Violence against indigenous peoples in Brazil denunciated in Geneva
The twenty-third session of the Working Group on Indigenous Populations (WGIP) will meet at the United Nations Office in Geneva from 18 to 22 July 2005. The main theme of this year’s session is “Indigenous peoples and the international and domestic protection of traditional knowledge”.
The Truká Indigenous people, Cimi (Indigenous Missionary Council) and Global Justice will denunciate in Geneva the increasing violence against indigenous peoples in Brazil. 18 Indigenous people have been murdered since the beginning of 2005.
Edilene Bezerra, a representative of the Truká, will be present in Geneva. The Truká live in the northeast of Brazil, in the state Pernambuco. The indigenous land measures 5.769 hectares; it is demarcated, but president Lula has not put his signature yet.
Edilene will talk about the increasing violence and the executions of two of her people by the Military Police last month. These denunciations in the international world are mend to put pressure on the national institutions, like the Federal Police and the judicial instances, to guarantee a fair process in these violence cases. In Brazil it is not unusual that the denunciations by social movements or poor people itself are not considered by the judicial institutions.
This happened, for example, with the denunciations of death threats the Guajajara were receiving, just before the assassination of the leader of the Guajajara. They went to the police, but the police did not do anything to protect the indigenous people, nor searched to inquire the denunciations. Another example happened in 2001, when two members of the Truká were murdered, probably with participation of the Military Police as well. The denunciations of the Truká before the assassinations were ignored by the police.
Four cases of violence between the end of May and the beginning of June:It started at May 21. An indigenous man, José Araújo Guajajara, 70 years, was shot death in the state of Maranhão, in the north of Brazil. His son of 28 years old was heavenly injured. The crime took place after threats of a farmer and shortly after the assassination the farmer was set to prison. But meanwhile he is already set free again. Seven more people where involved, among which two sons of the farmer. Against them the police has given an arrest warrant. But until today they have not been caught. One week later, May 26, another indigenous man was killed. This time the crime happened in Mato Grosso, a state in the east of Brazil. Indigenous people (Kaiowá Guarani) were returning to their land, which is occupied by farmers. Soon after the Kaiowá Guarani start building their huts, two pickup trucks with around thirty gunmen arrived. They start shooting at the group and Dorival Benitez was shot death. His brother Ari and two others were injured. Besides this the gunmen also pulled out of their truck Silvio and his wife Rosane, four months pregnant, start kicking and beating them and set the truck on fire. Until now nobody has been arrested. And on the 30th of June another sad fact could be added on this list of terror. Two Truká indigenous people were murdered in Pernambuco, the northeast of Brazil, and another one was injured. The victims are Adenilson dos Santos of 38 years and his son Jorge dos Santos of only 17 years. They were present at a party, which was going on after the visit of Minister Gomes of Funai, the Governmental Indigenous Council, at the indigenous land. According to sources military policemen were also present at the party. Adenilson was shot in his back.
It is important that the United Nations put pressure on the Brazilian Government to assure the physical and cultural integrity of the indigenous people who live in Brazil. And besides this the denunciations of Edilene Truká can be included in the reports of the United Nations that are published worldwide.
Brasília, 20th of July, 2005
CIMI, www.cimi.org.br
CIMI is an Missionary Indigenous Organization
that is already working more than 30 years with indigenous peoples in Brazil
For further information contact:
Geertje van der Pas
Tel +55 61 21061650
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