Number 287, September 17, 1997.

VIOLENCE

- 217 crimes committed by military police investigated each month in Sao Paulo.

According to a report in the 'Folha de Sao Paulo' on September 11, the military police in Sao Paulo investigate a monthly average of 217 crimes committed by members of the force. Between January and August of the current year 2150 such cases were under investigation. As a result of the investigations during this period 346 military police (16% of the total investigated) were expelled from the force.

Public prosecutor Eduardo de Freitas of the Support Center of the Criminal Prosecutors of Sao Paulo commented that the number of investigations involving military police since the beginning of 1997 ''show a very high criminal rate amongst police... The more than 2 thousand investigations opened reflect the poor quality of the military police who are entering the force''. According to the president of the Military Police Association of Sao Paulo, Wilson de Oliveira Morais, many such crimes are due to the economic conditions of the police. ''Police who live in favelas (shantytowns) become revolted and commit such barbarities'' he commented. Many have part-time jobs to supplement their salaries. According to data of the Secretariat of Public Security in Sao Paulo, between January and August 86 people were killed by military police whilst they were on duty. During the same period 51 people were killed by police who were working in their second job. During the first eight months of 1997, 8 police were killed on duty and 24 off duty.

In recent days two crimes - one in Sao Paulo and the other in Brasilia, in which military police were involved called much attention in the country to police involvement in crime. In Sao Paulo two military police, Paulo de Tarso Dantas and Sergio Eduardo Pereira de Souza, are accused of involvement in the kidnaping and murder of 8 year old Ives Yoshiaki Ota. The child was kidnaped on August 29 and killed on the following day. The child's family owns 12 stores in the city and a ransom was being demanded for the safe return of Ivan. A kidnaping in Brasilia had a happier ending on September 12 when 12 year old Cleusy Meireles de Oliveira was successfully released. The kidnaping took place on September 05 and the kidnaped girl is a daughter of Deputy Luiz Estevao who is also a prominent business man in the Federal District. Amongst those accused of the kidnaping were two military police lieutenants - Osmarinho Cardoso da Silva and Paulo Cesar Cury. A ransom of US $4.5 million had been demanded.

Meanwhile the commander general of the military police in the State of Sao Paulo, Colonel Claudionor Lisboa, was dismissed on September 12. The Secretary for Public Security in the State of Sao Paulo, Jose Afonso da Silva, commented that the dismissal was due to 'a lack of command' on the part of the head of the military police. Secretary Silva gave as an example of the growing number of robberies in the state. In contrast to statistics for murders the number of robberies has been increasing significantly. Between January and August of this year, the number of robberies in the Greater Sao Paulo area has increased by 16.6% when compared to the same period last year. The number of murders has fallen by 6% when both periods are compared. The involvement of members of the military police in violence which received widescale media attention in recent months also contributed to the dismissal of the head of the military police.

- Sao Paulo: According to State Secretariat 30% of crimes are not registered with the police.

A report in the 'Folha de Sao Paulo' on September 07 claims that crime in Sao Paulo is greater than official statistics show. The Secretariat for Public Security calculates that 30% of all crimes are not reported to the police. A 1992 UN study showed that as many as 79.8% of all robberies are not reported.

During the first seven months of 1997 an average of 426 robberies were registered each day with the police in the city of Sao Paulo. The majority of such crimes are registered in middle class neighborhoods such as Perdizes, Vila Mariana and Itaim Bibi. The Folha article comments that a large number of crimes are not reported to the police because many fear that they will be poorly received in the police station or that little will be done to investigate the crime.

According to lawyer Jairo Fonseca, president of the Human Rights Commission of the Lawyers' Association (OAB) of Sao Paulo, the middle class tend to report crimes less to the police. ''Crimes which involve the loss of something of significant value (a car for example) and which usually are insured are registered more frequently. On the other hand cases which involve something unpleasant such as people who are victims of small robberies or crimes of a sexual nature are seldom reported to the police'' commented Tulio Kahn, a political science researcher with the United Nations Latin American Institute for the Prevention of Crime and Treatment of Delinquents (ILANUD).

Between 1991 and 1996 approximately a half million people moved neighborhood within the city of Sao Paulo - the majority moved towards the peripheries of the city. Calculations show that approximately a similar number left the city and moved to neighboring municipalities. Most moved because living costs such as rents were cheaper in such peripheral regions. In many cases this mass movement to new neighborhoods resulted in the significant increase in crime in such places. Anhanguera is the neighborhood whose population increased most and in fact doubled during this period. The rate of growth of assassinations during the same period in this neighborhood more than doubled. According to statistics of the Municipality of Sao Paulo no murders were registered in Anhanguera in 1994. In 1995 11.85 people per 100 thousand inhabitants in the neighborhood were assassinated. In 1996 the statistic stood at 21.03 / 100 thousand.

Brasilandia, a neighborhood which is situated in the north-east of the city has had a similar experience. Its' population grew at an annual average of 3.6% during the 1991 - 96 period. Statistics for assassinations in the region have also been increasing - 50.04 / 100 thousand inhabitants in 1994; 57.31 / 100 thousand in 1995 and 78.19 / 100 thousand in 1996. ''When the population is growing rapidly, violence increases faster'' commented Narcy Cardia, a researcher with the Nucleus of Violence Studies of the University of the State of Sao Paulo (USP). She lists a number of reasons for this increase in violence. Poverty is generalized in such neighborhood and there are few possibilities of social and economic improvement. Besides in such new areas there is very little privacy. Infrastructure is heavily over-loaded as well -''If the existing infrastructure was already precarious for ten, it got significantly worse when it had to serve a hundred'' commented Ms. Cardia.

Last week-end was the second most violent in the city of Sao Paulo this year. Between 8.00 P.M. on Friday last and 8.00 AM on Monday 55 assassinations took place. The most violent week-end so far this year was that of February 28 to March 03 when 57 assassinations took place.

