Suicides among the Guarani Kaiowa, which have been occurring for
the past ten years, were the main subject discussed at the Assembly of
the Aty Guassu Organization this month in the state of Mato Grosso do
Sul. The Assembly brought together shamans, Indian leaders and chiefs
from 22 villages to try to find out what led 22 Indians to commit
suicide this year. The figures are scary. The World Health
Organization (WHO) considers that the estimate of over one case in
each 10,000 a year is abnormal. According to FUNAI, 161 suicides, most
of which committed by young Indians, were registered among the Guarani
Kaiowa from 1985 until May of this year.
Although not all answers are available, extreme poverty, the
gradual loss of traditional religious practices and, above all, the
lack of land are factors directly linked to the causes of the
suicides. That was what Indian Araldo Veron, 22, who once tried to
commit suicide, made clear at the Assembly. Veron, who lives in the
Dourados village, said that he shares crops with his father and two
other brothers in a three-hectare area. The villages of Dourados, with
8,900 Indians squeezed in 3,530 hectares, and Caarapor, with 2,346
Indians in 3,584 hectares, are the most affected ones.
At the close of the Assembly, the Guarani decided that they will
not allow FUNAI to send anthropologists to the area to study the case
anymore if the agency is not willing to tackle the issue of poverty
and the lack of land.
CNBB OPTS FOR NEW LINE OF ACTION
KRAUTLER ASSUMES MISSIONARY LINE
In his first interview as president of the National Conference of
Bishops of Brazil (CNBB), Dom Lucas Moreira Neves said that he is
against all forms of oppression. The interview was held at CNBBs 33rd
Assembly, which took place on May 10-19 in Itaici, state of Sao Paulo.
In a statement which had broad repercussions in the press, Dom
Aparecido Jose Dias pointed out the lack of concrete measures on the
part of the Brazilian government to ensure Indian rights and declared
that the government only acts in practice when conflicts become so
fierce that solutions to certain issues cannot be postponed any
longer.
D. Aparecido denounced the fact that the demarcation of areas
traditionally occupied by Indians has been virtually interrupted and
declared that the Fernando Henrique Cardoso administration has not
signed any governmental decree to ensure the demarcation of Indian
lands.
In addition to addressing the change of leadership, the Assembly
discussed new guidelines to be followed by Brazilian bishops in the
next four years and selected the new members of the Episcopal Pastoral
Commission. The selection of the ex-president of CIMI, D. Erwin
Krautler, for the missionary line was a positive development and one
that shows that the action of the Church in relation to Indian peoples
in Brazil will preserve the goal of fully ensuring the rights of those
peoples.
Brasilia, May 25, 1995
Indianist Missionary Council - CIMI