DS-01-09-96 2245
a0773 brazil-indians
AM-Brazil-Indians,0371
Brazil to Review Concession of Indian Lands
By ANY CABRERA
Associated Press Writer
BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) _ In a decision activists called a major
setback for Brazil's native Indians, the government ruled Tuesday
that non-Indians can lay claim to land slated to become
reservations.
President Fernando Henrique Cardoso revoked a 1991 decree that
had given broad powers to the government's Indian Affairs Bureau,
known as FUNAI. Under that decree, non-Indians were not allowed to
appeal the bureau's decisions to award land to tribes.
The Justice Ministry said that FUNAI had set aside land for
reservations based on erroneous calculations of the Indian
population and without respect for landowners.
The president's decision won't affect the some 200 reservations
established since 1991, including a 37,000-square-mile area in the
northern Amazon for the Yanomami tribe.
But 307 reservations will be subject to review.
Those reservations had been demarcated by FUNAI and were
awaiting congressional approval. Now, non-Indians who also claim
the land have 90 days to appeal the demarcation to Congress,
presidential spokesman Sergio Amaral said.
Brazil's constitution says the government must grant Indians
land for their survival. But the Indians do not own the land and
therefore cannot rent or sell it.
To soften the blow, the government ratified 16 new reservations
covering a total of 14,522 square miles.
Still, Indian rights activists said the government had betrayed
the tribes it pledged to defend.
"The government caved in to the pressure of powerful economic
groups," said Filisberto Damasceno, a spokesman for the Indigenous
Missionary Council, linked to the Catholic Church. "The decree
will benefit only big landholders and gold miners."
About 300,000 native Indians live in Brazil, down from an
estimated 1 million in 1900. Most live in the Amazon jungle, which
covers 60 percent of the country.
In the 1980s, the discovery of large gold deposits drew tens of
thousands of illegal prospectors to native Indian lands. The miners
destroyed forest, polluted rivers and spread diseases fatal to
Indians.
AP-DS-01-09-96 2245EST