LAND ISSUES

- Rural violence could become more radical according to landless workers' leaders.

Two leaders of the Movement of Rural Landless Workers (MST) - Joao Pedro Stedile and Gilmar Mauro commented on September 13 that rural violence could become more radical because of the rise of other landless groups demanding agrarian reform. Such groups in many instances are isolated and have not a central control such as that of the MST. ''We have not lost control of our members. The government however needs to wake up because its' policies are creating a powder keg and new groups without hope will use violence. If the government does not speed up agrarian reform and doesn't resolve the problem of the small farmer without doubt violent actions such as what happened in Parana will multiply'' commented Joao Pedro Stedile.

Mr. Stedile was referring to an incident which took place on the Cordilheira ranch in the municipality of Jundiai do Sul, State of Parana on September 06 when two ranchers and five functionaries were held as hostages and maltreated by a group of landless which did not belong to the MST. The incident took place during an argument between members of the 62 landless families who had occupied the Cordilheira ranch two days earlier and the ranchers. During the incident landless leader Idair Sebastiao received a bullet wound on the leg and this led to the reaction on the part of the landless when they held and mistreated the ranchers and their functionaries. The MST condemned the action of the landless as well as a campaign of the media which attempted to link the incident to the MST.

In fact the State of Parana has been the center of rural conflicts during the first weeks of September. 6 ranches were occupied on September 08 and 09 by the MST throughout the state. In all the MST have occupied 105 ranches in Parana. On September 16, 80 ranchers using masks and bullet - proof vests invaded the Saudade ranch in the municipality of Santa Isabel do Ivai in order to expel 40 landless families who had been camped on the ranch for the last two years. The ranchers who were heavily armed belonged to the Democratic Rural Union (UDR) - an organization which represents ranchers. They burned the plastic tents of the landless during the invasion. The 1020 hectare Saudade ranch was inspected by INCRA (the federal land agency) in 1995 and was found to be unused and so suitable for exappropriation for agrarian reform. In the State of Parana, police have arrested 15 landless leaders during the last week.

On September 10, three military police and at least five landless were injured in a conflict between the police and the landless who were blocking the Raposa Tavares highway near Presidente Epitacio in the Pontal do Paranapanema region of the State of Sao Paulo. The landless who belonged to the Association of Brazilians in Need of Land were protesting the manner in which INCRA is drawing up a list of landless families who will be settled in agrarian reform projects.

- Judgment postponed until September 29.

In recent editions of NEWS FROM BRAZIL we have carried reports of the campaign to have the trial of MST leader Jose Rainha Junior transferred from Pedro Canario, State of Espirito Santo, to the state capital, Vitoria. The judgment had been set for September 16 and the request for transferral to Vitoria is being judged by 3 judges of the State Tribunal. One has voted in favor of the transferral, another has voted against and the third requested more time during the last session of the Tribunal on September 10 to study the question. In the light of this decision the judge in Pedro Canario reset the date of the judgment for September 29 next. If the final decision of the Tribunal is to move the judgment to Vitoria it is expected that a date will be selected in December for the event.

Jose Rainha Junior was sentenced to 26 years and 6 months imprisonment in a trial held in Pedro Canario on June 11 last. He is accused of the assassination of rancher Jose Machedo Neto and military policeman Sergio Narciso on June 05, 1989. Witnesses testified that he was in another state at the time of the assassination. Amnesty International claimed after the June trial that the sentence was politically motivated. During recent days the MST commented in a press release that ranchers belonging to the UDR in the Pontal de Paranapanema region of the State of Sao Paulo where Mr. Rainha has recently been active as a landless leader have been working hard to have him condemned once again in Pedro Canario. Local ranchers in Pedro Canario are also heavily involved in a campaign to have Rainha condemned. ''For the UDR it is a question of honor to have Jose Rainha condemned. For this reason it is more important still to have the trial transferred'' commented the MST document.

- Ranch held 220 workers in slave conditions.

The Ministry of Labor and the Federal Police removed 220 people who had been working in slave conditions from the Flor de Mata ranch in the municipality of Sao Felix do Xingu, State of Para, in an operation which started on August 27. 15 were women and 30 were minors. According to a spokesperson of the ministry the people freed had been working in a system which left them continually indebted to the store on the ranch. The denouncement of slave labor on the ranch was originally made by a 17 year old youth. The Minister for Agrarian Policy, Raul Jungmann, announced that the ranch would now be confiscated and used for an agrarian reform project.

CHILDREN'S ISSUES: URGENT ACTION APPEAL

The following serious denouncement has been passed on to us by an organization working with children and adolescents in the city of Sao Paulo. The organization requested that its' name not be published since it already is under very serious pressure because of its' work in bringing the facts outlined below to light. We know this organization and have complete faith in the seriousness of its' work and consequently in the appeal which it requested us to make. If you wish to pass your comments etc. on to the organization you may do so through us. Our e-mail address is: sejup@ax.apc.org

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''The future of the child is today: Tomorrow is too late'' - Gabriela Mistral.

Background

In all of Brazil the method of attending children and adolescents is seriously inadequate. This is especially the case in the State of Sao Paulo which in recent years has been the responsibility of SOS - Crianca (SOS Child). This is a government organization belonging to the State Foundation of the Well-Being of Minors (FEBEM); previously this organization belonged to the State Secretariat of the Family, Children and Social Services.

SOS - Crianca was founded approximately 12 years ago because of pressure from organizations which defend the rights of children and adolescents following the promulgation of the new federal Constitution. The Constitution in article 227 establishes as a duty of the family, of society and of the state to assure as an absolute priority the fundamental rights of children and adolescents in this country.

Because of this, SOS -Crianca since then has been internationally known and is considered to be the largest state organization in Latin America which attends children and adolescents.

