e Paz)

Number 129, May 19, 1994.

LAND ISSUES

- 52 people assassinated in land conflicts during 1993.

According to the annual report of the Pastoral Land Commission (CPT) launched this week, 39128 people were involved in 545 land conflicts in Brazil. 52 people were assassinated in such conflicts. A further 154 people received death threats and attempts were made on the lives of another 37 people.

Land occupation last year involved 19092 families and the number of people found to be working in slave conditions in rural Brazil amounted to 19940. The biggest concentration of slave labor registered was in the State of Para. The people assassinated were from 20 different states and include trade union leaders, church workers, one judge, one public prosecutor, politicians and farmers. The bishop of Sao Felix do Araguaia, State of Mato Grosso, Dom Pedro Casaldaliga is on the list of those who received death threats as well as Father Ricardo Rezende from Rio Maria, Para.

- Rural Landless Workers (MST) leadership says that Lula's election is their "last hope".

According to Joao Pedro Stedile, one of the national leaders of the MST the election of Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (Lula) is their "last hope" for the solution of agrarian problems in Brazil. Stedile believes that of all the candidates, Lula is the only one capable of carrying out an agrarian reform. "Rural people have never felt themselves so identified with a candidate as with Lula" he said.

During the week, the rural landless workers criticized the Minister for Finance Rubens Ricupero. In recent days the MST invaded the headquarters of the ministry in various states and Ricupero refused to meet a delegation from the organization. The minister said that "he could not understand" the invasions because his ministry had no direct relationship with the question of agrarian reform.

However the leadership of the MST contested the minister's statement. They said that they have four demands which depend directly on Ricupero' ministry:

(1) The release of just over U.S. $5 million for the payment of 62 ranches which have been disappropriated for agrarian reform. This amount needs to be paid before landless families can be settled on the ranches.

(2) The release of U.S. $452 million for agricultural credit in the agrarian reform program and a further U.S. $613 million for infrastructure of the settlements.

(3) The release of U.S. $200 million during the months of June and July for special credit for the families in the agrarian reform projects.

(4) That salaries which have not been paid since last March to people working in emergency drought programs in the north-east be immediately paid. The monthly salary in such projects is just over U.S. $30.

HUMAN RIGHTS

- Military Police who killed youth is condemned.

On the 14th of October, 1989, in the favela (shantytown)

Nova Divineia of the Sao Mateus section of Sao Paulo, Eneas da

Silva, 16 years old, was killed by policemen, Ednei Segato and

Edmilson Pereira de Carvalho. Four and a half years later, the

Tribunal of Military Justice finally arrived at a decision

regarding this case. The Tribunal made up of four military judges

and one civil judge found the policeman, Ednei Segato guilty. The

other policeman, Edmilson Pereira de Carvalho died in 1993. Ednei

Segato was sentenced to 13 years in prison. His conviction is

being appealed and Segato has the right to remain at liberty

until December when a decision will be given regarding his

appeal.

This case was chosen this year by Human Rights Watch as an

example of police violence in Sao Paulo. Servico Brasileiro de

Justica e Paz, wrote this case up in its newsletter, SOLIDARIDADE

-BRASIL in 1992 asking its readers to write to the chief judge

responsible for this case, petitioning that a speedy hearing and

decision be taken in this case.

Servico Brasileiro de Justica e Paz (SEJUP) would like to

thank all those who wrote to the judge. We feel that it was due

to the pressure of people writing asking for justice in the case

of the killing of Eneas da Silva, that this decision on the part

of the judges was taken.

The following is the story which appeared in the SEJUP

newsletter, SOLIDARIDADE - BRASIL.

Each day as I walk down the rutted unpaved road into the

favela, Nova Divineia, I pass by the 3 room home where Eneas

lived with his parents, Joao and Jovelina, as well as his eight

siblings, before he was brutally murdered on Oct. 14, 1989. I

never know the 16 year old boy, he died before I arrived in this

east end neighborhood called Sao Mateus, on the outskirts of Sao

Paulo. However, over the past year, I have come to know and

deeply respect this simple, courageous couple who refuse to give

up in their search for justice.

Jovelina speaks clearly and with deep feeling of that night

two years ago when her son was shot by a military policeman. I've

heard her tell it many times. She never hesitates, be it in a

casual conversation on her doorsteps or in a formal hearing

before Amnesty International representatives. The story unfolds

with stark simplicity.

"Eneas was with his friends, looking at a pornographic

magazine. I expect he was feeling a little guilty. You know, we

are church going people and don't have those kind of magazines

around the house. Anyway, all of them ran when they saw a police

car come down the hill towards them. The police jumped out of the

car and chased down the alley, Sao Manoel, after them. Janaina,

our neighbor, heard Eneas pleading with them not to shoot, but

they did anyway. Three shots, one after another, in the head, the

chest,and the intestine. I heard the confusion and ran out to see

what was going on. By that time he was being thrown into the

police car and the officer was threatening Janaina with a

revolver. She has seen them kick and drag Eneas' bleeding body

down the alley to the car. She was shouting at them and continued

to do so until one of them pushed the gun in her face and said he

would shot her if she didn't shut up. It all happened so fast.

