– Indigenous people of Brazil and activists block roads of the Procter&Gamble transnational company in Germany

– Xakriabá people reoccupies land in the north region of the state of Minas Gerais

 

Indigenous people of Brazil and activists block roads of the Procter&Gamble transnational company in Germany

 

Two indigenous people and about 20 activists of the German NGO Robin Wood have been blocking the entrance to the factory of the Procter&Gamble transnational company since the morning of today, May 4, in the city of Neuss, Germany.

 

The transnational company buys cellulose from Aracruz, a company that invaded the lands of the Tupinikim and Guarani indigenous peoples in Brazil, and produces the Time paper handkerchiefs, a very well known brand in Europe, with the raw material.

 

“Our noses are full,” says a banner placed at the entrance to the Procter& Gamble factory. The expression, in Europe, means “we are fed up, pissed off.”

 

At 11:00 a.m. (7:00 a.m. in Brazil),  Paulo Henrique Vicente de Oliveira, a Tupinikim indigenous person from the Caieira Velha village, and Wera Kwaray, a Guarani indigenous person from the Boa Esperança village and 20 activists blocked three roads leading to the factory. The trucks of the company are waiting in a parking lot on the other side of the street. Four police cars are there too.

 

“People in Germany should know that we, the Tupinikim and Guarani, were brutally expelled from our land because of the raw material that is used to manufacture the Time handkerchief,” says the Tupinikim Paulo Henrique Vicente de Oliveira, coordinator of the second larger indigenous organization in Brazil, Apoinme. “Procter&Gamble is also responsible for the fact that the Aracruz company stole our lands, destroyed our forests, and poisoned our rivers with chemical products,” says Wera Kwaray, chief of the Boa Esperança Guarani village. “The Aracruz company causes a negative impact on our culture.”

 

The demonstration was organized by the NGO Robin Wood, an environmentalist organization which is worried with the situation in the state of Espírito Santo, where the Tupinikim and Guarani were expelled from their lands by the Aracruz company, which through political pressures and relying on an unconstitutional agreement led Brazilian government officials to homologate their indigenous land with the smallest size proposed in anthropological studies carried out with a view to demarcating the land.

 

The two indigenous people are in Germany to press the factory to force Aracruz Cellulose to return 11,009 hectares of indigenous land it has occupied in the state of Espírito Santo. They will deliver a statement to Procter&Gamble in which they demand that all contracts with Aracruz be cancelled for as long as the company does not settle its land conflicts with indigenous people, landless rural workers, and descendants of runaway slaves.

 

Polls carried out by Robin Wood show that the cellulose planted by Aracruz is used to manufacture “Time” paper handkerchiefs and Charmin and Bess toilet paper produced by the transnational company Procter & Gamble (P&G).

 

About the invasion of indigenous lands by Aracruz

Aracruz Cellulose, the main producer of bleached cellulose in the world, deforested sections of the Atlantic Forest in Brazil to plant eucalyptus. According to the company itself, it has 247,000 hectares of eucalyptus plantations. During the Brazilian military dictatorship, the company expelled native communities from their lands to develop the plantations.

 

To this day, Aracruz refuses to return 11,000 hectares it invaded in the state of Espírito Santo to the Tupinikim and Guarni resorting to violence and legal stratagems. Funai has already declared that the indigenous people are the legitimate owners of these lands. In January of this year, the conflict escalated. Armed troops entered the Córrego de Ouro and Olho de Água villages supported by Aracruz, and shot indigenous people using rubber bullets and chased others who were trying to flee with their belongings. During the police attack, Paulo Tupinikim broke his arm.

 

The fight for the Tupinikim and Guarani land is not the only one faced by Aracruz. Last week, 200 landless families occupied 8,700 hectares of Aracruz Cellulose next to the industrial complex of the company in Espírito Santo. They accuse the company of having occupied vacant lands illegally. Communities of descendants of runaway slaves are also demanding that the Aracruz company returns to them dozens of thousands of hectares which were stolen from them.

 

See the history of disputes between indigenous people and Aracruz here

 

 

Xakriabá people reoccupies land in the north region of the state of Minas Gerais

 

Approximately 35 families of the Xakriabá people reoccupied part of their traditional territory last Tuesday, May 2. The group, which since 2000 has been fighting for this portion of its land to be demarcated, was living in an urban area in the municipality of São João das Missões in the north region of the state of Minas Gerais, about 750 km from Belo Horizonte, the capital city. According to chief Santo Caetano Barbosa, the situation in the region is calm, despite the reaction from farmers who were occupying the area which was reoccupied by the indigenous people.

 

The indigenous people will have a meeting today with the regional manager of Funai, Waldemar Krenak. “We want safety and the right to remain in our land. Funai has to reconsider its decisions, because we are here to stay,” the chief said.

 

A preliminary report drawn up on the Krenak land – suggesting that the traditional land should be demarcated – was rejected by Funai in 2005 under the argument that there was no record of any traditional indigenous presence in the area. The area claimed by the indigenous people, however, is not part of the portion of land that was set apart for the Xakriabá people in 1728 by Januário Cardoso, son of Matias Cardoso, one of the first explorers to enter the São Francisco River Valley.

 

The Xakriabá contested the rejection of the report by the Land Affairs Division of Funai, but got no response from it so far. The community is asking the authorities to carry out all the necessary procedures to demarcate and officially confirm the bounds of their lands urgently.

 

According to information provided by a Cimi team in the region, representatives of the regional office of Funai are expected to arrive in the area tomorrow.

 

Context

The land claimed today has approximately 7,000 hectares and is called the Morro Vermelho land. The region was invaded by squatters who threatened the indigenous people even before the reoccupation action carried out in the wee hours of today.

 

Today, part of the Xakriabá people live in two lands. One of them was registered with 46,400 hectares after demonstrations held in the 1980s and the other one was homologated with about 6,000 hectares in 2003. However, the land claimed by the indigenous people who were living in the city has not been fully identified yet. The area which these people are occupying now is equivalent to about one-third of the area set apart for them in 1728. The title deeds to non-indigenous people were issued in the mid 20th century.

 

Brasília, May 4, 2006

Cimi – Indianist Missionary Council