THE DEATH toll from a bloody clash between Peruvian police and indigenous protesters over natural resources rose to at least 31 on Saturday, including nine police officers reportedly taken hostage by demonstrators at an oil pumping station.
According to official sources, 22 police officers and nine protesters were killed on Friday as security forces tried to clear a highway in northeastern Peru that demonstrators had blocked intermittently for weeks.
Among the people killed were nine of 38 police officers reportedly taken hostage at the pumping station, operated by state-owned PetroPeru. Most of the other hostages escaped, the government said.
But as the government issued an arrest warrant for an Indian leader it blamed for the violence, activists insisted that many more protesters died than listed in official figures.
Officials declared a 60-day state of emergency in three eastern provinces and a 3pm-to-dawn curfew in Bagua, the centre of the violence.
Interior minister Mercedes Cabanillas said 73 people had been arrested in connection with the incidents, and that yesterday would be a day of national mourning for the victims. She called on protesters to return peacefully to their homes and return rifles taken from police.
The violence, which has also left 155 wounded, ended weeks of peaceful protest by several indigenous communities which claim the Amazon as ancestral lands. They are demanding that President Alan Garcia rescind mining, petroleum and timber exploitation rights given to private companies.
The protests have blocked highways and waterways for weeks and forced the closing of a PetroPeru oil pipeline. The day before the violence, Mr Garcia announced that his patience with protesters had come to an end and ordered his ministers to retake control.
Violence broke out after 650 police officers were sent to clear the Fernando Belaunde Highway, a road connecting the Amazonian basin with the highlands and coastal population centres.
Who started the violence is under dispute. An indigenous umbrella group called Aidesep said the first fire came from police helicopters. But in issuing an arrest order on Saturday for Aidesep leader Alberto Pizango, Ms Cabanillas accused him of inciting protesters to violence.
In a statement issued on Saturday, Mr Garcia said Peru had “suffered a subversive aggression against democracy and against the national police”. Several human rights and environmental activist groups insist the police provoked the violence and that the number of protesters killed is far more than officially stated.
The Catholic Church, the human rights commission and the public defender's office have launched an investigation into the incidents and the whereabouts of 35 protesters who indigenous groups say are missing. – ( LA Times-Washington Postservice)