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News-Letter Nr. 615 |
Interruption of the demarcation process leads to increase in violence against indigenous people in Brazil, according to Amnesty International
According to a report by Amnesty International on human rights violations in 2003, published in London yesterday, the increased violence against indigenous people in Brazil is due to the interruption in the process of demarcating the indigenous lands, motivated in many cases by political bargaining.
According to Amnesty International, there has been an increase in the number of deaths, threats and acts of oppression against the indigenous population. The report shows that from January to October 2003, 23 indigenous leaders where assassinated in the fight for their lands. Even with evidence that proves otherwise, the Brazilian government told Amnesty International that the deaths were the result of internal disputes.
The report mentions as an example of this violence, the ambush that chief Marcos Xukuru suffered in Pesqueira, Pernambuco, in February of last year, where two indigenous people were assassinated. It emphasized that in 2002, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights had asked Brazil to provide protection for Marcos, and that this was not given. Amnesty International also reports that Federal Police agents repeatedly tried to blame the chief for the attack, even though he was the victim.
Attorney general of Brazil asks for decisions against Raposa Serra do Sol to be suspended
After the decision of Judge Selene Maria de Almeida, of the Federal Regional Court of the 1st Region, relating to the court order issued by the federal judge of Roraima which partially suspended the effects of Decree 820/98, of the Ministry of Justice, which demarcated the Raposa Serra do Sol indigenous land, last Friday (21 May) the Attorney General of Brazil, Cláudio Fonteles, petitioned the Federal Supreme Court (STF) to suspend this court order until the case has been judged.
Judge Selene Maria, on analyzing the appeal made by the Public Prosecutor's Office and by the Maturuca indigenous community against the court order, exceeded her normal duties by altering the decision taken by the judge in Roraima and increased the effects of the court order by excluding the border area, until the National Defense Council has convened to give its opinion on the effective use of the areas situated near to the frontier with Guyana and Venezuela and the Monte Roraima National Park environmental conservation area. According to Fonteles, the decisions both suffer from the problem of being unconstitutional.
According to the attorney general, there are many, significant legal violations: value systems are destroyed, and the right of a people to its own existence is withdrawn by a society, involved with the possibility of disrespecting differences, This is a process that is constitutionally well supported but in reality so arduously being constructed.
The federal government has made suspension of this court order a condition for the ratification of the Raposa Serra do Sol indigenous land. With this judges decision, the indigenous people of Raposa Serra do Sol continue to wait for the ratification, which has been delayed many times to meet the demands of anti-indigenous politicians and rice growers.
If the attorney generals petition for suspension is accepted by the STF, the way will be clear to enable the land to be ratified as set out in the decree issued by the Ministry of Justice. The Office of the Federal Attorney General will also petition the Superior Court of Justice to suspend the court order.
Brasília, May 27th 2004
Cimi - Indianist Missionary Council
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