Number 306, March 11, 1998.

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In third week's issue our main headings are:

LAND ISSUES:

Spy in orbit - with the help of satellites

ENVIRONMENT ISSUES:

Fire in Roraima destroys 15 km of Ianomamiâmi area.

VIOLENCE:

Three minors die as a result of fire.

Minor hires assassins to kill his father.

City reports 43 murders over the weekend.

LAND ISSUES:

Spy in orbit - with the help of satellites

INCRA (National Insitute for Colonization and Agrarian Reform) are

able to increase lands for agrarian reform. Until very recently, finding

land for agrarian reform was a very thankless job. For the greater part

INCRA accepted the word of the landowners when it came to agrarian

reform, it was very easy for the landowner to destroy fences and run a

heard of cattle on open land for the benefit of the official visit.

Technology has begun to work against the landowner. Last year technicians

with the help of satellites are visiting the farms to measure their exact

size and measure the exact area of land which could be used for land reform.

Satellites are able to mark the exact longitude and latitude of the land,

the signals from the satellites are decoded on to maps giving the exact

amount of land being used and the amount of land abandoned which could be

used for agrarian reform. The land is photgraphed by satellite every 18 days

telling exactly the amount of time the land has been used or not used. This

is like a death sentence for the cheating landowners says agriculture

engineer Milton Santos de Amorim.

To assist them in this work, Incra has over 400 machines, thanks to their

association with the Landsat 5 satellite services. Between June and December

of last year 840 technicians have registered more than 2300 properties.

Properties with 9,000 hectares which formerly took up to 20 days to be

visited, can now be mapped with one photograph. " We are opening the black

box of the Brazilian landowner" , said the minister for Agriculture Reform

Raul Jungmann. Satellites and computers were used for the first time by

Incra in May of last year to photograph the Pontal do Paranapanema region in

the east of the state of São Paulo. In just one month 120 technicians

visited 191 properties in five municipalities. " With the old system of

registering property, the same work would have needed five months to

complete", said engineer Edaldo Gomes for the demarcation division of Incra.

The results are already appearing; when Incra depended on the word of the

landowners, 19% of 273,000 hectares of the region was appropriate for

Agrarian Reform. With the new system , Incra discovered that 37% of the

same area - which is almost double, is appropriate for agrarian reform.

This shows that you cannot depend on the old method says Jungmann. With the

existence of 3.6 million rural properties in the country, the registration

will begin with 90,000 of the largest farms. Incra hopes to have completed

registration of all lands by 2002.

The present government has exappropiated 1,456 ranches covering an area

equivalent to the state of Rio Grande do Norte. The minister for Agrarian

Reform estimates that more than 30,000 families have to be allotted land,

this figure is based on statistics supplied by the landless movement.

Source - VEJA - MARCH 11, 1998

ENVIRONMENT ISSUES:

Fire in Roraima destroys 15 km of Ianomami area.

The administrator for FUNAI (National Organization for Indians) Walter

Bloss said that the main area of the fire which destroyed 15km of

indigenous lands was mainly in the region of Mucajaí, in the central-eastern

part of the state. The fire was reported to Funai by Carlos Zacquini - a

member of the Pro-Ianomami commission - when he flew over the area by plane.

Workers for Funai say that the fire is spreading over a forest area and

advancing towards Maucajaí. The administrator said "We don't think the fire

will spread as far as the villages of the Ianomami". Blos said that the

nearest village in the line of fire, is an indigenous station where gold

prospectors are prevented from entering the region.

He denies that the fire is a threat to 120 Ianomami living in the region of

the river Ajarani. According to Bloss, FUNAI do not have conditions to put

out the spreading fire.Three teams are in the region of the indigenous

areas estimating the damage.

There exists 7 different ethnic groups in Roraima, corresponding to 14% of

the population of the state. The indigenous areas cover 42% of the state.

The Ianomami population is 7,800 , in total 17,800 indians live in the state.

VIOLENCE:

Three minors die as a result of fire.

Three minors died as a result of fire after a fight broke out in FEBEM

(Young offenders prison) in Porto Alegre, Rio Grand do Sul. The director for

FEBEM said that four youths had a misunderstanding in the early hours of

Monday morning. Two of them had beaten up a colleague. Members of the staff

removed the injured youth from the room. The other three got into a fight

and burned the mattress. According to the security for FEBEM the reason for

the dispute is unknown.

Roger Souza de Freitas, 17 yrs. Márcio José da Silva, 17 yrs. and

Isaías Laphis Neuschrank, 16 yrs died as a result of the fire.

Peace had bearly returned to the young offenders prison when a revolt broke

out. The local police tried to restore order. The incident left 5 minors and

5 police injured.The commanding police officer for the city, said that the

minors from the second floor refused to return to their rooms. They

destroyed railings, broke walls and formed a barricade with matttresses.

When the police entered the area bricks were thrown at them and they

responded with tear gas.

FEBEM has conditions for 80 minors, according to the director there are 154

minors in the Institute.

Minor hires assassins to kill his father

Sixteen year old student CMC admitted to the police in Campo Grande that

he ordered two men to kill his father who constantly beat him and his

mother. Cesáreo Rafael Varjão 34 yrs. who was a gas distributor, was killed

on November 1st 1997, in a bar by two men. Police announced at the weekend

that the two men responsible for the murder will be jailed and the minor

CMC will be detained. The student said he hired mechanic Edson Moreira and

gardener Rodislei Simões Ferreira to kill his father. CMC was to pay R$2,000

for the murder. In September he had given R$600 in money to the mechanic and

a pre-dated cheque to the gardener.

Santos who also worked for Varjão said he was badly treated by the gas

distributer. According to CMC, he and his mother were frequently beaten by

his father. The final point for CMC was a terrible beating from his father

who falsely accused him of stealing his .38 gun.

At the moment of the crime, Varjão's friend took a gun from his pocket and

shot the mechanic in the leg. CMC is being protected by CGCA (Protection and

Assistance for adolescents).

Source - Folha de São Paulo March 10, 1998.

City reports 43 murders over the weekend.

43 people were murdered between the hours of 8 p.m Friday evening and 8

a.m. Monday morning in the city of São Paulo. According to the Secretary for

Public Security, last weekends death toll was a little less than the

previous weekend,which had a total of 49 deaths due to violence.

The most violent region of the city includes the Santo Amaro

region, where 13 murders took place , which was three more than the previous

week. It is the 6th consecutive weekend in a row that the region has

reported the highest number of murders in all of São Paulo. Second in

ranking for being most violent is the Itaquera region.

In order to combat the violence, the police stations are preparing

graphs of the crime patterns. Each graph shows the the hours, days and the

type of murders, including the crime records of the victims. These facts are

helping the police where to expect crime.

Source: - Folha de São Paulo March 10, 1998.

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