Statement on Free Trade and Indigenous Protests in Peru
Passed by consensus of SCM General Board (July 6, 2009)  The Student Christian Movement of Canada stands in solidarity with the Indigenous peoples of Peru in their protests against Free Trade Agreements with both Canada and the United States. SCM’s 2009 Draft Resolution on Indigenous Rights commits our Movement to solidarity with Indigenous peoples everywhere: “We believe that Jesus, who opposed the Empire of his day to the point of martyrdom, will strengthen all those who struggle to survive, to resist, and to learn better the practices of solidarity, and right relationship.” The Student Christian Movement of Canada (SCM) requests the Canadian government, particularly Mr. Lawrence Cannon, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Mr. Stockwell Day, Minister of International Trade, work to support a peaceful resolution to the current conflict situation in Peru and to assist the Peruvian people in the work for justice against the highly-opposed Peruvian Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the USA, and to repeal the Canada-Peru Free Trade Agreement. The Student Christian Movement (SCM) is an ecumenical network of student collectives engaged in spirituality and progressive social justice issues at universities across Canada. SCM Canada strives to be a healing community, embraces radical ecumenism and interfaith work, acts in solidarity with the oppressed, resists structures of domination, and works for justice in its varied forms and settings. The SCM understands that in the pre-dawn hours of June 5, Peruvian military police staged a violent attack on a group of indigenous people camped out on a peaceful blockade of a road outside of Bagua, in a remote area of the northern Peruvian Amazon, resulting in the deaths of dozens of indigenous people and police officers. The conflict relates to the massive community opposition to implementation of the FTA’s foreign investment laws and related new oil, gas, mining and logging concessions being issued by Peru’s government in the Peruvian Amazon. A June 8 Wall Street Journal story describes the situation: “The protesters are demanding that the government backtrack on decrees that the indigenous groups say would weaken their traditional communal land system by breaking up land into parcels of private property. The Garcia government has been moving aggressively to grant concessions for oil and natural gas exploration in the Amazon. Analysts say giving in to protester demands would make Mr. Garcia seem weak and cast a cloud over a recently signed free-trade agreement with the U.S. Following the pact, the government enacted laws that opened up indigenous lands to development, changes that the indigenous groups oppose.” Since April, communities throughout the Peruvian Amazon have been protesting the Peru FTA implementation decrees issued by the government of President Alan Garcia that have triggered an unprecedented rush of extractive industries into Peru’s Amazon Rainforest. Over 30,000 indigenous people have taken to blockading roads, rivers, and railways to demand the repeal of these new laws that allow oil, mining and logging companies to enter indigenous territories. Garcia’s government passed these laws under “fast track” authority he had received from the Peruvian congress to enact laws that implement the U.S.-Peru FTA. Moreover, the expansive foreign investor rights included in the Peru FTA would lock in protections for these harmful projects and prevent future measures Peru’s government might take to protect the Amazon rainforest. These were concerns that led Peruvian and U.S. environmental, indigenous and human rights groups to oppose the Peru FTA and now they have quickly come to bloody fruition. We ask the Canadian government to call for an end to the violence. The Garcia government’s decision to implement the FTA through armed repression of their own citizens is horrific. The community’s reaction to the initial military and police attack – to fight back – and then the military’s responding escalation – can only result in growing loss of life. Your public call for a peaceful resolution to this situation will make clear that the world is watching and anything but a peaceful resolution will be damaging for the Garcia government’s broader interests. As the SCM, we feel strongly that violent action against individuals and communities is against God’s will and that indigenous peoples, often the most marginalized in society, must be particularly consulted in legislation that will have a profound impact on their lives. Additionally, companies and governments alike must act with the utmost environmental responsibility, as we understand the earth as God’s beloved creation that is intended to sustain all life. By proclaiming God’s preferential option for the poor and marginalized, we act in solidarity with the oppressed to resist structures of domination and realize justice in this world. (SCM Living Prayer Mission Statement) In the name of Christ our Liberator, Statement passed by full consensus of the elected National Board of the Student Christian Movement of Canada Passed by Consensus, July 6, 2009, by the General Board of the Student Christian Movement of Canada. |
