UPDATE ON MASSACRE OF YANOMAMI INDIANS
- Call for public hearings into Yanomami massacre
Federal Deputy Fabio Feldman (PSDB/SP) has called on Congress
to hold a public hearing into the Yanomami massacre.
In 1991, Feldman sponsored a bill, supported by 57
other deputies, to regulate the entrance of strangers into the
Yanomami reservation and proposed severe punishment for the
invaders of indigenous territories. Since then, the
bill has been sitting on the table of the Commission for National
Defense in Congress.
Feldman said, "Maybe now, after the massacre, the noble
deputies will wake up to the urgency of approving the bill". In
light of this massacre, all Brazilian citizens concerned about
the indigenous issue must unite forces to fight the genocide that
has been going on for so long in our country".
He added that the problem of indigenous land is not restricted
only to the Yanomami. "The government's attitude in relation to
the Indians has been characterized by indifference, and not only
in terms of the demarcation of their territories".
He gives the example of the Satere and Munduruku Indians in
the Amazon, who since 1982, have had to face problems linked to
toxic material coming from abandoned pumps left on their land
by the French state company, Elf Aquitaine. In reply to a
query on the matter, the Ministry for Justice simply admitted
that the state of health of the two indigenous communities in
question was very precarious.
Fabio Feldman appealed to all NGOs and grassroots movements to
"work together in the struggle against the lack of action on
indigenous issues and/or the genocidal activities, that
predominate in Brazil".
- Indians are target of offensive in the Amazon say CIMI
(The following report is based on a statement released by the
Missionary Indigenous Council, CIMI, one week before the news of
the Yanomami massacre became public.)
CINI says that the real target for the military offensive in the Amazon
are the indigenous, with a view to blocking the demarcation of
their lands and facilitate, even more, the invasion of their
territories.
A recent note signed by CIMI's secretary, Fabio Martins
Villas, stated that despite some of the declarations made by the
right-wing politicians and the "conspiracies of the dissatisfied
military men, over low wages", there are no elements to justify
belief in the possibility of an attempt against to overthrow the
government.
The Council also discarded any reasons for thinking that there
could be a threat of a foreign military invasion in the Amazon,
even given the US military maneuvers in Guinea.
CIMI questioned President Itamar Franco' reasons for calling a
meeting of the National Defense Council, two weeks ago.
"Everything seems to point to the fact that the initiative was
taken with the purpose of re-affirming the president's authority,
at a time when the country's socio-economic situation is
bordering on collapse and the economic policy of neo-liberalism
of Finance Minister Fernando Henrique Cardoso shows every sign of
failure".
"It wasn't for nothing that the meeting was
called on the eve of a constitutional revision, which seems more
like a constitutional coup". CIMI-an organiztion of the CNBB-
"supports all the initiatives of the Armed Forces and the
Federal Government in favor of defending national sovereignty, as
long as these initiatives don't lead to the extinction of the
indigenous peoples or threaten their constitutional rights".
According to CIMI, there is nothing whatsoever in the
Constitution against the demarcation of indigenous lands on Brazil's
frontier and what's more, "such lands would be doubly protected:
first, because they are the property of the State and secondly,
as they are on the frontier, it is up to the State to consider
them fundamental for the defense of the national territory".
CIMI stated that "once again, the indigenous peoples are being
exposed to the greed of capital interests, especially that of the
mineral companies, who are lobbying for a revision of the
constitutional items that oblige them to submit their projects to
a hearing of Congress".
The note also denounces that , during President Jose Sarney's
government, which implemented the 'Calha Norte' project (military
occupation of the frontier areas of the Amazon), almost 20% of
the Yanomami people, or 2000 Indians, were exterminated "by acts
or omission of the federal government".
"Is President Itamar Franco going to listen to those who, in
practice, want in the name of Brazilian sovereignty, a Hitler-
type 'final solution' for these and other people that have lived
for hundreds of years in the region? Why doesn't the President
carry out his constitutional duty to demarcate and guarantee the
indigenous lands, not only in the Amazon, but also in other areas?
Is his Excellency, perhaps, waiting for the 'coup' of the
constitutional revision to definitively rid himself of the
problem of having to do this work? Is it possible that a
government that can't even manage to guarantee indigenous lands,
able to guarantee national sovereignty? Is a government,
incapable of carrying out agrarian reform so that its people can
survive, able to guarantee national sovereignty?"
- Right-wing warns against "internationalization" of the Amazon
With the excuse of the Yanomami massacre, the theme of
"internationalizing" the Amazon has been taken up again in great
style by the military, important sectors of the ruling classes
and the right-wing politicians.
