We think that the numerous deaths and wounded could have been avoided. In addition to showing our grief we strongly condemn the use of violence as a way to solve conflicts and we ask the implicated parties to find mechanisms of dialogue.

For the past 15 years, we have witnessed the efforts of the awajunwampi people to set the legal bases in order to ensure their permanence in traditional territory and the conservation of their culture whilst following the path of their human development. Out of respect for this population, we demand that the information on the Peruvian native reality be true and objective. The government of Alan García has self excluded responsibility and has blamed the tragedy on a group of organizations contrary to Peru's development. This information is not in line with what our colleagues from Peru share with us.

The current strike started on April 9, and has mobilized 5.000 people. The first communities to join were the ones from Alto Marañón, Cenepa and the district of Imaza and then the ones of Santiago, Nieva, Marañón and Domingusa, joined. At national level, the movement got stronger from April 20 onwards, with the blockade of the roads in the region of San Martín, Loreto, and the airports of the Ucayali region and by taking over the petrol station number 06 and the Corral Quemado bridge in the Amazonian region.
The Amazonian populations go on strike for pending demands. The approval of several legislative decrees by Alan Garcia's government provoked at the beginning of August 2008, a mobilization of historical dimensions. Although the media did not account for this, almost 12.000 people joined a strike of almost 3 weeks that took place peacefully in the Amazonian department.

The reason for the strike was the approval of eleven law decrees issued by the government in the framework of the special faculties given by Congress for the progressive implementation of the Free Trade Agreement with the US. The decrees facilitate the donation and selling of community lands without a previous and free consultation with the populations and their communities as required in the Agreement 169 of the International Labour Organization signed by Peru in 1994. According to its article 6 " Governments shall:

• Consult the peoples concerned, through appropriate procedures and in particular through their representative institutions, whenever consideration is being given to legislative or administrative measures which may affect them directly;
  
  
• Establish means by which these peoples can freely participate, to at least the same extent as other sectors of the population, at all levels of decision-making in elective institutions and administrative and other bodies responsible for policies and programmes which concern them;
  
  
• Establish means for the full development of these peoples' own institutions and initiatives, and in appropriate cases provide the resources necessary for this purpose".
  

The decrees affect the right to private and community property and favour the concentration of land, allow the Ministry of Agriculture to change the status of farm and forest lands and to change ownership inscriptions in public registries. These decrees come into conflict with regional governments on issues such as forest land ownership. With its political will for an efficient exploitation in financial terms, they favour the interests of wealthy farmers and extracting industry and what is worse, endanger the areas recognized in favour of native and peasant communities.

Thanks to the mobilizations, they achieved the abolition by Congress on August 22 of the most conflictive decrees and the constitutional revision of the rest. In the meantime, the executive was committed with the native leaders to create a permanent dialogue table on issues such as public health policies and intercultural education or programmes on native community lands by a multiparty commission.

Eight months after the agreement, the Congress Commission had not yet presented its report and various decrees questioned by the Amazonian populations continued with their regulation. On the other hand, the executive had not set up an official dialogue table with AIDESEP, the Asociación Interétnica de Desarrollo de la Selva Amazónica, which shows the lack of political will to comply with commitments. This led the native communities to a new strike in April 2009.

The multiparty commission presented its report on the second half of April to Congress and supported the Amazonian population's demand of anti constitution. However, the government refused the report and demanded that that the decrees be evaluated by the Constitutional Commission of Congress. In the meantime, the situation in the Amazonian department was getting complicated. The peasant federations joined the strike, the road from Jaen to Bagua was blocked and around 5.000 people mobilized in the petrol station of Imazita. Thursday, June 4, 2009 was the date that Parliament was going to debate on one of the legislative decrees declared unconstitutional by the multiparty commission. However, the meeting, whose results were important for the natives, never took place because the congressmen never attended.

On Friday June 5, the police approached the road from Jaén to Bagua, which was blocked by the natives, with the order to disperse them in order to unblock it. According to eye witnesses, the native leader Santiago Manuin tried to approach the police to dialogue, but the police threw tear gases and since the natives did not move, they shot in the air and against the ground. Some bullets bounced and killed a native, wounding others. The group got excited and tried to advance towards the police who started to shoot people. At this moment, the leader Santiago Manuin was shot and is in critical condition in a hospital.

Santiago is an awajun-wampis leader, very much recognized by the communities of the area, with a great history in the organization of the defence of the population's rights. In 2001, he participated in a Programme of Human Rights for native leaders organized by the Deusto University and the High Commissioner of the United Nations for Native Populations in which he studied International Law and this enabled him for a better protection of his people's rights.

The treatment of this issue by the Peruvian government and the majority of the media both in and out of Peru, is making the real conflict of the awajun-wampis population invisible. The demands for respect for their territory and the use of it are being continuously ignored by the government and its leaders are persecuted. Although one cannot ignore that in the course of events, some leaders have committed atrocities, it is unfair to blame for this the whole of the awajun-wampis population and to link their demand to violence. To blame the tragedy on enemies of Peru's development is to ignore, once again, the history of unfulfilled demands. In addition, it is an interested and very dangerous excuse in order not to address a more rigorous analysis of the causes that have led to so many deaths.

They are days of anguish and great pain for many people. ALBOAN y ENTRECULTURAS call upon the international agents in order to:

• Remain alert to the grave incidents in Peru and take care of the global aspect pf the conflict.
  
  
• Demand transparency to the Peruvian government in the treatment of information, impartial investigation and prudence in the use of public force.
  
  
• Contribute to dialogue and the resolution of conflicts in a peaceful way, so that the rights of native communities may be respected and in particular their right to the land.
  

ALBOAN and ENTRECULTURAS are NGOs, promoted by the Society of Jesus, that work for solidarity among populations.

For more information, write to p.diez@alboan.org