Title: VENEZUELA: EXPERTS TO INVESTIGATE YANOMAMI MASSACRE
caracas, sep 2 (ips) - a venezuelan government commission will
travel friday to the area were a group of yanomami amerindians
were allegedly murdered, investigator charles brewer said thursday.
''although we cannot establish who is guilty, due to the
difficulty of collecting evidence, we're going to investigate
what happened to prevent a similar incident from occurring
again,'' he said.
brewer said ''relations between the yanomamis and the gold
miners in the area are of long standing,'' which suggests that
something happened to ''break the balance that has always existed
there'', resulting in the massacre.
between 18 and 73 yanomamis are thought to have been killed
near the brazilian-venezuelan border, but neither the motive nor
the exact site of the killing is known.
''what is certain is that the killers were brazilian gold
miners,'' said brewer, who was hired by the venezuelan government
to investigate the case.
according to the foundation for indigenous people of brazil,
(funai) the massacre took place in venezuelan territory near the
hashimi river, which flows into the amazon.
a venezuelan foreign ministry source told ips that it would
propose a bi-national commission, made up of experts in several
fields, to investigate the case and punish those responsible.
he added, ''what we can't accept is that those who illegally
cross the borders don't know where one country ends and the other
begins.''
according to brewer, ''the borders are clearly defined. the
venezuelan side is where the rivers divide, and all of the water
that flows into the orinoco is on the venezuelan side. the border
hasn't changed. what appears to have changed is the way the
border is respected.''
brewer said he does not expect to find any conclusive proof,
such as bodies, since ''the yanomamis take special care with the
dead and cremate the remains. if bodies are necessary as evidence
in order to convict someone, no one will go to jail for this
crime,''he said.
brewer said ''the confusing information surrounding this case
is due to the fact that brazil is anxious to protect its image
for the international economic community, so that it not be seen
as imperialist.''
some in venezuela charge that the massacre was due to
brazilian expansionism in the amazon, and that the illegal miners
crossing borders are part of that plan.
on the other hand, ''the fact that the killers were brazilian
miners is a source of great shame for the country,'' brewer said.
(end/ips/trd-sp/caf/oh/js-cg/93)
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