Number 252, November 14, 1996.

VIOLENCE

- Assassinations triple in Brazil during 15 year period.

A report in the 'Folha de Sao Paulo' on November 11 shows that assassinations in Brazil have tripled in a 15 year period. According to statistics of the Ministry of Health, 11194 people were assassinated in 1979 (11.69 per 100 thousand people). In 1994 the number of assassinations stood at 32350 (21.04 per 100 thousand people).

The principal increase in assassinations has been registered in the 15 to 19 age group. In 1994, 4505 adolescents were assassinated - approximately four times the number for 1979. During this 15 year period, 45469 adolescents have been assassinated in Brazil. The 'Folha' report compares this statistic to the number of U.S. soldiers (approximately 46 thousand) who died in Vietnam during nine years. Last year 53.6% of all male youth in the 10 to 19 year bracket who died in the city of Sao Paulo were assassinated. Assassination (13.5%) came second as the cause of death of female youth in the same age group which had traffic accidents (17.1%) as the principal cause of death.

According as the youth advance into their teens assassination as the cause of death increases. Statistics show that last year in the 10 to 13 age group, 20 were assassinated, 334 in the 14 to 17 age group and 424 in the 18 to 19 group. In the 10 to 14 age group 9.6 per 100 thousand youth of that age are assassinated while between 15 and 19 years, 166.5 youth per 100 thousand are murdered. Last year the overall figure for the assassination of under 19 year old youth in Sao Paulo was 88.4 per 100 thousand in that age group. The statistic has fluctuated only slightly in recent years. In 1992 it stood at 88.3 per 100 thousand; 74.7 per 100 thousand in 1993 and 85.6 per 100 thousand in 1994. However, assassinations are not spread evenly throughout the city. In nine regions of the city (all found in middle and upper class areas near the center) no youth was assassinated last year while in Jardim Angela - a poor neighborhood in the south of the city, 108 per 100 thousand youth were assassinated.

According to the chief of police in the Jardim Angela area, Marcio Watanabe, drug-trafficking, rows amongst gang members about the division of stolen goods and alcohol abuse are the chief reasons for the high number of youth assassinations. "The drug-trafficker gives credit to the consumer and it doesn't matter how he receives the money afterwards. Consumers who do not pay are killed" commented the chief of police.

The risk of a youth being assassinated in the city of Rio de Janeiro is 18 times greater than in the State of Piaui. In 1994, 70.28 youth under 19 years per 100 thousand were assassinated in Rio de Janeiro while the number in Piaui was 3.83 per 100 thousand. In Rio during 1994, 841 youth were assassinated; in Piaui 12. Surprisingly, Amapa a state very similiar in social and economic terms to Piaui was second in the rank of youth assassinations per 100 thousand after Rio de Janeiro during that year. The Federal District (Brasilia) came in third place; Sao Paulo in fourth and Minas Gerais in fifth place. According to Guaracy Mingardi, of the Nucleus of Violence Studies of the University of Sao Paulo (USP) the cause for the increase in the number of the assassination of youth has at least three motives - the spread in drug trafficking, the urbanization of the population and the proliferation of youth gangs all linked to the increase of arms in the country.

- Denouncement of police violence in Sao Paulo.

Between December 1995 and August 1996, the Complaints Office of the Sao Paulo police received 121 denouncements of police involvement in torture and violence. Of this total 54 complaints were registered against military police and 67 against civil police. A total of 2456 complaints of all kinds against police were registered during the period. Commenting on the figures, Benedito Domingos Mariano, responsible for the Complaints Office said "This shows that the practice of torture yet exists during investigation. This area is of the responsibility of the civil police". 80 of the torture complaints of torture and beatings which accuse 200 police are at the moment being investigated in special inquiries.

LAND ISSUES

- Tribunal to judge rural massacres.

A symbolic tribunal with well-known personalities from Brazil and other countries will judge those responsible for the rural massacres of Corumbiara, State of Rondonia which took place in 1995 and of Eldorado dos Carajas, State of Para, which took place in April of this year. The tribunal will take place in the Petronio Portella auditorium in the Federal Senate in Brasilia on November 28 next and is geared to calling public attention to the massacres and to police impunity on such occasions. Nobody so far has been punished for these massacres. The tribunal is being organized by the Federal Council of the Lawyers' Association (OAB), the Federal Procurator's Office for Citizen Rights, the National Association of Procurators and the National Forum Against Rural Violence.

