• Military Police accused of assaulting Guarani youth in Rio Grand do Sul


• Indigenous prepare proposal of Statute for the Indigenous Peoples

 

                                                                       *** 

 

MILITARY POLICE ACCUSED OF ASSAULTING GUARANI YOUTH IN RIO GRANDE DO SUL

 

Guarani Nelson Duarte, 15 years of age, affirms having been beaten by police of the Military Brigade of Rio Grande do Sul, after having been approached for no apparent reason, in the city of Barra do Ribiero, on the night of February 9. The denunciation was made to the Commission of Human Rights of the Legislative Assembly of Rio Grands do Sul (CDH) and to the Federal Public Ministry, which is accompanying the case.

 

At the time of the aggression, Nelson was returning to his home, in the village of Coxilha da Cruz. He says that the police stopped, without any apparent motive and began to beat him, with kicks to the body. They also tied the hand of the ypoung man to the wheel of the vehicle. Upon seeing the violence, a merchant went to the place where the police were, who left the indigenous and made a high speed departure in the vehicle.

 

The following day, Nelson, still badly frightened, was attended in a Porto Alegre hospital where the doctors identified diverse luxations on the body of the young man. The CDH has already requested a hearing with the secretary of security of the state to denounce the explicit action of prejudice by the Brigade, according to the legal assessor Patrícia Couto. She reports that the Military Brigade has already opened an investigation of the facts.

 

The leader Maurício Guarani, who accompanied Nelson, fears that there will be reprisals by police in the region of Barra do Ribeiro, due to the accusations. In July 2008, some Guarani families also suffered aggressions by the Military Brigade when they were dislodged from an encampment in Eldorado do Sul.

 

                                                                       ***

 

INDIGENOUS PREPARE PROPOSAL OF STATUTE FOR THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLES

 

From February 9 to 13 the members of the Comissão Nacional de Política Indigenista (CNPI) are meeting in Alezânia, Goiás, to systematize a proposal for the new Statute of the Indigenous Peoples, from the reports generated by 10 regional workshops that reunited circa 1000 indigenous [attendees] in 2008.

 

Divided into commissions, the indigenous and non-indigenous members of the CNPI rewrote the proposal for the text to the different themes regulated by the Statute (health, education, social assistance, exploration of hydro and mineral resources, indigenous lands…).

 

At the next meeting of the CNPI, in the second fortnight of March, the articles will be reassembled and in April the Statute proposal will be presented to the indigenous gathered for the Acampamento Terra Livre, in Brasilia. After being approved by the indigenous movement, the text will be conducted to the National Congress.

 

The legal process for the Statute of the Indigenous Peoples has been held up for 14 years in the Congress. Some resolutions of the Statute currently in force, promulgated in 1976, are witness to rights already won by indigenous peoples in the Federal Constitution of 1988.

 

Brasilia, 12 February of 2008

Cimi- Conselho Indigenista Missionario