Following the promulgation of the new federal Constitution, a federal law (number 8089/90) - known as the Statute of Children and Adolescents, was passed. This law has as its' objective the rights of children and adolescents and set up councils at national, state and municipality levels which have as their function the discussion and implementation of public policies for children and adolescents. The law set up as well Tutelar Councils whose function is to ensure that the above mentioned statute is observed as well as to supervise all organizations, public and private, which work with children and adolescents.

The Denouncement

When the Tutelar Councils began to function in 1992 it became obvious that especially in SOS - Crianca the law was not being observed. The local Tutelar Council using the rights invested in it by law tried to advise this organization on how to comply with the demands made by the new legislation.

However, this work of orientation and conscientization has been made difficult during the last two years especially by the coordinator of SOS - Crianca, Mr. Paulo Victor Sapienza. The culmination of this difficulty were serious denouncements of sexual abuse and corruption of children and adolescents, as well as other irregularities.

This fact led the courts system to investigate the denouncements together with the Tutelar Council. A previous investigation carried out by FEBEM was closed without any charges being made. The coordinator (Mr. Sapienza) remained in office but the denouncements continued and in fact became more serious and became public through publication in the media. With this media attention, the adolescents - all males, began to be threatened and bribed so that they would change the statements they had already made in the courts. For this reason it became necessary to offer protection to some of the adolescents and they went to live away from the city.

What causes the greatest indignation is the fact that human rights organizations have remained silent with regards this situation as if nothing had happened. Unfortunately we may never know if the denouncements are true or false because it seems that the question will be taken out of the courts because of political pressure. It is necessary that the investigations be complete and rigorous if only because some of the denouncements have been shown to be true. The investigations should continue as the law demands. The general public cannot be left without information in this case and especially so because the children and adolescents are afraid and confused. It is of fundamental importance that no type of denouncement should be left un-investigated, especially one which is so serious brought against a person in a position of so much responsibility. This person is directly responsible for thousands of children and adolescents and as some denouncements have been shown to be true, this person cannot be allowed to work with children and adolescents.

ACTION APPEAL:

We urgently request your support. Please send fax messages to the following authorities demanding that a complete investigation of the denouncements be carried out as the law demands.

(1) Sr. Mario Covas,

Governor of the State of Sao Paulo.

Fax + 55 11 845 3700

(2) Dr. Luis Antonio Guimaraes Marrey,

Procurator General of the State of Sao Paulo,

Fax + 55 11 604 1374

- Child prostitutes used in 'sex tourism' in Pantanal.

The large region of wetlands known as the Pantanal in Mato Grosso do Sul has become a center of tourism especially for those interested in fishing. The region is one of the largest angling regions in the country. According to a report in the 'Folha de Sao Paulo' on September 14 'sex tourism' now has become a well known attraction for numerous visitors to the region - many are from other regions of Brazil and especially from Sao Paulo.

A recent survey carried out in partnership by the Ministry of Justice, Unicef and the government of the State of Mato Grosso do Sul identified 65 localities of prostitution in six cities in the Pantanal region. Many of the prostitutes are young girls. ''The important information which came to light in this survey is the link between fishing and prostitution'' commented social psychologist Jacy Correa Curado who worked on the project. Approximately 200 thousand tourists are attracted to the region each year - 70% of this total comes from Sao Paulo according to the state tourism board.

In Porto Murtinho, a town of 11 thousand inhabitants six locations of prostitution were identified during the survey. In Campo Grande (population of 600 thousand) 12 such establishments were found. Here over 100 young girls from Sao Paulo, Goias, Parana, Minas Gerais and even from Paraguay and Chile are involved in programs of sex tourism according to the local Titular Council for Children and Adolescents. On many occasion the girls are hired by tourists for periods of one or two weeks. This same trend is also very common in the municipality of Coxim where young girls are hired by tourists staying in anglers' campments. In Corumba (population 87.8 thousand) 16 prostitution establishments were located.

Typical of the prostitution establishments is that owned by Ernesto Ramires Vieira in Porto Murtinho on the banks of the River Paraguay. The establishment has 18 rooms each with air conditioning and a frigobar. 42 prostitutes work in the establishment. As many as 250 men visit the establishment each night according to the owner. Up to 600 bottles of beer are sold at the weekend. The owner claimed that he was proud of the high level of his 'customers' which include well-known football players, business men, actors and singers. During the 15 minutes in which he was giving the interview to the Folha reporter he received three phone calls asking that girl prostitutes be reserved for different clients.

In April last the government of the State of Mato Grosso do Sul decided to set up commissions in all municipalities to combat the sexual exploitation of children and adolescents.

SOCIAL ISSUES

- Update: 'Cry of the Excluded' Campaign 1997.

As reported in our August 27 issue, the 3rd. 'Cry of the Excluded' Campaign took place throughout Brazil on September 07 - Brazilian Independence Day. The Catholic Church and various organizations such as the Movement of Landless Rural Workers (MST) and the Sole Central Congress of Trade Unions (CUT) organized the event. The reported number of people who took part varied from city to city - 4 thousand in Porto Alegre; 500 in Florianopolis; almost 4 thousand in Recife; 700 in Belo Horizonte; 5 thousand in Belem; 2 thousand in Salvador and 1200 in Curitiba.

Even though the event took place in an estimated 800 towns and cities throughout the country, Aparecida do Norte in the State of Sao Paulo was the city where the greatest concentration took place. Here the 'Cry of the Excluded' is linked to a workers' pilgrimage to the city where the largest Marian shrine in the country is situated. The military police calculated that approximately 135 thousand people took part in the event in Aparecida do Norte. Here as in the other locations where the event took place the participants used red cards to protest the economic and social policies of the federal government. The red card as a symbol was borrowed from football where the referee uses a red card to expel players.

