Number 472, June 27, 2002.
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- The result of the trial of Eldorado do Carajas confirms the expected farse
by the CPT of Pará, MST of Pará, CJP of the CNBB and Caritas
Two days after the closing of the last session of the trial of Eldorado do Carajas, local, national and international means of communication presented the main ideas of some national and international human rights entities which indicated that the trial was a "chronicle of predictable frustrations," as Paulo Sergio Pinheiro of the National Secretary of Human rights affirmed. Amnesty International also demonstrated their indignation with and concern for the Para Judiciary system. "The biggest trial in the history of Brazil, totally 120 hours in five sessions, but once again exposed the profound errors of the justice system of the state of Para," informed Amnesty
In reality, the pronouncement of the National Secretary of Human Rights and the note from Amnesty International only confirms what the MST (Movement or rural workers Without Land) and CPT (the Church’s commission on Land) and other such groups have been saying even before the beginning of the trial: The Brazilian justice system never punishes the authorities who order and those who execute crimes against human rights. Condemnation, when it happens, is only an arrangement done to mask the impunity that the state itself upholds through the justice system.
Of the 142 soldiers and officials, only two condemnations were rendered as a sort of symbolic act, as Amnesty International pointed out: "However, these convictions now appear to be little more than a symbolic gesture, given the inability of the police investigation and the judicial process to identify those with individual criminal responsibility for the shooting and hacking to death of 19 land activists." Even the Society of Defense of the Human Rights of Para, which had hoped for a fair and impartial trial, withdrew from the trial on the eve of the last session being convinced of the mockery of justice behind the trial.
During all the sessions of the trial, the total lack of civil society was evident. Even when the fourth session was opened for the general public, the people were kept far away from the jury box. Members of human rights groups who were at the trial affirmed that the judge, Roberto Moura, was clearly insecure about the handling of the trial and that the plenary sessions were vacant with the exception of the local press. This further shows the fragility of the Para justice system in judging crimes that violate human rights.
We ask all human rights entities and activists for support in the organization of and struggle for rural workers. We ask you to send protest letters to the president of the Justice Tribunal of Para asking for the annulment of the trial and the immediate transfer of trials involving crimes against human rights to the federal level. This trial unmasked definitely the need and urgency for the approval of a law which will judge crimes against human rights.
It is necessary to continue to be strong in the struggle for justice in the countryside and against impunity abounding in Para, and in Brazil, and for the federalization of crimes against human rights!
Belém, 14 de junho de 2002.
CPT Pará, MST Pará, CJP da CNBB e Cáritas.
Presidency of the Court of Justice
Dr. Climinie Pontes
cpontes@tje.pa.gov.br
Tribunal de Justiça
Largo de São João, s/n
Cidade Velha
CEP 66015-260 - Belém - PA
- MST Activists Continue to Be Victims of Political Persecution in the State of São Paulo
June 7, 2002
The MST is enduring a process of "criminalization," their political activities defined as "criminal," with resulting violation of their human rights such as their freedoms of movement and expression and the inviolability of their homes. These activities are supported by the governor of the state of São Paulo, who does nothing to impede police violations of the universal rights of the landless rural workers. In fact, the governor continues to privilege the desires of the large farmers and land defrauders in the Pontal do Paranapanema.
A Short History of the Pontal
The Pontal do Paranapanema (in the extreme west of São Paulo state) is the second poorest region in the state. The agricultural structure of the area is based on latifúndios (large plantations) and on lands owned by the State, used for pastures by ranchers.
The Pontal do Paranapanema always was a region of great conflict owing to the large expanse of land legally owned by the state that is in the hands of the landowners-defrauders. (Translator's notes: Enormous portions of the western part of São Paulo state, like many other agricultural regions of Brazil, are held by wealthy families through fraudulent land documents and the winking complicity of generations of powerful friends in successive Brazilian governments. Brazilians call fraudulent landowners "grileiros," taken the name from the crickets, "grilos," that they formerly placed in a box with forged documents to make them later look aged and insect eaten.)
The latifúndios, responsible for the backwardness of the region have always acted boldly and harshly against any challenge. In the disorganized beginning or action in the area, supported with fraudulent land titles, the plantation owners defended their supposed "properties" by violently expelling workers. Today, they are "more organized" and contract with armed militias, reinforcing their firepower and sponsoring the persecution and imprisonment of the landless rural workers.
The MST began to organize in the region in 1990. Since then, the organization has denounced and fought against the barbarities committed by the owners of the latifúndios who have the complicity of the local judicial powers.
All of this conflict has a single cause: a lack of will and the avoidance of responsibility by the state government. In the Pontal, there are 1,200,000 hectares of legally forfeited agricultural land. It would be enough if the state simply did its duty, completing the obligatory distribution of this property to landless families camped in the region.
