TL: BRAZIL ENVIRONMENTALISTS AT RISK
SO: Paul Guilding, Executive Director, Greenpeace International
(GP)
DT: September 10, 1993
A week ago, after a flurry of reports and confusion about
numbers, it emerged that 18 Yanomami Indians were massacred in
the Amazonian rain-forest. They were killed by Brasilian bounty
hunters - gold miners blinded by greed, emboldened in the
knowledge that deep in the jungle, justice would probably never
catch them up.
As we continue to chew up the world's natural resources,
penetrating deeper into our remaining wildernesses, justice has
been slow to catch up. Some one thousand Yanomami Indians have
been killed by miners since 1975. After the latest atrocity, the
Brasilian miners' union leader resigned in disgust saying he was
'not prepared to continue defending criminals'. Yanomami lands
are protected under Brasilian law, yet there is open disagreement
in Brasil over whether they should yield up their gold for the
economy. This has encouraged the illegal speculators.
The Brasilian airforce has bombed illegal airstrips, and combined
police and army operations have reduced unlawful mining
incursions into Indian lands. But there needs to be full
politicial commitment behind the principle that justice cannot
come a poor second to economic development. The United Nations
has declared 1993 the Year of the Indigenous Peoples. These
peoples are the protectors of what remains to us of the natural
world. They are our frontier guards, so to speak. To kill them is
to commit a crime the whole world should be revolted by. We urge
the Brasilian and Venezualan authorities to cooperate in
apprehending the perpetrators of the Yanomami massacre.
Forests seem to be particularly good at hiding human rights
abuses, although ironically, trees are the ultimate target.
Dozens of Indians and rubber-tappers in Brasil have been murdered
by loggers in order to get access to mahogany trees.
The story of timber-rich Sarawak, Malaysia has often been told.
But while the media spot-light may move capriciously from one
sensation to the next, the struggle here between the indigenous
forest-dwelling tribes and the loggers goes on.
Local people in Sarawak have been erecting barricades against the
logging trucks for ten years. In response, the Malaysian police
have arrested more than 800 of them. Many have been held in jail
for weeks without trial, others sentenced to many months
imprisonment for doing nothing more than protecting their
ancestral lands. There is still no legal mechanism in place to
deal with conflicts and disputed land claims. Last month it was
reported from Kuala Lumpur that Jok Jau Evong, a tribal leader in
Sarawak, had had his passport confiscated by the Malaysian
authorities as he prepared to leave for an Indigenous Peoples'
conference in Peru.
Meanwhile international institutions like the World Bank confirm
that Sarawak's timber resources are being cut at four times the
rate considered to be sustainable.
Within the last ten days the government of British Columbia in
Canada has decided to make civil disobedience a criminal offence
in order to stop protests against the uncontrolled logging of
temperate rain-forests in Clayoquot Sound. More than five hundred
people face the prospect of criminal records for non-violent
protest against what have been shown to be unsustainable
environmental practices. At the same time, the logging company,
of which the Government is a major shareholder, has got off
virtually scot free in several cases where it was shown to have
cut trees illegally. In one case it was fined, but allowed to
keep the illegaly felled timber. This is an unforgivable
hypocrisy. The moral right to protest is a fundamental right of
all free societies. To criminalise the protestor and allow
logging companies which so often defy the law to go free, is a
perversion of justice.
Greenpeace has not escaped unscathed. On July 10th, 1985 French
secret service agents blew up our ship the 'Rainbow Warrior' in
Auckland, New Zealand killing photographer Fernando Pereira.
Earlier this year, anonymous death threats were sent to Juan
Schroeder, our anti-nuclear campaigner in Argentina. It was the
second time the Greenpeace office had been threatened in
connection with its campaign to draw the authorities' attention
to the potential hazards of the Atucha I nuclear power plant
outside Buenos Aires. Argentine Government officials agreed to
meet with me to discuss these threats. I found them as concerned
as I was to investigate the threats, and to ensure our
campaigners' safety. Fortunately, no further threats have been
made.
One of our collaborators in Brasil was not so lucky. Paulo Cesar
Vinha, a 37 year old biologist, was found shot dead in April on
the remote beach in Espirito Santo that he was campaigning to
save. Only three days later, Arnaldo Delcidio Ferreira, another
activist who had worked closely with Greenpeace was shot dead as
he slept. His killer strolled calmy away from the scene. Arnaldo
was the president of the local Rural Workers Union. He was
campaigning for workers' land rights, and against predatory
logging in the Amazon. No one has faced trial for either of these
murders. The killers of Francisco 'Chico' Mendes, the
world-reknowned union leader and ecologist are still at large
after their jail break earlier this year.
All environmentalists prepared to embrace the principle of non-
violent protest must be able to expect the protection of the law.
As many governments will testify, environmental groups and
environmentally minded communities are an essential
counter-balance to the forces of 'economic progress'. We provide
essential information about environmental damage, or abuse which
governments often do not have will, nor the resources to gather.
We are a democratic fact of life and should be afforded the same
rights as business interest groups in democratic societies. The
Yanomami hold up the ultimate example of what we preach. They are
prepared to live in a sustainable way in relation to their
environment. We shall not learn from their example until we
respect them. That includes giving them justice.