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WORLDWIDE FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS

ACTION ALERT--Brazil's "Genocide Decree" Attacks Indian Rights

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Forest Networking a Project of Ecological Enterprises

March 12, 1996

OVERVIEW AND SOURCE

The Rainforest Action Network continues to intensify the campaign

of protest regarding Brazil's recent legislation which backslides

on demarcation of Indian lands. "The just-signed Decree #1775

delays the demarcation of new indigenous reserves, and challenges

the legitimacy of existing ones." The knowledge of dozens of

indigenous cultures, as well as the ecology of the Amazon, is at

stake. So please help continue to broaden and deepen our appeal

for culturally and ecologically sensitive development in the

Amazon, the largest of the Earth's ecological engines. Please

espond to this action alert to contact U.S. governmental officials

as well as Ecological Enterprises previous alert which asked for

World Bank officials to be contacted.

This item is from Rainforest Action Network's excellent WWW

server, and by accessing the URL for this alert you can send

emails in protest to dozens of relevant officials with a few

strokes. So please surf over to:

http://www.ran.org/ran/info_center/aa/aa118.html

Note that Ecological Enterprises' Gaia Forest Archives have

moved to:

http://forests.lic.wisc.edu/forests/gaia.html

g.b.

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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:

Rainforest Action Network

Action Alert 118 - March, 1996

Genocide Decree Attacks Indian Rights

"Brazil is backsliding on its commitment to indigenous people, and

recent legislation passed there can have deadly effect. The just-

signed Decree #1775 delays the demarcation of new indigenous

reserves, and challenges the legitimacy of existing ones. It's the

Wild West all over again, only this time it's in the rainforest.

We must do all we can to overturn this fearful decree before we

lose whole indigenous cultures."

--Beto Borges, Amazon Campaign

On January 8, Brazil's President Fernando Henrique Cardoso signed

Decree #1775 into law. The decree--dubbed the "Genocide Decree" by

human rights activists--allows commercial interests to protest

indigenous land titles, and undermines the rights of Indians to

their traditional territories as guaranteed in Brazil's

Constitution. It could also take natural resources, which the

local communities depend on for survival, out of their control.

In 1988, the Brazilian Congress incorporated the progressive

Article #231 into the Constitution. This revolutionary legislation

recognized the inalienable right of indigenous people to their

ancestral lands and natural resources, and guaranteed their right

to exist as distinct cultures. 1991's Decree #22 further

delineated the primacy of indigenous rights over competing

interests. The decree insured that title to indigenous land would

be based on aboriginal habitation alone, and parties with

secondary title would be compensated for their losses.

In addition, the Government adopted a timetable that these

territories be demarcated by October 5, 1993. To date, Brazil has

granted only 210 indigenous land titles out of 554 acknowledged

claims. Decree #1775 will derail this process, already over two

years behind schedule.

Brazil's Minister of Justice, Nelson Jobim, worked to revoke

Decree #22 since its inception, and successfully argued that the

law is unconstitutional because it does not incorporate an

adversarial process. The Genocide Decree gives private commercial

interests "the right to contest," and effectively annuls Decree

#22. Already, monied interests are filing injunctions to reverse

indigenous land titles. The farming conglomerate Agropecuaria

Sattin was the first to act, and is contesting the Guarani-Kaiowa

territory of Sete Cerros, in Mato Grosso.

Pirate mahogany loggers and gold miners have taken the Genocide

Decree as a sign of government sanction, and have already moved

their operations into Indian lands. The Indigenist Missionary

Council (CIMI)--a human rights monitoring group of Christian

missionaries--reports that eight Indian areas have been invaded in

the few weeks since Decree #1775 became law.

In another twist, Decree #1775 opens previously demarcated areas

to revision, including the gold-rich lands of the Yanomami people.

In response, the Yanomami held an assembly to organize resistance

to politicians and economic interests, and decried the devastating

effects of continued invasion by gold miners who pollute the

rivers and forests, as well as introduce disease. Since 1987,

nearly twenty-five percent of the Yanomami population has been

killed by contagions carried by the unwanted colonists.

The Genocide Decree feeds the fire of privatization currently

underway in the Amazon. By rewriting the law, the Brazilian

government is making it possible for industry to invade indigenous

territories for cattle ranching, mahogany logging, and oil and

mineral extraction. These types of unsustainable forest practices

demand roads and infrastructure developments, and historically

bring an onslaught of settlers to remote and pristine areas that

have long been the sacred homeland of indigenous peoples.

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What Can You Do?

E-mail letters to members of the Senate Foreign Relations

Committee, the House International Relations Committee, and Vice

President Al Gore and encourage them to do all they can to

pressure Brazil to revoke the Genocide Decree!

**Sample Letter body:**

Brazil's government recently issued a law that overturns the hard-

won constitutional rights of Brazil's indigenous peoples. Decree

#1775 removes protection for over half of the lands reserved for

indigenous people. Indigenous lands are already being invaded by

loggers and miners. Decree #1775 will lead to the death of

rainforest peoples and extinction of their cultures, as well as

irreversible destruction of the Amazon.

I urge you to do all you can to persuade Brazilian President

Cardoso to revoke Decree #1775.

Sincerely,

**Suggested United States Officials to Email**

Vice President Al Gore, vice.president@whitehouse.gov

Senator John Ashcroft, john_ashcroft@ashcroft.senate.gov

Senator Joe Biden, joe_biden@biden.senate.gov

Senator Hank Brown, senator_brown@brown.senate.gov

Senator Paul Coverdell, senator_coverdell@coverdell.senate.gov

Senator Christopher Dodd, sen_dodd@dodd.senate.gov

Senator Russ Feingold, russell_feingold@feingold.senate.gov

Senator Diane Feinstein, senator@feinstein.senate.gov

Senator John Kerry, john_kerry@kerry.senate.gov

Senator Richard Lugar, lugar@iquest.net

Senator Chuck Robb, senator_robb@robb.senate.gov

Senator Paul Sarbanes, senator@sarbanes.senate.gov

Congressperson Robert E. Andrews, randrews@hr.house.gov

Congressperson Thomas C. Ballenger, cassmail@hr.house.gov

Congressperson Sam Brownback, brownbak@hr.house.gov

Congressperson Eliot L. Engel, engeline@hr.house.gov

Congressperson David Funderburk, funnc02@hr.house.gov

Congressperson Samuel Gejdenson, bozrah@hr.house.gov

Congressperson Lee H. Hamilton, hamilton@hr.house.gov

Congressperson Alcee L. Hastings, hastings@hr.house.gov

Congressperson Thomas Lantos, talk2tom@hr.house.gov

Congressperson Toby Roth, roth08@hr.house.gov

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pieces; though ultimate responsibility for verifying all

information rests with the reader. Check out our Gaia Forest

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Email-> gbarry@forests.org