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'Naked' natives block illegal loggers in Peru
By Jude Webber
LIMA, Peru, Aug 3 (Reuters) - Hundreds of members of some of the world's last
indigenous tribes still living cut off from the outside world have emerged from
their isolation to confront illegal mahogany loggers in Peru's southeastern
jungle that are invading their land, activists and officials said on Saturday.
Four loggers have already been reported injured by arrows in the tense
stand-off, which began a few days ago on a river deep in the Peruvian Amazon
near the border with Brazil.
The head of a native peoples' federation in the region told Reuters he feared
"genocide" could ensue after his group intercepted radio communications in which
the loggers were appealing for reinforcements and weapons to return attacks.
The Native Federation of Madre de Dios River and Tributaries said it had
received reports from loggers returning from the area to the town of Puerto
Maldonado that around 400 native people were massed on the banks of the Piedras
river, a route used by loggers.
Lily La Torre, a federation official, said one logger had reported the natives
were "naked" but had no other information on what they looked like. At this time
of year, the indigenous people head to the river banks to collect the eggs of
the caricaya turtles, considered a great delicacy, she said.
"If the state does not send in police in the next few days, there could be
deaths," the federation's president, Victor Pesha, told Reuters. "Our fear is
that genocide could happen."
About a tenth of the 80,000 residents of the Madre de Dios department are
Amazonian Indians. Experts say the uncontacted peoples live in voluntary
isolation in small groups, supporting themselves as hunter-gatherers and from
fishing.
Peru established a reserve in Madre de Dios for uncontacted peoples in April,
which should be off-limits to the loggers.
But activists say hundreds of loggers are in the area near the reserve, working
on commission for big timber companies, at least one of which they say in based
in the United States.
The area is the largest remaining mahogany stand in Peru and it is illegal to
cut down mahogany there. The hard, reddish-brown wood is highly prized and
fetches big prices on international markets.
Nature groups say more than 4 million cubic feet (120,000 cubic metres) of
mahogany from Latin America reach global markets every year, mostly from Brazil,
Bolivia and Peru, and that much of that is illegal logged.
TRIBES SLING VINES ACROSS RIVER
A spokesman for the Interior Ministry said he had no immediate information on
how many police could be sent in to eject the illegal loggers from the area, or
when, but Interior Minister Gino Costa said earlier in the week the government
would set up two police posts, one on the Piedras river.
La Torre said the federation had heard the loggers' radio conversations via its
own broad-band radio, which it uses to contact its officials. According to their
reports, she said, the native people had strung vines along the river to prevent
the passage of loggers upstream.
Clashes between loggers and uncontacted tribes are not new -- Pesha said around
20 people had been killed in confrontations in recent months and some native
people have reportedly been shot dead in some clashes.
But La Torre said there had never been reports of so many uncontacted
tribes-people emerging to challenge the loggers.
She said the four injured loggers had reportedly been treated at a medical post
in a small Indian community, but she had no details of their condition. The
reports could not be independently confirmed
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