| Violence
and threats of eviction against the Ashaninka Churinashi community Atayala Province, Peru |
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March 2004 Dear Friends, Below is a letter addressed to the President of Peru, urging him to deal with the serious situation faced by the Ashaninka community of Churinashi in the country’s Atayala Province in the Amazon region. The situation for this community is a very urgent one and requires your help to put pressure on the President, in order to stop the violence and threats of eviction the community are under at the moment. The Consorcio Forestal Amazonico, one of the largest logging consortia in Peru, has been granted a concession on the Churinashi community’s territory, without consultation of any sort, and has used manipulation, corruption and violence to try to remove the community from its ancestral home. The unstable and potentially dangerous situation in the area is one of violence and intimidation, and a recent resolution passed by the judicial authorities of the Atayala Province notifies the local indigenous organisation of the imminent use of the ‘public forces’ should they not resettle away from the concession. The AIDESEP, a regional Amazonian indigenous organisation, has asked that their campaign be supported as widely as possible, and therefore respectfully ask supporters to send a letter to President Toledo, cc-ing it to the Minister for Agriculture, Mr. Leon, asking him to support the demands of the representative indigenous organisations, including: (i) that the current climate of violence and fear is given an end to through fair and just recognition of indigenous peoples’ legitimate rights as soon as possible, (ii) that the whole of the Churinashi community’s traditional territory is excluded from the CFA concession in the area, (iii) that all timber concessions of the CFA are cancelled since they violate their own standards and represent a severe threat to the integrity of indigenous peoples, their communities, lands, territories and resources. You will find below a model letter which you can use as a basis for your own, or use as it is, by putting your name and organisation in the correct fields. The addresses can be found below in the body of the letter. Please take the time to respond to this request for international support. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Model letter Dr. Alejandro Toledo Manrique Tel: +51 1 311 3900 Dear Mr. President, Logging concessions on the territory of the Ashaninka community of Churinashi [Your organisation's name] is extremely alarmed to learn of the current situation faced by the Ashaninka Churinashi community of the Coengua region in the Province of Atalaya. We learned that the community has suffered violence, corruption, manipulation, and threats of involuntary resettlement and violence at the hands of both the government and the Consorcio Forestal Amazónica (CFA), a consortium of 4 transnational logging companies, operating in the area. The Churinashi community have ancestral rights to the lands, territories and resources they have traditionally occupied and used, which are recognised by the Peruvian constitution, in line with the country’s ratification of the ILO Convention 169 on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples, incorporated into domestic law in 1993 by the Legislative Resolution No 26253. CFA has received a logging concession from the government environmental agency INRENA in an area which superimposes the territory of the Churinashi community, and violates their rights as recognised under Peruvian legislation. The community and its representative organisations were not consulted about this concession, and vehemently reject it. They now find themselves in the midst of a violent and frightening conflict, with the logging concessionaires threatening them with aggression. In a recent and extremely alarming development, the judicial authorities in the province have issued a resolution to the Ashaninka representative organisation, Organización Indígena de la Región Atalaya (OIRA), threatening the use of the naval and police forces to forcibly remove the community from their ancestral territory. [Your organisation's name] urges you, President Toledo, to use your influence to ensure that the demands of the Peruvian indigenous peoples, more specifically, of the Churinashi community, are respected and complied with. These include the following, fundamental demands: (i) that the current climate of violence and fear is given an end to through fair and just recognition of indigenous peoples' legitimate rights as soon as possible, (ii) that the whole of the Churinashi community’s traditional territory is excluded from the CFA concession in the area, (iii) that all timber concessions of the CFA are cancelled since they violate their own standards and represent a severe threat to the integrity of indigenous peoples, their communities, lands, territories and resources. We look forward to learning how you plan to deal with this urgent matter. Yours sincerely [--Your name--] cc: Ing. José León Rivera Tel: +51 1 431 0424 |