The tribunal plans to denounce the crimes and the impunity enjoyed by those who have been responsible as well as to alert society to the necessity of speeding up an agrarian reform. Amongst those who will form part of the jury are Bishop Orlando Dotti, president of the Catholic Church's Pastoral Land Commission (CPT); the president of the Brazilian Lawyers' Institute (IAB), Hermman de Assis Baeta; Senator Marina Silva of the Workers' Party (PT) of Acre; the well-known Portuguese writer Jose Saramago; UN representative Phillipe Texier; Andre Jacques a Swiss member of the World Council of Churches and James Prettas, former member of the Bertrand Russell tribunal. The tribunal will be presided by Deputy Helio Bicudo. The States of Para and Roraima will be formally accused as being responsible for the massacres and if they do not send a legal representative, the OAB will indicate lawyers to represent them. As well as oral evidence, photos and video tapes will also be presented.

- Frei Anastacio Update: Good News from Paraiba.

On October 22, the sentence against Frei Anastacio Ribeiro and 6 co-defendants was cancelled. Last August, the leader of the Church's Land Ministry and 6 rural workers had been sentenced to prison for 3 -5 years for the formation of gangs, mistreatment of children, and disobedience of a judicial order. 500 landless, church workers, politicians, and citizens accompanied the process outside the court. Frei Anastacio writes, "Without a doubt, international and national pressure in the form of hundreds of letters throughout the process had a great influence on the positive outcome of this case. In the name of the rural workers of Paraiba, I once again send my heartfelt thanks for the decisive support and actions of friends around the world. We sing together to the God of Freedom that accompanies us."

Maryknoll Missioners, Joao Pessoa, Brazil

maryknoll@globalnet.com.br

ECOLOGY

- NGOs criticize construction plans of proposed Paraguay - Parana' Waterway (Hidrovia).

We reproduce below two documents released in recent days by NGOs criticizing the construction plans of the proposed Paraguay - Parana' Waterway which would connect Argentina with the Pantanal region of Brazil and would provide access for large boats from the Atlantic to the interior regions of the Argentine, Paraguay, Bolivia and Brazil. Since plans for the construction of the Waterway were first announced, fears as to the possible widespread social and environmental damages such a project could provoke have been raised by many environmental, indigenous and human rights NGOs.

PRESS RELEASE

Thursday, November 7, 1996

Rios Vivos Coalition Paraguay Parana' Plata

Contact: Glenn Switkes

Latin America Program Director

International Rivers Network

Cuiaba', Brazil

(+55-65) 627-1689

email: glen@nutecnet.com.br

HIDROVIA PROJECT DESIGN MADE PUBLIC:

HEAVY ENGINEERING WORKS FOR PANTANAL

(Cuiaba', Brazil) Environmentalists and indigenous peoples in the River Plate basin have strongly criticized newly released engineering studies and a draft environmental impact assessment (EIA) for the Paraguay-Parana' Hidrovia. The Hidrovia is a plan to alter the natural 3,400 km course of South America's second largest river system to permit year-round navigation for multi-barge convoys. Of greatest controversy is that the plan includes heavy engineering works in the Pantanal, the world's largest wetlands. Project authorities have consistently denied that the Pantanal would be impacted by the project.

The Hidrovia design and impact assessment studies are the result of nearly 18 months of work by the Inter-governmental Committee on the Hidrovia (CIH), which includes officials of Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina, and Uruguay. The studies were funded by the Inter-American Development Bank and the United Nations Development Programme.

Under the project proposal, dredging would take place at 233 sites along the river, including 154 in the Pantanal, where initially 13 million cubic meters of dredging would take place. The more sinuous curves would be straightened, and a canal would be constructed at one point. The cost estimates for engineering works and necessary maintenance over 25 years of the hidrovia's operation are more than $1.1 billion, according to official estimates, not including costs of upgrading riverboats and barges.

Critics of the Hidrovia point to the long-term impacts of similar navigation "improvements" on the Mississippi and Danube. Alterations of these rivers caused a multitude of unexpected problems, especially increased sedimentation, erosion and flooding, leading to ever greater needs for construction works, and eventually reducing large parts of the once complex and ecologically diverse river systems to little more than shipping canals. The Hidrovia engineers acknowledge that, over the long-term, dikes and other structures will have to be built. Construction of a new port in the Pantanal is also proposed in the latest design documents.

"The governments have long refuted claims from environmentalists that the Hidrovia was a mega-project which would have serious and possibly irreversible impacts on the Pantanal and other wetlands. Now, that the first detailed studies have been released, environmentalists' fears have been vindicated," says Glenn Switkes, Latin America Program Director of International Rivers Network.

