News-Letter  Nr. 401

OFFICIAL FESTIVITIES DISTURB THE PATAXO

On March 15, the Pataxó living in the Coroa Vermelha village will once again hold a meeting with the committee in charge of coordinating the "official festivities" to celebrate the 500th anniversary of "Brazil's Discovery." This meeting, which this time will be attended by representatives of the General Attorney's Office, will not be the last one. The Pataxó resent the way they are being treated by the organizers of the official celebrations of the "discovery," who are building the Open Discovery Museum (Made) and the Contact Memorial in the Coroa Vermelha area, located in the municipality of Santa Cruz de Cabrália. They complain that the authorities have been slow in fulfilling their promise to urbanize their village in exchange for letting them build the museum and memorial in that area. On March 1, indigenous leaders reported many problems they have been facing as a result of this hasty construction work for the "festivities" and the serious risks they may be exposed to because of delays in the implementation of the promised infrastructure.

The Pataxó said that families had to leave their homes in the area where the museum and memorial are being built even before their new homes began to be built. This created an uncomfortable situation, as the homes of relatives began to be occupied by too many families for their size. The construction work poses public health problems. The company responsible for implementing sanitation facilities in the village is opening old sewage facilities that could spread many diseases, as they are being left exposed to the air for long periods. An artesian well that supplied the water consumed by over 40 families in the village was almost completely destroyed and became a slough. The indigenous community was forced to resort to water trucks to get water to drink and cook.

The community of the Coroa Vermelha village resent the idea of seeing an old wooden cross that for years has marked the location where the first mass was celebrated in Brazil be replaced by a bronze cross made by sculptor Mário Cravo Neto. Indigenous leaders have expressed their disapproval to the person responsible for erecting the new cross, but he has already begun to set it up and has threatened the community, saying that it will be installed at any cost.

In a document called "Second Revolution of the Pataxó Indigenous Community of Coroa Vermelhaÿ," the Pataxó have listed this and other problems and requested the federal administration to attach absolute priority to removing invaders from their area. Because their request was not granted, they decided to reoccupy the area late in February and expel businessman José Ribeiro Martins from it by force. The businessman has 12 days to leave the land.

All the undesirable incidents that are taking place in Coroa Vermelhaÿ are the result of a disastrous policy aimed at imposing the will of the State on indigenous communities without listening to what they have to say and disrespecting their rites and customs. The "festivities" planned by the Brazilian government have been disturbing and changing the lifestyle of the Pataxó community in a very aggressive and arbitrary way. Without any right to issue their opinion, the Pataxé know that, although everything is happening in their land, indigenous communities have no say in official projects. The federal administration despises the main claim of indigenous peoples: demarcated land areas without invaders. That is why they insist that they have nothing to celebrate.

GERMAN NAVIGATOR CROSSES THE ATLANTIC ON A RAFT IN SUPPORT OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES IN BRAZIL

After a 43-day journey aboard a fragile raft-like sailing boat, German navigator and human-rights activist Rüdiger Nehberg arrived in Fortaleza (state of Ceará) on March 4 after setting sail for Brazil in Mauritania, on the African coast. He was received by representatives of the Tabeba, Trememb‚, Pitaguary and Genipapo-Kanind‚ indigenous peoples, who gave him a document reporting the reality of indigenous peoples in Ceará. The goal of the trip is to take advantage of the date marking the 500 years of Brazil's colonization to raise the awareness of the international community to the reality of indigenous and Afro-Brazilian peoples and of other groups that have been marginalized from the Brazilian society. Rüdiger Nehberg is a member of the non-governmental organization Gesellschaft Für bedrohte Völker - GFBV (Association for the Defense of Threatened Peoples), which is headquartered in Germany and has regional offices in several European countries.

At a press conference in Fortaleza, Nehberg apologized for the huge destruction of human beings, their cultures and nature promoted by Europeans after the "discovery," which we should keep in mind as a warning. The German navigator took advantage of his stay in Ceará to visit the Tapeba and Pitaguary villages.

It is the second time that Nehberg sails in defense of indigenous communities in Brazil. In 1992, he crossed the Atlantic aboard a bamboo raft to draw the attention of the international community to the situation of the Yanomami, who had suffered a massacre promoted by miners. Next week, Rudiger Nehberg will be in Brasília to show his boat and deliver documents about human rights to the National Congress and the president of the Republic.

Brasília, 9 March 2000
Indianist Missionary Council - Cimi

For more details on the text you may want to contact Cimi directly under e-mail:



Webmaster Pro REGENWALD

We're happy to receive your comments or answer your questions. now, if you want to contribute to this work