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EXTERNAL - EMBARGOED FOR 24 JANUARY
TARGETED TO BRAZIL MEDIA
BRAZIL: AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL FEARS FOR INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES~ SAFETY
AFTER BRAZILIAN DECREE ON INDIGENOUS LANDS
Amnesty International today warned that the safety of many
indigenous communities was being put at risk by a decree
which threatens current demarcations of indigenous lands.
~The latest decree is a recipe for tragedy. By throwing
the demarcation of over 344 indigenous lands into doubt, the
government has paved the way for the invasion of indigenous
lands. In the past this has resulted in massacres, selective
killings, abductions, threats and assaults on indigenous
people,~ said Amnesty International officials visiting the
Brazilian Embassy in London today to raise the organization~s
concerns.
Since the decree was passed, on 8 January 1996, several
new invasions of indigenous lands have been reported. In
the past unscrupulous local politicians and economic
interests in many states, often backed by state authorities,
have stimulated the invasion of indigenous lands by settlers,
miners and loggers, playing on any uncertainty about the
demarcation process. This has resulted in violent clashes
and killings. The authorities at all levels have
consistently failed to protect the fundamental human rights
of members of indigenous groups or bring those responsible
for such attacks to justice.
Whilst Amnesty International takes no position on land
disputes, the human rights organization has campaigned
against human rights abuses suffered by Brazil~s indigenous
communities in recent years from those coveting their lands
and the resources on them, who frequently act with official
acquiescence or collusion. Amnesty International has
repeatedly called on authorities at all levels to put an end
to the almost universal impunity for killings, assaults, and
threats to members of indigenous communities.
Partial figures indicate that, during the last five
years, at least 123 members of indigenous groups have been
murdered by members of the non-indigenous population in land
disputes. With few exceptions, no-one has been brought to
justice for such killings. For example, to date no-one has
been brought to trial for the massacre of 14 members of the
Ticuna tribe in Amazonas in 1988, and for the massacre of 14
members of the Yanomami village of Haximu on the
Brazil/Venezuelan border in 1993.
BACKGROUND
After in-depth field study, Amnesty International published a
report in 1993 (*) which concluded that indigenous groups
were most at risk when there was uncertainty about the
demarcation of their lands. At the time the organization
asserted that ~by failing to arbitrate promptly in disputes
between the indigenous and non-indigenous community the state
has left indigenous groups ever more vulnerable to escalating
violence against them.~
Amnesty International~s research has shown that isolated
indigenous groups are particularly vulnerable to such attack.
Among those isolated groups whose safety is further
jeopardised by the new decree are the Urue-wau-wau, Canoe,
Akunsu, Kassupa, and Jururei in Rondonia, and the Korubu in
Amazonas some of whom have already been the target of human
rights abuse.
In March 1995 Amnesty International~s Secretary General
Pierre Sane raised with the federal government in Brasilia
the need for safeguards for the physical integrity of
indigenous communities, and measures to combat impunity for
attacks on them. Ministry of Justice officials gave firm
commitments that the fundamental rights of indigenous people
guaranteed in Article 231 of the Constitution would not be
altered and that demarcated indigenous lands would not be
revised. However, under the new decree, even indigenous
lands that have reached the final stage of demarcation -
Presidential approval ( homologacao) - after a process which
has often cost lives, are now open to dispute and revision.
Under Brazil~s 1988 Constitution all of Brazil~s 544
indigenous areas were due to be demarcated, registered and
guaranteed by October 1993. 210 are now fully registered
and thus ostensibly secured against revision. However the
new decree puts some further 344 areas, including those
already demarcated, at risk of dispute and revision.
The National Forum for the Defence of Indigenous Rights - a
grouping of Brazilian indigenous communities and non-
governmental organizations - is petitioning the Attorney
General~s office to challenge the constitutionality of Decree
1.775/96 in the Supreme Court, arguing that it violates the
inalienable right of indigenous peoples to their traditional
lands, which is guaranteed in article 231 of the
Constitution.
(*) ~We Are the Land: Indigenous Peoples Struggle for their
Human Rights~
AI INDEX: AMR 19\32\92, January 1993.
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