Number 458, November 15, 2001.
Visit our home page: http://www.oneworld.org/sejup/
In this week's issue:
>NEWS BRIEFS
- Defendants found guilty in murder of Galdino Jesus dos Santos
- Study show majority of Brazilians prefer non-genetically modified food
>LAND ISSUES AND URGENT ACTION REQUEST
- The Terror that comes from the Land
>A Message from Caritas Brasileira
>A Message from Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition
NEWS BRIEFS
- Defendants found guilty in murder of Galdino Jesus dos Santos
Four young men were convicted this past Saturday in the death of Galdino Jesus dos Santos who was burned to death on April 10th, 1997. Galdino, a member of the indigenous group Pataxo Ha-Ha-Haes, was in the capital city of Brasilia to meet with officials concerning indigenous lands. As he arrived after the closing hours of the hospice where he was going to spend the night, he had to sleep at a bus stop. Early in the morning, a group of young decided to play a "practical joke" and dowsed Galdino with alcohol and then set him on fire. The young men were the sons of prominent politicians/business men, and many feared that the young men would therefore not be punished. However, the jury found them guilty and each was given a fourteen year prison sentence.
Source: Adital
November 12, 2001
- Study show majority of Brazilians prefer non-genetically modified food
A study conducted by The Brazilian Institute of Public Opinion (Ibope), at the request of Greenpeace, reveals that 74% of Brazilians prefer food that has not been genetically modified. Ninety-one percent indicated that food items that have been genetically modified should be labeled as such. The current law in Brazil is that the product only needs to be labeled as such if over contains over 4% of genetically modified material.
Source: O Estado de São Paulo
October 31, 2001
LAND ISSUES AND URGENT ACTION REQUEST
- The Terror that comes from the Land
The worst attitudes of a country, in relation to their tragedies, are
indifference and connivance. The indifference and connivance with which the
Brazilian government is treating the constant and growing series of rural
assassinations, particularly in the south and southeast of the Brazilian
state of Pará, is astonishing. In 2001, eight rural workers have already
been murdered in the region by private militia gunmen who work for the large
ranchers. The situation is so alarming that on the 4th and 5th of October
2001, a delegation of representatives of the Commission of Human Rights of
the Brazilian Congress, the Council of Defense of the Rights of the Human
Person (Ministry of Justice), and the Federal Attorney's Office of Citizen's
Rights, was in the region to attend public hearings to get more detailed
knowledge of the situation. On the 5th of October, while the commission was
still in the region, two more rural workers were assassinated. It was as if
the landowners were affirming: "We're the ones who give orders around here".
The situation is not new, nor is the violence always precise. Between 1971
and 2001 there have been 706 murders in Pará, with 534 of these murders
having been in the south and southeast parts of the state. From 1995 to
2001, 90 rural workers were murdered in the same region. A list of 27 rural
leaders marked for death, has already been delivered twice, to Sette Câmara,
the Secretary of Public Safety; he didn't take any precautions. One
particular case, that shows with clarity the absurd level of impunity that
has been achieved, is the massacre at Eldorado das Carajás, where 19 rural
workers were slaughtered by governor Almir Gabriel's order. The person
responsible for the execution of the order was Colonel Pantoja, commander of
the State Police. In the judgement, reached in 2000–the governor wasn´t even
brought up on charges in the process–the military commanders were all
acquitted. This fact demonstrates that the police and the gunmen dress in
the same uniform.
The assassinations are not the only form of violence in the area. The
private militias, with the connivance of the Civil Police, spread terror by
carrying out violent land evictions, kidnaping, beatings, and tortures of
the people. The most evident proof of the involvement between the police and
the hired gunmen happened on September 21, when employees of the ranch
'Reunidas' were stopped while transporting an arsenal of heavy caliber
weapons. They admitted that the arms belonged to the ranch. In the police
station, one of those held in custody presented a personalized card of the
Chief of the State Police and said "this is the man that will help us." They
were released the same day.
