LOS ANGELES, May 10 (Reuters) - Indigenous Peruvian Achuar communities filed a class action suit against Occidental Petroleum Corp. <OXY.N> on Thursday in Los Angeles Superior Court claiming oil production has damaged their health and even killed a young boy.

Occidental produced oil from 1975 to late 1999 in the northeastern Peru near Ecuador where the Achuar have lived for centuries.

"In its unchecked effort to profit from Amazonian oil, Oxy engaged in irresponsible, reckless, immoral and illegal practices in and around the ancestral and current territory of the Achuar indigenous people," the complaint said.

"These practices were below accepted industry standards, prohibited by law, and Oxy knew they would result in the severe contamination of water and land," it added.

Occidental did not immediately return phone calls or an email request for comment.

Last week after three nonprofit groups supporting the Achuar in the suit held a press conference, an Occidental spokesman said the company followed international oil practices and has not seen scientific evidence that they were harming anyone in Peru.

There are 13 unnamed women and girls and 12 men and boys. One of the boys is dead, the suit claims, because he drank contaminated water from the Corrientes River.

The boy "John Doe 12" in the suit, died as a result.

"John Doe 12 had previously been healthy," the suit says. "Shortly after drinking the contaminated river water, John Doe 12 developed fever, stomach pains, and started vomiting and passing blood. (His mother) took him to see a doctor who worked for Oxy, who told her to take John Doe 12 home to die.

"Two days after becoming sick, John Doe 12 died."

The suit claims that even though Occidental left the area by 2000, poorly designed pollution control systems that remain and are used by the Argentine company that took over production there, Pluspetrol.

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