Friday, September 21, 2012

Stop killing of protesters, rights group tells Peru's Humala

By Terry Wade and Marco Aquino

LIMA (Reuters) - Human Rights Watch urged Peruvian President Ollanta Humala on Thursday to rein in the police and the army to prevent them from shooting and killing people who protest against mining companies.

Peru's President Ollanta Humala talks to foreign journalists during a conference at the government palace in Lima, September 12, 2012. REUTERS/Enrique Castro-Mendivil

At least 19 people have died in clashes over natural resources since Humala took office in July 2011. On Thursday Peruvian police said a protester was killed near Pierina, a mine of top gold producer Barrick.

The Andean country is one of the world's biggest exporters of minerals.

Humala, a former army officer, has promised to use mediation to avert violence. But critics say he now is too quick to rely on security forces to break up demonstrations against new mines.

In an open letter to Humala, the New York-based group said he should immediately bar security forces from using live ammunition to control crowds, ensure that police have adequate supplies of nonlethal weapons and close legal loopholes that could give immunity to officers who commit abuses.

Human Rights Watch said it turned up red flags when it investigated the deaths of five protesters at demonstrations in the Cajamarca region in July against a gold mine proposed by U.S. company Newmont.

"We found evidence that strongly suggests that the use of lethal force was unwarranted and constituted a serious violation of international human rights norms," the group said in its eight-page letter to Humala and his Cabinet.

Fallout from the Cajamarca protests prompted Humala to shuffle his Cabinet and promote Juan Jimenez, a human rights lawyer who had been justice minister, to prime minister.

"COMPLEX SITUATION"

In response to the letter, Jimenez said that radical left-wing groups often stir up unrest to elicit a harsh response from police and that the government is drafting law enforcement reforms.

"The (legislative) package that we'll put forward within 80 days will give us a more modern and better supplied police force and army that will complement the government's position of respecting democracy and human rights," he said.

"There's no policy of impunity in this government in this regard, but I do want to say that we are in a complex situation," Jimenez added.

The government has been warning for weeks that the political arm of the Shining Path insurgency, which was defeated militarily in the 1990s, is regrouping in an apparent bid to undermine Humala's economic agenda.

In 2006 Humala's failed campaign for the presidency was rattled when he was named in a lawsuit alleging that soldiers from an army base he oversaw in 1992 were responsible for the disappearance of two presumed insurgents during Peru's civil war.

Peruvian courts exonerated Humala, but relatives of the victims have since sent the case to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

Human Rights Watch called on Humala to carry out a thorough inquiry to see if police shot unarmed protesters in Cajamarca.

Critics of mining companies have said they do not bring enough direct economic benefits to poor rural towns, soak up scarce water supplies and cause pollution. The government says mines generate exports, tax revenues and jobs that have fuelled the country's decade-long economic boom.

There are more than 200 lingering disputes over natural resources in Peru, and 165 people were killed in protests during the term of Humala's predecessor, Alan Garcia, according to Peru's own human rights agency.

(Reporting by Terry Wade; Editing by Xavier Briand)

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Friday, September 21, 2012

Stop killing of protesters, rights group tells Peru's Humala

By Terry Wade and Marco Aquino