Once more indigenous receive death threats in Raposa Serra do Sol

 

Two indigenous youngsters were kidnapped and threatened to death by

farmworkers of the Fazenda Depósito owned by Paulo César Quartiero, the

leader of the rice farmers that resist the demarcation of Raposa Serra do

Sol.

 

Clenildo Conceição André and Cassiano Filho were taken by surprise when,

close to the village of Dez Irmãos, two drunk and armed employees of

Quartiero forced them to enter their car.

It is the same area where a group of indigenous was attacked with gunfire

and home-made bombs on the 5th of May, leaving ten of them hurt.

 

“While driving, revolver in hand, one of them asked whether the boys wanted

to die, of they were in favor of Quartiero, or if they were linked to the

indigenous of the Indigenous Council of Roraima (CIR). They forced them to

drink cachaça, even when they indicated they didn’t want to”, according to

the report sent by the Indigenous Community of Barro to the regional

Funai-administrator.

 

Scared, the two boys rejected the accusations and drank the booze. “Because

he didn’t believe them, one of the aggressors ordered the other to kill them

immediately”, the document recounts. However, they were so drunk that the

two boys managed to escape from the car when the driver stopped to talk to

someone in the street.

 

The report was also sent to the coordinator of the  Federal police in charge

of the desoccupation of the indigenous area of Raposa Serra do Sol. However

“Not the Funai nor the Federal Police reacted. The aggressors remain free,

threatening the indigenous in the region”, confirms Dionito Makuxi,

coordinator of the CIR.

 

 

History

The communities of Raposa Serra do Sol have constantly been victim of

aggressions and threats over the years by employees of Paulo César

Quartiero, who owns a vast rice farm in the area that has been demarcated as

indigenous land in 2005. Only this year, they destroyed bridges giving

access to the indigenous villages, they threw home-made bombs and shot

aleatory in various villages, they mounted barricades, burned houses and

held indigenous hostage. About 11.000 children of the 200 schools in the

area were inhibited to go to class because of these attacks. The 5th of May,

employees of the Fazenda Depósito attacked a group of indigenous that were

building barracks, throwing bombs and shooting, hitting ten of them.

 

Brasília, July 10, 2008.

Cimi – Conselho Indigenista Missionário