July 31, 2002

TARAPOTO, Peru - Clashes between striking rice farmers and police in Peru's Amazon jungle left about 30 people injured Wednesday, including a German tourist whose bus was attacked by rock-throwing protesters, hospital officials said.

A survey of local hospitals showed that another 50 people were treated for tear gas inhalation after the seventh day of the farmers' strike turned violent. Police fired gas canisters from helicopters throughout the day to disperse hundreds of protesters in the city of Tarapoto, 365 miles (590 kilometers) northeast of Lima, the capital.

Police arrested 57 people, the Interior Ministry said.

A mob of demonstrators also stoned a bus carrying foreign tourists and smashed the windows. Carlos Gonzales, president of the Tourism Chamber of Commerce of San Martin province, said the bus was evacuating German, British and American tourists from a hotel to Tarapoto's airport

A spokesman for the Health Ministry's hospital in Tarapoto said that a 56-year-old German man was being treated for cuts on his hand from broken glass.

Authorities closed the Tarapoto airport Wednesday after protesters tried to seize it. Flights from Lima to Tarapoto were canceled.

The rice farmers, who have the support of Tarapoto's mayor and other groups, demand that the national government buy their surplus rice crop, pay off their debts to private banks and roll back a recently decreed sales tax.

The protesters had blocked all major highways into Tarapoto and have tried to seize the airport at least twice.

The Interior Ministry said in a statement that protesters also looted an airport warehouse belonging to the national tax agency, burning several computers. Demonstrators also attacked "several public properties," including the offices of a state-run bank, the statement said.

President Alejandro Toledo's one-year government has been beset by frequent protests and strikes throughout the country. In June, six days of rioting in the southern city of Arequipa against the sale of two state-owned electricity companies left two dead and dozens injured before the government agreed to suspend the privatization.

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