RIO DE JANEIRO, Jan 24 (IPS) - The Brazilian government, army and
National Congress have quietly begun to reexamine a decree that
created the Yanomami indigenous reservation in northern Amazonia
three years ago.
Although the decree was greeted as one of the best initiatives
ever introduced by then-President Fernando Collor de Mello, the
reservation has caused many problems since then.
Covering an area of the size of Portugal along Brazil's border
with Venezuela, the reservation has aroused fears that the
indigenous residents will join Yanomami groups living across the
border to seek independent nation status.
An international conservation movement has already called for
the creation of an independent Yanomami state under the
protection of the United Nations or other international bodies,
using territory from both Brazil and Venezuela.
However, the implementation of such a plan is fraught with
problems, many due to large supplies of valuable wood and rich
mineral, petroleum and gas deposits in the area inhabited by the
Brazilian Yanomami.
These resources have made invasion by profiteers a constant
threat, as last year more than 100 illegal airstrips belonging to
wood and gold prospectors were destroyed.
Although the army had warned him of such complications, Collor
de Mello decided to create the reserve in 1991 to improve his
international image before the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio.
Suggested solutions include removing a strip of land along the
Venezuelan border for use as a protection zone patrolled by the
army, or using the Amazon satellite monitoring system to stop
mining and timber companies from invading indigenous territory.
Non-governmental organisations have already begun campaigns to
fight any reduction of Yanomami territory.
According to Democratic Labour deputy Miro Teixeira, the
government created the reserve in hopes that it would resolve the
Yanomami's problems, an expectation he denounced as ''an entirely
demagogic attitude.''
Teixeira will reopen parliamentary debate on the Yanomami
issue within the next three months, basing his arguments on army
research findings. (END/IPS/tra-so/ac-rb/dm/np/sm/jt/95)
Origin: San Jose/BRAZIL/
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