The studies were originally conceived to help the governments of the region decide what type of work they could do without damaging the environment. The work of the environmental team, however, was hampered from the start by their lack of access to the complete engineering design. The CIH also failed to make project documents available to the public in a timely manner. This created friction with international funding agencies and has raised the ire of environmental groups and the indigenous peoples who may well be the populations most seriously affected by the project.

The draft EIA states that up to 10 percent of the area of the Pantanal currently flooded during the dry season will no longer receive water, yet in an apparent contradiction estimates that only one percent of the Pantanal will be lost. It also downplays the impacts of the project on drinking water quality and fish stocks, and rejects the possibility of increased downstream flooding. The EIA fails to alleviate concerns of the impacts of huge convoys of barge trains passing through national parks and ecological reserves every 90 minutes during the peak of the soy harvest, with increased risks of oil and chemical spills.

Critics also question the consultants' optimistic evaluation of the economic viability of the Hidrovia. The report by the engineering firms Hidroservice (Brazil) and Louis Berger (US) failed to consider the impact on the Hidrovia of two other waterway projects being prioritized by the Brazilian government, the Madeira-Amazonas and Tocantins-Araguaia. Instead, it only looked at the Northern Railway (Ferronorte), which is currently under construction, and while conceding it would provide cheaper transport than the Hidrovia, still, concluded the hidrovia was economically viable.

The studies also found that indigenous peoples would be the most impacted by the project, losing income from fishing and agriculture and having their landbase threatened by increased land speculation. Yet, project proponents have failed to provide information on the project in an appropriate form which would permit indigenous communities to evaluate whether they would benefit in any way. The project plans dredging and straightening of the Paraguay in the section which passes the Guato' reserve. "We'd have been better off being born as capybaras, because at least the forest police take care of them. No one cares about the Indians," says Severo, the Guato' chief.

The Brazilian government, thought to be a key player in determining whether the Hidrovia mega-project moves ahead, had publicly stated that no work would be undertaken which would impact the Pantanal. Yet, the engineering works now programmed for the Pantanal stretch of the Paraguay River were specifically designed, according to the engineering team, to avoid contradictions with the elliptical statements of the Brazilian Foreign Ministry, which did not categorically exclude such operations, but instead said that Brazil would "prioritarily" avoid works which permanently damage the Pantanal.

"The Brazilian government has been playing a diplomatic game of fence-sitting throughout this entire process. It's time for them to get off the fence, and to play an active role in protecting the Pantanal, a planetary treasure, from the dangers the Hidrovia project represents," says Alcides Faria of the Brazilian NGO, Ecology and Action, and the Rios Vivos coalition.

In a letter this week to the studies' funders, the Inter-American Development Bank and the United Nations Development Programme, non-governmental organizations from the region and internationally have asked for the period for approval of the studies to be extended to allow time for independent analysis of their findings. The letter also stressed the importance of not permitting engineering works to begin before analysis of the studies is completed.

For more information:

Alcides Faria, Ecologia e Acao +55.67.724.9109

Jorge Barreiro, Redes -- Amigos de la Tierra Uruguay

+598.2.35.62.65 or +598.2.37.24.55

- Subject: Rios Vivos letter to IDB, UNDP, CIH

Rios Vivos Coalition Paraguay Parana' Plata

Campo Grande, November 11, 1996

Sr. Enrique Iglesias, President

Inter-American Development Bank

Washington, DC, USA

Sr. James Gustave Speth, Administrator

United Nations Development Programme

New York, USA

Sr. Jesus Gonzalez, Executive Secretary

Intergovernmental Committee on the Hidrovia Paraguay-

Parana'

Buenos Aires, Argentina

Dear Sirs:

The Rios Vivos Coalition has continually been seeking information regarding the Hidrovia Parana'-Paraguay project and a continual dialogue with the governments of the River Plate basin, represented on the Intergovernmental Committee on the Hidrovia (CIH), as the path by which civil society in these countries could influence the decision making process for this mega-project.

At this moment, when the consultants are delivering their studies and final project plans to the CIH, which are only available on computer diskettes, even to the governments involved in the project, Rios Vivos reiterates that real access to information has not been possible, nor were conditions created to permit public participation, as was agreed upon in the Maldonado agreement of December 5, 1995. The contracting of the consulting firm Norplan provided no concrete results. It appears that their work was subject only to the direction of the CIH. Contractual requirements regarding the above points have been handled only as a symbolic ritual to try to satisfy the funders (IDB and UNDP).

