Читайте также:
|
48. According to information received, members of private security companies and police officers engaged in private security work are intimidating the population of Cajamarca, notably environmental rights defenders.
49. In 2006 the National Human Rights Coordinating Committee reported 83 attacks on environmental and human rights defenders, witnesses, victims and expert witnesses; 35 of these attacks involved environmental rights defenders in La Oroya, Cajamarca and Yurimaguas.
50. The 2 August 2006 protest against water pollution caused by the Carachugo II mine expansion project pitted the community of Combayo against the Yanacocha mining company. [33] In the clash between the mine’s security guards and the villagers of Combayo, one farmer, Isidro Llanos Cheverría, was shot twice and killed. Three police officers working as private security guards at Yanacocha were identified as suspects by investigators. It has yet to be determined whether they were hired to provide such services by the mining company or by the Forza security company, [34] contracted to provide private security services to Yanacocha.
51. The Baños del Inca Provincial Prosecutor’s Office is keeping the investigation open and judicial proceedings have not yet been initiated. The calibre of the weapons and ammunition used by the mining company, which is guarded by Forza, has been tested to ascertain whether any of them were used in firing the shots that killed the farmer.
52. The Working Group also received information concerning an operation called “Operation Diablo”, against members of the Grupo de Formación e Intervención para el Desarollo Sostenible (GRUFIDES) (Sustainable Development Training and Action Group). Three Catholic priests and members of their families, and 40 local representatives and environmental leaders from farming communities allege violation of their rights by Yanacocha. The operation was reportedly launched on 30 August 2006 using Surveillance Unit (OVISE) techniques such as tailing and spying by physical and electronic means, undercover approaches and infiltration; and slander, threats and intimidation - similar methods to those used in the Fujimori-Montesinos era, with the aim of intimidating victims and breaking them down psychologically, as well as running slander campaigns to damage their reputation.
53. The executive director of GRUFIDES, Mirtha Vásquez Chuquilín, and the group’s founder, Fr. Marco Antonio Arana Zegarra, [35] have been subjected to threats and intimidation. On 0 October a man was taken in by the Criminal Investigation Department (DEINCRI) for filming GRUFIDES coordinator Luís Urtecho Linares, but was released for lack of evidence.
54. On 14 November 2006 Miguel Ángel Saldaña Medina was arrested as he was following Fr. Arana. The police search of his person [36] and of his home [37] turned up documentation and materials showing that members of GRUFIDES had been under surveillance 19 hours a day for more than 4 months, something that implies a solid espionage infrastructure. A building had been rented next door to the GRUFIDES headquarters and the surveillance was conducted from two street-vendor stalls. Also found were sheets of photos of members of three environmental rights defence organizations Frente Unido de Defensa de la Vida y del Medio Ambiente (Life and Environment United Defence Front), Coordinadora de Pueblos Afectados por la Minería (Coordinating Committee for Villages Affected by Mining), and the Regional Federation of Peasant Patrols of Cajamarca, each labelled with an alias. The statements taken [38] and the property confiscated by the police in the course of the house search indicated links between C & G Investigaciones [39] and Forza. [40]
55. The Government ordered the police and the Public Prosecutor’s Office to investigate and to bring proceedings against those responsible for the undercover action against GRUFIDES [41] and repudiated the use of all illegal methods of surveillance and monitoring of any citizen. However, the authorities let it be known that the spying operations were a private undertaking and the State was unconnected with any of them.
56. The Office of Provincial Criminal Prosecutor No. 5 in Cajamarca opened an investigation. [42] An order was issued assigning a personal security and protection detail to Marco Arana Zegarra [43] and a preliminary inquiry requested by Mirtha Vásquez Chuquilín was opened with a view to preventing a violation of personal freedom. [44]
57. However, on 25 January 2007, the Office of Provincial Criminal Prosecutor No. 5 in Cajamarca closed the criminal proceedings for lack of grounds for bringing criminal charges. [45] On 2 February 2007, the President of the Council of Ministers, on learning that the alleged perpetrators had not been summoned, urged the Procurator’s Office to act more responsibly. [46]
58. On 23 April 2007 the Inter-American Court of Human Rights requested the Peruvian State to take precautionary measures to safeguard the life and personal safety of Fr. Marco Arana and Mirtha Alvarez, asking for them to be assigned a police guard and requesting information on any judicial action taken by the State to resolve the case. [47]
59. Another case involves the murder in Yanacanchilla, on 1 December 2006, of environmentalist leader Esmundo Becerra Cotrina, who was shot 17 times by a hired killer. He
had been intimidated and received death threats for his complaints against opencast gold mining and the pollution it caused in 200 lagoons that supply the community in the lower part of the mine. Becerra Cotrina had reported the threats to the authorities.
60. The Provincial Prosecutor of the Combined Provincial Prosecutor’s Office of Baños del Inca, Cajamarca, filed a criminal complaint against Aguinaldo Rodríguez Chuqimango and Fortunato Rodríguez Chuqimango for the murder. Fortunately, Rodríguez Chuqimango was arrested on suspicion of the murder and Aguinaldo Rodríguez Chuqimango was shot and killed in February 2007.
61. All this shows that these are not isolated cases but repeated occurrences in Cajamarca province, and indeed in other regions of Peru. Media enquiries have revealed links between private security companies and intelligence agents, apparently for the purpose of spying on environmental rights defence organizations in La Oroya, Yauli and Atalaya, in Ucayali province. These inquiries appear to indicate that private security companies are purchasing information gathered by State intelligence services on environmental leaders and selling it on to mining companies. [48]
62. There seems to be a campaign in Peru to discredit NGOs, the Church, community members and small farmers, with the aim of provoking a confrontation with those who earn their livelihood from mining. [49] In 2004, information started circulating [50] warning the population about the activities of community radio stations, NGOs, peasant patrols and certain circles of the Church, who are charged with working with left-wing groups to attack mining projects in Peru. It is these campaigns that formed the backdrop to the murder of Esmundo Becerra Cotrina and the clashes between the residents of Cajamarca and GRUFIDES.
Дата добавления: 2015-02-16; просмотров: 168 | Поможем написать вашу работу | Нарушение авторских прав |
|