Brazil Indians: February 2003 The Killing Season

http://www.brazzil.com/p111feb03.htm
Brazzil Indians
February 2003

The Killing Season

There has been a wave of violence against indigenous peoples
in the latest weeks in Brazil. One Indian was stoned to death
while sleeping on the sidewalk. Other two were murdered while
defending their land. In one of the attacks Indian women
were raped by ranch hands and policemen.
This January has witnessed deplorable acts of violence against indigenous peoples in Brazil in which three tribesmen were brutally killed, two of them in the struggle for their land. Anti-indigenous acts occurring from Northern to Southern Brazil have caused indignation amongst civil society and the government.

On January 9th, the body of the Macuxi tribesman, Aldo da Silva Mota, 52, was found buried in a shallow grave on the Retiro Ranch, located within the indigenous lands of Raposa Serra do Sol, in Roraima. Aldo had been called in by employees of the ranch to get a calf there and never came back. The Coroner's Office—IML (Instituto Médico Legal) in Boa Vista—declared that Aldo's death was due to an "undetermined natural cause." The death certificate was signed by coroner Ricardo Gouveia.

The Indianist Council of Roraima—CIR, as well as the victim's family did not accept this result and requested an independent report. On January 13th, by determination of Márcio Thomaz Bastos, the Justice Minister, Aldo's body was transferred to the IML (Coroner's Office) in Brasília, Brazil's capital, for a corpus delicti autopsy.

According to information from the Forensic Anthropology Department Coordinator of the IML of the Federal District, Dr. Eduardo Reis, although, the report had not yet been issued by January 20. According to witnesses, a bullet wound was observed in Aldo's back. Dr. Eduardo Reis was expected to leave for the crime scene in order to gather further evidence, such as the projectile itself, which might confirm that it was a murder.

Old Indian Stoned

On January 6, in Miraguai, state of Rio Grande do Sul, three young men, one of them a minor, beat and stoned 77-year old Kaingang tribesman, Leopoldo Crespo to death, while he slept on the sidewalk. In a protest against the criminal act, CIMI, The Indianist Missionary Council—an agency linked to Brazil's National Conference of Bishops—released a communiqué stating:

"The kicks and cuts using a broken bottle that killed the aged Kaingang, Leopoldo Crespo, have hurt all Brazilians. And they have shamed us as a nation. In order to become the great nation we dream of being, and that we are building, racism and intolerance must be abolished and the right to be different assured."

The stoning of Crespo brings to mind the brutal manner in which Galdino, another Indian, was killed in 1997, burned alive by middle-class youths from Brasília.

On January 13th, another tribesman was brutally murdered in Juti, state of Mato Grosso do Sul, some 280 kilometers from Campo Grande, the state capital. Guarani-Kaiowá Chief Marcos Veron, 74, was beaten to death by an employee of the Brasília do Sul ranch after having led some 100 tribe members on Saturday to retake the Taquara indigenous land, who the rancher had named Brasilia do Sul ranch.

According to reports from the Guarani, on Sunday, January 12, the ranch manager and policemen went to the camp and said that they were there to protect them and that nothing would befall them. During the wee hours of the 13th, however, some 56 people, among them ranch hands and policemen, invaded the camp and attacked the Indians. Six women were raped, one tribesman was shot, one person killed and two others missing, community members report.

Immediate Action Requested

The president of Cimi was in a meeting with the Justice Minister, January 13, when the news came in. Cimi has requested that the Minister take urgent measures and act to avert this wave of violence, as well as to immediately announce its new Indianist policy.

Arrest warrants have already been issued for the ranch manager, Nivaldo Alves de Oliveira, who is in hiding and for the employees Estêvão Romero and Carlos Roberto dos Santos, who have already been taken into custody. With authorization of the court, Veron's body was buried on the ranch. The burial was attended by eight vehicles of the Federal Police and Federal Attorney Generals, Charles Stevan da Motta Pessoa and Ramiro Rockenbach da Silva.

Since 1998, the Guarani- Kaiowá Indians have been waiting for Funai (Fundação Nacional do Índio—Indian National Foundation) to issue a report identifying the area that belongs to the natives, but this has never been done. Cimi representatives said these acts of violence are of grave concern. They pointed out that they are occurring in the very week in which the Council has been exploring contacts to define the guidelines for a new Indianist policy.

CIMI reminded that, at this time, Brazil, more specifically Porto Alegre and the World Social Forum are in the world's spotlight and the indigenous peoples would hope to take to the meeting not only their indignation, but also their contribution towards the construction of a new world.