Bishop Angelico Sandalo Bernadino preaching at the principal mass during the event in Aparecida do Norte commented that ''authorities bend their knees before the golden calf, smiling to the Nation, saving currency and bankers whilst millions of people lose their employment and are crushed under the ruins of the bankrupt public health and educational systems. The land given by God for the use and ownership of all has been taken over by a few who have turned it into an object of negotiation and speculation and not as something to be used for planting and for living on. Transparent and courageous dialogue with the people, with the trade unions, with the grassroots movements is put in second place and the government gives itself over to plots with the Legislature which in large part is divorced from the real interests of the common good. The nations assists, scandalized, acts such as the buying and selling of votes and other spurious bargains. The justice system continues to serve only the rich and powerful''.

''With our presence here'' continued Bishop Bernadino ''we are saying 'enough' to the neo-liberal wave responsible for the unemployment, hunger and despair of so many people. We want to say 'enough' to corruption, impunity and the lack of a firm political will to bring about a solution of the social problems which afflict our people..... We want to manifest our solidarity with those who struggle using the pacific arms of truth and justice for the construction of a new society''.

The leader of the MST, Joao Pedro Stedile, called the Cry of the Excluded ''an absolute success .... the people went to the streets to celebrate Independence day reflecting on problems''.

- Functional illiteracy affects 33% in Sao Paulo.

A new kind of survey which uses texts used daily such as job advertisements and bank deposit slips showed that 32.9% of the population of the city of Sao Paulo is functionally illiterate according to a report in the 'Folha de Sao Paulo' on September 08. Here are included people who never attended school as well as those who spent some time in school but now have serious difficulties in reading and writing.

The survey was carried out amongst a thousand people in the 15 to 54 age bracket. Results showed that 7.4% are totally illiterate - the 1991 census had show this segment of the population to be 7.5%. A further 25.5% were shown to be functionally illiterate in the recent survey. Census results shows that total illiteracy in Brazil stands at 20%. In Sao Paulo an estimated 41% of people over 15 years (just over 3.6 million people) have not completed primary school.

REPORTS FROM OTHER INTERNET SOURCES

We include below three reports which have been available on internet conferences in recent days and deal with topics we frequently report on in NEWS FROM BRAZIL. The source of each report is indicated.

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Food First Backgrounder

Institute for Food & Development Policy

Please read informational material on the Institute at

the end of this piece.

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"Many policy makers say it is unrealistic to speak of land reform in today's political climate, they say it has gone out of fashion in the 90s, that it is simply not on the agenda. But we say: look at Brazil, look at Chiapas, look even at urban farmers in U.S. inner city neighborhoods beginning to grow food on abandoned lots. Land reform IS happening in the 90s, with or without the policy makers. It is happening FROM BELOW. Policy makers must decide whether to help or hinder this global movement by the disposessed to reposess land left unused in the interstices of globalization, and transform it for productive uses.

In that spirit we present the following piece, because the news is good."

-- Peter Rosset

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Land Reform From Below:

The Landless Workers Movement in Brazil

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By Mark S. Langevin and Peter Rosset

Mark S. Langevin, Ph.D. is a Lecturer on Global

Studies at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma,

WA. and Coordinator of the Corumbiara Project.

Peter Rosset is Executive Director of the Institute

for Food and Development Policy.

Cicero Lourenco da Silva Neto and eight other military police officers rode their motorcycles into Brasilia, Brazil's capital, around noon on April 17, 1997. Cicero, the son of landless rural workers from the state of Rio Grande do Norte, and his fellow officers entered the avenue of the Esplanada dos Ministerios where government buildings form a corridor leading to the National Congress, Presidential Palace, and Supreme Court. Marching behind Cicero were nearly five thousand landless rural workers, their families, and supporters.(1) They came to demand land reform. Cicero was leading them into the very heart of Brazil's body politic, a year to the day after police forces carried out the country's largest massacre of landless rural families.(2) Frustrated by government inaction, the landless in Brazil are today carrying out land reform "from below."

This March to Brasilia was organized by the Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra (MST) or Landless Workers Movement, founded in 1985. Many of the marchers walked for two months to reach Brasilia and galvanized the largest demonstration of opposition to the government of President Fernando Henrique Cardoso. For Brazil's 4.8 million landless families, the march to Brasilia showed the nation how far the landless rural worker's struggle has come.

The MST, Land Reform, and Brazilian Democracy

Since 1985 the MST has been organizing Brazil's rural poor to include them in the economic and political life of the nation. During the past six years the MST has organized 151,427 landless families for the occupation of well over 21 million hectares of idle land.(3)

Operating on a shoestring budget and despite government repression the Landless Workers Movement now organizes more landless families to occupy and produce on idle farmland than the government's land reform measures. Landless workers are carrying out land reform from below and thus challenging the Brazilian elite's domination of so-called democratic rule. Gilmar Mauro of the MST's National Directorate explains the role of the movement:

"There is a great and urgent need to restructure Brazil's land tenure system in order to guarantee access to land, promote equitable social and economic development, and insure the citizenship of the rural population. We believe that our struggle for land reform, occupying and cultivating large tracts of idle farmlands, democratizes access to land as well as to our society and government."(4)

The MST offers the rural poor an alternative, ensuring their welfare and participation in economic development and democracy. The MST is providing health care and education to landless families. The MST's National Confederation of Brazilian Land Reform Cooperatives is providing agricultural extension services. They assist in organizing production and facilitate marketing the surplus produce of the MST's squatter settlements. This has transformed MST land occupations into productive agricultural cooperatives providing ample food, cash income, and basic services for thousands of member families. Moreover, this social movement has created small industries among the most advanced cooperatives, including a clothing factory in Rio Grande do Sul, a tea processing plant in Parana, and a dairy processing operation in Santa Catarina.

The MST's alternative rural development strategy is challenging the political and policy limitations of the Cardoso government by providing a more just and productive alternative to the dominant system's preferential austerity for the poor.

According to Joao Pedro Stedile of the MST, "the struggle for land reform unfolds in the countryside, but it will eventually be resolved in the city where there is the political power for structural change.(5) Since its formation in 1985 the MST has worked closely with the Workers Party, many of whose leaders and elected officials come from the ranks of landless workers.

