– Belo Monte Hydroelectric Power Plant: Judge revokes court order that had suspended work

– Land, development and culture are the themes at the sixth Xukuru assembly

 

BELO MONTE HYDROELECTRIC POWER PLANT: JUDGE REVOKES COURT ORDER THAT HAD SUSPENDED WORK

 

The federal judge of the Altamira Subsection, Herculano Martins Nacif, revoked the court order which had temporarily prevented studies, public hearings and other necessary work for constructing the Belo Monte Hydroelectric Power Plant, on the Xingu River, in the West of the state of Pará, from being carried out. The Public Prosecutor’s Office (MPF) is going to appeal against this decision in the Federal Regional Court, in Brasília.

 

This work has been paralyzed since March 2005, when the judge Antônio Carlos Campelo, who was substituting Nacif, complied with the request in a Public Civil Action filed by the Federal Prosecutor’s Office. According to this Action, the law which allows the advance studies for the construction to be undertaken does not respect the Federal Constitution, because it was approved without consulting the indigenous communities from the Xikrin, Arara and Juruna villages, amongst others, who will all be affected.

 

In April, the Cimi team in Altamira visited some of the communities that may be affected. They questioned the fact that they had not heard about the construction work in their lands. The Xikrin and Arara villages have already approved a document opposing the project.

 

Several peoples will suffer as a result of intense drought or flooding if the power plant is built. There have been revelations that indigenous leaders in the region have been co-opted, with offers of food baskets and building materials to make them support the project. These accusations have been forwarded to the Federal Prosecutor’s Office.

 

 

Land, development and culture are THE THEMES at the sixth Xukuru assembly

 

The sixth annual assembly of the Xukuru people, with the theme “Land: Thinking about our Development and Cultivating our Local Culture” started yesterday, 17 May. Amongst the items on the agenda are the ways of managing territories, debates on how to secure and consolidate projects that encourage production in the territory without affecting the people’s identity, and assessments of the Xukuru political situation.

 

The Xukuru chief, Marcos Luidson, says that his people already has small projects to stimulate family farming and that, as a result of the community’s work with organic production, a weekly fair has been established for products grown by the indigenous people in the city of Pesqueira, where the Xukuru land is situated. “We need projects, but we have to do this without losing our people’s identity,” the chief pondered.

 

The resumption of compensation payments to enable non-indigenous occupants that still live in the Xukuru territory, which was ratified in 2001, to leave, must be the assembly’s main demand to make of the authorities. 

 

This year’s meeting began by evaluating the results of the 2005 assembly. One of these was the setting up of leaders’, health and education councils. “We have evaluated internally how these councils work. The health council, for example, included promoting meetings between Indigenous Healthcare Workers, stimulating work with traditional medicine, and accompanying advisors in this subject,” said the chief, Marcos. He also said that the presence of the leaders in the communities was also evaluated.

 

The assembly will close on Saturday, May 20, after three days of debates, with a march from the village to the city of Pesqueira, where there will be a public act at the place where, seven years ago, ranchers had the leader Xicão Xukuru murdered as a reprisal for the people’s struggle for its land.  The Xukuru believe that the leader Xicão has been planted and that new fruit will arise from the land and other warriors will fight for the survival of the people.

 

 

Brasília, 18 May 2005