Demarcation of Land Areas is Intended to Meet Economic Interests
11/6/97
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Headline: Demarcation of Land Areas is Intended to Meet Economic Interests
Source: Indianist Missionary Council - Cimi
Date: 11/6/97
Newsletter n. 285
DEMARCATION OF LAND AREAS IS INTENDED TO MEET ECONOMIC INTERESTS
Funai's director for Land Affairs, Aureo Faleiros, declared to the
O Globo newspaper that by the Day of the Indian, April 19, the
Fernando Henrique Cardoso administration will have demarcated
indigenous areas covering over 20 million hectares. According to
Faleiros, this will put an end to conflicts in Amazonia. "Nobody
wanted to invest in the region because of the confusion over the
bounds of indigenous areas." His statement clearly shows that the aim
of this action is not so much to protect indigenous areas and peoples,
but rather to meet the economic and financial interests of investors
in the region.
The Fernando Henrique administration was the only one to reduce
the size of indigenous areas in the 1990s. It reduced the Apyterewa
area, of the Parakana and Bau peoples, the area of the Kayapo, in the
state of Para, and Raposa/Serra do Sol, in Roraima. The Brazilian
president created Decree 1,775/96, through which bounds can be
manipulated, areas reduced, and demarcation procedures completed by
previous administrations can be reviewed, while he claims the credit
for them for himself. When he mentioned this week that the would be
demarcating areas for indigenous populations which together were "as
large as half the territory of France," the president-sociologist,
married to anthropologist Ruth Cardoso, reproduced the discourse of
the military, to whom the size aspect is more important than the
cultural issue and the need to do justice by returning to indigenous
populations land areas which were actually stolen from them. Moreover,
Fernando Henrique is portraying the constitutional obligation to
demarcate indigenous areas as a "good deed."
But Fernando Henrique is not "demarcating countries" for
indigenous populations only. When he refers to the land reform, he
usually says that he has expropriated areas to settle landless rural
workers which together are "as large as Belgium." With statements like
this, he tries to undermine the credibility of the Landless Movement
(MST), which continues to occupy land areas as a policy.
Cimi expects the Brazilian government to settle conflicts in
demarcated areas through concrete measures. Inside demarcated land
areas whose bounds were officially recognized this week, there are 400
groups of squatters who invaded them, in addition to miners and mining
and timber companies. The Calha Norte project may be implemented in
part of three of those areas - Parana Boa Boa (state of Amazonas),
Raimundao (state of Roraima), and Rio Paru de Este (state of Para) -,
while the Carajas project is in operation in one of them - in the
Apinaje area (state of Tocantins). In the past, both these projects
contributed to decimate indigenous populations.
UNI-ACRE DENOUNCES CONFLICTS WITH ISOLATED INDIGENOUS POPULATIONS
The Union of Indigenous Nations of Acre and South Region of
Amazonas (Uni-Ac) is requesting the establishment, on an urgent basis,
of a so-called Attracting Front in the Jordao region, state of Acre,
where conflicts have been reported involving isolated indigenous
populations, that is, Indians who never had any contact with the
non-Indian society. In September, these Indians were blamed for the
death of a rubber-tapper. It was the second attack this year. Uni
complains that information of this kind is only brought to the
attention of the public when a "white individual" dies. Many Indians
might have died, as Funai suspects that the rubber-tapper was killed
as a revenge. Depositions reveal that rubber-tappers had shot some
members of this people. The mayor of Jordao city, Espiridiao Menezes
Junior, has been stirring up conflicts by using the media to lie about
the involvement of isolated indigenous populations in the drug
traffick and the Sendero Luminoso, a Peruvian guerrilla group. The
mayor is actually trying to divert the attention of the media from
accusations of corruption he has been suffering. Uni-Ac fears violent
reprisals against the Indians.
Brasilia, 6 November 1997
Indianist Missionary Council - Cimi