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WORLDWIDE
FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS
Brazilian
Government Responds to Pressure--Will Discuss Decree
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Forest
Networking a Project of Ecological Enterprises
August
5, 1995
OVERVIEW
& SOURCE
The
Indianist Missionary Council follows up on numerous earlier
BIOD
mailing postings concerning the Brazilian national
government's
plans to amend constitutional guarantees of
indigenous
land demarcation. Apparently, the
Brazilian government
just
announced that they will meet with Indian groups to negotiate
the
matter. Pressure on this issue is still
needed. You can send
a free
fax to the Brazilian Embassy over the internet by acessing
Rainforest
Action Network's WWW home page. Point
your browser at
<
http://www.igc.apc.org/ran/info_center/aa/aa110.html >. This
item
was posted in econet's rainfor.general conference. For
further
information on EcoNet membership, a nonprofit online
system,
send any message to <econet-info@igc.apc.org>.
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Written 10:33 AM Aug 4, 1995 by ax:cimi in
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Newsletter
n. 170
BRAZILIAN GOVERNMENT INTENDS TO
DISCUSS DECREE
The announcement that the Brazilian
government intends to
discuss
possible amendments to Decree 22/91 was made by the
spokesman
for the Presidency of the Republic, Sergio Amaral,
through
the main newspapers of the country. Articles published on
July 26
and 27 mention CIMI among other ``Indian-supporting
entities''
which were invited to take part in the debate. Although
the
information had immediate repercussions, CIMI has not received
any
formal invitation to take part in the discussion. Amaral
declared
that the new criteria which the amendment would introduce
will
not delay the process of delimiting areas being claimed by
the
Indians. Right after saying this, he mentioned that at least
65
areas, totaling 20 million hectares, may have their bounds
changed,
that is, reduced.
CAPOIB (Council for the Articulation of
Indian Peoples and
Organizations
of Brazil) sent a letter to the minister of Justice,
Nelson
Jobim, and to president Fernando Henrique Cardoso warning
that
the amendments to the decree will make room for Indian lands
to be
invaded, Indians to be killed, and for the ethnical
extermination
of Indian peoples. ``Let's put an end to 500 years
of
genocide,'' the letter emphasizes. The Council announced its
intention
to take part in the debate and denounced that the
government
knows about everything that happened in the past and is
happening
now to Indian peoples. Therefore, the
intention to
change
the decree represents not only a lack of political will but
is also
something to be ashamed of both in Brazil and abroad. ``We
think
that the Government wants to do something that will have not
only
legal consequences, but also very serious political
repercussions,''
the letter says in conclusion.
AVA-GUARANI FIGHT FOR
TRADITIONAL AREA
After waiting for 13 years, about 15
Ava-Guarani families in
Sao
Miguel de Igua<u, state of Parana, peacefully occupied the
622-ha
Parana-Pora Indian area, invaded by the binational Itaipu
power
station. Camped since June 15, the Indians demand compliance
with a
commitment assumed by the company, which in 1982 flooded
the
Jacutinga Indian area, which comprises 1,500 hectares. At that
time,
the Guarani were transferred to an area called Ocoy, which
comprises
230 hectares only, with the promise that they would be
settled
in the Parana-Pora area shortly thereafter, but it never
happened.
According to Indian leaders, the Ocoy area was never
enough
to meet the physical, cultural and religious needs of the
people,
as the Brazilian Constitution provides for. Because the
area
does not offer good conditions for growing crops, the Ava-
Guarani
also complain that their nourishment is insufficient,
favoring
the occurrence of diseases such as veminosis, diarrhea,
malnutrition,
and malaria among adults and children.
FUNAI has began to carry out
anthropological studies to prove
that
the area was traditionally occupied by this people, as the
Indians
claim, and to take the first steps to begin the
administrative
procedure for demarcating it. The studies have not
been
concluded so far. There is no tension in the area, but Itaipu
is
determined to have the Indians removed from the area that they
occupied.
Brasilia, August 3,
1995
Indianist Missionary
Council
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