Indigenous Chief Campaigning for Land Rights Murdered
5/20/98
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Title: Indigenous Chief Campaigning for Land Rights Murdered
Source: Reuters
Status: Copyrighted, contact source to reprint
Date: 5/20/98
Byline: William Schomberg
BRASILIA, May 20 (Reuters) - A Brazilian Indian chief who campaigned for his
people's land rights was shot dead by gunmen on Wednesday, a group linked to
the Catholic Church said.
Francisco de Assis Araujo, a leader of the Xucuru indigenous group in
northeastern Pernambuco state, was shot four times in an ambush near the town
of Pesquero, the Indigenous Missionary Council (CIMI) said in a statement.
Araujo faced repeated death threats for his attempts to clear farmers from the
Xucurus' land, the statement said.
In 1995, a government lawyer working on the demarcation of the area was also
murdered in the area, CIMI added.
The group said the Xucuru area had been challenged by hundreds of land claims
lodged after a controversial decree in 1996 allowing individuals and local
governments to appeal against proposed indigenous reservations. "CIMI
repudiates this latest brutal killing of an Indian leader and condemns the
indigenous policies of (President) Fernando Henrique Cardoso's government,
which is failing in its constitutional responsibility to mark out, oversee and
protect indigenous lands," the statement said. Of a total 27,555 hectares to
which the Xucurus are entitled, farmers have illegally settled 25,555, the
statement said.
"The trespassers have always counted on the support of politicians and
authorities in the region, one of the principal factors explaining the lack of
punishment for crime against the Indians," it said.
BRASILIA, Aug 22 (Reuter) - A Brazilian government official was killed in a
clash with one of the country's most remote and aggressive Indian tribes, the
government's National Indian Foundation (Funai) said on Friday.
"Details remain sketchy, but there was a conflict and one of our team is dead,"
Funai spokesman Antonio Carlos Lago said.
The incident took place deep in the Amazon rain forest in the Javari River
valley, near Brazil's border with Peru and Colombia.
A Funai mission to the area established contact for a first time with the
isolated Korubo tribe last October after offering the Indians gifts of pans and
knives.
The Korubos have clashed in the past with loggers and miners in the area, and
at least two government officials have been killed on previous occasions by the
tribe.
(c) Reuters Limited 1997
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE