INCA KOLA NEWS: 61 Disappeared in Bagua

[magbana]

The established and respected Peruvian rights group APRODEH (La Asociación Pro Derechos Humanos, or The Pro Human Rights Association) has just released a report listing sixty-one people involved in the disturbances at Bagua as disappeared. These people do not appear on the lists of the dead, the arrested, the detained, the hospitalized or the accounted-for and they have not appeared again either locally in or around Bagua or in their home towns or villages since the massacre took place, despite having been positively identified as present at the protest when the police repression began.

* Cover-up? Check
* Burn bodies? Check
* Dump in river? Check
* Media gagging? Check
* Fascist police state? Check
* All in the name of democracy? Check

http://incakolanews.blogspot.com/2009/06/bagua-61-disappeared-indigenous.html

[Judi Lynn]

1. Peru polarised after deadly clashes

Page last updated at 18:07 GMT, Wednesday, 10 June 2009 19:07 UK
Peru polarised after deadly clashes
By Dan Collyns
BBC News, Bagua Chica, Peru

The removal by Peruvian riot police of thousands of native Amazonian protesters from a road they were blocking was the worst violence the country had seen in a decade.

At least 54 people are known to have been killed - among them 14 police officers.

In what appeared to be a revenge attack 10 more police officers were killed by their indigenous captors.

More than 100 indigenous protesters still cannot be accounted for.

It was the culmination of two months of massive rallies and blockades across Peru's Amazon - an area that is vital to the country's economy.

The protests threatened to disrupt both national energy supplies and exports.

But it was also the tragic consequence of Peru's failure to decide the true place of its indigenous peoples in the Amazon rainforest and their role in this multicultural nation.

The government decided to act after weeks of deadlocked talks.

The brutal violence has left both sides embittered, but it has been made worse by accusations that the government is covering up the true number of dead protesters.

Many eyewitnesses are too afraid to speak out for fear of reprisals.

"I will never forget what happened that Friday - it was a massacre", says Leoncio Calla, a leader from a native Awajun community.

"According to a preliminary count we have more than 150 disappeared," he says, explaining how each village reported who they had missing.

"The dead were only recovered from the road but many more were in the hills, those bodies have disappeared."

"It's a matter of time, once we return to our communities, and we see who is missing, then we will find out how many dead there really are."

More:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8093729.stm