President Itamar Franco, echoing the thoughts of those who
fear for Brazil's sovereignty in the Amazon region, decided to
create, with the agreement of the National Defense Council, an
Extraordinary Ministry for the Articulation of Activities in the
Amazon Region.
Coupled with this is the fact that two diplomats, Allain
Latulippe, from Canada and Diane Page, from the USA, were denied
access earlier this week to the Yanomami Reservation of Surucucu,
near the area in which the massacre took place, by the National
Indian Foundation (FUNAI) and the Federal Police, even though,
the visit of the diplomats had already been authorized by the
president of Funai, Claudio Romero.
Recently reports from Paris about a proposal - originally made
in 1992 during the Earth Summit - to create a multi-national
authority for the protection of the Amazon forest, are also
serving as a pretext for new declarations by the military.
The Armed Forces want more funds to re-equip their forces and
extend the military presence on the Brazilian Amazon frontiers,
through the Calha Norte project.
In Brasilia, more than 50 indigenous movements and
sympathetic organizations protested outside the presidential
palace, where they distributed a manifesto against the Yanomami
massacre. The NGOs claim that the massacre could have been
avoided if the government had adopted effective measures to stop
the invasion of indigenous territories and taken the miners that
were illegally prospecting there out.
"It must also be said", said the manifesto, "that those who
carried out the massacre must feel comforted by the anti-
indigenous climate to be seen on the streets of Boa Vista (the
capital of Roraima). This climate is systematically sustained by
the media, with declarations made by authorities, politicians and
leaders of the miners, all supporting the idea of mining on
indigenous lands and condemning any type of demarcation".
The NGOs warned that if something isn't done to curb this anti-
Indian climate, more massacres will be inevitable. They called on
President Itamar to make a formal and conclusive announcement
that "under no circumstances whatsoever, will he promote a
revision of the demarcation of the Yanomami territories", nor
"permit the invasion of its limits", in order to disarm the
political and economic pressures that assail the Yanomami people.
- Federal limitations worry new Minister for the Amazon
One of the major worries for the new Minister for the Amazon,
Rubens Ricupero, (the new ministry was created this week by
President Franco) is the Union's limitations in relation
to human rights violations carried out in the States, given the
federal nature of the Brazilian State.
Ricupero, who was Brazil's ambassador to the United States,
voiced this concern on numerous occasions with talks with NGOs in
the USA. Considered one of Brazil's most competent diplomats,
Ricupero regards this constitutional limitation - linked to the
relative autonomy of the individual states - one of the principal
factors that leads to impunity in Brazil for such crimes as
the killing of Chico Mendes, in Acre and the recent massacres in
Candelaria, Rio and of the Yanomami in Roraima.
However, the real drawback for the new minister will be the
lack of money and infrastructure. Everything will depend on the
goodwill of his fellow ministers in the military and economic
areas.
Meanwhile the government announced on August 24 that an initial
budget of almost US$ 2 billion is to be given for the setting up
of the "System to Protect the Amazon (Sipam)".
The system, based on satellite aerial surveillance, will have
regional centers in Belem, Manaus, and Porto Velho, and integrate
the activities of the Armed Forces, the Federal Police and other
federal organs.
- Churches denounce Yanomami massacre
The massacre of up to 73 Yanomami Indians (the actual number
of dead hasn't been determined yet), in Roraima continues to
provoke widespread protests from all over Brazil and the world.
The National Conference of Bishops of Brazil (CNBB)/ Northern
Region 1 (where the massacre took place) published a statement
repudiating what they called "this terrible genocide". "The
declarations on the no less terrible and abominable slaughter in
Candelaria have not yet died down, when we are overtaken in our
dreams and hopes for a better life for all by the worse
hideousness imaginable: defenseless Indians, within their most
sacred and legitimate rights, their lands invaded - adults and
children - massacred with machete blows and bullets!"
The CNBB, while offering their total solidarity with the
Yanomami people, vehemently urged that "their 9,400,000 hectares
of land, already demarcated, be rigorously and religiously
guaranteed and secured for them, as established in the Federal
Constitution".
The Evangelical Church of the Lutheran Confession in Brazil
(IECLB) also condemned the massacre and offered their
'unrestricted' solidarity. "It is inadmissible that acts like
this continue to happen, violating the indigenous territories
already demarcated". The IECLB demands "that this land be
guaranteed, that protection be given to the people that live
there and that all the miners in the Yanomami territories be
withdrawn immediately and definitively".
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