URGENT ACTION: INDIGENOUS COUNCIL OF RORAIMA-CIR REQUESTS IMMEDIATE SUPPORT
FOR DEMARCATION OF RAPOSA/SERRA DO SOL
Potential Reduction of Raposa Serra do Sol Threatens Future of 177 Other
Indigenous Areas in Brazil and Violence in Area
By October 10th, Brazil's Justice Minster Nelson Jobim will take a critical
decision on the demarcation of the Raposa/Serra do Sol indigenous area of the
Macuxi, Wapixana, Ingariko and Taurepang Indians in Roraima state. It now
appears more than probable that he intends to substantially reduce the area. IF
MINISTER JOBIM REDUCES RAPOSA/SERRA DO SOL, SERIOUS VIOLENCE IN THE AREA WILL
FOLLOW AND THE FUTURE OF 177 OTHER INDIGENOUS AREAS WILL BE PUT AT GRAVE RISK
(see below). International public opinion has so far played an important role
as a counterweight to local political elites and economic interests who are
pushing for the reduction of indigenous lands. So far, no Indian lands have
been diminished under the new demarcation rules of Decree 1775. THIS IS THE
CRITICAL MOMENT. It is critically important that the Minister and President FHC
be made aware that environmentalists and indigenous rights organizations are
watching this decision and understand what is at issue.
Please read the EDF document and the Indigenous Council of Roraima (CIR) note
that follow and FAX or EMAIL Minister Jobim and President Fernando Henrique
Cardoso, requesting the immediate demarcation of the continuous Raposa/Serra do
Sol area, and expressing your concern over the consequences of a reduction.
Ilmo. Sr. Ilmo. Sr.
Fernando Henrique Cardoso Nelson Jobim
Presidente da Republica Ministro da Justica
Palacio do Planalto Esplanada dos Ministerios Bl. T
Brasilia DF 70160-900 Brasilia DF 70064-900
fax 55-61-2267566 fax 55-61-2242448
email: pr@cr-df.rnp.br email: njobim@ax.apc.org
For further information:
Steve Schwartzman Jose Adalberto
EDF CIR
202-387 3500 55-95-2245761 (telefax)
202-234-6049 (fax)
Ana Paula Souto Maior
CIR
55-95-2245761 (telefax) or
55-95-2246976 (alternate
fax for CIR)
The Raposa Serra do Sol Indigenous Area and Decree 1775: the fate of 177
indigenous areas in Brazil hangs in the balance
Environmental Defense Fund
Brasilia, 07/09/96
The dispute over the 1,678,000 hectare Raposa Serra do Sol indigenous area,
in Roraima state in the Brazilian Amazon threatens to roll back critical
legal protection for 177 indigenous areas in Brazil, covering 16.5 million
hectares. Loss of legal protection would have drastic consequences for
Brazil's indigenous minority, as well as opening some of the few previously
protected areas in the Amazon to predatory exploitation. The conflict may
also undermine the credibility of Brazilian government claims that revision
of Indian land demarcation procedures (Decree 1775) sought to make the
demarcation process more efficient, not, as critics argued, to reduce the
area legally recognized by the government as Indian lands.
Over the last thirty years, indigenous groups in Brazil have won legal
protection for more than 900,000 square kilometers of land, almost all in
the Amazon. Regional elites and logging, mining and agribusiness interests
have consistently attempted to halt or impede the demarcation process, as
well as invading already demarcated areas. When, last January, the
government revised demarcation procedures to give states, counties and
private claimants the right to contest and potentially reduce already
demarcated Indian lands, the measure was widely denounced by indigenous
organizations as a maneuver to trade away Indian land for Congressional
support for Fernando Henrique Cardoso's stalled economic reform program. The
government insisted that the me asure was merely intended to protect Indian
lands from legal challenge by safeguarding due process.
The demarcations of thirty-two areas were contested under Decree 1775, in
over 500 claims. Brazil's National Indian Foundation (FUNAI), duly rejected
all of the claims. By the law, the final decision rests with the Minister of
Justice, who in July rejected all but 8 claims. Among the most contentious
is Raposa Serra do Sol. Justice Minister Nelson Jobim will issue a final
decision on this area by October 10th. His decision will substantially
affect the future of Indian land yet to be demarcated.
Raposa Serra do Sol covers 1,678,000 hectares, and is inhabited by some
12,000 Macuxi, Wapixana, Ingariko and Taurepang Indians, on Brazil's border
with Guiana and Venezuela. The area includes mountain forest and tropical
savannah ecosystems. Parts of the area were invaded more than 20 years ago
by cattle ranchers who introduced alcohol and forced labor to the area, as
well as violently repressing Indian attempts at resistance. The situation
was exacerbated by invasions of gold and diamond miners particularly in the
1980s. The Indigenous Council of Roraima (CIR), founded in 1987, emerged
from arduous local initiatives in the Raposa/Serra do Sol area over the last
twenty years to combat alcohol abuse, resist the appropriation of
traditional Indian lands, and provide services to local communities, with
support from the Catholic Church. Ranchers reacted with threats,
intimidation, and violence, and the area has become the scene of constant
conflict. Both Military Police and private gunmen typically act at the
ranchers' request. CIR now represents a majority of the villages in the
area, and through CIR's work, local communities have reoccupied many areas
formerly controlled by the ranchers.