Today, the MST's struggle for land reform is supported by a majority of Brazilians and threatens to turn Brazilian politics on its head. A March 1997 public opinion poll sponsored by Brazil's elite National Confederation of Industry, reported that 77 percent of respondents approve of the MST and 85 percent approve of the non-violent occupation of idle farmland.(6) Even the conservative president of the Brazilian National Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Reverend Lucas Moreira Neves, recently met with the Minister of Land Policy, Raul Jungmann, to request that the government work with the MST to solve the problem of rural poverty.(7) On March 20, 1997 the Brazilian Association of Journalists honored the MST and sponsored a declaration of support signed by more than 200 journalists, artists and renowned intellectuals. The day before the MST received Belgium's prestigious King Boudouin Foundation Award, given every two years to recognize outstanding contributions to development worldwide. President Cardoso's own political party, the Brazilian Social Democratic Party, is split over the MST and land reform. Many of the party's elected officials, from federal deputies to city mayors, openly support the MST and its demands for a sweeping national land reform.

Land Ownership

Most of Brazil's rich agricultural land is increasingly concentrated in a few wealthy hands after decades of monocrop export agriculture and successive waves of government sponsored repression against rural workers and their organizations. According to Brazil's new Super Ministry of Land Policy, created immediately after the Eldorado dos Carajas massacre, small family farmers with 10 hectares of land or less comprise 30.4 percent of all Brazilian farmers, but together hold only 1.5 percent of all agricultural lands.(8) Since 1985 the number of small farms has sharply decreased from just over 3 million to under 1 million.(9)

In contrast the country's largest farms, of 1,000 hectares or more, comprise only 1.6 percent of all farms, but hold 53.2 percent of all agricultural land.(10) The largest 75 farms, with 100,000 hectares or more, control over five times the combined total area of all small farms.(11) The consolidation of farmland increased agricultural exports and provided an effective hedge against inflation for the wealthy. However, the major imapact of land concentration has been inescapable poverty and the spread of chronic malnutrition.

Further aggravating rural poverty and hunger is the pervasive use of agricultural lands for pasture and the high proportion of idle land among the country's largest landholdings. 42.6 percent of agricultural land is not cultivated, and among Brazil's largest landholdings of 1,000 hectares or more 88.7 percent of arable land is permanently idle.(12) Today, idle farmland may be the most important cause of both rural and urban poverty and hunger in Brazil.

The control and use of Brazil's vast and rich agricultural landholdings is a national problem, challenging the country's decade old democracy. For Dr. Ladislau Dowbor, Professor of Economics at Sao Paulo's Catholic University, "to maintain this situation when millions of agriculturists want to cultivate, but do not have access to land, while millions of people go hungry in the cities, demonstrates the level of absurdity reached in the absence of true participatory democracy. In the context of rising tensions in our cities we can only conclude the obvious; land reform is not just a rural problem, but a key question for urban society. We will all have to subsidize the poor management of our rich agricultural soils if our agrarian structure is not reformed."(13)

Reform and Repression

The transition from military dictatorship to civilian democracy in 1985 promised a sweeping national land reform. Months after the MST was founded to advocate land reform under democracy, the new civilian government announced the National Land Reform Plan.

The Plan was originally designed to redistribute farmlands to 1.4 million landless rural families during President Sarney's tenure from 1985-89.(14) However, the land reform plan drew strident opposition from large landowner organizations which effectively stalled efforts to redistribute idle lands to rural workers. Since 1985 only a small fraction of the proposed beneficiary landless families have received land through government measures.

This slow pace of reform was matched with violence and repression against the MST and those struggling for social justice in the Brazilian countryside. From 1985 to 1996 there were 969 assassinations of rural workers and MST activists.(15) Between 1985-95 there were 820 documented assassination attempts and 2,412 rural workers, family members, and MST leaders were threatened with death because of their support for land reform.(16) Since 1985 Brazilian government authorities have convicted only five people of crimes associated with the violence against the landless and the MST.

In 1994 the Minister of the Economy and world renowned sociologist, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, promised economic stabilization and land reform if Brazil would elect him president. He promised to redistribute land to 280,000 families over four years. Since taking office in 1995 President Cardoso's land reform record has been greatly tarnished by the slow pace of reform, questionable government claims, the brutal massacres of landless rural families and the continued impunity of those responsible for the violence against those who struggle for land reform.

The Cardoso government reported that 42,912 families were settled by the official program in 1995 and 50,238 in 1996.(17) However, these claims have been called into question by both the MST and the National Confederation of Professional Associations of INCRA (representing the employees of the Ministry of Land Policy) and the National Institute of Resettlement and Land Reform (known by the acronym INCRA).(18) Moreover, President Cardoso has repeatedly cut the budgets of INCRA and the Ministry of Land Policy to "fight inflation". False claims and budget cuts aside, the Cardoso administration does not appear willing or able to fulfill its campaign promise of redistributing land to 280,000 landless families in four years.

Not only has the current administration raised and then frustrated expectations for land reform. It has also governed over the horrific massacres at Corumbiara and Eldorado dos Carajas. During the first two years of Cardoso's term in office at least 86 rural workers, family members, and MST activists were assassinated, most by the military police.(19) In 1997, violence, sponsored or condoned by the government, rages on against those who struggle for land and defend democracy. Yet, the government's brutality against the rural poor is now challenged by the MST's national campaign to cultivate democracy in the countryside, to occupy idle lands, resist repression, and produce food for the nation.

Brazil's land reform from below now plays an important role in shaping the emerging challenge to the global economic and political order imposed by the World Bank, the IMF and the World Trade Organization. These efforts are central to the MST's push to replace rural poverty with equitable access to land and participatory democracy.

The struggle for land, social justice, and participatory democracy, from the MST in Brazil to the Chiapas land takeovers in the wake of the Zapatista uprising in Mexico,(20) now depend on our global efforts to guarantee the human rights of those who struggle against hunger, disease, and poverty at the margins of the global order.