Later, when we asked why they didn't listen to Eneas or stop and

ask questions, the policeman said, "With blacks, you shoot first

and ask later."

As Jovelina tells her story, tears come to her eyes and she

relives that night of terror, She will never resign herself to

its harsh reality nor forget the pain it brought. It is vivid and

alive in her heart. She goes on to talk about her boy.

"He was a good boy," she says, "doing well in school. Crazy

about soccer. In fact, he was on a neighborhood team. We never

had any trouble with him. He was a good son."

Then she stops, looks up and says, "It hurts just to talk

about it. It's as if it is happening all over again. They would

like me to stop, you know."

She then describes how after her TV interview about the

case, a police car began to drive by the house. It would slow

down and the officers would just stare at her and her children. It was an unspoken threat. "When it first happened," she explains, "I made a decision. I look the man directly in the eye. I won't lower my head. I pray to God to take the hate out of my heart but I will never lower my eyes in fear and submission. I will keep telling Eneas' story. I will be worth it all if I can prevent the death of one innocent child or stop the suffering of one mother."

Because Jovelina has the courage to tell the story, her

son's case has been brought before judicial authorities. After

two years of continual pressure, key witnesses, including Janaina

and Eneas' companions, testified before a panel of four military

judges and a civil judge who will decide the case. Eight more

witnesses have to be called before the case is finally judged.

There is no date set and the process is frustratingly slow.

Meanwhile the two officers continue their police work in a

different part of the city.

In recent months, there has been growing press attention

about the killing of children in Brazil. Eneas' case is just one

of the many that create the statistic that every 3 days a child

is assassinated in the city of Sao Paulo. Close to 20% of these

children come from on or two parent families whose only 'crime'

is to be poor or black. The 'shoot first and ask questions later'

philosophy of the police and hired killers evolves out of a

social and economic situation where poor children are seen as a

threat. In pursuit of first world status and development, Brazil

has betrayed its long history as a culture especially tolerant

and loving of children.

International concern of the Eneases of Brazil is important

because the present government is particularly sensitive to its

image abroad. Pressure can help bring individuals like the

military policemen to justice. However, it is also important that

those of us who are concerned about Brazil's murdered children

also be ready to ask more difficult structural questions not only

of the Brazilians but also of ourselves and our own political,

economic and social systems. The violence that dominates the

"old" and "new" world order will continue to generate more of its

kind throughout the world. It is the result of human

infrastructures built on power, control and domination. These

elements will never create societies or a world where our

children can be nurtured in dignity. Perhaps like Jovelina, we

need to start looking the enemy in the eye, recognizing and

fearlessly challenging the hate we meet there in our own hearts.

--Carol Thresher, SDS. November 1991

- Childrens' assassin detained.

The technical police in Rio de Janeiro identified a gun as being that responsible for the assassination of two of the eight children massacred outside the Candelaria church in Rio on July 23 last. The arm was found in the possession of military police man Arlindo Lisboa Afonso Junior when he was arrested for stealing a car on April 15 last. The technical police did not supply the names of the two children killed by the arm. According to the police, the examination carried out gives them a 100% certainty that this gun was used to assassinate the two children.

According to the police, Lisboa admitted during interrogation that the gun was used in the Candelaria massacre. According to experts, at least five guns were used on the occasion. At the moment, four people including three military police are in prison accused of having been involved in the massacre.

-Brazil: record holder for traffic accidents and deaths.

Traffic is one of the principle health problems in Brazil.

The Brazilian Association of Traffic Medicine states that about

one million traffic accidents occur each year in the country.

Fifty thousand persons are killed and another three hundred

thousand were injured. It is rather co-incidental that the 13th

World Congress of the International Association of Accidents and

Traffic Medicine is being held in Sao Paulo this week. Sao Paulo

has one of the worst traffic records in the world. The city's

Traffic Commission (CET) says that 2 times as many persons are

killed in traffic in Sao Paul than in New York, 3 times more than

London and 8 times more than Tokyo. In the United States, some 50

thousand deaths are caused by traffic accidents. This is the same

number of traffic deaths as Brazil, but there are 10 times as

more vehicles on the road than in Brazil. In Brazil, almost 50%

of the persons involved in vehicle accidents were driving under

the influence of liquor.

Earlier this month, a traffic accident in Rio de Janeiro,

showed the brutality and stupidity of many drivers. At 8:30 in

the evening, in one of the renowned sections of the city, near a shopping center, a pregnant women, mother of three children was struck down while crossing the street. Police arrived an hour and half later. During this one and a half hours, not one driver stopped to give assistance to the injured women. Many of the drivers drove over her prostrated body and none stopped to see what it was that they had struck. When the body of the women was taken to the hospital, it was so badly disfigured that it was not possible to identify her. It was only through her fingerpints that the woman was identified.

ECOLOGY

The following is a summary of the news items carried by the principal Brazilian newspapers during the last few days dealing with ecology. The date is given for each summary and the newspapers are identified as follows:

FSP = Folha de Sao Paulo.

GL = O Globo.

GM = Gazeta Mercantil.

JB = Jornal do Brasil.

