COURT ACQUITS MAN WHO HIRED GUNMEN TO MASSACRE THE TIKUNA AND REDUCES SENTENCE OF THE PERPETRATORS OF THE CRIME

 

The federal court of appeals acquitted the timber mill owner Oscar de Almeida Castelo Branco, who had been sentenced in 2001 as the person who hired gunmen to carry out the genocide of the Tikuna indigenous people in the state of Amazonas in 1988. The sentence of five other convicts of the genocide was reduced from 15-25 years to 12 years in prison and the reduction was unanimously extended to the other defendants who did not appeal against their sentence or gave up their appeals.

            The decision was made by the 3rd Panel of Judges of the Regional Federal Court (TRF) of the 1st. Region, which is responsible for the state of Amazonas, on October 27.  

            The massacre of the Tikuna people, also known as the Helmet Massacre, took place in March 1988 in the municipality of Benjamin Constant, in the Alto Solimões region, in a remote area in the state of Amazonas. On that occasion, four people died on the spot, nineteen were wounded, and ten disappeared in the Solimões river.

            Funai had begun to demarcate the Tikuna land, giving rise to reactions from local squatters. The indigenous people were gathered in an assembly and were unarmed when they were attacked.

            The crime was dealt with as a homicide up to 1994, when an appeal filed by the Federal Prosecution Service led it to be judged as a genocide since then.

            Thirteen years after the massacre, which took place on 18 May 2001, Oscar Castelo Branco was convicted as the person who hired gunmen to carry out the crime by the First Federal Court in Manaus through a sentence issued by judge Jaíza Maria Pinto Fraxe. Castelo Branco had been in prison since 1999. There were 14 other defendants, 13 of whom were sentenced to 15-25 years in prison.

            The massacre of the Tikuna was the second case in connection with which people were convicted of genocide in Brazil. 

            According to the coordinator of the North 1 regional office of Cimi, Francisco Loebens, “the provocation and threats, which the Tikuna indigenous people in the Alto Solimões region continued to suffer even after the massacre, will increase. This decision of the TRF is a step towards impunity and brought a feeling of uneasiness to indigenous peoples.”

           

 

STF SUSPENDS DECISIONS OF THE FEDERAL COURT OF RORAIMA ON THE RAPOSA/SERRA DO SOL LAND

 

The chief justice of the Supreme Court, Carlos Ayres Britto, suspended three repossession injunctions granted after possessory actions were filed with a federal court in Roraima. The decision was made at the request of the Federal Prosecution Service (MPF) and the National Indigenous Foundation (Funai).

            The preliminary orders were aimed at removing indigenous peoples from the São Francisco, Jawari and Raposa/Serra do Sol communities at the request of rice farmers who invaded the land, and they were supposed to be executed as of October 29. After they were suspended, on October 28, the indigenous people were allowed to stay in the communities. 

            The decision of Carlos Ayres Britto is similar to another one made by the chief justice which suspended the proceedings of a class action until a definition is reached as to what jurisdiction of the judiciary branch has the competence to make decisions about the official confirmation of the bounds of the Raposa/ Serra do Sol land. This Class Action exists since 1999, but it was resumed in 2004, when Senator Mozarildo Cavalcante was included amongst its proponents. The Action is against the official confirmation of the bounds of the land as a continuous strip and it gave rise to the legal hindrances which prevent the official confirmation of the bounds of the Raposa/Serra do Sol land today. 

           The final decision on the jurisdiction to judge cases involving this indigenous land will only be made after the subject is voted on by the judges of the Supreme Court (STF). The validity of the decisions made by the federal court of Roraima is being challenged based on a lawsuit filed by the Federal Prosecution Service with the Supreme Court in the form of a Complaint, a proceeding designed to preserve the competence of the Supreme Federal Court.

            The Federal Prosecution Service argues that there is conflict of interests between the Federal Administration and the State of Roraima and, for this reason, the Supreme Court should be responsible for making decisions on the subject. The arguments refer to the class action which was preliminarily accepted by the federal court of Roraima in 2004, according to which the assets of the State of Roraima would be harmed if the indigenous land is demarcated as a continuous strip.

 

Brasília, 4 November 2004