Jail and trial are next for wounded Peru Indians

Source: Associated Press

Last modified on Tuesday, August 4, 2009 1:45 AM MDT

Jail and trial are next for wounded Peru Indians
By ANDREW WHALEN

http://www.magicvalley.com.nyud.net:8090/content/articles/2009/08/04/ap/international/lt_peru_indian_leaders.jpg

In this July 30, 2009 photo, Awajun Indian leader Santiago Manuin poses for a photo as he rests in a hospital bed in Peru's coastal city of Chiclayo. Manuin was injured on June 5 when police fired into a highway blockade made by Amazon Indians opposed to development on their lands. According to Peru's main Amazon Indian confederation, Manuin is among 48 wounded protesters who face jail the moment they're released by doctors, despite urging from the U.N.'s special indigenous envoy that Peru drop charges against Indians and pursue dialogue. (AP Photo/Andrew Whalen)

Santiago Manuin is lucky to be alive. On June 5, the Awajun Indian leader was hit by at least four bullets when police broke up a protest by Indians over government plans for large-scale economic development of their ancestral lands in the Amazon.

Inside his hospital room, Manuin lies in a bed while a plastic pouch drains his intestines. Outside the door, five police officers lounge on wooden benches, AK-47 assault rifles resting across their knees.

Manuin is the most prominent of 48 protesters wounded in the June melee who face jail the moment hospital doctors sign discharge papers, according to Peru's main Amazon Indian federation.

Critics of the government say it is no way to treat people who engaged in peaceful civil disobedience _ blocking roads and rivers _ to protect their traditional lands from the oil drilling, mining, farming and logging projects envisioned by President Alan Garcia.

Negotiations to resolve the dispute, involving 350,000 Amazon Indians, will be difficult if the government treats the protest leaders as criminals, the U.N. special envoy on indigenous rights, James Anaya, said last week.

The dark, wiry Manuin is more blunt.
"Justice doesn't exist for the indigenous. The government values the police more than us and doesn't want to acknowledge its mistake," the 53-year-old apu, or tribal leader, said from his hospital bed.



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Hoping that the government will start to treat the Awajun Indians with some decency, as a result of the international publicity. But I'm not very optimistic.

Blocking a road is a peaceful demonstration. Blowing it(the barricade) to hell and injuring innocents is the crime here.

Shooting people it would be on billboards.