officials at the airport in Lima. One day later his imprisonment was changed to a court order. Since then Alberto Pindo is no longer in prison, but is not allowed to leave the country and must report once a month to a legal authority.

The conflict in Bagua was the bloody climax of a series of protest campaigns by the native peoples of the Peruvian Amazon area. Among these were the Awajún-Wambis, who were protesting against several pre-determined decisions of the government. For although Peru had signed up to the principles of the International Labour Organisation (ILO Convention 169) regarding Protection of Indigenous Peoples, the interests of their native peoples had not been considered – on the contrary: the government was facilitating access to their area by international businesses to extract the natural resources, especially oil and gas. In practice, what this meant for the native communities was dispossessions and forced migrations from their traditional lands and the destruction and/or irreversible contamination of their area by the extraction of the raw materials.

However, there is some hope for the indigenous people. On the 19th May 2010 the Peruvian Congress passed a ‘Law regarding the Right to Prior Consultation with Indigenous and Aboriginal Peoples’ (Ley del Derecho a una Consulta Previa a los Pueblos Indỉgenas y Originarios). According to this law, the native peoples must be consulted with regard to any decisions – or building projects – which will have impacts upon their lands.

It would be obligatory, according to this law, for the truth about their interests to be declared. For the government would be bound to at least inform the native peoples about any possible building or mineral extraction operations. However, the Peruvian President Alan Garcia has so far not ratified this law, and the mining and oil companies are refusing to consider the interests of the native peoples.

The Society for Threatened Peoples, along with many national and international organisations, demands that Alberto Pizango should receive a fair trial, and that the rights of the indigenous peoples should be protected.

Please appeal to the Peruvian Ambassador, S.E. Herrn José Luis Pérez Sánchez-Cerro, The Peruvian Minister for Justice Dr Victor Garcia Toma and the President of the Peruvian Congress Luis Alva Castro, to ensure a fair trial for Albert Pizango and the ratification of the Law on Consultations.

Link for the On-line appeal

Translated from Charlie und Gisela Russell