from Claire Robinson, WEEKLY WATCH editor
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Dear all:

It's been a week of bad smells from rotten governments. In Australia, government employees are using public money to attend workshops run by a biotech PR specialist teaching them how to beat citizens' groups and conflate them with "terrorists" (LOBBYWATCH). In Paraguay, the US military is apparently supporting the repression of farmers who are resisting the massive expansion of GM soy plantations by violent and illegal means. And Peru's health minister is being economical with the truth over the babies being used as GM guinea pigs in two of the country's hospitals. (THE AMERICAS).

But there's some very good news. South Africa's normally lax GM regulatory body has turned down an application to conduct laboratory and greenhouse experiments on a much hyped GM sorghum. The application was refused on biosafety grounds, because of concerns that GM sorghum will lead to the destruction of the sorghum varieties prevalent throughout Africa. (AFRICA)

Claire [email protected]
www.gmwatch.org / www.lobbywatch.org

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CONTENTS
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THE AMERICAS
AUSTRALASIA
LOBBYWATCH
ASIA
AFRICA
EUROPE
TERMINATOR
RESEARCH

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THE AMERICAS
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+ ACTION ALERT: URGENT HELP NEEDED FOR PERU
A dangerous new biotech law, which is being called the "Monsanto Law" in Peru, has been pushed through the Peruvian parliament without discussion and by a very small number of members of parliament. 

This law puts at great risk the extremely rich biodiversity of Peru, the food sovereignty of the country and of its indigenous peoples and the livelihoods of small farmers who depend on the extraordinary biodiversity of potatoes, corn, and other Andean and Amazonian crops for their survival.  Many of these crops have their centre of origin in Peru, and were domesticated there thousands of years ago. Now this biodiversity, which has been conserved and developed, is under risk of genetic contamination, if transgenics crops are introduced into Peru.
 
It is regrettable that the lobbying of the big transnational corporations like Monsanto has counted for more with the parliamentarians than the opposition of the many different organizations around Peru and Latin America that expressed their opposition and concern about this law.
 
The law provides special finantial incentives for the national and international companies which want to invest in biotechnology in Peru.

Peruvians are concerned that through this law, Peru will be transformed into a centre of GM experimentation, used for the testing of new technologies, crops and traits that have not been tested anywhere else in the world.

The introduction of GM crops is also likely to exacerbate the process of deterioration of the peasant economies, which will lead to a genetic erosion of some of the crops that right now are feeding the world, like potatoes and corn.
 
For these reasons, international support is being sought for the campaign against this law.  It has to be approved by the President of the country.

So please direct letters of protest to
 
Doctor Alejandro Toledo Manrique
Presidente Constitucional del Perú
Fax: 0051 1 311 43 07

Ask him not to approve this law (Ley General de  Promocion de la Biotecnologia en el Peru)

+ CONTROVERSY OVER VENTRIA PHARMA TRIALS IN PERU WORSENS
A controversy regarding the experimental use of a GM rice product on Peruvian children has worsened following health minister Pilar Mazzetti's dishonest denial that she authorized tests of the product.

Mazzetti rejected the idea that the GM product was given to 140 children and described the denunciation issued by the Peruvian Medical Association (AMP) as "ridiculous".

The AMP considers the health ministry committed a serious illegal act and has taken the case to the provincial district attorney's office, alleging a violation of the children's rights.

But the minister claims "The children participating in this research have not received transgenic rice."

GM Watch comment: The health minister's denial is specious. They're using a transgenic protein in these trials. The transgenic (pharmaceutical) component in the rice has been extracted and then fed (via a beverage) to the children!
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6746

See the excellent Mexican press piece - Babies as Guinea Pigs: Biotech company turns two Peruvian hospitals into laboratories
http://www.etcblog.org/

+ U.S. MILITARY SUPPORTS FARMER REPRESSION IN PARAGUAY
An article in The Nation reports that the US military is supporting the violent repression of farmers opposing the massive expansion of GM soy cropland in Paraguay.

EXCERPT:
The most recent case of this violence is the death of Serapio Villasboa Cabrera, a member of the Paraguayan Campesino Movement, whose body was found full of knife wounds May 8. Cabrera was the brother of Petrona Villasboa, who was spearheading an investigation into the death of her son, who died from exposure to toxic chemicals used by transgenic soy producers. According to Servicio, Paz y Justicia (Serpaj), an international human rights group that has a chapter in Paraguay, one method used to force farmers off their land is to spray toxic pesticides around communities until sickness forces residents to leave.

GRR [Grupo de Reflexion Rural, farmers’ rights group] said Cabrera was killed by paramilitaries connected to large landowners and soy producers, who are expanding their holdings. The paramilitaries pursue farm leaders who are organizing against the occupation of their land. Investigations by Serpaj demonstrate that the worst cases of repression against farmers have taken place in areas with the highest concentration of US troops. Serpaj reported that in the department of San Pedro, where five US military exercises took place, there have been eig