CHAMBER OF DEPUTIES WILL ANALYZE BILLS AS A GROUP, GUARANTEES SEVERINO CAVALCANTI

 

The president of the Chamber of Deputies, Severino Cavalcanti (Progessive Party – state of Pernambuco), has promised to set up a commission to analyze the Bills and Proposed Constitutional Amendments relating to indigenous rights, which are being analyzed by the Chamber of Deputies as a group. Cavalcanti also committed himself to putting the Indigenous People’s Statute, which has been making its way through this house for more than 10 years, to the vote.

 

More than 70 bills concerning indigenous people are under analysis at the Chamber. In the opinion of Deputy Carlos Abicalil (PT-MT), a commission could guarantee that the bills would be analyzed “coherently, respecting the rights recognized by the Constitution”.

 

The bill containing the Indigenous People’s Statute was presented by the then deputy and current senator Aloizio Mercadante (PT-SP) and it has already passed through all the commissions which need to approve it before it is voted in the plenary session of the Chamber. In the view of Deputy Eduardo Valverde (PT-RO), the Bill is not expected to be heard before June. “Failure to pass the Statute will provoke conflicts, such as those which involved the Cinta-Larga and the miners, in Rondônia; land rights conflicts and the collapse of public policies,” he said.

 

The hearing was booked in response to petitions from the Parliamentary Front during the time of the Terra Livre (Free Land) Mobilization in April. The Deputies Carlos Abicalil and Eduardo Valverde, the Senators’ aides Fátima Cleide and Sibá Machado, plus the Coordination of the Indigenous Organizations of the Brazilian Amazon (Coiab), the Association of Indigenous Peoples of the Northeast, Minas Gerais and Espírito Santo (Apoinme), the National Foundation for Indigenous People (Funai) and Cimi were at the meeting.

 

In Cimi’s opinion, the most important result to come out of the meeting was the commitment assumed by the president of the Chamber to set up a commission which will analyze the bills as a group, thus avoiding the loss of indigenous rights. Even though Bill No. PL 2,057/91, which proposes a new statute for indigenous people, is well on its way through the Chamber, it needs bringing up to date after 11 years of paralysis in it.

 

ASSASSINATION OF INDIGENOUS PERSON IN MARANHÃO CAUSES GUAJAJARA TO REACT

 

The indigenous man José Araújo Guajajara, aged 70, was shot to death in the Bacurizinho indigenous land, located in the municipality of Grajaú, state of Maranhão, on May 21. His 28-year-old son was injured and is in hospital in the municipality of Imperatriz. The assassination took place after threats from a farmer.

 

The farmer is under arrest in the city of Barra do Cordas. However, his children, who also took part in the crime, are still on the run.

 

The threats against the indigenous people had already been reported to the National Indigenous Foundation. Five days before the assassination, on May 16, the indigenous people reported them to the head of the local Funai office and asked for measures to be taken to prevent the worsening of the conflict.

 

After the assassination of José Araújo Guajajara, the indigenous people set fire to a bridge that joined two villages and destroyed the ovens of charcoal works that were within their lands. According to the regional Cimi Office in Maranhão, the indigenous people have not confirmed the information published in the press, according to which they had been pillaging. 

 

The Bacurizinho indigenous land occupies a ratified area of 82,434 hectares. In 2001, the Guajajara issued a request for a boundary review and the Working Group formed by Funai certified that, anthropologically speaking, this people had the right to a further 62,000 hectares. However, the Working Group’s report has never been published, which has meant that administrative proceedings to recognize the lands to have come to a halt. The rancher that attacked the indigenous people has been occupying the recognized land since 2001.

 

”Unlike what has been announced in the local and national media, it is not the indigenous people who are a threat to the region. They feel threatened by the farmer’s actions,” the Cimi coordinator in Maranhão, Rosimeire Diniz, said.

 

According to Cimi’s information, the indigenous people have requested Funai’s presence in their lands, so that this institution can give its position about the publication of the boundary review report and, consequently, enable the lands to be demarcated.

 

Brasília, 25 May 2005.

 

Cimi  – Indianist Missionary Council