For the past three years, sectors of civil society have taken various initiatives to make this process transparent so as to permit independent technical evaluation of the project and plan and studies and the dissemination of infomation to local communities and indigenous populations affected by the project. Between 24 and 27 of October, 1996, Rios Vivos organized a Technical Seminar in Corumba' in which 40 specialists from the countries of the La Plata Basin, Europe, and the United States participated, in order to discuss the Hidrovia Paraguay-Parana' project and to undertake a preliminary analysis of those documents which the CIH made available. From the start, they found that the single copy of the diskettes we were given included files which were inaccessible and not in order. Their initial evaluation is that the studies did not succeed in analyzing the broad impacts of the project.

We can now also state with confidence that:

* The proposal continues to be for the execution of a mega-project including permanent, structural works throughout the extension of the Parana' and Paraguay Rivers, affecting regions of the Gran Chaco and wetlands systems including the Pantanal, as we have always warned it would;

* The carrying out of this project is going to cause more serious environmental and social impacts than the previous version (Internave), which was disqualified and rejected by the countries involved;

* The project states that there is a high degree of uncertainty about the future behavior of the hydrological system which would be altered by the interventions.

* Indigenous peoples, fishing communities and other traditional populations are going to suffer strong negative impacts;

* Drinking water quality will be affected in some regions.

These are serious questions which were raised following the initial analysis, and which need to be discussed more deeply. The Rios Vivos coalition and other organzations are working toward this end.

We consider inadequate and limiting the fact that this discussion is now planned to be transferred to the level of each individual country. The ecosystems where interventions are planned are not confined to political boundaries between the countries. This is a hydrological system with great biologicl diversity. An evaluation must be made of the cumulative impacts in hydrographic sub- basins of the different rivers of the region, and in the La Plata Basin as a whole. This is a key question.

It is urgent that the IDB, the UNDP, and the governments establish an appropriate methodolgy and a commitment to meet the minimum requirements for the taking of decisions in a process this complex.

We reaffirm that the agreement of Maldonado must be honored. We propose a meeting to seek solutions to the problems we have presented here.

Sincerely,

Alcides Faria

Ecoa

Secretary

Rios Vivos Coalition Paraguay Parana' Plata

=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=

Glenn Switkes, Director, Latin America Program,

International Rivers Network

1847 Berkeley Way, Berkeley, California 94703, USA

Tel. (510) 848 1155 Fax (510) 848 1008

South America address:

a/c ICV, Rua 2, no. 203, Bairro Boa Esperanca,

CEP 78.068-360 Cuiaba, MT, Brazil

Tel/Fax: +55 65 627 1689

=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=

INDIGENOUS ISSUES

- Recent newsletters from the Indigenous Missionary Council (CIMI).

Newsletter n. 234

COIAB REPUDIATES CONTACT WITH KORUBO, FUNAI REJOICES WITH THE

CONTACT

The Coordination of Indigenous Organizations of Brazilian Amazonia (Coiab) repudiated the contact made by Funai with the Korubo, isolated Indians who live in the Javari Valley, in the state of Amazonas, on the border between Peru and Colombia. The contact, which was coordinated by expert Sidney Possuelo, took place on October 15, after several attempts. The Indians were approached for the first time ten years ago. Possuelo says he wants to protect the Korubo from the attacks of woodcutters who are exploiting timber in the region.

In Coiab's opinion, this contact is a repetition of past mistakes and actions of disregard for indigenous rights. "Historically, the indigenous movement has been against contact fronts, considering that the contacts promoted by the Brazilian State through Funai have led to physical and cultural violence against Indians," the note says. Coiab requested Funai to provide explanations on what the agency intends to do with this contact and how the Indians will be protected after being contacted. No reply was provided.

KAINGANG RELEASE HOSTAGES AFTER AGREEMENT

An agreement between the Kaingang Indians, the National Colonization and Land Reform Institute (Incra) and Funai ensured, on Sunday (October 27), the release of the four hostages - the last two of whom had been taken on Saturday - who were being held by Indians of the Toldo Pinhal area in the state of Santa Catarina. According to the agreement, the agencies took on the commitment to remove from an indigenous area 53 families of farmers who 50 years ago bought the land they live in from the Luce e Rosa company and expelled the Kaingang from their 894-hectare territory, which was declared an indigenous area in 1994. The Indians threaten to take harsh measures on November 27 if the promises are not fulfilled.