"I ask myself if land reform in Brazil is being directed from below, since the government is not carrying it out."

-- Sepulveda Pertence, Brazilian Supreme Court Justice

MST LAND OCCUPATIONS 1990-1996

Year Occupations Families Hectares of Land

1990 43 11,484 ----

1991 51 9,862 7,037,722

1992 49 18,885 5,692,211

1993 54 17,587 3,221,252

1994 52 16,860 1,819,963

1995 93 31,531 3,250,731

1996 176 45,218 ----

Totals 518 151,427 21,021,879*

*This total number of hectares of land occupied by the MST does not include data for 1990 and 1996.

Sources: MST Informa. No. 15. January 1997 and Conflitos da Terra Brasil 1995. Commissao Pastoral da Terra. Goiania. 1996.

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Who are the Rural Poor?

According to the Brazilian Government's Institute of Applied Economic Research, the rural poor number over 16 million. Over half of these Brazilians endure dire poverty and hunger.(21) Most of the rural poor do not have sufficient land, permanent employment, or secure land tenure rights to escape poverty and provide adequate nutrition, housing, health care, and education for their families. Only a small portion of the rural poor have permanent employment, and fewer yet earn the minimum wage of $100 per month. Of the total number of landless or land poor agricultural workers only 17.4 percent are permanently employed.(22) 20.5 percent can only find temporary employment, 5.8 percent are sharecroppers and another 4.9 percent rent small parcels of land for subsistence farming.(23) Another 38 percent of rural workers own land, but most do not have enough land to produce for commercial purposes and thereby guarantee their tenure rights.(24) Today, 13.4 percent of Brazil's rural workers are squatting on idle lands to claim land tenure rights in accord with the 1988 Federal Constitution.(25)

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THE GLOBAL CAMPAIGN FOR AGRARIAN REFORM

Food First has long singled out landlessness as a key cause of rural poverty and hunger, and has always called for the redistribution of land though agrarian reform. Although the 1979 World Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development recognized the central importance of land reform for achieving the right to food, agrarian reform is missing from the agenda of international and national policy makers today.

Eighty percent of all people living in poverty reside in the countryside, where the lack of access and control over land is the most important single reason for poverty. To overcome poverty requires that social movements around the world work in concert.

The FoodFirst Information and Action Network (FIAN), a grassroots economic human rights organization that advocates the right to feed oneself, is launching a Global Campaign on Agrarian Reform in 1998 to move agrarian reform onto international and national policy agendas. Brazil and the Philippines will be the focus of the first part of that campaign. The campaign is organized in cooperation with many peasant organizations around the world, including MST, Via Campesina and the International Farmers Coalition. For more information on the campaign, please contact Food First which houses the U.S. chapter of FIAN.

FIAN-USA, Anuradha Mittal, Policy Director, Institute of Food and Development Policy -- Food First 398 60th Street, Oakland, CA 94618 USA

Phone: (510) 654-4400 Fax: (510) 654-4551

fianusa@igc.apc.org www.foodfirst.org

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You Can Help

The U.S. based Corumbiara Project seeks to replace the spiral of violence, poverty, and environmental destruction with a sustainable cycle of human development and natural resource management based on the protection of human rights, the fulfillment of basic human needs, and the achievement of environmental justice.

To obtain the video "The Corumbiara Massacre," or learn more about how you can support Brazils' landless movement contact the Corumbiara Project at:

1028 N.E. 69th Street, Seattle, WA 98115

Tel. (206) 523-1891 Fax (206) 523-1140

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Copyright 1997 Food First. All rights reserved. Please

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The Institute for Food & Development Policy -- Food First -- is a member supported "people's think tank" that provides the activist community, policy makers, the media, universities and the general public with alternative viewpoints and analyses of the issues of food, hunger and development. If you read this piece and found it useful we would like you to consider becoming a member of Food First. Only with the support of people like yourself can we continue to provide our brand of independent analysis -- independent of the government and of major foundations to the extent that individuals like yourself give us your support.

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Notes

1 Elio Gaspari, O Globo. April 21, 1997.

2 On April 17, 1996 over 200 military police troops attacked approximately 1,500 landless workers and their children as they blocked Highway 150 just outside Eldorado dos Carajas. Within minutes 19 landless were dead and 51 severely injured. The landless were engaged in non-violent civil disobedience to draw attention to their struggle for land and protest the governmentMs

failed promise of land reform.

3 MST Informa. No. 15 (Jan., 1997).

4 Estado De Sao Paulo. Nov. 3, 1995.

5 Veja. Aug. 28, 1996:74.

6 Noticias da Terra. No. 1 (March 21, 1997).

7 IstoE'. March 5, 1997:35.

8 Ministerio Extraordinario de Politica Fundiaria. Atlas Fundiario Brasileiro. 1996.

9 Comparison based on the 1985 IBGE Agricultural Census and the Atlas Fundiario Brasileiro.

10 Atlas Fundiario Brasileiro. 1996.

11 Ibid.

12 IBGEMs 1985 Agricultural Census.

13 Ladislau Dowbor. Reforma Agraria dados basicos. Estado de Sao Paulo. Oct. 3, 1995.

14 Francisco Graziano. A Tragedia Da Terra. Sao Paulo. Iglu Editora. 1991:17.

15 Boletim da Commisso Pastoral da Terra-CPT. No.136 (August, 1996:7) with 1996 data provided by the Documentation Sector of the Commisso Pastoral da Terra.

16 Ibid.

17 Ministerio Extraordinario de Politica Fundiaria. Atlas Fundiario Brasileiro. 1996.

18 Jornal dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra. No.162 (1996:6).

19 Boletim da Commissao Pastoral da Terra-CPT. No.136 (August, 1996:7) with 1996 data provided by the Documentation Sector of the Commissao Pastoral da Terra.

20 White, Peter. A New Kind of Mexican Land Reform, In These Times, May 2, 1994.

21 Instituto de Pesquisa Economica Aplicada (IPEA). O Mapa da Fome: Subsidios = Formulacao de uma Politica de Seguranca Alimentar. March, 1993.

