MEXICO CITY (IPS)�Mexico�s Supreme Court set the stage for "war" by dismissing 330 lawsuits against "unjust and retrogressive" laws concerning indigenous people, organizations that back the Zapatista rebels in Chiapas warn.

Supporters of the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) who just a few months ago praised the "new ethics and independence" of the Supreme Court for ordering probes into politically motivated crimes in the 1960s, �70s and �80s, now say the court is a "farce."

On Sept. 6, the Supreme Court threw out suits filed by several states and municipalities with large indigenous populations against constitutional amendments in favor of indigenous rights, which were approved by Congress in April.

As modified by the legislature, the constitutional reforms satisfied neither the EZLN, a lightly armed rebel group in the impoverished southern state of Chiapas, which enjoys much international sympathy, nor its supporters.

Although the amendments recognized the rights of indigenous peoples, they limited the aspirations of native communities for full autonomy and control over their own territories, which had been agreed to by the government of Ernesto Zedillo (1994-2000) in 1996, in an accord signed in peace talks with the Zapatistas.

The Supreme Court decided that it was not its role to rule on the amendments, which�it pointed out�were approved by Congress in a legitimate exercise of authority granted by the constitution.

The original version of the amendments enjoyed the backing not only of Mexico�s indigenous communities, but of President Vicente Fox and the majority of Mexico�s state legislatures as well.

"The legal route has been exhausted," and peace with the EZLN is becoming a more and more remote possibility, because the Supreme Court, in a "racist and colonialist" manner, closed the last doors left open to indigenous people to fight for full respect for their rights, more than 100 indigenous and human rights activists and intellectuals complained in a communiqu�.

The statement warned that the Supreme Court had set the stage for "war and violence."

Approximately 10 percent of Mexico�s 100 million people are ethnic Indians, the great majority of whom live in abject poverty.

The EZLN, which is a mainly indigenous organization, rose up in arms in Chiapas in January 1994, demanding respect for the rights of Indians, who suffer widely from discrimination. But after just 12 days of fighting, in which the EZLN suffered heavy losses, the group agreed to an armed truce with the government. Peace talks that began with the government collapsed in 1996.

The rebels� top commanders visited Mexico City in March 2001 to lobby for passage of the constitutional amendments drafted by lawmakers in 1996 on the basis of the agreement on indigenous culture and rights reached by the rebels and the Zedillo administration.

Although the amendments had the backing of President Fox in their original format, they were modified by the lower house of Congress. The EZLN expressed disappointment and frustration and withdrew to its jungle stronghold, after warning that prospects for peace were becoming increasingly dim.

The Supreme Court verdict demonstrates the "racist" character of a justice system that ignores the needs of Mexico�s most disadvantaged inhabitants, and amounts to an "invitation to violence," protested the Popular Indigenous Council in the southern state of Oaxaca.

The same groups that are now criticizing the Supreme Court had previously applauded it when it ordered investigations into the repression of government opponents under Institutional Revolutionary Party rule between the 1960s and �80s.

They also praised the court for overturning a government decree opening up the electricity industry to private capital.

Lawmakers from all parties except the leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution, which holds 11 percent of the seats in Congress, said the court acted in accordance with Mexican law, and insisted that those who are opposed to the ruling should introduce draft constitutional reforms to change what they did not like.

X�chitl G�lvez, the head of the Presidential Office for Attention to Indigenous Peoples, acknowledged that the Supreme Court ruling could further complicate the stalled peace process in Chiapas and urged those who rejected the verdict to engage in dialogue and work within the limits of the law.