The violence in the area also takes the form of slave labor, which has
become worse this year. From January 1 to September 23, 2001 968 rural
workers were counted as being in conditions of slave labor on 16 ranches in
the south and southeastern parts of Pará. In 2000, 369 victims of slave
labor were registered. It is worth emphasizing that the Brazilian Department
of Labor estimates that for each worker freed from slave labor conditions,
there exist three more in slavery.
The government, however, doesn't react to the situation and neither does
society, which has shown itself insensitive. In this sense, the words of the
National Conference of Brazilian Bishops (CNBB), the National Council of
Christian Churches (CONIC), and the Brazilian Lawyers Organization (OAB),
were prophetic when they withdrew from negotiations that were held last year
between the Federal Government and the Movement of Landless Rural Workers
(MST), sounding the alarm to president Fernando Henrique Cardoso and his
ministers: "intolerance can induce a formation, as well as a public opinion,
that favors an atmosphere of violence and repression." In this way crime
pays, impunity is guaranteed, and landowners, as well as the gunmen and
policemen who work for them, can celebrate their crimes in peace.
The situation is worsened by the federal government's position as seen in
the following example: The Federal Minister of Agrarian Development, Raul
Jungmann, attempts to nullify the presence of violence against the rural
workers by affirming that such crimes are not motivated by land disputes,
but rather that the violence originates from "personal conflicts". This
opens the door of impunity for the executioners. Now they have the public
approval of a Minister of State to commit their crimes and to inflict terror
on these workers' families. This type of attitude does not fit in a society
that is intended to be democratic. This loss of values echoes throughout the
whole of society and makes the population believe–with good reason–that
justice doesn't exist, and that the State is useless.
Enclosed, we have sent a dossier with reports, documents and material
published in the newspapers that demonstrate the gravity of the situation
that we have denounced here. We are asking our partner organizations, along
with international organizations for human rights, to help us in denouncing
and publishing the situation of violence in the south and southeast of Pará
to the media. We ask that you demand, most importantly, that the Brazilian
government takes a stance on the issue, that it assumes it's proper role in
the situation, and that it puts and end to the wave of terror that comes
from the land.
National coordination of the Pastoral Land Commission
Dear brothers and sisters,
The situation of violence against rural workers in the south and southeast
parts of the state of Pará (north of Brazil), has reached unbearable levels.
Gunmen, hired by ranchers and with the connivance of the police and the
total indifference of the authorities, are killing, kidnaping and torturing
rural workers, verifiable through the dossier that we are sending with data,
material published by the newspapers, and other documents.
We have included a report elaborated by the delegation formed by
representatives of the Commission of Human Rights of the Brazilian Congress,
the Council of Defense of the Human Person, and of the Federal Attorney's
Office of Citizen's Rights, who were in Pará to hear the depositions of the
victims of the violence.
We have also sent a study about the motives for the violence in that region,
elaborated by the sociologist Dr. Wilson Barp, of the Federal University of
Pará, and data about the worsening situation of slave labor.
The situation is so serious, and the authorities are showing such
indifference, that we believe that only if this case has an international
repercussion, something will be done in Brazil to end the violence in Pará.
It is in this way that we are asking for your solidarity in the sense of
directing this case to the Commission of Human Rights of the United Nations
(UN), to the Commission of Human Rights of the European Union and to publish
it in the media, in hopes that this repercussion will bring the Brazilian
government to take the necessary measures to put an end to impunity and to
guarantee the threatened lives of rural workers.
Fraternal greetings,
Bishop Tomás Balduíno
President of the Land Pastoral Commission
Goiânia, November 8, 2001
Translation: Frederic Cain
Note: The aforementioned texts say basically the same thing as the article, so Sejup opted not to include them at this time. You can send messages to the following persons:
Fernando Henrique Cardoso
Presidente da República
E-mail: pr@planalto.gov.br e governo@brasil.gov.br
Dr. José Gregori
Ministro da Justiça
Email: samico@mj.gov.br
Dra. Climenie Bernadette de Araújo Pontes
Presidente do Tribunal de Justiça do Estado do Pará.
