James Anaya, the UN’s Special Rapporteur for Indigenous People, said that there is no evidence to support claims of genocide during the clashes between Peruvian police and indigenous protestors earlier this month.
He announced his findings at a Friday press conference after a three day information gathering trip to the country. “As a jurist, I’ve found no proof of genocide… of the attempt to exterminate a people as such. There is evidence of human rights violations … but no proof of genocide,” he said.
Most of the violence occurred on the 5th and 6th of June when police tried to clear a protestor roadblock in the Peruvian Amazon in the north of the country. According to official numbers, 34 people died in the clashes, but indigenous groups claim that as many as 150 protestors were killed.
The events have heightened tensions between Peru and neighbouring Bolivia. Bolivian president Evo Morales called the deaths in Peru genocide. “What is happening in Peru, I’m convinced is the genocide of the indigenous people through the FTA (free trade agreement), privatization, the handing over of South America’s Amazonian jungles to transnational corporations,” he said.
Peruvian president Alan Garcia had blamed foreign interests for the unrest, widely interpreted to mean left leaning Bolivia and Venezuela, and Peru’s Foreign Minister called Morales, “an enemy of Peru”. Peru has now withdrawn its ambassador to La Paz.
There had been protests and roadblocks throughout Peru for two months prior to the rioting, ever since laws were passed that opened up large swaths of the Peruvian Amazon to deforestation, mining and petroleum exploration. The laws have since been repealed by the Peruvian congress. They have since been repealed by the Peruvian congress.