It was in consequence of CIR's work that FUNAI finally in 1993 carried out
the identification of the area, the first step in the official recognition
process. The technical report on the area was approved by FUNAI and has
been awaiting approval of the Ministry of Justice for the last three years.
FUNAI rejected all of the challenges to the area as lacking technical merit.
The Justice Minister surprisingly requested further information on the area,
citing the existence of a county near the boundaries of Raposa Serra do Sol.
Minister Jobim has stated that he will visit the area to hear the opinion of
the communities before reaching a decision, but repeatedly put off the
visit.
Delaying this decision has worsened already chronic violence and tension in
the area. On a brief visit to the area, I observed that one Macuxi received
death threats from a group of ten armed men, a village was patrolled by a
truck full of rancher's gunmen at night, and two cases of ranchers stealing
Indian cattle were reported, in the two days I passed in the reserve. The
CIR truck, when leaving the area, had to wait at a river crossing behind a
rancher's pickup, while a ranch hand pointedly took a pistol out of the
truck and fired into the air before moving off. This chronic intimidation,
threat of violence, harassment and intimidation has become gradually worse
since 1993 as the Ministry of Justice has refused to authorize the
demarcation. Invaders who had left the area are coming back. If the Minister
reduces the area, very serious violence is a foregone conclusion.
CIR and indigenous rights organizations in Brazil are gravely concerned with
these developments. It is well known in the region that since the
identification was carried out the state government has invested heavily in
dividing the indigenous communities along religious lines, furnishing goods
and services exclusively to villages with marked presence of evangelical
Protestants, and threatening to cut off support in the event of the
demarcation of a continuous area. Worse still is the Oct. 3 election for the
creation of a county in the area. The law that created the new municipality
is unconstitutional, in that indigenous lands are inalienable according to
Article 231 of the Constitution of 1988. A county seat cannot legally be
located on Indian land. The purpose of the election is to lend the
appearance of legitimacy to a land grab. The supposed county seat is in fact
a decaying relic of the gold boom.
There are thus strong indications that the Minister intends to reduce the
area. To do so would be to subvert the criteria of the Decree he himself
promulgated, since the technical report on which the boundaries of the area
is, according to the brief of the Federal Attorney General's Office, fully
in accordance with Constitutional requirements for indigenous land
demarcation.
What is at stake in the Raposa Serra do Sol case is nothing less than the
future of the 16.5 million hectares that await identification in Brazil. All
of these areas will be open to challenge under the decree. If the Minister
reduces Raposa/Serra do Sol it will be on political grounds and not
according to the technical criteria of Decree 1775, and once the political
interests of the privileged elite take precedence over the law, there will
be no going back. This indeed appears to be what the rumored deals in the
back halls of the Brazilian Congress are about: starting the process of
rolling back indigenous lands in Brazil.
Raposa/Serra do Sol Runs Risk of Reduction
The deadline established by Decree 1775 for Justice Minister Nelson Jobim to
present his decisions on the challenges to ongoing demarcations of
indigenous lands, including Raposa Serra do Sol in Roraima, was last July
10. Although the decree, written by the Minister himself, stipulates that
these decisions should be justified, Jobim determined that the Raposa/Serra
do Sol case and those of seven other areas return to FUNAI in order that
"new proceedings" be carried out without explaining the motives and
objectives of this decision. A note distributed by his staff mentioned that
the town of Normandia forms an enclave between the indigenous land and the
Guiana border. This indicates probable intent to review the boundaries
identified by FUNAI and sent to the Ministry of Justice more than three
years ago.
The minister has stated that he intends to visit Roraima and the indigenous
area before taking his decision with regard to the demarcation. But he
continues to delay this visit, while the decree establishes a limit of 90
days to do the new proceedings, which falls on October 10. It is unclear
whether or not the delay is related to the municipal elections to occur on
October 3.
The situation is aggravated by the fact that elections are planned to
establish the administrative center of a pseudo-municipality, recently
created without Constitutional basis, within the indigenous area, in a gold
boom town.
Last August 30, the President of FUNAI Julio Gaiger, at a seminar in Manaus,
affirmed that the anthropological report (laudo antropologico) that is the
basis of the demarcation procedure, although well done, was open to
question. The anthropological and legal documentation of the Raposa Serra
do Sol demarcation case is among the best. It is a matter of consensus that
this issue depends entirely on the will and political courage of the federal
government.
Considering the successive delays of the Minister's decision, and the
negative signals sent by the Minister of Justice and presidency of FUNAI,
the Indigenous Council of Roraima (CIR) manifests its extreme concern with
the risk that the Raposa Serra do Sol indigenous area be reduced by Minister
Jobim, and with the concrete fact of the intensification of conflicts
between Indians and invaders, since the latter are encouraged by the
procrastination, vacillation, and manipulation of facts with respect to the
demarcation on the part of the government. CIR will hold a demonstration on
September 16 in Boa Vista, Roraima and calls on all of the allies of the
indigenous peoples, within Brazil and internationally, to reinforce their
support for the demarcation of the entire Raposa/Serra do Sol Indigenous
Area, and to express their support for an immediate and just decision by the
Minister of Justice.
Boa Vista, September 5, 1996
Josi Adalberto
Vice-Coordinator, CIR