'Tortured' tribal chief faces being sent back to Bolivia

An Andes tribal chief who fled to Britain after being tortured and ended up sleeping rough in London is facing deportation to South America.

Eduardo Wilmer Poroso, who is known by his tribal name Sure-yani, fled Bolivia after he was punished for campaigning for the rights of his Leco Aguachile tribe whose land was being seized by ranchers and Western companies.

Sure-yani, 39, claimed yesterday that he suffered beatings, burnings and electric shocks to the genitals at the hands of the Bolivian authorities. He also suffered death threats from ranchers.

A lawyer who feared for Sure-yani's safety organised a ticket to London, where he made a claim for asylum. For the past four years he has been living in hostels, and for a period of several weeks on the streets of Charing Cross in central London.

But six months ago, the Home Office rejected his application for asylum and he now faces removal back to Bolivia. A legal appeal against the Home Office decision is due to be heard at Epsom County Court next week.

Sure-yani said: "My fear is that if I have to return I will be tortured again, and perhaps assassinated.

"My grandfather, too, was the leader of the Leco people. When he was old he passed on to me his tiger necklace and his feathers ­ and the duty of looking after our people."

Sure-yani found himself homeless when the hostel in which he was staying closed in 1998. He said: "I was in despair... I felt all that I had promised to my grandfather, as he lay dying, was gone."

In Bolivia, Sure-yani organised a national strike in support of indigenous tribes, which he said led to his detention.

While in Britain, he said he had been researching the history of his tribe at the British Library and the Latin American library at Canning House. "In my country they burned books about the Leco," he said.

The land of the Leco-Aguachile, on the eastern slopes of the Andes in north-west Bolivia, is rich in gold, rubber and quinine and its great rivers can be tapped for hydro-electric power. The Leco have declined in number from 28,000 in 1880 to 7,000 now. Ed Posey, of environmental group the Gaia Foundation, said: "[Sure-yani] is the voice of indigenous peoples worldwide whose way of life is being sorely threatened."

The Home Office disputes the tribal chief's claim, arguing that Bolivia has no history of human rights abuse.

- INDEPENDENT