Amazon Indians marching to fight Peruvian intruders
Copyright 2000 Kyodo News Service, Japan Economic Newswire
December 28, 2000
By Lenilson
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil, Dec. 28 Kyodo - Groups of Amazon Indians in full war paint are marching to fight lumberjacks from Peru who have illegally entered their reservation in western Brazil, an official of Brazil's Indian Agency said Thursday.
The 820-kilometer-long Indian reservation of Campa do Rio Amonia, spreading along the Rio Jurua River in the Amazon rain forest in the state of Acre, is the home of Indians of the Ashaninka group.
The agency has already contacted the Justice Ministry in the capital Brasilia and requested authorities to dispatch agents of the Environment Bureau together with federal troops to the site to head off an armed conflict.
'The Indians are armed with rifles and axes and we fear the situation may run out of control if we do not intervene fast,' agency official Antonio Pereira Neto told Kyodo News over the phone from Rio Branco, the state capital.
The Ashaninka will take at least two days to cover the 50 km between their village and the invaded area because the Amazon forest is extremely dense in the region and recent heavy rains are slowing their journey.
According to Neto, some 300 heavily armed Peruvian lumberjacks crossed the border Sunday and have been illegally extracting timber from the indigenous reservation.
'I fear we will have an international conflict in that area because the Indians are ready to kill anyone who invades their lands without authorization,' Neto said.
The Indian agency has requested the army's 61st Jungle Battalion located in Cruzeiro do Sul, some 700 km north of the reservation, to dispatch troops to the reservation.
The Brazilian army keeps in the Amazon rain forest several units of forest platoons internationally known for the grueling training they undergo for jungle combat.
Mario Bustamante, a diplomat at the Peruvian Embassy in Brasilia, has contacted the Indian Agency in Acre to apologize for the incident on behalf of his government, the agency official said.
'The Peruvian government has vowed to dispatch troops to the border with Brazil to curb these invasions, but they have not said when, and time is an important issue in this situation,' Neto said.
Local Indian leaders have said sporadic invasions of Peruvian lumberjacks started in the region after the construction of a road in Peru running along the border with a large national park on the Brazilian side.
The invaders have reportedly devastated a large area of the national park to open a passage linking the road to the Indian reservation, according to Neto.
They use the track to transport wood from the reservation to the new road in Peru. The invaders then use trucks to smuggle the large tree trunks to the city of Tipisca and sail them on rafts up the Ucaiali River to an unknown destination.
The 600-km wide national park and the Ashaninka reservation are rich in mahogany and cedar, which can fetch high prices in the United States and European markets.