"I lament that the agenda of this Parliamentary Commission of
Inquiry is based on a scandalously falsified document, that is
"Brazilian Directives, No. 4 Year 0"". This statement was made
by Bishop Apparecido Jose Dias, President of the Indigenous
Missionary Council (Conselho Indigenista Missionario - CIMI), in
a submission made on September 24, 1991 to the above mentioned
Parliamentary Commission which is investigating the
internationalization of Amazonia.
According to Bishop Apparecido, the above mentioned document
was prepared by an "ideological falsifier", Mauro Rodrigues
Nogueira, and used by the newspaper "O Estado de Sao Paulo" in
August of 1987 to put pressure on the members of the
constitutional assembly then in session, not to approve the
articles which today guarntee the rights of the native peoples.
However, the bishop recalls, the "document" was completely
demoralized and shown to be false by senator Ronan Tito during a
Mixed Parliamentary Commission Inquiry in that same year.
Another problem mentioned by the president of CIMI is the
objective of the present Parliamentary Inquiry which is to
"verify the existence of clandestine airports and the work of
foreign missionary religious in the gold mining area of Roraima,
which is provoking the internationalization of Amazonia." The
president stated that he did not see any relationship between one
of these questions and the other. He sees the first question as
referring to the invasion of gold prospectors, especially of
Yanomami lands; this question should have been resolved long ago.
"About the work of missionary religious in Roraima" , stated
Bishop Apparecido, "especially that of catholics, I believe that
you have been sufficiently informed by the bishop of that state,
Bishop Aldo Mongiano, when this Parliamentary Commission of
Inquiry took his statement in Boa Vista on the 10th. of this
month".
INTERNATIONALIZATION
Referring to the internationalization of Amazonia, the
president of CIMI stated that he believes that the question is
not how to hinder it, since it has already happened. The real
question is how to give back Amazonia to Brazil. He stated that
the handing over of the region to foreign interests started in
1967 by the then Minister of Planning - Roberto Campos, and has
continued since then with the cooperation and help of the federal
government and of the state governments of the region.
The CNPQ, which was an organ of the Ministry of Science and
Technology at the time, informs in its publication "The Mineral
Question in Amazonia", that at the end of 1986, economic groups
had reserved a total of 921.980 square kms of the subsoil of the
Amazonian region. "We have verified" says the publication, "that
foreign groups own the largest portion, 367.617 square kms. or
40% of the area".
"It is for this reason", continued the president of CIMI "that
I do not accept the nationalistic statements of certain
authorities. Many such people attack today the thesis of
"restricted sovereignty" of President Francois Mitterand, which
we also consider inadmissable. But where were such people when
the French petrolium company - Elf Aquitane, in 1981, invaded and
bombed the lands of the Satere Mawe and Munduruku Indians in
Amazonia? Why did they not protest against contracts which made
possible the state monopoly of petroleum?".
Bishop Apparecido finalized his statement attacking the
arguement of groups who hold that the demarcation of indigenous
lands is aimed to impede the access of the country to its mineral
wealth. "Since when has legal and constitutional rights
threatened the country? By chance, have such groups read the
constitution? The demarcation of indigenous lands formalizes the
limit of the domination of the Brazilian state over these
territories."
Note: This document was released by CIMI on September 24, 1991
and was translated by Servico Espiritano de Justica e Paz.
END