This article is from the source 'bbc' and was first published or seen on . It will not be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/world/americas/8087241.stm
The article has changed 6 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
| Version 0 | Version 1 |
|---|---|
| Peruvian police captives killed | Peruvian police captives killed |
| (about 2 hours later) | |
| Nine Peruvian policemen seized by Amazonian indigenous protesters have been killed during a rescue bid which freed 22 others, officials say. | |
| A further seven were still missing after the military moved to free them from protesters angry at plans to drill for oil and gas on ancestral land. | A further seven were still missing after the military moved to free them from protesters angry at plans to drill for oil and gas on ancestral land. |
| The hostages were taken on Friday during clashes near Bagua which left at least 22 tribesmen and 11 police dead. | |
| A police official accused the protesters of killing the hostages. | |
| Police chief Miguel Hidalgo said that the 38 officers had been captured at a petrol facility they were defending in the area about 1,400 km (870 miles) north of Lima, the capital. | |
| "Of the 38, 22 have been rescued by the army, nine have died at the hands of the natives and seven have disappeared," he told Peruvian radio station RPP. | |
| Speaking before the rescue operation, Peruvian Prime Minister Yehude Simon accused the protesters of a "plot against democracy". | |
| He said the 38 policemen were being held hostage by about 1,000 protesters but the army had them surrounded. | |
| Friday's violence erupted as police tried to dislodge protesters from a major road which they had been blocking. | |
| Two months of protests | |
| Fuel and transport blockades have disrupted Peru's Amazon region for almost two months, the BBC's Dan Collyns reports from Lima. | |
| Special forces had moved in before dawn on Friday to remove the protesters who were sleeping by the side of the road they had been blockading. | |
| Protesters say the police fired tear gas and live ammunition from helicopters in what was by far the most violent clash in the protests so far. | |
| Alberto Pizango, leader of the indigenous movement, said the protests had been peaceful until the police raid. | |
| "In the 21st Century they continue to kill us indigenous people simply for defending life, our sovereignty over our lands and our dignity," he said after Friday's violence. | |
| But Peru's Foreign Minister, Jose Antonio Garcia Belaunde, told the BBC there were armed men amongst the demonstrators. | |
| He said the government had given the native people 12m ha (29m acres) out of the total Amazon territory of around 80m ha. |