Military Police Remain in Pataxo Area
11/23/99
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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Title: Military Police remain in Pataxo area; indigenous people
deny murders
Source: Cimi
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: November 23, 1999
Despite the illegality of the action and the appeals by groups
and people who show solidarity to the indigenous cause, the
Government of the State of Bahia increased the contingent of
military police in the region where, as of November 16, the
Pataxs recuperated nine farms that trespassers invaded in the
Caramuru Catarina Paraguagu indigenous area in Pau Brasil in the
south of Bahia. On Saturday the 20th, nearly 500 police were in
the city and the situation once again became tense. The military
broke the agreement made the day before with the presidency of
Funai and the Attorney General and again invaded the farms in an
attempt to expel the indigenous people by force.
According to anthropologist Sheila Brasileiro of the Federal
Public Prosecution Service, the military broke into houses and
threatened indigenous people. In a barbaric fashion they killed
domestic animals and livestock (chickens, pigs), beating up and
constraining indigenous women who traversed through the
indigenous land. The Pataxs and the Pataxs Hc-hc-hce, around
1,200 people, including children, are isolated at the Milagrosa
Farm, of the farmer Alberto Gongalves Pereira and vehemently
deny that they were the perpetrators of the shots that killed
two military police last week. On Saturday afternoon, 13
indigenous people, who were held under arrest last week, were
freed with signs of beating.
The poorly justified explanation of the military command for the
"Operation", carried out Saturday, is that it had been an order,
by telephone, from the Governor of Bahia, Cisar Borges, to
"disarm" the indigenous people. The police, however, showed that
they wanted vengeance for the deaths of the two military
police. No weapon was found with the leaders. The result of
which irritated the police and reinforced the information given
by the Pataxs Hc-hc-hce to the presidency of Funai, that there
was no confrontation with the police. They accuse gunmen,
contracted by the farmers, of the shots. The police continue to
massively divulge that they were targets of an "ambush". The
Military Police reduced the contingent, but has not left the
area. The House of Representatives Human Rights' Committee
requested that the Minister of Justice, Josi Carlos Dias, order
the Federal Police to assume control of the situation. To Cimi's
surprise, the Minister stated in an interview that the actions
by the military police were legal, demonstrating a total
ignorance of the Constitution according to which in dealings
with lands that are of the Union, the action is the particular
responsibility of the Federal Police.
The issue of land tenure is not up for discussion. In all of the
actions disputed between the Pataxs and the trespassing farmers,
the Federal Justice has always decided in recognition of
indigenous tenure. The strangest of all is to observe that to
protect the private farm of the sons of the President of the
Republic, "threatened" by a group of unarmed landless rural
workers (sem terra), the Brazilian State sent in a large Army
contingent. However, to protect Union property and indigenous
peoples' lives, as the Constitution determines, the Federal
Police fail to carry out their duty. Some farmers, confident of
the removal of the indigenous people, rejected the agreement
proposed by Funai and by the Public Prosecution Service,
according to which, in six months Funai would pay compensation
for the good will improvements of ten farms that invade the
indigenous territory, at the same time that it tries to give
continuation to the Action to Nullify the Property Titles, that
has been going through procedure for 17 years in the Federal
Justice. The President of Funai, Carlos Frederico Maris, says
that he will propose a new negotiation with each farmer -
individually.