We are retransmitting CCPY's most recent on the situation of the
Yanomami.
"Sao Paulo 01.04.91
CCPY Update No. 31
"OPERATION FREE JUNGLE" FAILS THE YANOMAMI
It's been almost a year since President Collor ordered the dynamiting of
illegal airstrips in the Yanomami territory but "Operation Free Jungle"
has produced nothing but additional sorrow for the Yanomami and proved
the government's incompetence in protecting their constitutional rights.
The governor of Roraima, Ottomar de Souza Pinto, has repeatedly impeded
the Federal Police's work to rid the area of garimpeiros. He has ordered
the civil and military police forces to obstruct the closing of
airstrips, he paid the bail of 16 garimpeiros being held in a Roraima
prison and he told penitentiary officials in Roraima not to detain any
more garimpeiros brought by federal police, who number 20 against the
1300 armed military and civil police who are controlled by the state
government. Less than half of the 120 illegal airstrips in the Yanomami
area have been dynamited and most of those have been reoccupied by the
garimpeiros.
The governor's actions, said Attorney-General Aristides Junqueira, are
obstructing efforts by Federal Police to comply with a federal court
order that requires the removal of garimpeiros from the Yanomami
territory. That is why last week Junqueira requested the Regional Federal
Court to intervene in the matter.
In the meantime, he has decided to suspend "Operation Free Jungle".
Federal Police and FUNAI officials said they lack the necessary funds to
continue dynamiting as well as funds to pay personnel to guard the
airstrips already dynamited. The Attorney-General asked Economy Minister
Zelia Cardoso de Mello for the funds to continue the operation, but they
have not yet been released.
CAMPAIGN FOR GARIMPO HURTS YANOMAMI CAUSE
After Roraima turned from federal territory to state in 1990 it was
entitled to elect eight federal deputies and three senators. Those who
were elected to these offices were in favor of maintaining the
exploration of minerals in Roraima. Their numbers and their significant
political strength call for careful watch from those who fight for the
survival of the Yanomami.
Federal and state deputies in the state of Roraima are following Governor
Ottomar de Souza's lead and lobbying for the maintenance of the
garimpeiro reserves. They are trying to place garimpo supporters in key
governmental offices that deal with indigenous issues.
One such candidate is former FUNAI anthropologist Celio Horst. Pro-
garimpo representatives in Roraima and Brasilia are trying to have him
chosen for the FUNAI administrative post in Boa Vista. In the late 1970s
Horst was a major proponent of the division of the Yanomami territory
into 19 separate areas or "islands". He is also facing charges for the
1988 rape and torture of a Wapishina Indian girl during a FUNAI trip in
Roraima.
The appointment of Tarcisio Ximenes Prado as administrator of the Funai
regional office for the Northern and Western Amazon areas (which includes
Roraima) was in line with Justice Minister Jarbas Passarinho's declared
policy of maintaining Funai within his Ministry and strengthening its
control over all aspects of the indigenous question. Ximenes is linked
to Sebastiao Amancio, "Operation Free Jungle" coordinator and well-known
opponent of the presence of NGOs in the Yanomami area.
Garimpeiro leader Jose Altino Machado, who faces charges of illegally
invading the Surucucus area of Yanomami territory, is also receiving
considerable media attention. In an article that ran on March 29 in
Brazil's largest daily newspaper "Folha de S. Paulo", he made
inflammatory and erroneous statements about the Yanomami territory which
were published on almost an entire page of the "Folha". "Why can't the
Indians die? They have to die, like all of us," Machado said in the
article.
YANOMAMI HEALTH
"Operation Free Jungle" is not the only governmental program that is
failing in the Yanomami area. Health treatment for ailing Indians is
still precarious. CCPY continues to give the most consistent health
care in the area, although it is still insufficient for all of the
Yanomami's needs. CCPY currently sponsors the work of two nurses, a
doctor, a linguist and an anthropologist in the Demini area and two
doctors in Surucucus. Since February CCPY and the Ministry of Health have
also been jointly sponsoring a doctor in the Surucucus region, who has
recently moved to Auaris to deal with the critical health situation
there. Anthropologist Alcida Ramos, professionals from Mdecins du Monde
(MDM) and a medical doctor from Brasilia, Dr Ivone Menegola, are dealing
with the emergency in Auaris.
An emergency health situation in the Auaris region (in the northernmost
part of Yanomami territory) this month demonstrated how sporadic medical
care will not solve the health problems in the Yanomami area and that it
is crucial to implement the permanent Yanomami Health Project.
In the absence of any scheme of comprehensive permanent health coverage
throughout the whole Yanomami area, emergencies such as that in Auaris
often run out of control before medical help arrives. Villages located
far from mission stations or Funai posts do not receive doctors' visits
on a regular basis, with the result that epidemics can reach tragic
proportions in the remoter areas before news of the outbreak reaches a
post. An example of this is the community of Karimani, where many of the
Auaris region's 160 confirmed cases of malaria (out of a total population
of less than 400) have occurred; a Yanomami woman who had lost her child
was transferred to Boa Vista in a malarial semi-coma, and there are
reports of children suffering from grave malnutrition with their whole
families affected by malaria and unable to gather food. 90% of the 200
Yanomami currently receiving medical attention in the Auaris area have
been diagnosed as suffering from malnutrition.
Despite problems such as the lacking of a helicopter small enough to land
in the village, the release of emergency funds equivalent to $20,000 by
the Health Ministry and contributions from CCPY and other NGOs allowed
emergency work to get under way. It is clear, however, that only
permanent monitoring under a comprehensive health plan will put an end to
the suffering of the people of Karimani and hundreds of similar villages.
The new date set by the Health Ministry for the Permanent Health Plan is
supposed to come into effect this month, though money is in critically
short supply as the details of the final budget application have yet to
be concluded. In addition, President Collor still has to sign a Decree
sanctioning the creation of the body responsible for the project, the
Health Ministry's National Health Foundation (FNS).
DAVI TRAVELS TO THE UNITED STATES
Beginning April 10 Davi Kopenawa Yanomami travels to the United States
accompanied by CCPY Coordinator Claudia Andujar. They will meet with
officials at the United Nations, the Organization of American States and
the World Bank as well as American Congressmen and the Brazilian
Ambassador in Washington. They will participate in conferences at New
York and Yale universities. Davi has also been invited to speak in
Pittsburgh to supporters of the Catholic Consolata mission, a religious
order that maintains a mission house in the Yanomami area.
The trip is sponsored by Survival International, the Museum of the
American Indian of the Smithsonian Institute and other bodies linked to
environmental and indigenous matters."
Comissao pela Criacao do Parque Yanomami - CCPY
Rua Manoel da Nobrega 111 cj.32
04001 Sao Paulo SP Brasil