e Paz)

Number 150, October 13, 1994

INDIGENOUS ISSUES

-Indigenous policy of new president.

The following is a statement released by the CIMI on Oct. 7,

1994.

THE INDIGENOUS POLICY OF THE NEW PRESIDENT OF BRAZIL

The president-elect of Brazil, Fernando Henrique Cardoso,

already has a basic program for the Indigenous policy of his

administration. The program is quite vague and allows for various

interpretations. It mentions respect for cultural pluralism and

ethnical identities, but also contains elements that may lead to a policy of integration of Indian peoples, which is not in tune

with the Federal Constitution. The counting of votes is not over

yet, but the figures suggest the victory of Fernando Henrique

Cardoso, who presents himself as a social-democrat, in spite of

having allied himself with the most conservative sectors of the

country.

According to the program, "alternative ethno-development

strategies" must be defined "incorporating the participation and

cultural traditions of Indian communities". The problem is that

ethno-development may ultimately lead to the integration of

Indian peoples into the non-indian society, even if some of their

cultural elements are preserved and bring benefits to the

national society. It is up to the State to decide which cultural

aspects are to be respected. In this process, the fate of the

Indian peoples is subjected to the interests of the State.

The program also mentions that "the State should contribute

toward the development of Indian peoples". Such policy could

mean, for example, that the Indians would be necessarily

integrated into the market, that is, they would not have the

alternative of deciding on their own future any more. It could

also mean the gradual integration of Indians into the national

society until they are fully absorbed by it, that is, until they

lose their differentiated identity.

The program of Fernando Henrique Cardoso incorporated some

of the proposals made by CIMI, an agency linked to the CNBB

(National Conference of Bishops of Brazil), for an indigenous

policy for the next federal administration, which was sent to all

candidates for the Presidency of the Republic. However, the

perspective of his program is not the same as that of CIMI, which

defends an indigenous policy according to which ethnical

diversity, rather than integration, should form the foundation of

the relationship between the State and Indian peoples.

INTERNATIONAL

- Brazil looking to buy tanks

These past weeks, everyone's attention has been taken up with the vote counting process. Fernando Henrique Cardoso has been elected as the new president for Brazil. People's attention then turned to the counting of votes for Federal deputies and deputies to the State Assemblies. Overlooked in all this process, was an item that appeared on an Internet conference that deals with Russia. It never appeared in any of the major Brazilian newspapers. The notice simply stated that Brazilian defense officials signed on October 10th a letter of intent to buy 300 T-72 tanks from the Omsk Transport Machine-building Factory in western Siberia. The price tag for each tank is $1.2 million dollars. There is one slight snag in the deal and that is the agreement on how to pay for the tanks. The Brazilians have proposed a barter deal, whereas, the Russian want hard currency.

-Inter-American Development Bank's new information disclosure policy.

At the end of the IDB meeting in April, 1994, the Bank's

member countries agreed to establish a public information

disclosure policy. It was a policy that came about after much

discussion and in-fighting, because the Brazilian and other Latin

American governments greatly objected to public disclosure of

information and citizen participation. After the April 1994

meeting, the IDB management prepared a draft disclosure policy

and distributed it to may NGOs. Over many months this draft was

modified by a working group of IDB Executive Directors and a

final draft was presented to the IDB's Board of Directors at

their meeting on Oct. 5, with the intention of obtaining its

approval. The policy was stalled by the Executive Director from

Brazil, Mr. Antonio Claudio Sochaczewski.

Mr. Sochaczewski has consistently opposed any efforts at

public disclosure of information or citizen participation. Mr.

Sochaczewski says that if there is going to be any agreement to

the policy, then there will be need for an amendment to it

requiring that all documents that are to be made public must be

cleared by the borrowing country government before they are to be

released. This would effectively give the Board of Directors an

unprecedented role in the day to day bank operations and would

undermine the spirit of the policy.

URBAN QUESTIONS

- Public Transportation in City of Sao Paulo.

In a recent issue of the "FOLHA DE S. PAULO" there were two

articles on the city's public bus transportation. One related how

the mayor, Paulo Maluf, was able to reduce the loss in the city's

bus system. This year the city will spend $230 million to cover

the debt in the city's public transportation. This is half of

what the city spent in 1992, the last year of Luiza Erundina's

term as mayor. The bus fare in her last year as mayor was $.29,

while the present fare under Mayor Maluf is $.58.

In 1989, when Luiza Erundina became mayor, the city buses

were carrying 10 passenger per square foot. When she left office

in 1992, these buses were carrying 6.7 passengers per square

foot. This is well below the international standard which is 7

passengers per square foot. Today, in many parts of the city, the

buses are carrying more than 8 persons per square foot.

In August of 1992, there were 10,850 city buses transporting

5.4 million passengers a day. Today, this fleet of city buses has

fallen to 10,000 buses and the number of passengers has increased

to 6.4 million. The ratio of passenger to bus per day has gone during these years from 497.6 to 628.6 per bus.

Recently the "pingentes" (those who hang on the outside of

the bus) have returned. They disappeared in 1992. It is again

common to see them on the buses that serve the periphery of the

city. Data obtained by the FOLHA DE S. PAULO show that the

quality of public transportation in the city has deteriorated.

The number of buses has declined, the age of the buses is older

than in 1992 and the number of passengers per square foot has

increased.

HUMAN RIGHTS

- Military Justice Tribunal reduces sentence of police officer.

In January 1993, a police officer was found guilty of

shooting to death a transvestite and was sentenced in February

of that year to 12 years in jail by the Military Justice Tribunal of the First Instance. This same police officer is awaiting trial in a civil court for the murder of another 5 transvestites. This court of First Instance found the defendant guilty of homicide "qualificado", meaning that the victim was given no means to defend oneself, or was taken by surprise.

On the 29th of September, the court of Second Instance made

up of 3 Colonels of the Military Police and 2 civil judges in a

3-2 vote ruled that the crime was not "qualificado". This court

reduced the sentence of the police officer from 12 years to 6

years and the reason given was that being a transvestite is a

"dangerous activity". In its decision, the Military Justice Tribunal justified it decision saying, "the qualifying factor (qualificado) of the crime was taken away because the activity in which the victim was involved in is one of high risk, very dangerous, and thus, the surprise factor does not enter ".

Many well-known lawyers, as well as district attorneys have labeled this decision as 'ridiculous' and 'absurd". One stated that from now on, all transvestites will know that they can be killed at any time. This decision, also, goes against the right to life of a transvestite.

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