COMMUNITIES OF THE RAPOSA/SERRA DO SOL LAND OCCUPY THE BANKS OF A RIVER TO PREVENT ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION CAUSED BY RICE FARMERS

Tired of waiting for a positived decision of the federal administration in relation to the official confirmation of the bounds of the Raposa/Serra do Sol indigenous land and concerned about the environmental degradation caused by rice farmers, the communities of the Raposa, Serras, Baixo Cotingo and Surumu lands decided to occupy the banks of the Jauari river in an area located at 180 kilometers from Boa Vista.

They began to occupy the area yesterday (the 30th) as a means to prevent rice farmers from continuing to cause environmental degradation in indigenous lands, a situation that has been repeatedly reported to the competent agencies but in relation to which the authorities, namely, Funai, the Public Prosecution Service, the Federal Police, and Ibama have done nothing.

Over 300 indigenous people from villages located in the Raposa/Serra do Sol land affected by the pollution of rivers caused by the excessive use of pesticides in irrigated rice crops are taking part in the action.

The largest rice farmer in the indigenous land, Paulo César Quartieiro, went to the area occupied by the indigenous people on the 29th to intimidate indigenous leaders when they were beginning to build houses/shelters at night on the banks of the river. After failing to intimidate them, he reported the situation to the Federal Police.

Despite all the positive expectations in relation to the official confirmation of the bounds of the Raposa/Serra do Sol indigenous land, the communities decided not to wait for the judgment of an appeal against a preliminary order issued by a federal court of Roraima, which was upheld by judge Selene Almeida, in order to exercise their constitutional rights.  The Federal Administration has suggested that it will confirm the bounds of the land if the preliminary order is rejected.

The delay to confirm the bounds of the Raposa/Serra do Sol land has allowed rice crops to be expanded and has caused irreparable damages to the environment and to the physical and cultural heritage of indigenous peoples. This situation can be attributed to the lack of concrete actions on the part of the Brazilian Government to ensure the territorial rights of indigenous people.

The Indigenous Council of Roraima will take measures to avoid the occurrence of conflicts between the communities which decided to occupy the area in question and grabbers of federal lands who destroy nature and violently attack indigenous peoples and their allies without being held accountable for their actions.

INVADERS OF THE CACHOEIRA SECA INDIGENOUS LAND HAVE PLANS TO PREVENT ITS DEMARCATION

Invaders of the Cachoeira Seca indigenous land, where the Arara people live in Uruará, state of Pará, have plans to prevent the demarcation of the area, which Funai began to carry out two weeks ago.

They will be staging a demonstration on Monday (the 5th) whose organizers expect approximately 800 people from the four municipalities bordering on the indigenous land to take part in.

According to Paulo Medeiros, from the local Rural Workers’ Union and a candidate for mayor in Uruará, after a plenary meeting on Monday they will be going to the place where the Funai teams are demarcating the area. “We will stop them. We will not accept the demarcation of this land.” Medeiros also said that the businesspersons and settlers who will participate in the demonstration will block the Transamazonica highway. “We are taking different measures and we will file a suit with a federal court to suspend the demarcation.”

He says that the indigenous people do not recognize that area as theirs. “They don’t want that land.”

According to Petronila Almeida, however, who is a Cimi missionary, the Arara people who live in the Cachoeira Seca land recognize it as their territory and are fighting to ensure their rights to it. “The struggle of this people is not recent, as they have been fighting for this area since 1993, when the administrative ruling authorizing the demarcation the land was issued. In 11 years, no measure had been taken by the competent agencies to demarcate it,” she said.

As evidence of this tireless struggle, Petronila recalled a visit of a delegation of the Arara people to Brasília on June 14-18, on which occasion they were granted several audiences with representatives of competent agencies to deal with the demarcation issue. “On the 16th, they officially delivered a signed petition to the minister of Justice with 23,000 signatures collected during a campaign for the demarcation of the Cachoeira Seca indigenous land,” she said.

Considering these facts, “any acts of violence which these people may suffer can be blamed on the federal agencies, which have been neglectful of their responsibilities in relation to people who have been contacted for the first time by our society only 16 years ago and are at a high risk of being exterminated and massacred if appropriate measures are not taken on an urgent basis,” the missionary concluded.

On the occasion of their visit to Brasília, the Arara people reported that as a result of the delay to demarcate the land, they have been constantly threatened and persecuted by its invaders. In 2000, a member of the Arara people was killed after trying to put an end to predatory fishing inside the area. Since then, they no longer leave their villages alone to hunt or fish for fear of the threats they have been receiving. “We only go out in groups because we are afraid to do it alone. If we are alone and a white man finds us in the forest and tries to kill one of us, who will save us?” said a leader of the Arara.

NEW VIRTUAL RESOURCES!!!

The Indianist Missionary Council is pleased to inform that it has a new space for fighting for the rights of indigenous people in the virtual world. In the same address (www.cimi.org.br), new media resources have been introduced, the website has been reorganized and a new look adopted for Cimi to continue to be a benchmark in reporting acts of violence against indigenous peoples and bringing together allies who support their cause.

For this reason, we expect to have a visit of all of you and would like to rely on your collaboration in disseminating the news.

Brasília, 1 July 2004.

Cimi – Indianist Missionary Council