OESP = O Estado de Sao Paulo.

May 14, 1994.

- The municipalities of coastal Sao Paulo (the region is known as the Baixada Santista) are trying to resolve the problems created by the lack of adequate facilities for dumping domestic and industrial waste. Approximately 900 tons are dumped each day. While plans exist to build such facilities, financial resources are lacking to do so. (OESP).

- The federal government's plan to channel the river Sao Francisco to irrigate large areas of the north-east of Brazil was severely criticized by the governors of the States of Bahia and Sergipe. Federal government technicians also have criticized the plan and claim that the river would not have sufficient water to irrigate the area in question. The Governor of Sergipe said that the federal government did not even have sufficient funds to aid the local drought stricken population and much less could spend the U.S. $2.1 billion necessary for the irrigation project. (OESP).

- The federal government registered a U.S. $1.4 billion deficit in April and the report of the Parliamentary Inquiry dealing with the question of privitatization shows that the sale of government controlled steel industries which had received investments of U.S. $13 billion during the last 10 years, gave a total sales return of a mere U.S. $4 billion. The author of the report, Senator Amir Lando, complained of the "impassable wall of silence" which surrounds this topic. (JB).

- Representatives of 75 indigenous nations present at the 4th. General Assembly of Indigenous Organizations of Brazilian Amazon denounced the presence of drug trafficers in many indigenous areas. They plan to put pressure on FUNAI (the government indigenous agency) and on the federal police to combat drug traffic in indigenous areas. (FSP).

- Pollution in the greater Victoria area (State of Espirito Santo) has fallen by 40% since the state government made an agreement with large companies to install pollution control systems in 1990. (GM).

- The last indigenous area in the State of Rio de Janeiro will be demarcated this week. It belongs to the M'bya Guarani. (GL).

May 15.

- The Kamari which sunk 90 kms of the coast of Rio Grande do Sul will have its cargo inspected because there is now a suspicion that the ship was carrying radio active material. Until now, the information supplied to the port authorities in Rio Grande indicated that it was carrying oil and mineral ore but the news that it was obliged to leave Uruguayan waters shortly before arriving off the Brazilian coast has caused some to suspect that its cargo contains other items. (JB).

- The Minister for the Environment has notified the National Council of Rubber-Tappers that it will no longer maintain 4 extraction reserves set up shortly before the Earth Summit of 1992. These reserves are Ciriaco, Mata Grande and Flexal in the State of Maranhao and Extremo Norte in the State of Tocantins. The motive given by the government is that these reserves are no longer economically viable. According to the National Council of Rubber-Tappers, 2000 families who live in these reserves will now loose their livelihoods. (JB).

May 16.

- The National Bio-Diversity Network which has been set up by the Ministry of the Environment has begun functioning and researchers at the Andre Tosello Tropical Foundation of Surveys and Technology in Campinas, State of Sao Paulo are currently compiling a list of individuals and institutes interested in this topic. (GL).

- Ecologist Sebastiao Pinheiro plans to register a denouncement with the Federal Procurator of the State of Rio Grande do Sul against the director responsible for control in IBAMA (the government's environmental agency), Jose Edson Pereira. The denouncement claims that Pereira authorized the sale of Dithame PM whose use was forbidden in Brazil in 1990. (JB).

- Over 500 scientists from more than a 100 entities as well as from space agencies will meet in Rio de Janeiro next September in the International Symposium of Environmental Monitoring and Earth Resources. The results and effects of the 1992 Earth Summit will be one of the chief topics under discussion. (OESP).

INDIGENOUS ISSUES

- Guarani indians reoccupy their territory but may yet be expelled.

The Kaiowa Guarani of the Takuaryty / Ivykuarusu indigenous area in the State of Mato Grosso do Sul reoccupied their territory in early May but they may be expelled again. Their expulsion was requested in court by 60 small farmers who were forced to leave the area with the return of the Guarani.

The situation is very tense. The indian group has approximately 300 members and they burned a bridge at the entry to the area. The Guarani are being accused locally of burning a house and a school in the area; they claim that these buildings were burned by some of the people expelled from their area.

The area in question contains 2475 hectares and was demarcated in 1993. The demarcation process was later ratified by Presidential order. However a court case brought by a rancher had impeded the return of the Guarani to their area; they had been living in a small area of 200 hectares. The indians have been expelled from this area six times since 1976. They say they will only leave the area dead now. The small farmers have said that they will use whatever means are necessary to return to the area.

The case is with judge Jean Marcos Ferreira who has asked for help from the military police. According to the judge, the police should guarantee the security of the indians and of the small farmers. In similar situations in the past, the police have been against the indians.

200 years ago, the Guarani occupied 40% of the present day State of Mato Grosso do Sul. There are approximately 26 thousand indians in the state today living in 20 small areas. Many of the indigenous areas in the state have been invaded by ranchers and small farmers. It is also calculated that a further 4 thousand indians live outside the indigenous areas - most on the peripheries of the cities or along highways. These indians survive precariously from the sale of hand-craft. Last year 33 Guarani committed suicide.

The reproduction of this material is permitted as long as the source is cited.