22 Ariovaldo de Oliveira. Realidade Agraria do Brasil:1995 unpublished manuscript circulated by the Department of Geography, University of Sao Paulo and based on the Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatisticas (IBGE) Agricultural Census of 1985.

23 Ibid.

24 Ibid.

25 Ibid.

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URGENT ACTION:

CAMPAIGN AGAINST THE WAIAPI AND CTI September 8, 1997

Over the past several years, the Waiapi Indians have shown their capacity and determination to remain in control of their land, which was demarcated and ratified in response to their struggle. The area, however, continues to be the target of interests which in other parts of the Amazon have brought destruction and death to so many indigenous groups. Congressman Antonio Feijao is after gold from the Waiapi's land; New Tribes missionaries are after Waiapi souls. Together, they are conducting a harmful campaign against the Waiapi and the Indigenous Advocacy Center-CTI, which has worked closely with the Waiapi since 1991. Following, please find a summary of the situation, as well as the fax numbers of people to write with you support.

THE PLAYERS

The Waiapi: The Waiapi live in the Amazon state of Amapa. Through a strategy which combines cultural recuperation, sustainable development, and health and education projects, they monitor their land, keeping it largely free of mining, logging, and other interests, who have wrought so much destruction throughout the Amazon.

Indigenous Advocacy Center-CTI: CTI has worked with the Waiapi since 1991, in response for their request for technical assistance to regularize their land, and for economic, health, and education projects. CTI is an NGO recognized in Brazil and internationally for its work in partnership with indigenous peoples.

Federal Indian Agency-FUNAI: FUNAI is the government organ responsible for indigenous issues in Brazil. Sullivan Silvestre is the new President, as of August 22- he has met with Waiapi leader Kasiripina regarding this issue, backing up the local FUNAI office, though he's refused to meet with CTI. The FUNAI office in the state capital Macapa has so far acted consistently on the side of the missionaries and local politicians, removing CTI from the area.

The Politicians: Congressman Antonio Feijao has led a campaign against CTI since 1993. He falsely accuses CTI's Dominique Gallois of "illegally increasing" the Waiapi's land, and kicking out the New Tribes Mission from this and other areas. Prosecutor Joao Bosco has been involved in the situation since 1995, but has not directly consulted with the Waiapi (except for one group under the influence of New Tribes). Amapa State Governor Joao Capiberibe, on the other hand, has spoken out about the situation, defending the Waiapi.

New Tribes Mission: The New Tribes Mission, a fundamentalist evangelical group, was removed from the Waiapi area in 1995. They continue involved in the campaign against the CTI, however, manipulating the one Waiapi village which has sided with them.

RECENT DEVELOPMENTS

Since June, CTI staff, including Dominique Gallois, an anthropologist who has studied with the Waiapi since 1978, and since 1991 coordinated the CTI's work with the Waiapi, have had judicial actions taken against them. In August, a federal prosecutor Joao Bosco started an action preventing an environmental recuperation project from being implemented, and removing all CTI staff from the area. On August 15, the Acting President of Funai signed a document provisionally suspending all CTI activities in the Waiapi area.

On August 28, Kasiripina, President of the Waiapi Council of Villages-APINA, meets the new President of Funai, Sullivan Silvestre, asking him to intervene, and guarantee that CTI's work in the area continue. Silvestre warns Kasiripina that "CTI just wants to trick you and steal your gold".

Despite its patriarchic attitude and lack of assistance, politicians like Congressman Feijao and the New Tribes Mission are backing the local Funai office in its efforts to block the Waiapi's search for autonomy. The Waiapi, on the other hand, have been cited by national and international agencies for their formulation of socially and environmentally sustainable economic alternatives. The current campaign against the CTI, their partner in these projects - and in the end, against the Waiapi themselves - is having damaging effects.

The Waiapi are concerned with the long interruption of their projects, which are so essential to their survival and to their strategy of territorial control. They have repeatedly requested that CTI staff be allowed back to the area. Funai, however, has ignored their appeals. All of the Waiapi villages are mobilized, with leaders and youth going to and from Macapa, neglecting their plots in their struggle to maintain the projects they fought for and gained. The Waiapi are filing an injunction against Funai.

YOUR SUPPORT IS NEEDED

As those of you who have come to Amazon Week and met Waiapi leaders know, the Waiapi present a great example for the Amazon. They have largely freed their land from invasion, recuperating areas damaged by goldmining. They were intensely involved in the demarcation of their land, setting a precedent for other indigenous areas through Brazil. The projects - for health, education, and economic alternatives - that have now been blocked are excellent. With so many other indigenous nations in Brazil facing large scale invasions, evictions, and bureaucratic determination not to demarcate their land, the Waiapi present a ray of hope. And that is why we must fight with them, against the dangerous campaign being levelled against the CTI, against the Waiapi, and ultimately, against indigenous rights and autonomy.

Amanaka'a has known CTI since 1993, and has nothing but respect for their work. We therefore join CTI in asking all NGOs involved in the Amazon, and all individuals who support the peoples of the forest, to fax the people listed below:

Sr. Sullivan Silvestre

Presidente da FUNAI

Fax: 011 55 61 226 8782

Dra. Marcia Lima de Carvalho

Sub-Procuradora Geral da Republica

Fax +55 61 313 5518

Governador Joao Alberto Capiberibe,

Palacio do Governo,

Fax +55 96 223 5944

The information in this urgent action was translated and summarised from a CTI document dated August 31. CTI is starting a legal defense fund. For more information, and to learn how you can help, please contact:

Christine Halvorson Dominique Gallois

Amanaka'a Amazon Network

Tel: (212) 253 9502

Fax: (212) 253 9507 Email: Christine@amanakaa.org

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South and Meso American Indian Rights Center (SAIIC)

P.O. Box 28703

Oakland CA, 94604

Phone: (510)834-4263 Fax: (510)834-4264

Email: saiic@igc.apc.org

Office: 1714 Franklin Street, 3rd Floor, Oakland

Home Page: http://www.nativeweb.org/saiic

For more information about SAIIC, send an empty email message to:

saiic-info@igc.apc.org

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ENVIRONMENT-HUMAN RIGHTS:

Murky Deal for Brazilian Peasants

By Abid Aslam

WASHINGTON, Sep 15 (IPS) - The World Bank's executive directors have quashed an investigation into allegations the agency broke its rules and betrayed its promises to improve the lives of Brazilian peasant communities uprooted by a dam.

