–  Solidarity with the Arara people of the Cachoeira Seca Land

– Groups visits indigenous people imprisoned in Mato Grosso do Sul. Eviction of the Passo Piraju community has been suspended

 

 

SOLIDARITY WITH THE ARARA PEOPLE OF THE CACHOEIRA SECA LAND

 

Thirty indigenous people, representing four peoples, participated in a meeting, held in Altamira, of peoples and entities from the region to offer the Arara people from Cachoeira Seca solidarity in their fight for the demarcation of their land, which runs the risk of being demarcated with the exclusion of traditionally occupied areas.

 

The Arara people, also known as the Ugorogmo, were contacted in 1980. The demarcation of their area has been dragging on since 1993, when it was declared. From 1996, countless legal contestations have paralyzed the demarcation process. In 2004, a new group was designated to carry out anthropological and land studies.

 

According to the Executive Administrator of Funai in Altamira, Benigno Marques, the anthropological report was carried out within the deadline, was ready in 2005 and is being analyzed by Funai. The environmental report still needs to be finished. 

 

“Where are we going to bring up our grandchildren?”, asked Kygy Arara, an elderly leader, speaking in the Ugorogmo language. He reported the state of concern relating to the land invasions and concluded that he is willing to defend his territory.

 

In the case of the Cachoeira Seca land, the present government has not only dealt with the demarcation process slowly, but is trying to convince the indigenous people to accept a reduction in their territory, by taking advantage of the people’s urgency to see their territory guaranteed.

 

The young Arara, Mobuodjo, who was present at the meeting, asked the Funai, Incra and Public Prosecutor’s Office representatives: “What can you do to solve the problems of the Arara from Cachoeira Seca, as quickly as possible?” He said that the elders are asking him for information that he doesn’t have.

 

The experience of other peoples who have been through similar situations was presented during the meeting. The Parakanã, from the Apyterewá land, warned that agreements to reduce the lands do not guarantee that the demarcation process will move quickly. They said that they had had their territory reduced in by a declaratory government order, after agreements, but that the demarcation process had still not been concluded.

 

Cimi, the CPT and the bishop of the Xingu, Dom Erwin Krautler, for the Prelature of the Xingu reaffirmed, in a joint statement, the need for urgency in concluding the demarcation process of this land, “in its entirety, with no reductions and with the removal of all the non-indigenous occupants”. The statement considers the need for the families of the farmers placed in the Cachoeira Seca land by the federal government to be resettled in another area and to receive compensation for the work they have done, as well as being reimbursed for the moral damages they suffered for having been settled in an indigenous land. It also asks for urgent action to be taken to prevent the continuous wave of invasions and the illegal timber trade.

 

Who are the Arara?

The Arara are a people who have only recently been contacted by non-indigenous society. In the 1940s, they were considered extinct but, in 1970, the non-indigenous paths reached the places where the Arara used to live, in isolation. During the 1980s, three groups of the people, numbering around 100 people were found. This contact, which took place during the construction of the Transamazonian Highway, brought the indigenous people such diseases as influenza and diarrhea, reducing the population even more. Only a few families survived and they started to dispute their right to live on their land with timber merchants, ranchers and land grabbers. Nowadays, hundreds of roads, used to transport timber, cross through the land of this people, who will be indirectly affected by the Belo Monte dam.

 

In 2003, Cimi carried out a campaign for the demarcation of the Cachoeira Seca Indigenous Land preparing a petition with 23,000 signatures which asked for the demarcation process to be carried out urgently, through a ministerial order, and which would enable the area to be joined to the Laranjal Indigenous Land. This petition was delivered to the Minister of Justice in June 2004, by the Arara themselves, who had, for the first time, left their settlement to go to Brasília.

 

 

GROUP VISITS INDIGENOUS PEOPLE IMPRISONED IN MATO GROSSO DO SUL. EVICTION OF THE PASSO PIRAJU COMMUNITY HAS BEEN SUSPENDED

 

A group from the Human Rights Defense Council (CDDPH) is in Mato Grosso do Sul to visit the indigenous people, who have been arrested and are accused of the death of two policemen, and the families of the victims. Yesterday, 10 May, the group visited the Harryac prison, where eight indigenous people are being held, and spoke to Carlito de Oliveira, chief of the Gurani-Kaiowá Community of Passo Piraju, the main person accused of the deaths.

 

Consisting of representatives from the Special Human Rights Department (SEDH), Funai, the Ministry for Social Development, and the Federal Public Defense Department, the group spoke to the imprisoned indigenous people for around two hours and confirmed that they are well, even though they have no clothes and shoes, and no mattresses to sleep on. The group also noticed that the cold weather in the region made not only the indigenous people’s situation worse, but also that of all the prisoners there, according to its press office. 

 

The group detected that the normal bureaucratic procedures covering prisoner visits, when applied to the indigenous people, prevented relatives from visiting the prisoners. “The group met with the judge responsible for the case and obtained a decision which will ease this process, so that the relatives of the indigenous people will be able to make visits”, said Ivair Augusto, advisor to the Special Human Rights Department (SEDH), who was part of the visiting group.

 

According to Augusto, the group’s two main worries concern the need for technical support for the indigenous people’s defense lawyers and for the urgent creation of a Technical Group to carry out an anthropological analysis in order to start the land demarcation process. Visits were also made to the community in Passo Piraju. A visit to the only woman who has been accused in the case, and who has also been detained, is programmed for today, 11 May.

 

Eviction suspended

Wednesday evening, 10 May, the appeal court judge Cotrim Guimarães, of the 3^rd Region of the Federal Regional Court in São Paulo (SP), suspended the court decision which decreed that the indigenous people were to be removed from the Passo Piraju indigenous land, located in the Porto Cambira region, in Dourados. The deadline for repossession was to expire today.

 

Brasília, 11 May 2006

Cimi – Indianist Missionary Council