INDIGENOUS ISSUES
- Military police expelled 400 indians according to
government agency.
FUNAI (the government indigenist agency) accuses the
military police in Roraima of expelling 400 macuxis, wapichanas
and tautepangues from the locality known as Retiro Tamandua
according to a report in the "Jornal do Brasil" on January 10.
The indians had set up a campment to impede the start of the
construction of a dam on the Contigo river.
FUNAI denounced that the police exploded bombs and beat up
10 indians. A functionary of FUNAI in the state capital, Boa
Vista, claimed that the dam project had not the necessary
environmental authorization to start construction and is planned
to be built within the indigenous reserve of Raposa do Sol.
According to FUNAI there were many children, women and old people
amongst the 400 indians expelled. In a note sent to the press in
Manaus the indians claim that if the dam is built it will flood
their crops, exterminate the fish and encourage invaders to plant
large areas of soy beans in their territory.
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