In a rare vote last week, after a series of politicised delays, the directors narrowly rejected a proposed investigation by a margin of 52 to 48 percent. Grassroots groups in Brazil and senior officials here are now weighing what they describe as the decision's ambiguities and ironies.

Had the directors approved the probe, the panel would have looked closer at the agency's handling of the troubled Itaparica Resettlement and Irrigation Project. Instead, the onus now falls on the Brazilian government to implement a plan to salvage the resettlement and irrigation effort by the end of 1999 - with the Bank supervising. The inspection panel, which is independent of Bank management, will review progress a year from now.

Just what the Bank will supervise is not yet known, however, as the government's action plan has yet to win final approval and funding.

''There's no way to hold the Brazilian government accountable for the action plan,'' says Dana Clark, an attorney at the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL). ''And there will be no analysis of the World Bank's mistakes, since the World Bank doesn't even admit to having made any.''

The resettlement project had been intended to benefit poor riverside farming and indigenous communities forced from their homes in the country's Northeast by construction of the Itaparica dam and flooding of its reservoir, which was completed in 1988. The 232-million-dollar project, begun in 1987, was the first such effort not tied to a World Bank infrastructure project. The dam was built without Bank financing.

A full inspection was recommended in June by the agency's independent Inspection Panel, which conducted a preliminary review and found merit in many of the peasants' allegations - including charges that the Bank's project was badly designed and poorly supervised.

''(Bank) Management attempts to rebut all accusations of faulty supervision,'' the Panel noted in its report to the directors. Yet, it found that of 21 supervision missions since 1988, ''only five had a resettlement specialist included.''

Ironically, one senior official from a developing country told IPS, the board's decision means Bank management has been able to evade responsibility and dump it on its Third World client - exactly what Southern countries have often complained about.

Yet it was Brazil - supported on the executive board by other developing countries as well as Australia, Austria, Belgium, France, and Italy - that lobbied hard to avoid an inspection and offered to fix the problems itself. Brasilia feared a full investigation would expose corruption in its ranks and open the floodgates for other communities to air their grievances against Bank-funded projects, well-placed sources at the Bank and non- governmental organisations (NGOs) say.

Brasilia has maintained the peasants' complaints are an internal matter. Officials say they would not have asked the Bank to continue supervising the project if they had skeletons to hide.

''Nobody in Brazilian civil society and the Brazilian Congress knows the details of the Brazilian government's action plan revealed to the board,'' says Aurelio Vianna, coordinator of 'Rede Brasil', the non-governmental Brazilian Network on International Financial Institutions. Government officials, he told IPS, ''say they will fix everything, but what is 'everything' to them?''

The plan is summarised in a six-paragraph Aug. 29 letter from Roberto Jaguaribe, secretary of international affairs in Brazil's Ministry of Planning and Budget, to Gobind Nankani, the director of the Bank's Brazil department.

For resettled farming families who were promised new communities and irrigation schemes that were never built, Brasilia is offering to ''start a process of negotiation with the farmers offering them two options,'' Jaguaribe explains.

The farmers can choose ''a cash compensation whose value will be negotiated'' but limited to no more than the government's estimate of what it would cost to finish the construction, or ''a plot of land either in another irrigation project or in the Itaparica project itself, in plots that would be bought from other farmers willing to sell.''

For those families whose new communities remain under construction, Jaguaribe notes simply that the government's ''decision was to conclude the project as planned.''

Where resettlement sites have been completed, Brasilia wants to ''establish water user associations, issuing land titles to all those involved, providing technical assistance and training to farmers...and activating health clinics and police stations which are already built but not yet operative,'' he states.

The panel report, dated June 24, anticipated some of these proposals - and questioned their wisdom. Noting that water users' associations have been a faviourite idea of Bank staff, it said farmers are ''very nervous, since the bottom line of (these) associations is cost recovery.'' With many farmers ''not yet showing sustainable levels in agricultural income, it seems a recipe for disaster from their point of view to increase their costs before their income is assured.''

The report also noted crops were failing because farmers were moved to land with poor soil and forced to use artificial fertiliser and other means alien to them.

The panel said it was ''reassured by the seriousness of the government's commitment'', but cautioned that the Bank could be ''confident of project completion only with formal adoption of the report'' of a government working group on which the plan is based.

Brasilia expects its new campaign to cost up to 290 million dollars, all of which is to come from ''internal resources'', Jaguaribe adds. No allocation has been made yet in the draft Brazilian budget for fiscal 1998, which begins on the first of the year, says Vianna.

Local campaigners note that the panel's progress review is scheduled just in advance of the country's next round of general elections, to begin in October 1998, and could prove a politically prickly affair.

The resettlement project included construction of 110 'agrovilas', or agricultural settlements, and six irrigation projects for some 40,000 people. Local communities complained to the panel in March that only about one-third had been completed, and many of these were falling apart because of poor construction and materials. The irrigation schemes had proven too expensive to use, they said.

In one agrovila visited by a panel inspector, ''where people still live...the houses were not only cracked in many places, but also quite a few had collapsed into rubble,'' the panel report states.

Despite Bank claims that people's livelihoods had improved, the inspector ''visited several agrovilas where virtually all of the families had been without work, and living mostly on safety net payments, for nearly a decade.'' (END/IPS/aa/mk/97)

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