Brazil Police Shoot Indians – More Violence Feared 31st May

 

 

The Belo Monte occupation is the latest in a series of protests over the government’s failure to consult with the indigenous population.

Police in south­ern Brazil yes­ter­day killed a Ter­e­na Indi­an and wound­ed sev­er­al oth­ers while vio­lent­ly evict­ing them from their land. Mem­bers of the tribe had returned to live on part of their ances­tral ter­ri­to­ry cur­rent­ly occu­pied by a ranch­er who is also a local politi­cian.

Else­where in Brazil, an evic­tion order was served on Kayapó, Arara, Munduruku, Xipaya and Juruna Indi­ans occu­py­ing the con­tro­ver­sial Belo Monte dam site. Armed police have sur­round­ed the pro­test­ers and ten­sions are ris­ing amid fears that there will be sim­i­lar vio­lence.

Munduruku Indi­ans are also protest­ing con­struc­tion of a dam on the Tapa­jós riv­er. One Munduruku was shot dead when police invad­ed a com­mu­ni­ty last Novem­ber.

Pay­go­muy­at­pu Munduruku said, ‘The gov­ern­ment is prepar­ing a tragedy. We will not leave here. The gov­ern­ment has ignored us, offend­ed us, humil­i­at­ed us and assas­si­nat­ed us… They are killing us because we are against the dams.’

The Brazil­ian con­sti­tu­tion and inter­na­tion­al law enshrine the right of trib­al peo­ples to be con­sult­ed about projects on their land. Yet a raft of bills and con­sti­tu­tion­al amend­ments pro­posed by a pow­er­ful agri­cul­tur­al and min­ing lob­by threat­en to under­mine these land rights. Indi­ans are angry that, despite being in office for two and half years, Pres­i­dent Dil­ma Rouss­eff has yet to meet any Indi­ans.

The Belo Monte occu­pa­tion is the lat­est in a series of protests over the government’s fail­ure to con­sult with the indige­nous pop­u­la­tion.
© Atossa Soltani/ Ama­zon Watch

Sur­vival Inter­na­tion­al is call­ing on Pres­i­dent Rouss­eff to halt the evic­tion of indige­nous pro­test­ers, to con­sult with the Indi­ans, and to rec­og­nize the ter­ri­to­ries of Ter­e­na tribes­peo­ple imme­di­ate­ly.

Survival’s direc­tor Stephen Cor­ry said, ‘His­to­ry is repeat­ing itself. The Figueire­do report, chron­i­cling the geno­ci­dal atroc­i­ties of a past gen­er­a­tion, has been unearthed at exact­ly the same time as new attacks on the Indi­ans are unleashed. Killings of Indi­ans should not be tol­er­at­ed any­where, let alone in a coun­try plan­ning to host world sport­ing events.’