– Federal Court is competent to judge the Haximu genocide

 

Federal Court is competent to judge THE HAXIMU genocide

 

In a plenary session, the Supreme Federal Court (STF) reaffirmed that the crime known as the Haximu Massacre was a genocide and that the decision of a federal court to sentence miners to 19 years in prison for genocide in connection with other offenses, such as smuggling and illegal mining, is valid. It was a unanimous decision made during the judgment of Extraordinary Appeal (RE) 351487 today, the 3rd, in the morning by justices of the Supreme Court.

 

Genocide crimes are acts committed with the intention to destroy – fully or partially – national groups or ethnic, racial or religious groups. This crime is characterized by actions such as killing members of a group; causing serious physical or mental injuries to members of a group; intentionally subjecting a group to conditions that can lead to their total or partial physical destruction; adopting measures for preventing births within a group; forcing the transfer of children from a group.

 

The Supreme Court upheld a previous decision made by the Higher Court of Justice (STJ), which exactly five years ago reformed an understanding of the Federal Court of Appeals (TRF) of the 1st Region, which had annulled a sentence in the first instance, according to which there had been no genocide, but rather a crime against life which should be judged by the Jury Court of Boa Vista. The Yanomami who were killed included men, women, elderly people and children.

 

The extermination of 12 indigenous people resulted from an attack from miners against the Haximu community, which had fled to the forest after many conflicts in which two miners and four indigenous people had died already. In August 93, when most Yanomami were attending a party in another village, the miners, who were camped on the banks of one of the tributaries of the Orinoco river in Venezuela, and gunmen hired by them found the place were the 12 indigenous people were hiding and killed them. The group included five children aged from one to eight years old and two adolescents. The bodies were found riddled with revolver bullets, stabs, and many cuts. (prepared based on information provided by advisors to the Supreme Court).

 

Commitment – Two cases related to indigenous peoples were discussed by the Supreme Court in today’s session. They are the consequence of a commitment made by the chief justice of the court, Ellen Gracie, during a meeting held with indigenous leaders gathered at the Free Land Camp in April 2006, according to which she would give priority to judging cases involving interests of indigenous people in her court.

 

The other case discussed today was a competency conflict between federal courts and state courts to judge common crimes involving indigenous people. The majority of the justices of the Supreme Court voted in favor of denying competency to a federal court to judge a case of murder with indigenous victims and assaulters because, in their opinion, there was no connection between the crime and disputes over indigenous rights.

 

Kaingang are allowed to remain in the Morro do Osso park in the city of Porto Alegre

A federal court ruled that Kaingang families that live in the Morro do Osso Natural Park, located in the city of Porto Alegre, since 2004 can remain there until a repossession suit filed by the City Hall of the city is judged. On July 19, the 4th Panel of Judges of the Federal Court of Appeals of the 4th Region unanimously accepted an appeal filed by the Federal Prosecutor’s Office challenging the legal grounds of the repossession granted to the city hall. The legal grounds of the repossession suit must now be judged for the indigenous community to be allowed to remain in that park for good.

 

Regardless of these court decisions, it is up to the Executive Branch to request the setting up of a Working Group to identify the land and implement a policy to assist and protect the community. The Kaingang community filed a suit in 2004 requesting the demarcation of the 300-hectare area.

In April 2004, a group of Kaingang families that were living in the outskirts of Porto Alegre returned to the Morro do Osso Natural Park, which is located in a wealthy neighborhood of the capital of the state of Rio Grande do Sul. The Park was created in an area traditionally occupied by the Kaigang and even the City Hall disseminated tourist information in its website about the existence of archaeological sites and of an indigenous cemetery in it, thus characterizing it as an area traditionally occupied by indigenous people.

After the occupation action, the City Hall filed a repossession suit in June 2005 arguing that the presence of indigenous people in the area posed risks to the environmental and that it was a right of the population at large to enjoy the remaining vegetation of the Atlantic Forest found in the Park. When that lawsuit was filed, the judge of the Environmental and Land Affairs Court of Porto Alegre issued a preliminary order in favor of the municipality and determining the eviction of the indigenous people from the area. According to that decision, the Kaingang were supposed to be transferred to a 10-hectare area located in the metropolitan region of the city.

 

Real estate speculation

Although the City Hall had argued that it wanted to protect the natural reserves found in the Park, in the first days after they reoccupied the area, in 2004, the Kaingang saw that most areas set apart for environmental preservation purposes were being delimited and divided for building a luxury gated community, revealing the fallacy of the argument that the Kaingang should not be allowed to live in the park because it had been created to preserve the environment..

 

Brasília, August 3, 2006

Cimi – Indianist Missionary Council

www.cimi.org.br