In spite of all the persecution, the workers have raised the banner of Agrarian Reform and have successfully conquered diverse areas. Today, more than 6,000 families are settled in the region - around 20,000 people - as a result of agrarian reform. There are still around 1300 families in encampments in the Pontal, struggling for the creation of additional settlements.
In the last few months, the persecution of rural workers has grown more intense. The large landowners, allied with the local judiciary, maintain an intense legal offensive aimed at rendering the rural workers and their leaders classified as "criminal." It is not a crime to struggle for land and for life. It is a crime to maintain the plantation system that generates unemployment, marginalization, hunger, misery, and a social-economic crisis. Brazilian society clearly understands the struggle for Agrarian Reform and supports the social movements organized to work for a dignified life for all Brazilians. Therefore, Agrarian Reform cannot be stopped by prisons; it can only be resolved by a serious political project of settlement of landless farmers.
When the Local Judiciary is at the Service of the Plantation Owners
The judiciary of the Pontal, with rare exceptions, always acts on behalf of the plantation owners and land defrauders of the region because they also use the lands of the State to fatten their own cattle. The persecution unleashed by the judicial authorities is related to the direct links with the great land defrauders.
Justice can be swift in the Pontal when it comes to persecuting and violating the human rights of landless rural workers:
On May 23, the Delegate of Euclides da Cunha Paulista imprisoned eight workers encamped with the MST. On the same day that the prosecutor requested their imprisonment, the judge issued a decree, and the police apprehended them. All of this happened in less than 24 hours. The justification for imprisonment is that these workers were impeding ITESP (the Land Institute of São Paulo State) from founding a settlement due to a dispute between the MST and another social movement, MAST. Those imprisoned are accused of having, in the process of this dispute with MAST, violated laws against the formation of a criminal gang or band, the illegal use of force, larceny and injury, and, in addition, undermining the preservation of public order through their actions. In this investigation, according to the police, there are 70 other encamped members of the MST that might be imprisoned at any moment in order to give testimony.
The prosecutor, in another legal proceeding, carried out the preventative imprisonment of five persons for, supposedly, being of the regional coordinating body of the MST and thereby putting at risk the public order. The prosecutor demanded prison for those who, in the name of the MST, met with ITESP to discuss the other problems in this area.
The lawyer for the MST testified that the orders of arrest were obtained in a secretive manner, without filing appropriately in the registry. The judge sent the arrest warrants in a sealed envelope to the Captain of the Military Police of Teodoro Sampaio (a city in the Pontal region), planning the arrest of José (Zé) Rainha and Sérgio Pantaleão for May 24. The date was set because both men were to testify in Teodoro Sampaio against the landowner that had tried to kill José Rainha in January of this year. Therefore, the arrest warrant had two objectives: it was an attempt both to capture him and to prevent him from producing evidence against the landowner. They successfully accomplished only one of these two objectives: Zé Rainha and Sérgio are both still free.
On May 28, the Military Police encircled the nascent settlement of the Santa Maria plantation in Marabá Paulista, São Paulo. Police entered all of the workers' shacks without judicial authorization, creating a climate of terror among the families gathered in this camp that is a prelude to a full-fledged settlement.
The Brazilian Supreme Court Overturns the Liberty of MST Militants in São Paulo
The Brazilian Supreme Court (the Superior Tribunal de Justiça) on Friday refused to grant a preliminary injunction of habeas corpus sought by the 13 militants of the MST in the region of the Pontal do Parapanema. Six of these leaders are already in jail and the other seven have arrest warrants issued. They will have to wait a month for the merits of the habeas corpus case to be heard and judged.
Around 100 women and children camped in the region of the Pontal initiated a vigil on the morning of June 6 next to the Fórum of Teodoro Sampaio, a landmark of state authority in the region. The encampment will remain in the city for an undetermined period.
On June 15, a demonstration will be held in Teodoro Sampaio calling for liberty for the movement's imprisoned representatives and for an end to persecution in the Pontal.
Call for Action
These events demonstrate that the MST is living through a process of criminalization, where exercising protected forms of political action brings retaliation by the state, and members' human rights are violated. For this reason, we are holding a campaign for liberty and for an end to persecution of rural workers in the region. We ask those who believe in the struggle for Agrarian Reform, please, send a message to the authorities listed below asking for a promise to aid in the settlement of landless rural workers and an end to the political repression of the leaders of the MST.
Governor of the State of São Paulo - Sr. Geraldo Alckimin
Av. Morumbi, 4500
CEP 06598-900
São Paulo, SP Brasil
FAX: 011 55 (11) 3745-3301 (from the US)
E-mail: saopaulo@sp.gov.br
Secretary of Justice and the Defense of Citizenship - Dr. Alexandre de Moraes
Pátio do Colégio, 148 - 1o andar
CEP 01016-040
São Paulo, SP Brasil
FAX: 011 55 (11) 3107-8243 (from the US)
E-mail: justica@justica.sp.gov.br
"Liberty for those who struggle for Agrarian Reform!"
Source: MST web site
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