Peru Police Charged With Torturing Mine-Proj Opponents

[EFerrari]

UPDATE: Peru Police Charged With Torturing Mine-Proj Opponents
3 hours ago
LIMA (Dow Jones)--Peruvian prosecutor Juan Ortiz Arevalo said Wednesday the state has charged a group of police officers with torturing opponents to a still-undeveloped copper mine in northern Peru.

Last year, a human rights group filed a complaint alleging police kidnapped and tortured more than two dozen opponents to the Rio Blanco copper mine project in 2005.

The project is run by U.K.-based Monterrico Metals PLC (MNA.LN), which calls it "one of the largest undeveloped copper resources in the world."

Xiamen Zijin Tongguan Development Co. Ltd., a consortium led by China's Zijin Mining Group Co. (2899.HK), took a controlling interest in Monterrico in 2007.

http://news.ino.com/headlines/?newsid=20090318010833

[Judi Lynn]

1. This appears to have been going on with no one anywhere in the world outside Peru

being the wiser for it. Completely swept under the rug, after all it was making some people rich.

Peruvian people have been protesting these mines so hard during Alan Garcia's second poisonous Presidency, and all we've been getting in our own media has been a load of baloney.

After seeing this torture headline, I found this material. Just having the name from the original article, "Rio Blanco" seemed to open the doors quickly:

Torture charges corroborated in Peru

The cost of metal should not be human rights.
March 4th, 2009 | by Chris Hufstader

Over the years I have visited a few communities in Peru where violent conflict has erupted; I have spoken with people who’ve been beaten, imprisoned, or persecuted by the government for standing up for their rights. The alleged crimes vary. Refusing to sell your farm to a mining company—or holding out for a better price—comes up a lot. One indigenous woman from the highlands of Cusco told me how the police threw her in jail, accusing her of trespassing on her own land! Her farm is now part of a copper mine. It took two decades before she was compensated—as part of a conflict-resolution effort Oxfam helped create. It took years to sort out the rights violations, relocate farmers, and set up a development fund.

Right now, the same mistakes are being made in northern Peru, where a British and Chinese mining company is trying to set up a copper mine in the Rio Blanco region. Again, a mining project is moving ahead without regard for the rights of local farmers. In 2005, the company began exploring on community land without proper permission. A group of campesinos marched to the mine site. Twenty-eight were arrested, beaten, tortured, and released three days later. New facts about these events recently came to light when someone leaked photos of the detained campesinos—hooded and bloodied—to Peru’s National Human Rights Coordinator.

(See Amnesty International’s Urgent Action on the case of journalist Julio César Vásquez Calle, a radio reporter and one of the detained people, who since has received death threats.)

http://blogs.oxfamamerica.org/index.php/2009/03/04/torture-charges-corroborated-in-peru/

Here's the link showing some photos mentioned in the previous story:

http://blog.dhperu.org.nyud.net:8090/wp-content/2009/imagen/majaz6.jpg http://blog.dhperu.org.nyud.net:8090/wp-content/2009/imagen/majaz2.jpg http://blog.dhperu.org.nyud.net:8090/wp-content/2009/imagen/majaz1.jpg

http://blog.dhperu.org.nyud.net:8090/wp-content/2009/imagen/majaz3.jpg http://blog.dhperu.org.nyud.net:8090/wp-content/2009/imagen/majaz5.jpg

http://blog.dhperu.org.nyud.net:8090/wp-content/2009/imagen/melanio1.jpg http://blog.dhperu.org.nyud.net:8090/wp-content/2009/imagen/melanio3.jpg

Photographs confirm torture of peasants who protested against Majaz Mining
Escrito por: fernandoch en General

Since 2003 the Majaz Mining Company, today called Rio Blanco, operates irregularly in the land of peasant communities of Segunda y Cajas and Yanta, in Peru’s northern border. The presence of the mining company is irregular for not having the consent of two thirds of the community assembly’s, according to Law 26505, in order with the People’s Ombudsman (Report 001-2006/ASPMAMA). During two years the affected communities tried to use the dialogue channels with the State to demand the respect of their territorial rights, without any result.

By the end of July 2005 the community members initiated a pacific march towards the mining camp, where according to the Ministry of Energy and Mining, there was going to be a high level multi sectorial commission. The community members have pointed out more than once that this was a sacrifice march, because it implied walking during several days through thick vegetation and in extreme climate conditions.

When they arrived to the mining camp on August 1st 2005, the community members were not received by the expected commission, but by a strong police contingent who repressed them brutally, firing tear gas from helicopters, firing against people, even when they ran away.

In these circumstances, 29 people, including two women and the journalist Julio Vázquez Calle, were intercepted and taken inside the mining camp. These they remained kidnapped during three days, besides being subjects of diverse forms of physical and psychological torture. As well as being wildly beaten, during those days, they were kept hooded with sacks sprayed with tear powder and blindfolded, with no warm clothes in spite of the low temperatures.

According to the community member’s testimony every now and then they were sprayed with a toxic powder in their faces, under the sacks and blindfolds, which made them vomit and did not let them breathe. The women were subject of diverse kinds of humiliation of sexual character. And all were threatened and humiliated verbally in many ways.

~snip~
Photographs of Horror
A few days ago, the National Coordinator of Human Rights had access to a set of photographs that, anonymously delivered, corroborates the alleged torture that in time was denunciated by the community members.

The photographs show diverse moments of the facts occurred in Majaz mining camp. In them you can see the things which were confiscated by the police from the demonstrators: clothes, food and kitchen utensils. By the way, there is not one single firearm, which credits the pacific character of the peasant march.

