Over 30 dead in worsening Peruvian Amazon clashes

By Terry Wade and Marco Aquino

LIMA (Reuters) - Up to 31 people died and dozens were injured in clashes on Friday between Peruvian police and Amazon tribes protesting against government efforts to lure foreign energy and mining companies to the rain forest.

In the worst unrest to hit President Alan Garcia's current government, 22 protesters and nine police officers died, tribal leaders and the interior ministry said.

Angry protesters responded by saying they had taken a group of police hostage near an oil pumping station belonging to state-owned Petroperu. They threatened to set it ablaze unless police called off efforts to break up demonstrations in the Amazon basin.

"We have taken 38 police hostage," Carlos Huaman, a protester, said on RPP radio. "There are 2,000 of us and we are ready to burn the station."

The conflict, which has prompted calls for Garcia's prime minister and interior minister to quit, has underscored deep divisions in Peru between wealthy elites in Lima and poor indigenous groups in the countryside.

Critics say the government has not done enough to lower the poverty rate from 36 percent and that economic boom times enjoyed before the current downturn failed to reach the poor.

"I hold the government of President Alan Garcia responsible for ordering this genocide," indigenous leader Alberto Pizango told reporters in Lima as the government issued a warrant for his arrest for encouraging the protests.

HELICOPTER ATTACKS CHARGED

In the violence on Friday, indigenous leaders said police shot at hundreds of protesters from helicopters to end a roadblock on a remote jungle highway 870 miles from Lima, the capital.

Police accused protesters of firing first, but the tribesmen denied having guns and said they only carried their traditional spears.

Thousands of Amazon natives, demanding more control over natural resources, have intermittently blocked roads and waterways since April to try to force the government to revoke a series of investment laws passed last year and to revise concessions granted to foreign energy companies.

The laws encourage oil, mining, and agricultural companies to invest billions of dollars in the mostly pristine region.

Opposition leaders from the left and right said Garcia should fire Prime Minister Yehude Simon and Interior Minister Mercedes Cabanillas for allowing the standoff to turn violent.

"This is very damaging for Peru," former President Alejandro Toledo said on TV. "Garcia needs to show leadership."

GARCIA BLAMES PROTESTERS, OPPOSITION