News-Letter Nr. 447
Chairman of Human Rights Committee of the House of Representatives goes to the State of Roraima to Hear the Yanomami about Sexual Abuse
The chairman of the Human Rights Committee of the House of Representatives, Marcos Rolim (Workers’ Party – state of Rio Grande do Sul), will be taking part this Thursday, February 8, in the 20th Assembly of Tuxauas in the state of Roraima, which began on the 5th. This trip is mainly intended for the chairman to hear reports of sexual abuse of Yanomami women by Army soldiers. In November of last year, Yanomami leaders Davi Kopenawa and Peri Xirixana reported that soldiers of the 4th Border Platoon, which was established inside the Yanomami indigenous area, were committing sexual abuse against Yanomami women and seducing them in exchange for food and liquor.
The 20th Assembly of Tuxauas of Roraima has gathered about 400 Macuxi, Wapixana, Taurepang, Ingarikó,Yanomami, and Wai Wai leaders in the Pium village, 80 km from the capital of the state, Boa Vista. The Tuxauas will also take advantage of the presence of representative Marcos Rolim to deliver documents to him reporting cases of violations of human rights affecting indigenous people, including murders, acts of terrorism, persecution and lack of assistance.
Indigenous peoples have 15-day deadline to decide on location where the Border Platoon will be stationed
At the same assembly, the Tuxauas will approve a proposal for the location where the 6th Special Border Platoon of the Army (PEF) should be stationed. This week, judge Fernando da Costa Tourinho Neto, chief justice of the Federal Regional Court (TRF) of the 1st Region, in Brasília, decided to set a 15-day deadline for the indigenous people living in the Raposa/Serra do Sol indigenous area to suggest a new location for the fort to be established. Last week, Tourinho Neto had suspended a preliminary order which prevented the PEF fort from being built in Uiramutã, but this week, after accepting an interlocutory appeal filed by the Office of the Attorney General in Brasília, he reconsidered his previous decision and set the deadline for an agreement to be reached on the matter.
The decision made by judge Tourinho Neto pleased the indigenous people. They say that if indigenous communities were not given a chance to be heard on the matter they would not allow any fort to be built for the platoon in their area. In a letter to authorities, they say that although Administrative Ruling n.820/98 reduced the size of the Raposa/Serra do Sol indigenous area for the 6th PEF to be stationed in it, the location where it would be established was not discussed. The location defined by the Army for that purpose was at a distance of only 200 meters from the Uiramutã community.
Kaingang Community Presses for Working Group to be set up
After almost a month of mobilization and much tension between the Kaingang and settlers, Funai has decided to set up a Technical Working Group (GT) that will check improvements made in good faith by non-indigenous people and proceed to demarcate the Toldo Chimbangue II indigenous area in Chapecó, in the west region of the state of Santa Catarina. An official report identifying Toldo Chimbangue II as a 968-hectare area was published in the Official Gazette in February of last year, but since then no concrete actions had been taken to demarcate it.
Irritated, the Kaingang occupied a 2-hectare area where their indigenous cemetery is located and set up a camp next to the road to Sede Trentin, where the settlers live. The climate became tense after members of other Kaingang communities joined those of Toldo Chimbangue II to support their action. They threatened to block the road and to occupy a river ferry and a bridge through which people access Sede Trentin. The action was suspended after the Working Group was set up. The Kaingang were expelled from that location in the 1940s, when lands in the region were given to the company Luce, Rosa & Cia. as part of a program to settle people in that remote area and the company sold lots to immigrants. The working Group has a deadline of 60 days to deliver a report on all improvements made in the area. According to chief Idalino Ferreira, the Kaingang will remain on full alert until the activities of the GT are completed.
Brasília, 7 February 2001.Indianist Missionary Council - Cimi
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