LIMA, 7 Mar (IPS) - The Aguaruna and Shuar groups of the Jibara
peoples who live on both sides of the Ecuador-Peru border have not
been consulted on how to settle the territorial war even though
they are the traditional owners of the disputed land.
The undeclared war has occured exclusively in Peruvian Aguaruna
territory, in the highest part of the Cenepa river valley where
120 Auguaruna communities live.
The 5,300 square kilometers have a total population of 35,000
people - 82 of the communities have legal ownership of the
majority of their territory while the other 38 are in the process
of gaining legal title to their land.
The war has had a serious impact on the local communities, and
president of the Aguaruna Huambisa Council Evaristo Nukuang
reported that 28 local people have been killed by landmines
during the conflict.
''No one has included them on the list of casualties, and
their families will not receive compensation like the families of
the soldiers and other dead,'' said Nukuang.
''There is no peace in our communities, mothers are crying for
their children, the children for fear of the bombing raids, and
the animals we hunt have all run away...'' he added.
''But we are Peruvian and we don't want to leave this
territory because we've been here since the time of the Incas.''
The Aguaruna, Shuar, Ashuar and Huambisa all live in the area
disputed by Ecuador and Peru - spreading nearly 200 kilometers
into each country.
They were split from each other by religious divisions of the
continent when the Amazonian forests were left to the
missionaries following the Spanish failure to discover Eldorado.
The Shuar and Ashuar were assigned to the Francisans in Quito,
Ecuador while the Agauruna and Huambisa went to the Jesuits in
Lima, Peru.
''They are being used as cannon fodder in the war and for
propaganda, but the military, political and economic solutions to
resolve the frontier conflict mean new, more serious
infringements of their rights,'' said anthropologist Imelda Vega.
''If this area was transferred to Ecuador, the Agaurunas
living there would have to change nationality,'' a move which
they ''will not accept,'' added Vega.
In Peruvian political circles there is talk of accelerated
colonisation plans, installing ''modern'' colonies of landless
people from other regions, to create ''living frontiers,'' she
said.
President of the Congress Defense Committee Andres Reggiardo
has already announced a settlement programme to distribute the
land in the Cenepa river valley amongst the soldiers who fought
there.
''We can imagine what would really be a colonisation
programme, supported and maybe even directed by the army: the
Aguaruna, the real owners of the area would be displaced and
expelled,'' said Vega.
''But we are dealing with very poor land, most of which is
only suitable for hunting, fishing and gathering, where any
modern colonisation programme is inapplicable because of rapid
erosion,'' said sociologist Alberto Panessi.
''They are the poorest soils in Peru, with steep inclinations
and rain all year round, where not even the forest can fix the
soil and the bigger forest trees fall over as the rain erodes the
soil,'' explained Vega.
''Sixty percent of the ground is not suited to farming. The
Belen Aguaruna community for example owns 10,691 hectares of
land, of which only 1,710 are cultivable - around 16 hectares per
family.''
The interplanted plots produce subsistence crops like bananas,
maize and cassava, and all attempts at intensive rice or maize
plantations have quickly ended in severe soil erosion.
(END/IPS/tra-so/al/dm/rp-pr/sm/95)
Origin: San Jose/ECUADOR-PERU/
----
[c] 1994, Inter Press Third World News Agency (IPS) - all rights
reserved. This information is for personal use only. It may not be
reproduced, reprinted, resent or posted to any system without
specific permission from IPS. For information about this copyright,
e-mail to <ips-info@igc.apc.org>.
IPS is the developing world's largest news agency. In the United
States, it is available from PeaceNet. The entire IPS feed is available
at *no additional charge* to users of PeaceNet and EcoNet (e-mail to
<peacenet-info@igc.apc.org> for more information). You can also have
IPS delivered to your e-mail box every day. For information on that
service, e-mail to <pwn-info@igc.apc.org>.