BRAZIL
Amazon politicians blackmail Justice Minister to cut key Indian area
Urgent Action Re Raposa Serra do Sol Indigenous Area
Please fax Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso congratulating him on the demarcation of the Raposa Serra do Sol indigenous area and urging him to proceed with ratification and registry of the demarcation. Your quick action can help to counterbalance very heavy pressure to revoke the demarcation, with disastrous consequences for the region and for Indian lands across the Amazon.
Last December, the Indigenous Council of Roraima (CIR) won an epoch-making victory when Brazilian Justice Minister Renan Calheiros signed the decree demarcating the 1.6 million hectare Raposa Serra do Sol indigenous area. This was a victory not only for the Maxuci, Wapixana, Ingariko and Taurepang Indians who have struggled for over 20 years for the demarcation, but also for international environmentalists and human rights activists who campaigned in favor of the demarcation. The Raposa Serra do Sol case was and is being carefully watched by anti-indigenous areas across the Amazon - were it to prove possible to stop the demarcation there or break up the area to allow miners and ranchers to have parts of it, the precedent could be replicated elsewhere in the 20% of the Amazon that is Indian land. The demarcation thus represented defeat for the state government and politicians of Roraima. The state congressional delegation had in 1997 traded its votes in favor of the Constitutional amendment allowing Presidential re-election for guarantees from then-minister of Justice Nelson Jobim that the area would be reduced in size and fragmented.
Local politicians reacted to the demarcation with overt threats against the Indians, and brought suit in federal court seeking to repeal the decision. There were two assassination attempts against Indians and their supporters in the area. A preliminary injunction to halt the physical demarcation was refused. A long history of legal challenges to the area shows clearly that the traditional indigenous occupation of the entire area is extremely well-documented, and that there is no legal basis on which to revoke the demarcation.
But political pressure can override the law when wielded by the elite. The Amazonian congressional delegations are threatening a Parliamentary Investigating Committee against the Indian agency, the National Indian Foundation (FUNAI) and the Minister of Justice, (who is the hierarchical superior of the President of FUNAI) with the under-the-table understanding that if the demarcation is revoked the investigation will not go forward. Since FUNAI has much to hide (and has long before this President or this Minister) the threat is substantial. Presidential staff have told indigenous rights supporters that the government plans to revoke the demarcation.Only completing the demarcation process (through Presidential ratification of the demarcation or homologa?ao, and subsequent registry in land cadasters), will stop the cycle of violence, intimidation and constant threat of dispossession that the Indians have suffered for more than 20 years. And only completing the demarcation will signal the predatory development interests of the Amazon and their political puppets that the Brazilian Constitution applies in the Amazon - that indigenous land rights are real.
The Indigenous Council of Roraima has urgently requested Indian rights supporters to fax Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso and Justice Minister Renan Calheiros, congratulating them on the global historical importance of the demaraction of Raposa Serra do Sol area, and urge them to complete the process through ratification and registry as soon as possible. Your responses to such requests in the past have made far more of a difference than you may imagine.
Model letter:Ilmo Exmo. Sr.
Fernando Henrique Cardoso
Presidente da Republica Federativa do Brasil
Pal cio do Planalto
Brasilia DF
Brasil
E-mail: pr@cr-df.rnp.br
Fax: 061-226 7566
cc
Ministro da Justica Renan Calheiros
Fax: 061-224 2448
Presidente da Funai M rcio Lacerda
Fax: 061-226 8782
Dear Mr. President,
Please accept our congratulations for your government's decision to demarcate the Raposa Serra do Sol indigenous area in Roraima state. This courageous decision is an example of respect for human rights and environmental sustainability to our hemisphere.
We urge to proceed with the ratification and registry of this critical area as soon as possible.
Thank you for your attention to this.
Sincerely:
Source: Indigenous Council of Roraima (CIR), Stephan Schwartzman
Environmental Defense Fund Washington, D.C. 20009 steves@edf.org