Indian Lands Continue to be Cut by Roads
3/1/94
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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Topic 136 INDIAN LANDS IS CUT BY ROADS
ax:cimi General Rainforest Issues 10:00 am Mar 1, 1994
INDIAN LANDS IN BRAZIL
CONTINUE TO BE CUT BY ROADS
Invading Indian lands for building roads is one of the most
custumary aggressive acts against Indian peoples in Brazil. In
this process, large areas are cut, usually with no authorization
from their occupiers, facilitating the arrival of invaders. The
roads are always built under the pretext of development. One of
the most recent cases involves the Xerente Indians, in the state
of Tocantins, located in Legal Amazonia, whose lands were cut by
two roads that are being paved against the will of the Indians.
Not even the Federal Courts managed to make the government of
Tocantins, which is responsible for the works, stop the building
of the roads. In December, a federal court ruled that the paving
of one of the roads should be interrupted where it cuts the Funil
Indian Area. It also determined that the works for the building of
a bridge over the Sono river, located in the Xerente Indian Area,
were to be interrupted. Those rulings, however, were only complied
with this week, after a meeting between the Xerente and
representatives of the government of Tocantins, of the attorney
general and of city halls of the region.
In August of last year, over 50 Indians occupied the building
site at the Sono river and seized machines and materials used for
building the bridge. The works, however, were resumed as soon as
the Indians left. This time, the pressures produced better
results.
The government of Tocantins refers to the Xerente as an
obstacle to the development of the state, inciting the population
against them. But both the Constitution and the Charter of the
Indians prohibit public works in Indian lands, except when
"prominent interests on the part of the Union" are involved or
when there is no other alternative. This is not the case of the
roads in question, whose design can be changed. But if this is
done, parts of them would have to be built in private lands,
affecting the interests of farmers of the region.
The Xerente intend to pressure the World Bank not to approve a
loan to the government of Tocantins for the paving of the roads.
The request for this loan is being analysed by the Planning
Secretariat, an agency directly linked to the Presidency of the
Republic.
Brasi'lia, February 25, 1994
CIMI - Indianist Missionary Council