At least six people died by today in clashes between striking miners and police in the Peruvian province of Arequipa, dpa quoted the authorities as saying. Other sources said there were at least nine dead. Miners in the area launched an open-ended strike over the weekend to protest government plans to impose restructions on informal mining. Four deaths had been confirmed by Sunday. Police said Monday that a miner had died in the clashes in recent hours, along with a woman who suffered a stroke while she waited in a bus that could not move because of the protests. The situation in the town of Chala was extremely tense. Some 6,000 miners were blocking the strategically important Pan-American road in Chala, while police tried to disperse them. The tension has triggered clashes, and at least 1,500 vehicles were caught in a major traffic jam. Peruvian Environment Minister Antonio Brack said the government would seek to evacuate by air those people whose health may be jeopardized on the Pan-American road stretch between the provinces of Arequipa and Ica. Informal mining currently takes place without permits and uses very simple methods. Some 30,000 families earn a living by looking for gold on the surface. In order to do this, large amounts of woodland are being deforested, and the process uses highly-poisonous mercury to wash the gold off the rock, polluting the region's waters. In addition, the government accuses informal mine operators of encouraging child labour and child prostitution.