INDIGENOUS BABIES INFECTED IN MATERNITY IN RORAIMA

An outbreak of a hospital infection in the nursery of the Mother-Child Hospital Nossa Senhora de Nazare in the state of Roraima has killed 33 babies since the beginning of October.The news was only disseminated this week. At least 8 of these babies were Indians from the Macuxi, Wapixana, Ingariko and Yanomami ethnic groups. The last baby to die, a Yanomami girl, drew the attention of the national media. She was the twin sister of a boy whose life is at risk in the Intensive Care Unit of the hospital. The 17-day old Yanomami twins were infected on the 19th of this month. The Yanomami girl died after being infected with the Acinetobacter Calcoacetisus bacterium. The poor infrastructure of the hospital and the lack of funds are believed to have been the main causes of the tragedy.

XAVANTE INDIANS REQUEST GAIGER's RESIGNATION TO MINISTER JOBIM

A week after they dragged the president of Funai out of the building of the agency, the Xavante Indians came to Brasilia again to request Gaiger's resignation to the Consumer Defence, Environment and Minorities Committee of the Chamber of Deputies and to the minister of Justice, Nelson Jobim. The Xavante referred to Geiger as "unreliable." The minister gave no reply to the Indians but promised to consider their claims.

Brasilia, 31 October 1996

Newsletter n. 235

HUNGER AND DEATH THREATS AGAINST INDIGENOUS PEOPLES INCREASE

The Indianist Missionary Council - Cimi, launched on Wednesday, November 6, the report on Violence against Indigenous Peoples in Brazil: 1994-1995. This publication is the seventh one produced by Cimi in the eight years it has been monitoring violence against indigenous peoples in Brazil. This year, in addition to listing cases related to offences under the penal law, the report also lists cases of aggression resulting from neglect on the part of the public power: diseases, deaths caused by diseases, hunger, suicides, and attempts to commit suicide. The figures show that there was a dramatic increase in hunger, invasion and death threat rates.

In the 1994-95 period, over 123,716 cases of violence were registered which victimized individuals or communities as a whole belonging to more than 113 (52.5%) of the 215 indigenous peoples of the country. There were more than 180 cases of aggression against the indigenous heritage in 70 of the 554 indigenous areas in the country. An outstanding aspect, however, is the high incidence of individual aggressions. Under this item, which includes murders, murder attempts, homicides, suicides, abuse of authority, violation of domiciles, and diseases, 123,536 cases of violence were registered. The public power was directly or indirectly responsible for about 123,244 (99.6%) of these cases.

MURDERS

Seventy-five murders were registered in the 1994-95 period. There were 276 murder attempts, as compared to 85 in 1993. Although problems were faced to collect data in various regions, the figures for death threats reached alarming proportions. Over 1,584 cases were registered in 1994 and 360 in 1996.

The report shows that 46 indigenous areas were invaded for the first time (8.4% of the total), either by people trying to settle in them or for the purpose of illegally exploiting their natural riches. Added to the invasions registered in 13 other areas in the past, over 118 invasions were registered altogether. Most of these invasions and illegal exploitation activities took place in Amazonia, where 86.4% of the areas suffered such acts.

DISEASES AND HUNGER

The report registers 15,733 cases of diseases in 44 peoples which reported them. At least 446 Indians died because of them. There was an increase in hunger and malnutrition cases among the peoples. In the last report published by Cimi, in 1993, 17,098 cases were registered. In 1995, this figure grew to 106,764 cases, although deaths dropped from 20 in 1993 to 14 in the 1994-95 period.

The diseases which affected indigenous peoples most were influenza, with reinfection in certain cases, such as among the Myky people in the state of Mato Grosso; tuberculosis, anemia and malaria. The situation of the Deni Indians in the Xerua~ River in Amazonas, highly affected by malaria, is worrying. The recurrence of the disease has caused Splenomegaly, or enlargement of the spleen, affecting 181 of the 241 Deni Indians of the Xerua~ River (75.1%) in 1995 alone. This people is threatened by extinction and has suffered a 20% population decrease in recent years.

DECREE 1,775/96

The year of 1995 was marked by tensions as a result of the announcement of amendments in Decree 22/91, replaced in January 1996 with Decree n. 1,775/96, which provides for the administrative procedure for the demarcation of indigenous lands. In this period, indianist entities, indigenous organizations, and even some of Funai's offices denounced invasions as a result of that announcement.

Cimi's report reaches the conclusion that "this may be the source of the increase registered in the rate of invasion in indigenous areas in the 1994-95 period, as well as the cause of other acts of violence against Indians by invaders strengthened by the idea that they could benefit from the announcement made by the government."

Once more, the report confirms that political violence continues to be the principal means to control the ownership of the land and riches in Brazil. In spite of this scenario, it was once again seen that indigenous peoples were not intimidated and "showed resistance, combativeness, and hope and strengthened their traditional organizations or created new forms of organization in a growing process of autonomy."

Brasilia, 7 November 1996

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