Saturday, June 7th, 2014
Uncontacted Nanti could be decimated by plans
to detonate thousands of explosive charges and allow hundreds of
workers to flood onto their land. © Anon
from Survival International
Peru has approved the highly controversial expansion of
the Camisea gas project onto the land
of uncontacted Amazon tribes – despite
international outrage, the resignation of three ministers, and
condemnation by the United Nations and international human rights
organizations.
Peru’s Ministry of Culture, tasked with protecting the
country’s indigenous population, has approved plans by oil and gas
giants Pluspetrol (Argentina), Hunt Oil (US) and Repsol (Spain) to
detonate thousands of explosive charges, drill exploratory wells
and allow hundreds of workers to flood into the Nahua-Nanti Reserve, located just 100km from
Machu Picchu.
The expansion could decimate the
uncontacted tribes living in the reserve, as any contact
between gas workers and the Indians is likely to result in the
spread of diseases or epidemics to which the Indians lack
immunity.
Pluspetrol itself recognizes the devastating impact the
expansion could have. In its ‘Anthropological Contingency Plan’ the
company states that any diseases transmitted by workers could cause
‘prolonged periods of illness, massive deaths, and, in the best
cases, long periods of recovery.’
When oil giant Shell first started explorations in the
area, it led to the
death of nearly half the Nahua tribe. One Nahua man recounted,
‘Many, many people died. People dying everywhere, like fish after a
stream has been poisoned. People left to rot along stream banks, in
the woods, in their houses. That terrible illness!’
The project violates Peruvian and international laws which require the consent of
any projects carried out on tribal peoples’ land.
Last year, protests were held around the world to stop the
expansion of Camisea, and more than 131,000 Survival supporters have sent a message
to Peru’s President Humala demanding a halt to the oil and gas work
on uncontacted tribes’ land. Today, Survival handed the list of the
thousands of petition signatures to the Peruvian embassy in
London.
As a result of the high profile campaign by tribal
rights organization Survival International, local
organizationsAIDESEP, FENAMAD, COMARU and ORAU, and others, to stop the
expansion, seismic testing has been averted from riverways and the
location of one well was moved from the land of an isolated
tribe.
Survival’s Director Stephen Corry said today, ‘Thirty
years ago workers prospecting for the Camisea deposit penetrated
deep into the territory of the Nahua people – and soon after,
half the tribe were wiped out by flu and similar diseases. Has the
Peruvian government really learnt nothing from history, that it is
prepared to risk this happening again for the sake of a few more
gas wells?’