The images reveal, beyond any doubt, different signs of mistreatment in the community members that participated in the sacrifice march. Bloody bruised faces and with hematomas produced by the repressive action. Peasants with bare feet and unclothed torso, corned against each other, tied and blindfolded in the mining company’s slaughterhouse.

~snip~
The death of Melanio

The sacrifice march against Majaz mining company also had the tragic result of the death of the peasant Melanio García.

The photographs published here exclusively, register Melanio Garcia, after the gun shot he received, still alive, on August 1st in broad daylight: in the photograph you can see the bandage covering the gun shot wound and the peasants expression of pain.

The circumstances of the death of this community member must be seriously investigated.

Above all, because from the post mortem examinations Melanio Garcia died… on August 2nd, of a hemorrhage caused by the gun shot wound. And because, besides, the photographs taken on August 2nd register the corpse of Melanio Garcia, who on that date was under police custody, in another scenario and in a different position (in the middle of the bush in dorsal decubite).

http://blog.dhperu.org/?p=1873

This link also contains a small slide show which offers a few more photographs not posted on the page.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Thanks for the information, EFerrari. You've given us something to watch for future developments.

Why on EARTH would any one be stupid enough to think there's no reason for Peruvians to fight against the conditions forced upon them, even when they try to live far, FAR away from the towns, up so high you'd think they could have a little peace of mind. My God, what a living hell we've got when you can't possibly get out of the way of vicious, filthy evil greedy people?

[EFerrari]

2. I don't know anything about Peru. But, the map shown in

the film "Panama Deception" about the projected wars in the region (it highlighted Peru, Colombia and Boliva as you may recall) made me want to know more about Peru and Bolivia. So, off I go.

[Judi Lynn]

3. Those histories are even more obscure to a lot of Americans.

Looks like it's really easy to fool lots of people almost all the time if you can keep them bombarded with their rush to stay ahead in the rat race, and lots of frivolous, truly trivial crap to distract them.

Once you open that door you discover it leads to a rapidly expanding room which will encompass so many sources you may wonder if you'll ever have time to learn what you want to know. What we've been told is the tiniest tip of the iceberg. By design. Human outrage and protest are elements they don't want to have to bother with, and don't intend to allow to interfere. That's why they bend every effort to keep it all below the radar, with "covert ops." They know these actions would offend the public's sense of morality and fair play.

Hoping we're living close to the era it all turns and starts working out for the right people, not the predators.

[Judi Lynn]

4. Peruvian police accused of torturing Rio Blanco copper project protestors

Peruvian police accused of torturing Rio Blanco copper project protestors

A government investigation in the northern region of Piura found that more than two dozen people were kidnapped and beaten after protesting against the $1.4 billion Rio Blanco copper project in August 2005.
Author: Dana Ford
Posted: Thursday , 19 Mar 2009

LIMA (Reuters) -

Peruvian prosecutors have accused police of torturing protesters at a mining camp in 2005 but cleared a British-Chinese metals company and its security firm of wrongdoing, rights groups said on Wednesday.

The case has been closely followed in Peru, a major global metals exporter, where the interests of foreign mining companies and residents of mountain towns often clash.

A government investigation in the northern region of Piura found that more than two dozen people were kidnapped and beaten after protesting against the $1.4 billion Rio Blanco copper project in August 2005.

The inquiry concluded that a handful of Peruvian police officers were responsible for the torture.

http://www.mineweb.com/mineweb/view/mineweb/en/page66?oid=80497&sn=Detail

[Judi Lynn]

5. Don't look back: Arguing over a museum of memory

Don't look back

Mar 12th 2009 | LIMA
From The Economist print edition
Arguing over a museum of memory

IT HAS been much changed and improved by years of rapid economic growth and peace. But less than a generation ago Peru suffered an appalling bloodletting. A murderous guerrilla insurgency unleashed by the Maoist Shining Path and a small Marxist rival was met by indiscriminate repression by the armed forces. In 2003 a Truth and Reconciliation Commission set up by a democratic government and composed of academics and human-rights activists concluded, after an exhaustive investigation, that more than 69,000 people died in the violence between 1980 and 2000. Three out of four of the victims lived in the Andean highlands and were of Indian descent.

The commission tried hard to be even-handed. It reckoned that the Shining Path was responsible for slightly over half the killings, and the security forces for 37%. Out of its work came a harrowing exhibition of photographs and accounts by survivors. Called Yuyanapaq (“to remember” in Quechua), this toured Peru before finding a temporary home in the National Museum. Supporters of the commission want to set up a permanent “museum of memory”. Last month the German government offered to build the museum at a cost of $2m.

But Peru’s government has rejected the money, and says it doesn’t want the museum. Ántero Flores-Aráoz, the defence minister, said that it was “not a priority” in a country where “there are other basic needs to satisfy”, such as food, health and schools. (He also noted that the Shining Path survives and killed a soldier this month, though it numbers only a few score in remote parts of the Amazon jungle.) “Memory doesn’t belong to a particular group,” added Alan García, the president.

The rejection has been criticised across much of the political spectrum. In a withering article Mario Vargas Llosa, a Peruvian novelist who is also Latin America’s best-known liberal thinker, wrote that “we need a museum of memory to fight the intolerant, blind and obtuse attitudes which unleash political violence”—attitudes exemplified, he said, by Mr Flores-Aráoz’s comments.

More:
http://www.economist.com/world/americas/displayStory.cfm?story_id=13278416&source=hptextfeature

http://delucio.com.nyud.net:8090/blog/wp-content/images/Alan_Garcia_1.jpg

Peru's beneficent, all-seeing President Alan Garcia

http://filer.livinginperu.com.nyud.net:8090/news/img2/alan_garcia_2.jpg