About 60 indigenous people will attend an audience with representatives of Funai, Incra, Funasa, Ibama, the Federal Prosecution Service, and the ministries of Education, Environment and Justice next Friday, the 19th, at 9:00 a.m. at the Office of the Attorney General.

Half of the group came from Rondônia. The group includes representatives of 17 indigenous peoples who, among other important topics they intend to address during the Audience, will mention health care issues and the need to demarcate indigenous lands and remove invaders from them.

The indigenous peoples of Rondônia reported that no special health care is available to them in that state. During the Fernando Henrique Cardoso administration, health care services for indigenous people were outsourced through agreements entered into with an NGO and an indigenous organization. The agreements were cancelled early this year, and no public policy has replaced that model so far. The Indigenous Health Agents who provide health care services in indigenous villages complain that the contents of their training courses have been exactly the same in the last four years. Indigenous people are forced to leave their villages and go to larger cities for medical treatment, where they are referred The lack of special health care arrangements for indigenous people makes it impossible for them to communicate their needs to the doctors who receive them in those cities, since not all the indigenous people of Rondônia speak Portuguese.

According to them, the National Health Foundation (Funasa) refuses to treat indigenous people who don’t live in indigenous villages, that is, who live in cities, and also refuses to give them medicines when they manage to be seen by doctors of the Unified Health System (SUS).

Regarding their lands, some peoples of Rondônia want measures to be taken to initiate the recognition of their traditional territories, others are struggling to remove invaders from demarcated lands, and others want the bounds of their lands to be reviewed, since the demarcated areas have excluded traditional sites such as cemeteries and what they refer to as taquarais (sites where they extract raw materials to build their homes and produce handicraft).

The Tupari people will report that 4 dams were built in Rio Branco which affected the water flow rate of an important river as well as their fishing activities and transportation through it. “The river we use for transportation purposes is dry and the fish disappeared. The dams hold the water and release it without consulting indigenous people. The river banks were deforested for cattle to be raised and the poison used in coffee plantations contaminated the water,” indigenous leaders report.

The Pataxó Hã-Hã-Hãe and Tupinambá de Olivença (state of Bahia) peoples will attend the Audience. For 22 years, the Pataxó Hã-Hã-Hãe have been pressuring for an action for declaring title deeds null and void to be judged by the Supreme Federal Court. Their lands can only be demarcated and invading farmers removed from them after the court issues its final judgment in connection with that lawsuit.

The Tupinambá de Olivença are a resistant people, since they were considered extinct but managed to reorganize themselves and are now fighting for the recognition of their land.

The Javaé who live in the Bananal Island in the state of Tocantins will attend the audience to demand the official confirmation of the bounds of their traditional land, which has been demarcated already. The overlapping of the Araguaia National Park with indigenous lands prevents the conclusion of their recognition process and generates disputes between indigenous people and Ibama (Brazilian Institute for the Environment).

CONFERENCE WILL BRING TOGETHER 10,000 RURAL WORKERS, INDIGENOUS PEOPLE, AND MILITANTS OF SOCIAL MOVEMENTS IN BRASÍLIA

The “National Land and Water Conference: Land Reform, Democracy and Sustainable Development” will bring together 10,000 rural workers affected by dams, indigenous people, and militants of social movements on November 22-25 at the Nilson Nelson stadium in Brasília.

“We want to hear the wisdom coming from the people, from the forests, from semiarid regions, from riverine populations, from the cerrado (savanna), from all parts of Brazil. This is a responsible civil society aware of its prerogatives in the exercise of power and capacity to influence the public opinion,” says Dom Tomás Balduíno, president of the Land Pastoral Commission (CPT).

The ministers of Agrarian Development, Mines and Energy, Environment, and Civil House will be discussing different issues with leaders of Brazilian land-related movements during the Conference.

“In the land study to be discussed, we will see what is happening to the land, which is being used as a raw material for agribusiness activities that are destroying everything in the name of progress, of development, of the export model. This is detrimental to the land and society, to men and women who live off the land. The same problems exists in connection with the water, which has become private property,” criticizes Dom Tomás. Different dams – which account for 79% of the electricity generated in Brazil – have already expelled one million people from their lands and flooded 34,000 km2 of forest areas. They directly affect indigenous peoples throughout the country.

About 180 indigenous people will attend the Conference. “It will be the largest Conference of people linked to land-related movements in the history of our Country. It is a landmark in the history of the struggle of rural workers,” says João Paulo Rodrigues, leader of the Landless Movement (MST). “We want to show to society that the movements of rural workers have been unified and that different demonstrations and actions scheduled for next year will be as unified as those of farmers’ associations today. They joined efforts around agribusiness activities and we, the rural poor, will join efforts around what we defend, namely, life and the land.”

                                           Brasília, 18 de novembro de 2004