[Radio Japan/NHK-22Aug93-1100UTC] [Radio Japan/NHK added that
Brazilian authorities have announced the massacre of Yanomami
Indians occurred on August 8th and that only 4 of the 77 villages
are believed to be alive.]
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brazil b
[Radio Habana Cuba-22Aug93-0100UTC] Yesterday Brazilian police
arrested a large landowner [named] in connexion with the massacre
of 40 Yanomami Indians. Police believe [the man] was the main
instigator of the attack which was carried out by 15 gold panners
in the Amazon state of Roraima.
The National Indian Foundation claims the attack was
premeditated, saying the gold panners first lured the Yanomamis
into the centre of the village with food and then opened fire on
them. The children and women were beheaded and chopped into
pieces. Since the demarcation of the reservation, the [gold
panners] have been illegally extracting gold from the Indians'
land, rich in natural resources and home to some 10 000
Yanomamis.
It is feared that as many as 100 Indians were killed, perhaps the
entire village.
Anthropologists say it will be impossible to ever know how many
were killed because of the Yanomami's cultural practices relating
to their dead. The Yanomami often hide or burn dead bodies and
rarely leave them exposed.
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brazil b
[Radio Exterior de Espana-22Aug93-0000UTC] Brazilian officials
on Saturday raised to 70 their estimate of Yanomami Indians
killed in an Amazon jungle massacre which officials blame on
wildcat gold miners. An aide at the government Indian agency in
the Amazon state of Roraima said the new estimate was reached
after surviving Indians made a list, naming all the people in the
village when it was attacked.
Of the more than 70 names on the list, only five survivors are
accounted for. The survivors have testified that all the other
people in the village were killed.
Since the Yanomami do not count the same way as in Western
cultures, anything more than two is called simply "many." [The
agency] was able to get a specific number only by asking
survivors for a list of names. The lack of corpses has also made
investigation of the attack difficult. [The official] said only
two skeletons had been found.
The surviving Indians told [the agency] they took some of their
dead to a neighbouring village to cremate them as is their
custom. Most said that when they returned to their own village,
the other corpses were gone. The men then walked for two days to
the nearest [agency] station to report the incident.
Police and [agency] officials on Saturday combed the area around
the village in a remote corner of the Amazon near the border with
Venezuela to try to find more survivors or remains. [Agency]
officials have reported finding an enormous number of spent
bullet shells at the site of the charred, thatched dwelling which
provided communal housing for the tribe.
Brazilian government officials have blamed wildcat gold
prospectors for the massacre. Tension between miners and Indians
has continued government efforts to keep miners out of the vast
Yanomami reserve which is rich in gold and other minerals.
In 1990 there were an estimated 30 000 miners in Yanomami lands.
Today only about 600 remain.
The plight of the Yanomami, who number about 10 000 in Brazil and
10 000 in Venezuela, has aroused worldwide concern.
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