LIMA,  (Reuters) – Tribes and opposition leaders  sharply criticized Peruvian President Alan Garcia yesterday  for rejecting a law that would have given Indians more power to  halt mining, oil and road projects on their native lands.

Congress had passed the law to try to calm tensions that  have lingered since more than 30 people died last year in a  clash between police and Amazon tribes. It was the worst  violence of Garcia’s term.

Indigenous groups say Garcia’s drive to lure foreign  investment to the rain forest will undermine their traditional  way of life and speed up logging in the Amazon basin.

“It’s clear that Garcia doesn’t understand or respect the  rights of native communities,” said Edgard Reymundo, a  Congressman from the Bloque Popular political group.

By approving the bill, Congress was attempting to codify in  local legislation parts of the U.N. convention on indigenous  peoples, which Peru signed in 1994. It says that tribes must be  consulted when governments plan projects on their lands.

But Garcia, who sent the law back to Congress just a few  days before it is to go into a two-month recess tomorrow, said  the law went too far.

“The law approved by Congress goes beyond the U.N.  convention because it doesn’t just include tribal communities  in the Amazon but also peasant communities,” Garcia told  reporters. “So if you want to build a road or gas pipeline and the  locals say ‘no,’ then there is no road or electricity.”

The law might tie the hands of future administrations and  give some Peruvians more rights than others, he said. “Peru is  for all Peruvians … and for there to be democracy we can’t  place limits on future legislatures or governments.”

The Andean country has been one of the world’s  fastest-growing economies for much of the past decade, riding a  wave of demand for its mineral exports, especially from China.