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RIGHTS-BRAZIL:
No End to Violence Against
Indigenous People
Mario
Osava
RIO DE JANEIRO, (IPS) -
Killings of indigenous leaders
in Brazil that have largely gone
unpunished, a rise in suicide
rates among the Guaraní ethnic
group, and the slow pace at
which the official demarcation
of indigenous reserves is moving
ahead raise concerns about the
future of Brazil's Indians,
warns a new Amnesty
International report.
The report ”Foreigners in Our
Own Country”, released Wednesday
by the London-based human rights
watchdog, mentions several cases
involving human rights
violations, which it says
”threaten the survival” of
Brazil's indigenous peoples.
President Luiz Inácio Lula da
Silva's January 2003
inauguration awakened hopes of
change in government policy,
because the now-governing
leftist Workers Party had
pledged to place high priority
on coming up with solutions to
the problems facing the
country's roughly 400,000
indigenous people and redressing
errors of the past.
But the Amnesty report
highlights the frustration that
has followed, which was
expressed in no uncertain terms
a month ago by the Catholic
Church-affiliated Indigenist
Missionary Council (CIMI).
The government ”finally left
aside its misleading discourse
in which it depicted itself as
an ally of the indigenous cause,
to reveal its true face as an
instrument of its most powerful
and lethal enemies,” the CIMI
leadership stated in a
communiqué.
On Jan. 13, 2003, just two weeks
after the Lula administration
took office, Marcos Verón, a
Guaraní-Kaiowá tribal leader,
was beaten to death in front of
his family when he resisted
being thrown off the land where
his people have traditionally
lived in the west-central state
of Mato Grosso do Sul, the
Amnesty report recalls.
Since the government took
office, the number of murders of
indigenous leaders has grown to
63, according to CIMI.
That amounts to double the
annual average in the previous
two years, which stood at 14
killings a year, Saulo Feitosa,
vice-president of CIMI, told IPS.
In the past, most of the
violence targeting indigenous
people came from agents of the
state, whereas now it mainly
comes from the ”private sector,”
he said.
In his view, the attacks have
been stepped up because the
”retrograde forces imagine that
the Indians now have more
support from the government” and
are thus reacting more
aggressively.
But while indigenous people are
not enjoying the ”supposed
benefits” brought by the new
government, they are suffering
negative effects, as the land
conflicts have gotten worse, he
said.
Besides the killings, there have
been attempts on the lives of
indigenous leaders, like the one
against Marcos Xukurú, a leader
of the Xukurú people in the
northeastern state of Pernambuco.
Although he survived, the two
people with him were killed.
Marcos' father, Chicao Xukurú,
was slain in 1998.
Among the violent incidents
cited by the report is a 1988
massacre of 14 members of the
Tikuna ethnic group, including
six children, on their land in
the municipality of Sao Leopoldo
in the northern state of
Amazonas.
Although the perpetrators were
tried and convicted, they got
off with light sentences, which
were further shortened later.
The invasion of indigenous
territories by gold miners,
loggers and colonist farmers lie
at the core of many of the land
disputes in which indigenous
people are the targets of
violence.
In April of last year, the Cinta
Larga community killed 39 miners
prospecting for diamonds on
indigenous land. The following
month, a Cinta Larga was shot to
death, in an apparent act of
revenge.
But it is the desperate
situation of the Guaraní people
in the state of Mato Grosso do
Sul that has most deeply shaken
the country in recent months.
Large numbers of children are
dying of malnutrition, and
suicide is becoming alarmingly
frequent among the community's
youth.
Between January 2001 and July
2003, the National Health
Foundation, a government agency,
recorded 132 suicides in the
Guaraní population. This figure
reflected a sharp rise, given
that a total of 305 suicides had
been reported in the entire
period between 1986 and 1999.
Feitosa maintained the tragedies
of chronic hunger and suicide
stem from the lack of access to
land. Restoring the Guaraní
people's ancestral territory ”is
crucial for their physical and
cultural survival,” he said.
The Amnesty report calls on the
Brazilian government to ”give
urgent priority to setting out
clear policies and specific
strategies for tackling the
persistent human rights issues
and land problems that affect
Brazil's indigenous population,”
as it has promised to do in the
past.
These should be developed in
consultation with the indigenous
movement, with special emphasis
on a review of the structure,
resources and functions of the
National Indigenous Foundation (FUNAI),
the government agency
responsible for protecting the
country's aboriginal population.
Other specific recommendations
include ending the impunity for
acts of violence against
indigenous communities, more
fully ensuring their protection
and safety, and resolving
outstanding indigenous land
claims.
Feitosa noted that the Amnesty
report effectively highlights
numerous well-known violations
of indigenous rights and
proposes useful measures to
correct the situation. Some of
the cases involve problems that
date back many decades, and the
situations reported vary
considerably, but they all share
”a common factor, the inability
of the government to solve these
problems,” he concluded.
In response to the Amnesty
report, FUNAI issued a statement
saying the government's policy
towards indigenous people is
based on ”respect for
differences and harmony between
the ethnic groups” that make up
the population of Brazil.
In the Lula administration's
first two years in office, 48
indigenous reserves have been
officially demarcated, covering
a total of 16.5 million
hectares, and another 43,
comprising 2.8 million hectares,
are awaiting formal approval.
Brazil's indigenous people now
have 480 reserves that have
either been formally demarcated
or are at some stage of the
process. These areas cover 11
percent of the national
territory.
FUNAI acknowledges that infant
mortality is higher among
indigenous people than among the
population at large. But the
number of indigenous people has
also grown at a faster rate than
the average national population
growth, from around 120,000
native people in 1955 to 430,000
today.
Two Guaraní territories have
been officially demarcated since
October, which contributed to
coming up with solutions to high
levels of malnutrition and
suicides, says the FUNAI
statement.
In addition, the number of
primary and secondary schools
for teaching the country's
150,000 indigenous school-age
children has expanded.
Furthermore, political
participation by indigenous
people has increased, with the
election of six mayors and more
than 100 city councillors from
indigenous groups in the 2004
elections, adds FUNAI.
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