Email: des.climenie.pontes@tj.pa.gov.br
Dr. Almir Gabriel
Governo do Estado do Pará
E-mail: cerimonial@prodepa.com.br
imprensa@prodepa.gov.br
seegov@prodepa.gov.br
Dep. Martinho Carmona
Presidente da Assembléia Legislativa do Pará
E-mail: mcarmona@supridados.com.br
Dr. Geraldo Mendonça Rocha
Procurador Geral de Justiça do Estado do Pará
E-mail: pgj@mp.pa.gov.br
A Message from Caritas Brasileira
Caritas Brasileira, a branch of the CNBB (National Conference of Brazilian Bishops) forwarded to Sejup this week a very easy way for internet users to help drought victims in the Northeast of the country. They have put together a web site, funded by various businesses, in which you simply click on the icon and a donation is made the sponsors of the site. The site is in Portuguese, but basically is says the aforementioned, and after you click asks that you visit one of the sponsors site (but this is not obligatory). We invite you to visit the site. The address is <http://www.cliquesemiarido.org.br/>.
A Message from Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition
Note: We thought this article may be of special interest to Sejup readers as Brazil is an "ally nation" of the United States and it is a nation where torture is practiced (unofficially, of course).
Urgent Action: Say No to Torture!
The following alert is circulated by the Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition (TASSC), 3321 12th Street, N.E., Washington, D.C. 20017; phone (202)529-2991; fax: (202)526-4611; e-mail: diortiz@earthlink.net; e-mail: otizon@ghrc-usa.org; www.torture-free-world.org
November 6, 2001
TASSC is an organization of torture survivors from more than 25 countries. Our members, each of whom is a survivor of torture, are both anguished and outraged over media reports suggesting that the U.S. government is considering the use of torture to extract information from persons detained in connection with the September 11th attacks.
For example, in the October 21 issue of the Washington Post, we read that an experienced FBI agent said, "… it could get to that spot where we could go to pressure…where we won't have a choice, and we are probably getting there." The Post goes on to say, "Among the alternative strategies under discussion are using drugs or pressure tactics, such as those employed occasionally by Israeli interrogators, to extract information. Another idea is extraditing the suspects to allied countries where security services sometimes employ threats to family members or resort to torture."
Despite our outrage, we were convinced that members of Congress and other government officials would rush to denounce such talk and would affirm that the United States would never involve itself in such crimes against humanity. And so, we waited for their response. But we have waited in vain.
We have yet to hear of a single member of Congress who has expressed outrage. Certainly the Attorney General, the head of the Department of Justice, has been silent, as has been the President himself. It began to seem to us that the Washington Post story had been an intentional government "trial balloon."
And this is not all. More than 800 persons are being secretly detained as suspects in the September 11th attack (New York Times, 9/30/01). Incommunicado detention, as our personal experiences have proven, creates a fertile ground for torture and other abuses. Added to this is the growing number of voices in mainstream media discussing the idea of torture (New York Times, 11/ 5, 2001).
We are deeply concerned that our society will come to legitimize the use of torture through the justification that it is needed to safeguard national security.
Torture is a crime against humanity. There can be no justification whatsoever for its use. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights states: NO ONE SHALL BE SUBJECTED TO TORTURE OR TO CRUEL, INHUMAN OR DEGRADING TREATMENT OR PUNISHMENT
Torture is a form of terrorism. TASSC condemns all terrorism. Join with us in saying: NO TO TORTURE!
ACTIONS:
We urge you to contact the following government officials. Please ask them to announce publicly that they will oppose any effort of the United States government to employ the practice of torture or to extradite persons to other countries so that they may be tortured there.
1) Pres. George W. Bush -- White House Comment Line: (202) 456-1111; email: president@whitehouse.gov
2) U.S. Attorney General, John Ashcroft -- phone: (202) 514-2001; fax: (202) 514-5331
3) Your representative and senators: U.S. Capitol Switchboard (202) 224-3121
4) Write letters to the editor
Thank you for joining with us in making our world torture-free!
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cited.
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